EVS-Islands

I often share, what I consider to be, valuable life lessons with my students. Today we talked about how not to go into debt and how to present your ideas in front of an audience. Some of my lessons are about silly things - how not to impress a pretty girl by putting bacon grease in your hair as an alternative to hair gel. I like to share about the wrong way to do the right thing and than discuss the right way to do the right thing.

A month ago I got into my pickup truck and drove from San Diego to Redlands. You got it, to ESRI. It turns out there was a job fair and I figured me and a few other map geeks would show up and have five job offers before the day was out. I got to the ESRI campus at 9:00AM and it was just me and a few hundred other desparate souls. Actually the number was probably closer to a thousand job seekers. I gritted my teeth, got into line, turned on my MP3 player and began reading lessons from "ArcMap: The Basics". I had dutifully sent my resume ahead, using the ESRI job site. An hour later I entered a room stuffed with people selling themselves. The sense of cocky desperation was palpable. And that was just me!

A half hour later I worked my way up to a young man that asked me a few questions. I was so burned out by that time, my responses were nearly incoherent. "Why do you want to work here?" "Because I am an experienced educator and an expert when it comes to maps and mapping." Blah! Blah! Blah!

He took my resume, wrote a few comments, smiled and sent me on my way. I knew the interview was not one of my best moments. I think I saw the young man write down "old man who thinks he knows it all", but I could be mistaken. Seriously, he was gracious and sincere. But a month later, no job offers and I'm feeling okay. I learned a few valuable life lessons.

What the heck was I thinking? I really try to use ESRI products. Honestly! I have it loaded onto my classroom computer and I've tried to teach a basic mapping lesson with it. I did the same lesson with Marplot and the kids got it. In fact, it was easier to teach. ArcGIS is a wonderfully constructed "do anything" piece of mapping software. You do not become the world leader in mapping software by constructing a poor product. But it is overkill for what I do. I make simple, yet precise, maps of island shorelines. After adding a few additional layer of information my project is finished. I have spent a sum total of $320 for all of my mapping software. That is the cost of Global Mapper, which is my digitizing tool and the annual licenses for Flickr and Google Earth.

Back to ESRI. Sure, I could teach people how to construct spatial databases, or teach someone the fine art of geocoding, or how to construct a presentation quality map - but "Why?". All of my adult life I have wanted to construct maps of islands. Not sell and support software that is excellent for it's purposes, but software that I would probably not use. It is too costly and too complicated for my mapping needs. My mapping software suite consists of Global Mapper, Marplot, Irfanview, MS Paint, Gadwin PrintScreen, Blogger, Google Earth and Flickr and satisfies my needs and cost just $300. If I need the latest version of Global Mapper I have to spend $99 and Flickr and Google Earth costs me $19 a year. ArcGIS costs considerably more.

What are my life lessons from this experience?

• Don't think you are making island maps by getting a job at ESRI.
• Don't sell a product you wouldn't use.
• If you want to make maps of islands, make maps of islands.
• Be single-minded and focused on what you want to do.
• Don't plan it to death, just do it!

view a portion of the ESRI Campus on EVS-Islands Google Maps

Posted by Mr Minton on Monday, April 30, 2007 at 4/30/2007 02:55:00 PM | Permalink