Mentoring in the Automation Age Archives

Mentoring Teaches Questioning: What’s So Great About That?

Posted on: 1 Comment
This entry is part [part not set] of 5 in the series Mentoring in the Automation Age

xyHt has featured many articles about mentors and mentoring before now! But— Why do we need mentors? It is definitely not because some third party randomly mandates it. Mentors and mentoring are a practical need for companies and for employees. Most often when I hear the topic of mentoring come up, it’s from employers who […]

Let’s Be Colleagues: New Settings for GIS Mentoring

Posted on:
This entry is part 1 of 5 in the series Mentoring in the Automation Age

Mentoring is a key aspect in any career; otherwise how do we learn what we need to do and how we need to work in a particular environment? Mentoring is even more important for an SME (small- to medium-sized enterprise) or freelancer. Working on your own is increasingly common in the geospatial field, with the […]

What Is Automation in GIS Mentoring?

Posted on:
This entry is part 2 of 5 in the series Mentoring in the Automation Age

Being asked to write about mentoring, I find myself reflecting on my years in GIS … —The multiple teams I’ve managed and the challenges along the way, plus how I approach leadership or mentoring now, and how my teams go about getting advice when no help is present. First though, what do we mean by […]

Mentoring’s Evolution in GIS

Posted on:
This entry is part 3 of 5 in the series Mentoring in the Automation Age

Having focused on the education side of geography and geospatial technology for much of my career, I’m focusing this discussion on mentoring in formal and informal settings: schools, after-school clubs, libraries, museums, community and technical colleges, universities, and adult learning venues. As geotechnologies’ needs, audiences, and expectations have evolved, mentoring has evolved, and (I would […]

Mentoring in the Age of Automation

Posted on:
This entry is part 4 of 5 in the series Mentoring in the Automation Age

Above: Darrell Hanners, LSI completes a topographic survey in the mountains of Caribou County, Idaho. As old-timers retire and fewer young people enter surveying, we are at a turning point where mentoring is crucial to the future of the profession, but we will need to adapt to mentor well.  Land surveying is an ever-evolving profession. […]