You guessed it — this episode is all about recruitment! Who is this episode for? Well, if you have a career in geospatial, it’s for you.

Getting the job you want, changing your career path, or deciding whether to work at a start-up or a more established company. Once you have made these decisions, how do you stand out from the crowd? What is it the recruiters are looking for? And if you do get offered a contract, should you negotiate — and what is negotiable?

Jett Metcalf has worked as a geospatial recruitment specialist for a few well-known companies like Google and Descartes Labs, and is currently the Head of Talent at Regrow Ag. In this episode, he is going to help us understand some of the answers to these questions.

Reach out to Jett on LinkedIn or Twitter. If you enjoy this episode and are interested in more career-focused episodes, go to https://mapscaping.com/podcasts/ and filter by “Geospatial Career.”

In Conversation

From Google to Descartes Labs to Regrow

Daniel: Jett, welcome to the podcast. Would you introduce yourself and tell us how you got involved as a recruiter, specifically in geospatial?

Jett: I really lucked out to find a career in recruiting in the first place, and got even more lucky to find one in geospatial. I started my career staffing roles for construction projects, then had a great opportunity at Google supporting their master’s and PhD recruiting, where I supported the Geo group. Around that time a small company called Descartes Labs had just raised their Series B round, and they were based in New Mexico, where I’m from. I joined right after that funding round and was with Descartes Labs for about four and a half years, growing the company beyond 100 employees and really learning about the geospatial industry. More recently I switched to a downstream geospatial analytics company called Regrow Ag, using satellite imagery and Google Earth Engine to give better sustainability insights to the agriculture industry.

Daniel: What was the major difference moving from Google to a company that had just raised its Series B?

Jett: Everyone has the perception that the Googles of the world have everything 100% figured out, but I actually had a fair amount of autonomy there. Transitioning to Descartes Labs was so different — at Google I might hire 10 people in a week, whereas at Descartes Labs we had to be cautious with how we spent money. But it was a great entry into geospatial because I got to work closely with some of the best people in the industry, and that kindness you see in the geospatial industry meant I had an infinite number of people willing to teach me what the industry was like.

Is Hiring for Geospatial Different?

Daniel: In geospatial we like to say “spatial is special.” Is hiring for geospatial roles actually different from hiring for any other technical role?

Jett: I’m going to give a “it depends” answer. First, the volume of qualified candidates is going to be smaller in any specialty skill set — when you’re hiring a geospatial data scientist with remote sensing and mining experience, that’s a limited pool. But to the advantage, there are common skill sets among these candidates. When I’m hiring a software engineer or scientist who needs GDAL or GeoPandas experience, it narrows things down and makes my job easier — I know exactly where to look, and I can look at a resume and see “yep, this person has GDAL.” So it’s both more difficult, because of limited volume, and easier, because it’s easier to filter on the key technical skills.

Standing Out in the Hiring Process

Daniel: Apart from having the right keywords, how do I stand out and get noticed?

Jett: First and foremost — and I can’t emphasize this enough — resume and CV formatting is very important. The gatekeepers, recruiters like myself, often don’t have the deep technical skills to understand the nuances of your projects, so we look for keywords, and those have to be heavily featured. Clear formatting that emphasizes translatable skill sets matters. Beyond that, geospatial candidates have often worked on a lot of projects, and what stands out is one directly relevant touch point — if I see a yield prediction model that overlaps with what we do at Regrow, that tells me this could be a great candidate. And cover letters, while not always reviewed, let you tell the story of why you’re interested in this specific company.

Daniel: Where do you look when you’re out seeking candidates?

Jett: The primary tool everyone knows is LinkedIn — still the most important professional networking site. The recruiter version looks quite different, with search features that let me run a keyword search across profiles for things like GDAL or GeoPandas. So it’s worth documenting your experience and the tools you use in a way that people like me can find. LinkedIn can be boring, so I also encourage more creative channels — if a candidate messages me on Twitter, they’ll probably have a higher success rate because the volume is lower. I recommend a composite approach: try as many channels as possible.

The Effect of Tech Layoffs

Daniel: There have been a lot of tech layoffs, flooding the market with qualified people. What are you seeing when you hire for geospatial roles?

Jett: Unfortunately it has had an effect. These layoffs affect the volume of candidates we attract to any position, and the market is probably more difficult than it has been over the last six years. If I post a geospatial data scientist or software engineering position, I may attract 100 to 200 applications in a 48-hour period — which emphasizes the need to stand out and use a multi-channel approach. When I look at two similar applications side by side and one candidate follows us on Twitter and LinkedIn and feels really engaged, that can be the difference. My biggest recommendation in tough markets is to stay persistent and patient — maybe consider a career change or a certificate program that’s directly applicable.

Overqualified or Underqualified?

Daniel: When am I overqualified, and when am I underqualified for a role?

Jett: It depends. Roles are leveled — junior, mid-career, senior — for a couple of reasons: the nature of the work, and the financial aspects. Sometimes I only have a certain budget for a role. But for you as a job seeker, especially with smaller companies, I’d hesitate to recommend excluding yourself from an opportunity. If a junior position is open and you’re a senior candidate, I’d still recommend applying and reaching out to a recruiter to say “I might be overqualified, but I’m so interested in this company.” On the back end, I’m trying to fill whatever positions I have, and I may know a senior role is opening up in a couple of weeks. By excluding yourself, you don’t give me the chance to make that connection. Put the agency on the company to make that decision.

Changing Career Direction

Daniel: What about moving from a technical role into a leadership or less technical role?

Jett: We still look for translatable skill sets. If a junior data scientist applies for a sales engineering role, I look at whether they’ve had customer interaction, focused on customer projects, or done demos. When you’re pursuing a career change, you have to be much more intentional about how you present your information — use objective statements in resumes, and cover letters are a great opportunity to say “I’ve spent seven years as an individual contributor, but now I want to get into people management.” One more point: changing company sizes is a great opportunity to change your career trajectory. A small company gives you flexible exposure to new skill sets, and then a larger company has more training programs and resources to help you change careers.

Daniel: Would you give the same advice to academics looking to leave academia?

Jett: The biggest recommendation I’d give academics is to be able to speak to customer context. The most successful academics transitioning out are the ones who can articulate why they want to make the change — because they want to see tangible customer impact. An academic may not have worked with a large enterprise customer, but they still have a team of stakeholders and project management timelines, so I look for those translatable soft skills.

Negotiating the Contract

Daniel: Are you expecting candidates to negotiate?

Jett: It depends on the role — I anticipate less negotiation from a junior geospatial data scientist than from a sales executive. But generally, yes, I’m expecting negotiation. Over the last five or six years there’s been an increase in agency and transparency around pay. My biggest recommendation is to be as transparent about compensation as soon as possible — the best recruiters ask those questions almost immediately. Your recruiter is, in many ways, your partner. There’s an attitude that the recruiter is your gatekeeper, but if I could pay people whatever they wanted, I would — I’d just get the job done. So by being transparent and respectful, you set yourself up well for when you have an offer.

Daniel: How do I negotiate without coming across as greedy and entitled?

Jett: Pursue communication around compensation very delicately. A simple tactic is to emphasize your interest in the position before bridging the topic of negotiation. If you email me saying “I need at least $100,000 more for this to be interesting,” that’s an aggressive turnoff. Instead say “I’m super excited about this position, but it has to make sense for me financially.” Make data-driven decisions — use Google, Glassdoor (with a heavy grain of salt), and industry connections to understand your market value. If salary isn’t negotiable, ask what else is — equity is often an easier lever for companies to pull, and there may be bonus structures, signing bonuses, or learning and development stipends. Just ask your recruiter what aspects of the offer are negotiable.

When Negotiations Go Wrong

Daniel: Do you have any stories of when negotiations have gone wrong?

Jett: I’ve had offers go to six or seven revisions because candidates were playing a negotiation game across many companies. That can work out, but you need to understand what you value in an opportunity — if it’s exclusively money, that’s fine, but those companies who can be extraordinarily competitive on salary are the FAANG companies. I’ve had hiring managers hear a negotiation is happening, decide their budget is exactly appropriate, and pull the offer — it’s not common, but if a negotiation is handled with disrespect or feels exploitative, a hiring manager may rescind. You’re never going to negotiate doubling your salary, but you may negotiate a 10% increase. Do it as soon as possible and as respectfully as possible.

Daniel: There must also be a danger of pushing it too far and creating bad blood with colleagues you’ll work with for years.

Jett: Definitely keep that in mind. If a candidate negotiates a significant increase, they can be held to higher expectations, because we’ve only spoken with them for a few hours and have no indication of how they’ll translate their skills into the work. So when you’re negotiating to a higher level, make sure your skill set is going to match those raised expectations.