What are the most effective GIS interview questions for testing spatial reasoning skills?

In my experience, many skillful GIS engineers struggle to make a clear statement about coordinate systems and the theory behind them. I would rather focus on the real-world application of GIS, perhaps by asking them to conceptualize how to bring a societal problem into a GIS (e.g. waste management or risk management). I find it more valuable than reciting a datum definition.

I think one of the most important questions can be that: what is the coordination system and how many they are? How we can record the geographic information of the feature and phenomenon? How we can maintain and update these data, display them, and publish.

Whether the candidate is able to understand and interpret maps, identify patterns, trends and relationships in GIS data, and also being able to derive insights that would be used to solve spatial problems.

Aside from asking terminologies I'd rather focus on testing their knowledge on how to translate spatial analysis results to real world projects. Questions on how to maintain the accuracy and precision of spatial data can also come in handy.

Primeiramente você deve perguntar se o profissional em GIS atenderá os objetivos para a vaga, posteriormente perguntar sobre suas experiências.

A interpreta??o dos mapas é uma fun??o basica do profissional em GIS. Essa capacidade de interpretar mapas te ajudará a tomar decis?es.

Task them with performing calculations or measurements using the map, such as estimating area, distance, or direction of a particular feature. This approach not only evaluates their spatial awareness and analytical skills but also sheds light on their attention to detail and ability to extract meaningful insights from spatial information.

Pedir a los candidatos que analicen mapas o datos espaciales demuestra su habilidad para extraer insights relevantes y aplicar conocimientos teóricos en situaciones prácticas. Es una forma efectiva de medir no solo su competencia técnica sino también su capacidad para pensar críticamente y resolver problemas. Este tipo de evaluación es esencial en un campo donde la interpretación de datos puede influir significativamente en la planificación urbana, la gestión de recursos y la respuesta ante emergencias.

Challenge their pattern recognition skills by inquiring about the spatial distribution of phenomena and the potential factors influencing it. For assessing relationships, pose questions that require understanding spatial interactions, like the proximity of features or the impact of terrain on accessibility. Incorporate hypothetical scenarios that demand the identification of spatial trends or anomalies and request them to articulate the thought process behind their observations. This approach ensures a comprehensive assessment of a candidate's spatial reasoning abilities, emphasizing both theoretical knowledge and practical application in interpreting maps.

What is the leading GIS platform? Run me through any projects you have completed? What did you learn, what would you do differently? Why use GIS?

Challenge candidates to discuss trade-offs in spatial decision-making. Pose a scenario where multiple spatial operations are needed, and ask them to prioritize which operations to perform first and why. This assesses their ability to strategize and optimize processes in a spatial context.

No meu exemplo, eu uso meu conhecimentos para ajudar a minha empresa a resolver problemas e tomar decis?es importantes. O profissional GIS dever ter esse conhecimento e saber lidar com essa responsabilidade.

Inquire about their approach to site selection, considering factors such as accessibility, proximity to resources, and potential environmental constraints. Pose a scenario involving planning delivery routes and ask them to outline the steps they would take, considering factors like traffic patterns, distance optimization, and time efficiency. Evaluate their disaster impact assessment skills by presenting a hypothetical situation and asking how they would analyze spatial data to understand the affected areas, population density, and vulnerable infrastructure. Emphasize problem-solving by questioning their ability to integrate various spatial layers and employ GIS tools for decision-making.

Spatial Data Quality: How do you assess the quality of spatial data? What considerations do you take into account when evaluating the accuracy and precision of geographic datasets? Spatial Querying: Describe a situation where you needed to perform a complex spatial query. What criteria did you use, and how did you optimise the query for efficiency?

Ask them to draw a map of how they get from home to this interview. People with good spatial awareness constantly map the world they live in and can easily reproduce their paths from memory. The more details and spatial relationships in a map the better.

Com novas tecnologias de hoje, o profissional deve saber técnicas espacias 3D e análises em dashboards espacializados, após isso deverá publicar os resultados e ajudar a equipe

At first, assess spatial memory by presenting a map and asking them to recall specific features or locations after a brief observation. Secondly, evaluate mental flexibility by posing hypothetical scenarios that require them to adapt spatial analyses based on changing parameters or conditions. To assess spatial orientation, present a map with various elements and inquire about their ability to comprehend and navigate it. Challenge their three-dimensional thinking by asking how they would represent and analyze elevation data. Integrate practical exercises that involve manipulating spatial data or solving spatial problems in real-time, testing their ability to adapt to diverse geospatial challenges.

Debugging someone else's code is also very tricky for an interview. I'd rather let them build it from scratch and explain the reasoning behind the tools and the decisions they make. Just by giving them a server URL, and simple ETL tasks, like filtering data using SQL and later sharing the resulting layer to a .gdb you can understand a lot about their grasp on scripting.

Explore their familiarity with geospatial libraries and frameworks, prompting a discussion on the pros and cons of employing specific libraries for distinct spatial tasks. This allows them to showcase their knowledge of available tools and their appropriateness for diverse applications. Another insightful inquiry involves their experience in integrating spatial data from different sources. Have them elaborate on their approach to merging datasets with varying coordinate systems or formats, emphasizing their grasp of data interoperability and transformation. This provides a deeper understanding of their practical skills in managing diverse spatial datasets.

Present a code snippet with intentional errors and ask them to identify and rectify the issues, evaluating their problem-solving skills in the context of GIS programming. Inquire about their approach to handling common spatial data challenges, such as projections or coordinate transformations, within a script. Assess their ability to optimize code for efficiency in spatial analyses or data processing tasks. Pose a hypothetical scenario where modifications to existing code are required due to changes in spatial data sources or format. This approach ensures a comprehensive evaluation of a candidate's spatial reasoning skills in coding, emphasizing both problem-solving abilities and adaptability to GIS-related challenges.

Solicitar a los candidatos que codifiquen tareas SIG pone a prueba su capacidad para aplicar la lógica de programación a problemas espaciales, esencial en la automatización de análisis y la gestión de grandes volúmenes de datos. Esta habilidad es indicativa de un profesional que puede no solo ejecutar tareas rutinarias, sino también innovar y optimizar procesos, contribuyendo significativamente a la eficiencia y efectividad de proyectos SIG. Es una excelente manera de discernir entre aquellos con conocimientos teóricos y los que poseen una comprensión práctica avanzada.

"Describe a situation where GIS data led to a misleading conclusion. How would you identify and correct it?" "How would you use GIS to plan an efficient evacuation route in a natural disaster?" "Can you create a GIS model to predict urban sprawl? What factors would you include?" "Explain how you would use GIS to assess the environmental impact of a new construction project." "Design a GIS-based approach for optimizing public transportation routes in a city."

Here are Some must things you should ask the candidates is to define some basic concepts and terminology related to spatial reasoning and GIS. 1. Can you define how you would determine the distance between points on Earth's surface using a spherical model? ?? 2. How would you identify steep slopes on a map, and could you explain the process of calculating land use area in a shapefile? ??? 3. What methods would you employ to identify drainage pathways in flooded areas, and how might you optimize retail store locations using network analysis techniques? ?????

Something I find important is that the candidate can recognize why the spatial dimension matters. We are not going to be able to leverage spatial techniques effectively without that fundamental realization.

Furthermore, consider incorporating questions related to spatial indexing and database optimization. Assessing their knowledge of indexing strategies and how they would optimize spatial queries can provide insights into their expertise in handling large-scale spatial datasets.

The most important question is a soft question on interest such as "how did you get interested in GIS?" Most hard skills asked here can be taught in quite short order. If I am looking for a long term candidate, interest and other soft skills I find more important than hard skills.