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I disagree that there are only two options in the GIS industry on a number of levels. The first is that there are many other well established commercial GIS offerings other than ESRI SmallWorld, Bentley, AutoDesk, ERDAS, MapInfo, Integraph and Idrisi spring to mind without thinking too hard. You say they have a market share "well below" ESRI. ESRI ...

I would not compare GIS to a programming language. A programming language is a tool that can be used to define your business process. "Perform these steps in this order, making some decisions as you go." GIS is more abstract; rather than being a tool to define a process, it's an entire branch of tools and methods that manipulate data that have location. ...

ESRI's been around for a long time, and essentially helped invent the term "GIS". There are other big players, but they often come from a different angle (i.e. AutoCAD Map 3D, or Intergraph/Microstation). Increasingly all these different dominant players in the maps/drafting/design world are starting to overlap and come together, but they still hold their ...

To answer the question: Why no industry standard product from any established software giants? The problem is you appear to be begging the question. There is an industry standard product from an established software giant. They're called ESRI and being founded in 1969 they easily predate Microsoft (1975), Google (1998), Oracle(1977), and Apple(1976). The ...

We've found that spatially enabling data that has just been sitting around in databases for years and years allows us to QC the data. You can look at lat/longs in a table all day long and the numbers are just numbers (to most people). Put those locations on map and all of the sudden you can see errors in your data in ways that were never possible before ...

From the ESRI website: http://www.esri.com/getting-started/executives/index.html "GIS provides critical tools for success and efficiency. As an executive, you are presented with a high volume of complex data every day. GIS helps you Organize your information and knowledge. Make informed decisions. Improve communication. Increase efficiency. Share ...

Top intangible business benefit of geographic information: providing context. ESRI has a webpage about business benefits and return on investment of GIS: http://roi.esri.com, and the discussion is largely platform agnostic. That page and an associated book, "Business Benefits of GIS" authored by David Maguire (ESRI), Victoria Kouyoumjian (ESRI), and Ross ...

I would suggest showing your title as opposed to your diploma, unless you have a doctorate. Suggested titles include GIS analyst, GIS programmer, GIS technician, or a similar, appropriate title. These are suitable whether you currently have a job in the field, or are seeking a GIS job. The GIS Certification Institute offers certification as a GIS ...

However this not the case in other streams of information technology, databases and programming languages in broad sense. Having one dominant market player is not rare for professional programs on a PC: Autodesk for CAD, Microsoft Office, Adobe Photoshop/Indesign,...

Find Areas of Need in the Job Market: I can't stress this enough: analyze the needs of the current job market. Watch sites like GIS Jobs Clearinghouse (http://www.gjc.org) to identify skill that are in demand. Make sure you're learning and practicing skills that make you employable. Know Where to Look: In my community most entry-level GIS roles are ...

GISs are suites of software tools, which attempt to provide an answer to the question: "How can we use technology to gain a better understanding of geospatially referenced data". My definition is broad, but the possible applications for GISs are equally as wide-ranging. In terms of a business context - a GIS can provide a way to take data and extract ...

A Geographic Information System extends the abilities of an SQL database to include the spatial connections between different objects. As such, it is extremely useful for helping you to deploy your physical assets to areas that your company can serve. But it is indeed little more than an IT specialty that includes rules that are custom-made for handling ...

I would encourage students to think outside of the box when attempting to identify places to work or accept you for an internship. If you are in school and willing to work for little to no money, you have limitless opportunites. Rather than just scouring all of the "go-to" GIS jobs websites (like everyone else looking for a job), I encourage you to: ...

This StackExchange site is also tilted heavily towards ESRI products. The combination of not-great usability, lots of complexity, and expensive support means that people flock here. Open source projects have support forums, active issue repositories, and such; but this happens on GitHub and elsewhere, not here.

Start with the beginning: google for GIS. So you get tutorials on how to set up a database with spatial (ie GIS) options which should get you started, once there - forget about C# APIs, just go straight to the APIs for other languages (as there tends to be a lot more work done for OSS stuff than for .NET in this environment) - for example, MapQuery for ...

It sounds like you recently graduated. Have you talked to your professors? Many of them might (or at least they should) have industry connections, either directly with people they work with/for or through past students that they keep in touch with. I have many friends that are constantly leaning on past academic advisors for new hires. Advisory boards are ...

Look on Daratech statistics http://www.daratech.com/research/gis/ but be careful, not free... The same goes for http://www.technavio.com/content/geographic-information-system-gis-market-2007-2010 You can get some infos indirectly with a gis survey (limited mainly to commercial because no open source solution, no python,...). ...

Directions Magazine has been running polls for over a decade. You might be able to dig up some recent results on their website. If you can't find what you're looking for, contact the editors: they are typically responsive and can find a poll or will create one. (Disclaimer: I edited this magazine a decade ago, but I'm no longer formally associated with ...