Question: If you wanted to become a bank manager when you left school what made you interested in becoming a GIS specialist

Sylwia Nikel answered on 7 Mar 2018:

When I was at school I loved geography and math. Back then no one in my school has heard of GIS and there was no advise really of what to do next. In the town I was growing up there was a college with banking course and considering I loved math, this seemed like a natural choice. I had no idea what I could do after geography, so this was never an option.
It was a coincidence that my previous partner was a land surveyor and he was working on the project that involved digitising land parcels, buildings, roads and land use. Digitising is a process of converting information from paper maps to digital form using a computer and GIS software. I met him in my last year of college and started helping him on the project. When I started my banking degree I was getting more involved in his project and at some point, realised that, actually, I don’t have to study banking because I can do this really interesting thing (I didn’t know back then it was called GIS, it was about 14 years ago). I dropped out after the first term and decided to explore this new area. I was working in many different sectors, like gas/ utility management, petroleum consultancy, geology, land surveying, environmental sector or now just starting to work on the airport project. After about 7 years of working in GIS, I decided this is what I want to do for my career path and decided to do a degree in Geographical Information Systems and Sciences. I’m in my last year now and I can’t wait for my graduation 😊