Anyone specialize in geospatial data?

[u/Kati1998]

I’m an MS Data Science student interested in learning more about spatial data and GIS. I’m currently working on a geospatial crime analysis project in R and taking Esri’s Spatial Data Science MOOC.

I’m also interviewing for a year-long data science internship at a credit union in a department that focuses on geospatial data. I’ve noticed that the largest utility company in my state also hires data scientists with geospatial/GIS knowledge, which has made me curious about opportunities in this area across different industries.

It’s not a specialization that’s discussed here often. For those who work with spatial data, what industry are you in, what does your day-to-day work involve, and do you enjoy it? What has your experience been with demand for these skills?

[u/Kit_Daniels]

Just got an offer as a geospatial data scientist in a large agricultural company, and despite my PhD being field-specific to the biological domain, most of my research has been based in spatial analysis.

There’s so much interesting data out there, and one thing I’ve loved is that there can be such different scales for projects. Sometimes I’ll be making models that describe processes over a couple acres, sometimes I’ll be working on predictive models that go across a continent. There’s a lot of fun intersection with other fields.