These two courses are very good technical courses for students who want to pursue a career in GIS industry. I personally benefit a lot from them and therefore recommend them to you.

  You may know that job competition is fierce nowadays, especially for GIS new graduates. After graduation, I spend several months in job hunting. I applied for almost 200 positions, interviewed with many companies, and got a few offers as GIS Analyst, GIS Developer, Real Estate Coordinator, and iOS Software Engineer. If you check the job posting websites (e.g. indeed.com,monster.com, etc.), there are usually four titles for entry-level GIS graduates: GIS Technician, GIS Specialist, GIS Analyst, and GIS Developer. Among them, GIS Analyst and GIS Developer are higher level positions (and better pay), which require the following skills:

•         Knowledge in Transportation, Environmental Science, Physical Geography, any other field.
•         Web Mapping skills in Flex, Javascript, C#, or any other programming language.
•         Hands-on experience in ArcGIS Server/ArcSDE.
•         Knowledge in Microsoft SQL Server or Oracle.
•         Strong Knowledge in SQL Language
•         Hands-on experience in batch processing, using python or other scripting language.

  For the first requirement, UT geography has a well-designed program which enables you to grasp strong field knowledge in transportation, environment science, physical geography, or remote sensing. The other requirements are the fundamental technical requirements for GIS professionals. They can be generally categorized into programming skills and database skills. To learn them, I strongly recommend Dr. Ralston’s GEOG 510 and GEOG 414. GEOG 510 provides you a good chance to get started in web mapping. Dr. Ralston is modifying his class every year to catch up with the latest technology. He is one of the most active “Geo-Geek” at his age that I have ever seen. In the meantime, GEOG 414 provides you hands-on experience in ArcGIS Server, ArcSDE, SQL, and different kinds of GIS data. There is no exaggeration that during most of my interviews as GIS Analyst and GIS Developer, 50% of the questions are derived from GEOG 510 and 30% of the questions are derived from GEOG 414. So if you are interested in pursuing a career in GIS industry, do not hesitate to choose these two courses.

---End of Sam's email---

Well, that's it.  I tend to agree with much of what Sam has written, even if he is guilty of age discrimination!  Gotta run, I have an AARP meeting now...