What after geomatics engineering?

The day when all Bachelor in Geomatics Engineering (BGE) exams are over our student goal is finished. Our mind starts to wander what next? It’s the common thing that happens to everyone.

When I passed out from my college, I didn’t know clearly what to do? What is the next step after being passed out? I was pretty confused and worried about my career. I used to text my seniors, call and visit them personally for suggestions. This helped me little but with time I learned more. I thought about sharing this knowledge with the freshers so that they would suffer less.

In this article, I will be revealing my experience along with advice of other experienced engineers which may help the recent undergraduates to choose their next step wisely.

The very first step is to be clear about what you want to do? What is your financial, technical expertise or family situation? Everything revolves around this topic. Being clear about your long term future goal is the job half done.

There are plenty of options to go for after being passed out like government officer, entrepreneurship, freelancing, private jobs, online jobs or foreign. I will explain the merits and demerits of all the options and later you can decide yourself which best suits you.

1. Government employee

Geomatics Engineers can work as a survey officer under Department of Survey, Nepal after cracking exam taken by Public Service Commission(PSC). You can do its preparation with a side job working as a Geomatics Instructor or any consulting work. History shows that engineers working as a teacher have more chances of cracking Public Service Commission(PSC) exams than other jobs.

Similarly, province and local government also calls for the application of Surveyor. You can also apply there. Government bodies like ‘Rastriya Bhumi Aayog’ also offers short term job for the post of Surveyor in many districts.

Make sure if your goal is to work as a government employee then don’t hesitate to try in Nepal Police, Nepal Army, Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) and other government sectors.

You can also try in administrative units. Many engineers have successfully cracked PSC exams and are working as a Branch officer in government offices.

2. Foreign

It’s not necessary that you have to work or study in your own country. If there is any opportunity beyond your own country don’t hesitate to try it. For many countries a English speaking test score of ILETS or PTE is a must. PTE is also accepted in Australia, Canada and other European countries. For country like United States(US) a GRE score would be advantageous but is not a compulsion for many universities within US.

These days most of engineers are busy in ILETS/GRE preparation.

3. Jobs

Normally, there are only internships available in consultancy or geospatial company for freshers and later they can be promoted to work. The internship may be online or offline and can be paid or unpaid.

There are also some NGOs like Youth Innovation Lab, Disaster Risk Reduction based organizations that provides short term job like DRR fellowship without much experience required. INGOs like ICIMOD also provides internship opportunity which is not generally posted but can be found by directly contacting them.

You can also work as a Geomatics Instructor in different CTEVT based diploma level schools. Hydropower also offers internship opportunity and later you can be settled there.

It seems as if geomatics engineer don’t have more preference to this option. In the beginning of their career they might engaged to get some experience. Even people working in engineering consultancy for 4-5 years are not satisfied in this domain. At last, they either leave the job, apply for foreign, try government exams or seek establishing their own firm.

Online job

This is specially for those who are good with coding. If you have some coding skills it is easy to get paid remote internship or a job with good salary especially in foreign based companies. Many geomatics engineers are working as Data analyst, Python developer in such companies. Having good GIS skills also has its known value. 

4. Freelancing

This is also a good option to try after being passed out. You can also take it as a temporary job. The best part of freelancing is that it is not like 10:00 am- 5:00 pm job and things are within your control. Talk to your seniors, consultants or company they may provide a freelancing job. Surveying is one of the common freelancing work.

Freelancing opportunities usually come to you when you have established yourself and have a good understanding of Surveying, GIS or related works.

You never know when your freelancing service may get converted into a startup. Even for startups freelancing may be a starting point.

5. Startup

This field has got lot of scope since there are not enough geospatial consultants and company in Nepal. Like Pareto 80/20 rule more than 80% of work related to geomatics field is done by lesser than 20% of the consultancies. To say that I’m the founder or CEO of XYZ company seems to be cool but it is not so easy and secure as it looks. To be honest many survey officer, surveyor have their own consultancy and have easy access to get the tender and other related works.

I suggest you to go for this option if you have a good work experience, wealth and networks.

FAQ: Exams or job first

Many people get perplexed between preparing for their exams or doing a job. If you get engaged in a job chances are that your preparation will get affected and exams will be delayed. You will have to manage time for your exams or preparation.

Job will give you experience and much needed financial support but this may change your mindset and you may get deviated away from your main goal.

Spending some first months on your main goal like IETS, PSC etc. and later doing job is a good option. Full preparation for career goal secures your plan. If you can balance job and your future plan it’s the best.

These were some of the options for freshers. Is there anything else that we missed?

So, what have you decided to do? Let us know.