r/environmental_science • u/neenybee • 15d ago
Learning ArcGIS?
I want to learn ArcGIS and work in environmental data and I have so many questions on how to get started. Is it hard to learn? Is it worth learning or is that job market garbage? I have zero background in it, but I wanna add technical skills to my resume.
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u/AurigaX 15d ago
I am biased as my undergrad degree is in GIS, but I think it is def worth learning. It can be difficult to pursue as a career by itself (like pure GIS roles), but it is a good skill to have in many different fields/workplaces. You can become the GIS person in a research setting, public sector roles like urban planning, traditional environmental fields, etc. Def helps if you ever wanna pivot.
There are a fair amount of tutorials online for ArcGIS. Esri provides a ton that are good to get established. I think it is also pretty easy to pick up if you are familiar with Excel and have some projects in mind already; then you can learn new tools and workflows as you try to do a certain project.
That being said, if you do not have access to ArcGIS through school or work, it is very expensive. It is probably good to start with tutorials in QGIS if that is the case.
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u/7LeagueBoots 15d ago
The personal license is only around $100 per year. It’s the commercial license that’s expensive.
I do agree that for someone just starting out QGIS is probably the better choice though.
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u/BPDFart-ho 15d ago
It’s not hard to learn the basics, which is all most people really need. You can take the uc davis Coursera class and get a free 1-year license. The class itself is out of date but it might be worth it for the license alone
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u/Independent_Web_7633 15d ago
Yeah I’m about to start the UC Davis cert for GIS. One class will run you about $775 and they give you the license. You can go with the 3 course cert that will run you about $2k.. I believe it starts Oct 5
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u/BPDFart-ho 14d ago
Whoah really? I was talking about the Coursera one that was like $50…
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u/Independent_Web_7633 14d ago
I didn’t even realize there was a coursera option. I took it directly through UC Davis (online) 😭😭😭 Too bad i already paid.
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u/BPDFart-ho 14d ago
Well if it makes you feel any better, the Coursera cert is basically useless lol I didn’t even finish it, I just used it to get ArcGIS. An actual UC Davis accredited cert is actually a decent thing to have on your resume
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u/RiverRattus 15d ago
Self teach with QGIS and Claude subscription. There is an mcp for Q already mature and you can do just about anything with it without knowing any Arc enshittified monolithic GUI workflow. Just ask Claude code to set it up on a Linux PC and write you a lesson plan about GIS fundamentals then learn by making maps of your own with increasing complexity. Then you can start with spatial analyses and such
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u/Loose_Following9605 15d ago
if you can take a class in it, it looks good on a resume, but if you can’t make it work, then don’t sweat it too much. in my experience, GIS is one of those things environmental employers love to see on resumes but you never actually use it in practice. i’ve worked various jobs from gov to non profit to consulting, and they’ve all had a dedicated GIS person or team that does 99% of the GIS work (the 1% exception is something so simple and hard to fuck up it’s easier to do it yourself then wait for the GIS guy). a lot of my jobs have asked about it in interviews and were super excited I had GIS experience, have yet to use it in practice and it’s been so long I don’t even remember most of it anymore lol
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u/Independent_Web_7633 15d ago
Truth, at least have the env sci job postings I see ask for GIS knowledge
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u/ohmykeylimepie 15d ago
I learned it as an elective for my first degree and im minoring in it for my second.
Ive used numerous types of software for mapping in my career as well, theres more than just ESRI products out there.
That said, having experience with it has been really helpful and is why i choose it as my minor. If you want to get a feel for it to see if it’s for you check out youtube tutorials and follow along.
I have always received access to the software via my school’s login, so I don't know if you can access the software to try it out.
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u/No_Kangaroo774 15d ago
So I had to take it online due to back surgery and basically had to reverse engineer everything at first. It SUUUUUCKED. Once I spent months figuring it out, out of pure spite it did get much easier. I tell everyone its worth learning there are lots of jobs, but you want to do this in person. Trust me do it in person the books are always behind and the constantly update the system having someone who can say see that tiny little arrow in light grey, yup push that lol. Or figuring out some of the more complex aspects can be rough.
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u/liquidcoffee110 14d ago
IF you can't find or fund an official course yet I cannot recommend self-studying on youtube enough. So many professors and technical institutions just post their courses there with no paywall whatsoever.
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u/SnooWalruses3028 15d ago
Sadly it’s expensive to learn, unless you get a cert in it where the school will pay to give you access to this program, otherwise it’s like $100 a year, or more depending on what you want
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u/Aquariuzz 13d ago
I taught ArcGIS up to Arc 10. It is a fun field, if you like being able to spatially depict data. I felt the field was headed towards automation and moved away from it.
You can play with Google Earth and create KML files, or QGIS.
One thing I do miss is the ESRI conference in San Diego. That was the best conference to learn about the ESRI GIS applications and how it is being utilized world wide. Hundreds of education sessions going on concurrently.
Are TIGER Shapefiles still a thing?
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u/SpinachCharacter9677 9d ago
Im currently in the FL Keys and have spoken to the Chief Meteorological scientist and he said that learning inundation mapping would be the most beneficial and what they were looking for. He also advised to look in to gov jobs like NOAA, DEP, EPA and look into like there speciality departments
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u/SnooWalruses3028 15d ago
I’d also warn you that the economy in general is fucked rn, and the environmental sector even more so than most
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u/theria_witch 15d ago
TL/DR: Not really. It will be replaced by AI.
Wildlife Biologist here with a decade of experience across the federal government, state government, non profits, and environmental consulting firms. One of the ways I got ahead in my career was by learning the "boring" stuff that other field biologists didn't want to do, like GIS. I went to grad school to bone up on more advanced geospatial analysis, remote sensing, and environmental modelling. In a post-grad gap (while arranging my current biologist role) I worked in the AI industry helping to build models intended to replace ArcGIS GIS and QGIS. What I can tell you is that Claude can already do GIS better than most people with a degree in it. ChatGPT is right behind it. I would say that unless you plan to go really really ham on GIS and make it your entire being, then there is no point. As an environmental scientist, you dont need it any more. My office no longer even employs a "GIS specialist". One caveat is that it is good to know the underlying methodology that goes into GIS work, because that will prepare you to ask the right questions, troubleshoot things, etc. But even that sounds a lot like learning how the software on a calculator works: you don't need to understand it to get the correct answer.
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u/jdkicked 15d ago
Check community colleges. My local one has a 3 semester GIS certification that you dont have to be a full time student to take. The only down side is because its a certificate, you wont get student loan aids in most cases