Working as a geomatics instructor for a diploma in geomatics engineering has been one of the common form of job opportunity for fresh geomatics engineers in Nepal. I also have had such an opportunity to work as a geomatics instructor for diploma level in my career. In my two years of working period, I thoroughly enjoyed the job of geomatics instructor and gained some valuable insights on leadership, teaching, and many more. In this blog, I will be sharing the good and the bad aspects of working as a geomatics instructor according to my experience. I believe that this insight will help the people interested in working as a geomatics instructor in deciding whether to go for this kind of jobs or not.
The Pros
a. Less time commitment
The best thing about working as an instructor is that you can do it as a part-time job and save your full day for your future goals. Since most of the diploma schools are taught in the morning, you literally will have a whole day left. The left time can be utilized in learning new skills or your future career preparation, like foreign study or loksewa. However, during the initial phase you have to give more time for teaching preparation, but with experience it will lessen.
b. Enhancement in knowledge
Since you have to teach to your students on a certain topic, and before that, you need to understand what’s going on, and in this process, you learn the concepts in depth. I even had understood certain topics that I hadn’t in my engineering days while teaching. Similarly, guiding lab exercises & field work for students also helps them learn the new things in GIS, Photogrammetry, Surveying and other subjects. To be honest, I learned a lot of QGIS stuff through the lab exercise that I taught to my students. So, teaching can also be an opportunity to learn and is like learning to teach, teaching to learn.
c. Good salary
Though teaching has got lots of benefits but the cherry on the cake part is you can make decent amount of money with less time investment. The payment that one get doing a 10-5 job in an engineering consultancy is equivalent to few hours of teaching. Salary amount also depends upon number of instructor if there are just two people then it’s very good but if the number are more than that then your salary amount is also likely to be less. The other advantage is the payment in government norms. You get paid even if you are absent for a few days and are given paid leave, while in private consultancies you are paid according to the day count. This is the normal practice in diploma schools however, it might be different according to the school rules and changing policies.
d. Boosts Loksewa
If your goal is to become a survey officer, then you should definitely get your hands dirty in teaching. It really becomes easy for survey officer preparation as most of the contents are already known while teaching and syllabus is also likely the same. Even the statistics show that a lot of geomatics engineers who once taught to diploma level are now Napi Adhirkit. This is also the one prime reason why fresh geomatics engineers are attracted to this job.
e. Foreign study
Teaching can be equally beneficial to those who are seeking for foreign study with fully funded scholarship. Having one or two years of teaching experience also may help to get graduate teaching assistantship (GTA) for masters or PhD in United States universities. Apart from that you will have habit of making contents, research, teaching which will make your study easy in foreign.
f. Networking
If you are proactive and can build a good connection with students, colleaagues and other staffs then through your network you can also get other professional work contracts. I also had many such opportunities through it. Apart from professional things you get to build a long lasting network with students and colleagues which will help you in time of need.
g. Personality development
Once you become a instructor you become more confident. Since, you are supposed to control and lead the class your leadership abilities are also likely to be improved. The shy guy who once hesitate to speak in mass can become a good speaker. Likewise, there is also improvement in communication & pyschological skill. So, if you think about improving your overall personality then also you should try teaching.
The Cons
a. More time investment
The initial days in this job may be hectic as one has to be busy in preparing contents for teaching. During my teaching period, my major concern used to be what I would be teaching tomorrow. Though the subjects in diploma are of the same name as that one had read in their undergraduate days but the syllabus for diploma in geomatics engineering level is a bit of different, due to which majority of the time is spent on making slides and preparing content for the students for a few semesters. My first year of teaching was completely spent in preparing contents, and I could not do anything beyond that. Again, it’s up to you. You can also reuse the past slides of XYZ person and teach the same thing to save time, but if you want to give something different and stay creative, you have to invest time in making slides for sure.
b. Difficulty in teaching
Another difficulty that resides is making the student understand the concept. It is not that easy to make these kids understand the things. Since they don’t have that base concept of +2 science, it increases burden in teaching. Many students may not have studied optional mathematics, and hence the fundamentals of coordinate systems and other math are missing, which is most important in geomatics. Similarly, if the students are active and responds you then teaching will be interesting and you would also feel motivated but if the students are not of that type then you may have to give extra effort in teaching.
c. Boredom
The other limitation with this job is the boredom. The initial days of teaching might be interesting, but when the things get repeated after a year and there is no challenge left, then boredom starts. I quit my teaching job after two years because I felt that there was nothing new to explore and learn with the evolving technology around.
d. Laziness
It is for sure that teaching is an easy job for quick earning with less time investment. Once you are involved into teaching and if you switch your job to other field where you have to do full-time 10-5 job, then it may be difficult for you. Teaching keeps you in comfort zone, and it’s difficult to come out of it. However, it varies from person to person and also depends type of job full time or part time.
e. Late payment
Beyond other problems, getting late payment also might be an another issue with this job. In my school, I had to wait for at least 2 months to get a salary and sometimes had to wait even more than that. This is normal in every government diploma school, while in private jobs, salary is paid on time. If the diploma school is an affiliated (aangik) with Central, then you will be paid timely.
f. Less growth
If you are working in a certain company or an engineering consultancy then with time you will be promoted to a certain position and your salary, technical knowledge also may be increased with time, but it’s not the case in teaching. After few years of teaching there is nothing new to learn, everything just gets repeated even your position remains the same while salary might differ according to the periods you are teaching. So, the growth is less in this field as compared to other professions.
Personally I suggest that you should definitely try teaching part-time for a certain time period but not make it your full time career. I see this job as a medium to improve your personality, theoretical and practical knowledge, network and your overall career. The vacancy of this job is not normally published and selection is done internally. So, getting in touch with someone who is already teaching in a college can help to get the information of a vacancy. However, many diploma institutions are dying these days due to lack of students interested to enroll in this field. So, it’s better to try for affiliated CTEVT campuses for this job which is stable to some extent and also offers good pays. So, what you decided? Will you be working as a geomatics instructor in the future? Please let us know your story in comment section.
