MARKETABLE SKILLS OF GEOGRAPHY MAJORS

Planners: Urban, Transportation, Resources, Economic  Development, Housing, Health Care

Cartographer
Geographic Information System Analyst or Technician
Map curator
Writing and editing maps, texts, atlases, etc.
Location Analysts
Real Estate Appraisers, Researchers
State Department, Defense Mapping Agency, CIA, U.S. Military
Environmental Analyst
Land Use Specialist
Census Analyst
Travel agent, consultant
Transportation analyst: airlines, shipping companies
International trade (importing/exporting)
International development technician/analyst
 
 

As a social science major, you should think about developing and marketing the following general skills:

understanding of social patterns, problems, forces

writing

statistical (quantitative) analysis

SPSSX statistical software
descriptive and inferential statistics
location and market analysis
input-output modeling
transportation (traffic and networks) modeling
resource management analysis (e.g., linear modeling of resource allocations)
GIS design and analysis
social accounts modeling
regional econometric modeling
migration analysis
census data analysis
land use analysis

information management

organization and attention to details

spreadsheets, word processing, graphics software

graphics communications

research skills: bibliographic skills; data identification, analysis, presentation

ability to meet a variety of overlapping deadlines

As a geography major, you might emphasize the following general skills:

• Writing ability: organization, report preparation, gathering and presentation of data, making a case

 
• ability to synthesize (i.e., population, housing, environmental concerns)

 
• ability to understand and produce maps: identifying and gathering data, turning it into map form, present it

 
• ability to understand and produce charts, graphs, tables

Departmental and University Resources For Developing These Skills
 

You should always be working on your writing, whether answering an essay question on a mid-term or writing up a research project. We offer the following "W" courses:

Geog 371, World Hunger and Resource Development
Geog 426, Quantitative Methods In Geography
Geog 430, Contemporary Problems in Latin America
Geog 431, Geography and Gender
Geog 432, Russian Population and Urbanization
Geog 440, Regional Analysis
Geog 445, Population Distribution and Migration
Geog 447, Geog of Air Transportation
Geog 460, GIS Analysis
Geog 478, Intraurban Spatial Patterns
Geog 494, Senior Essay (any quarter)
Geog 498, Undergrad Seminar Econ Geog

Additionally: get in the habit of revising your work before handing it in (use the department's Writing Center Writing Assistants to help you with that) .... use word processing programs: learn to use a computer, take short courses at the Center For Social Science Computation and Research (CSSCR), use the word processor available in the Writing Center in Smith 303-A... learn to integrate graphics-- statistical tables, maps, charts, graphs--into your papers. Again, learn some software, take some courses... develop a portfolio of your work, showing your increasingly sophisticated accomplishments as a major

There are several geography courses and course sequences especially designed to help you develop your quantitative skills and research techniques.

Geog 326 Intro To Geographic Research
Geog 426 Quantitative Methods in Geography
Geog 440 Regional Development
Geog 443 Location and Movement Models
Geog 471 Methods of Resource Analysis
Geog 360 Principles of Cartography
Geog 460 GIS Analysis
Geog 461 Urban GIS
Geog 463: GIS Workshop