GIS Technician Interview Questions & Answers

Question 1. What Is Gis And Why Did You Take It Up As A Career?

Answer :

GIS is a system that captures, analyses, manages and presents specific geographical data. There is much involved in GIS systems such as mapping software, surveying specific land areas, some aerial photography and photogrammetry.

Question 2. What Is The Basic Work Of A Gis Technician?

Answer :

A GIS technician works closely with end users to identify GIS data requirements and handle technical issues. It is also the job of a GIS technician to manage data maintenance and manipulation and handle extraction activities along with ensuring preparation, planning and updating a variety of maps and drawings to be part of a GIS database.

Question 3. Name The Two Data Structures That Have The Capacity To Hold Spatial Data.

Answer :

The two data structures that can hold spatial data include raster and vector.

Question 4. What Is The Difference Between Geo-coding And Geo-referencing?

Answer :

Geo-coding is when you associate a place name or an address with map coordinates. Geo-referencing is the process of associating plain digital images taken from a satellite or a plane with map coordinates so that they can be overlaid on street maps.

Question 5. What Are The Top 5 Skills A Gis Technician Must Have?

Answer :

Skills in spatial data handling, algorithms, data conversion, model building and database programming.

Question 6. Differentiate Between Gis Commands And Tools?

Answer :

Commands do not require interaction with the map, they just rely on surface. Tools on the other hand require interaction with the map canvas.

Question 7. Which Applications Of The Arc Gis Desktop Are You Familiar With?

Answer :

I am familiar with Arc Map, Arc catalog and Arc toolbox.

Question 8. While Using Arc Catalog, Do You Rely On The Default Templates Or Usually Go For A Customized One?

Answer :

Well, it depends on the project really. Some of the default templates are really good and safe to use. I make the choice based on the project caliber.

Question 9. What Challenges Did You Face At Your Previous Job And How Did You Overcome Those?

Answer :

When I first joined, I was given independent, small projects I went through those effortlessly. After a year of hiring I was assigned my first and very huge team project. It was my first experience in a team and I realized the working speed of my team members was not in synchronization with mine. I went too far ahead and had to redo things often subject to changes required after they had done their share. I resolved the problem by slowing down a bit, expediting the team members a bit and above all, by open communication regarding future element plans. After that I have done several team projects without any issues and have improved my communication skills to a great extent.

Question 10. What Are The Key Factors In Determining The Period For Record Retention?

Answer :

Multiple: Nature of data, government rules and policies regarding data retention and data privacy factors. At my previous company they had a record retention schedule which I followed to book in order to avoid any loss of data.

Question 11. Define Remote Sensing?

Answer :

Remote sensing refers to detection and classification of objects on or in earth without physical contact, generally attained through aerial sensors.

Question 12. What Is The Role Of Gps In Gis?

Answer :

Competent decisions can only be rendered by reliable data and though GIS is an amazing data management tool, using it with GPS helps in validating the data analysis and results.

Question 13. What Were Your Key Responsibilities At The Previous Job?

Answer :

In capacity of a junior GIS technician, I was responsible for: gathering, analyzing and organizing spatial data, consolidating data from scattered sources, updating and maintaining user database and creating maps and graphs utilizing various GIS software.

Question 14. What Irritates You About Other People?

Answer :

I am generally an easy going person and other people’s traits seldom bother me. However I do get a bit irritated