Bill Dollins, Partner, Senior VP, Zekiah Technologies, Inc.
– PC or MAC?
PC, preferably with Linux
– Coffee or Tea & Beer or wine?
Coffee. Beer.
– ArcGIS or QGIS (or other)?
QGIS
– iOS or Android?
Android
– ESRIUC or FOSS4G?
This year, neither. Some years, both.
– If I was to look on your bed table or coffee table, what are you currently reading? (Sorry of this sounded creepy!)
Two things: “Crucial Conversations” by Patterson/Grenny/McMillan/Switzler and “A Pirate Looks at Fifty” by Jimmy Buffett
– On the job front, is your company hiring or have you recently made a hire? Also, are there any challenges you face in hiring Geotech talent?
We are currently hiring geospatial software developers and have recently had an influx of good candidates so we have a lot of offers out. Our biggest challenge seems to be location. A lot of our customers need our developers on-site and it’s hard to compete with the multitude of remote/work-at-home opportunities that are out there. I hear the same from many in the federal government services area.
– I’m a College student wanting a career in “GIS” what words of wisdom can you give me? Also, I often get people asking what courses or prof. development can I suggest. Is there a short course through Coursera or code academy etc… that you would suggest for a geogeek?
First, don’t seek a career in GIS. Seek a career in another discipline and know how to apply geography and GIS to that discipline. I think the days where GIS is a means in itself are fading. Many industries are coming around to the importance of location and geography, but it will play more of a supporting role.
– I’m a bit of a skeptic regarding the economy at the moment and don’t view things as being completely rosy. How do you see the current business climate unfolding?
I think it depends on the business you’re in. As a software developer, it’s never been better. As a government contractor, it’s been rosier. I don’t necessarily think that’s a bad thing. Because of sequestration, government is having to make do with a lot less, but doing more with less is never a bad thing. I’m seeing a lot more activity and opportunity in the private sector and I find that pretty exciting, especially among the geo-startups that don’t have to service a large, legacy install base. There’s a lot of innovation occurring among companies like Mapbox and CartoDB right now. It’s even pushing some reactionary improvements to Esri’s product line so users are really in a good spot right now.
– Can you share a snippet of what’s exciting and/or on the horizon for you or your company?
In our core federal business base, we’re seeing a lot more attention paid to open-source up and down the stack right now. So, we expect to be pushing even more into that area with our federal customers. We’ve always had a capability with open-source but our core customers have been very locked in to traditional IT vendors. That’s starting to change and we’re excited to start using the rest of our tool set.
Web www.zekiah.com