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The Best Career Advice You Will Ever Get
Have you heard of the ‘Big Crew Change’ in the energy industry? Over 50 per cent of the workforce will retire in the next 5-10 years, causing an abrupt loss of technical know-how and expertise. At the same time, global demand for energy is expected to double or triple this century, whilst CO2 emissions need to be reduced. A new crew is required to tackle this multiple challenge. But who? The frantic search for sustainable gigajoules and megawatts has turned into a war for human talent.
This is great news for all those wanting to make big careers in technical disciplines. Despite additional incentives, however, not many people choose a path in geosciences, geomatics or engineering. Whether universities lower their entry standards or companies pay big bonuses, it is as difficult to attract young people to a technical career as getting pandas to mate in a zoo. As a seasoned colleague of mine recently said: “Is it because nobody wants to do real work anymore? Or have technical subjects simply become too difficult for a generation who can’t work out 1+1 unless they can Google it?” Nobody really knows. But there are many reasons why technical professions such as geomatics are rewarding and fascinating. First, it is reassuringly pragmatic. Tobler’s First Law of Geography states that everything is related to everything else, but near things are more related than distant things. Yes, a sunbather in Spain might feel the breeze caused by a butterfly in New Zealand, but a flying golf ball which encounters a space-time conflict with your head is indeed a lot more noticeable. Obvious, no? Second, it is also delightfully confusing. For example, too far east is west – how on earth does that happen? Does Thai Chicken turn into Texas Steak if you add too much lime and coriander? And how come a GPS receiver does not display zero degrees longitude when you stand on the prime meridian in Greenwich? Or why do in-flight magazines pretend that aeroplanes take the long way from Europe to America, via Greenland rather than straight across the Atlantic? Ah well, only geomaticians know the real secrets of the earth – hence our nickname, geomagicians. Some may call it ‘millimetric madness’ but we know better. It is all
about real science for real applications. It is not like those ridiculous examples you were taught in high school, like there’s 5 people on a bus, 8 people step out, leaving –3, so when 3 people go back inside the bus is empty… With our magic secrets, you can pin-point your position anywhere on the planet and compute the shortest route to the nearest café. Although, to be fair, we still need to learn the language of the average human. 48°52'12.69"N and 2°18'22.80"E does not mean much to most people even though it is the same as saying Champs-Elysées, Paris. Well, in WGS84 dialect it is. Thanks to recent advances in geomatics we can now also admire flying cars in Australia, courtesy of Google Earth. If you don’t believe me go and have a look at 32° 0'43.28"S and 115°47'11.02"E. Sorry, I mean Honour Avenue, Point Walter, Perth.
Thierry Gregorius (thierry.gregorius@shell.com) is Programme Manager for Geomatics and Information Management at Shell’s international headquarters in the Netherlands, and was previously Global GIS Coordinator. The views in this column are entirely personal.
Too far east is west – how on earth does that happen? Does Thai Chicken turn into Texas Steak if you add too much lime and coriander?
There are many other reasons why our jobs are so cool. If you know some more please drop me a line, perhaps we could publish a hit list and hand out prizes for the best. And if young people do not want to join us, well – it is their loss. We will just have to solve the world’s most complicated challenges on our own, and keep the glory and rewards to ourselves.
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July/August 2006
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