" In drone flying, you can consider commercial drone services alongside your Engineering and Surveying services. Anyways, there are vast drone services that can be tapped into just waiting for us to utilize them".......
These are sentiments shared by one Godwill Nabudere, a drone pilot enthusiast who I had the honour of interacting with recently.
Hailing all the way from the 'Pearl of Africa', better known as Uganda, Mr. Godwill doubles up as a GIS Analyst as well as a Land Surveyor, which is a deadly combi if you ask me.
We had a brief, yet quite informative chat on the drone industry as this is a field I am interested in as well, and, on top of that, he stresses the importance of keeping your credentials up to date in order to have that competitive edge in the marketplace.
Here's what he had to share with us regarding his experience thus far in the industry.
So, before we get into the subject of drones and GIS Analysis, kindly introduce yourself to our readers.
My name is Godwill Nabudere, a Geospatial Analyst at Uganda Revenue Authority and an enthusiast of Drone Piloting. I am an alumni of Kyambogo University, Kampala (Uganda) with a Bachelor's degree of Science in Surveying and Land Information Systems.
In addition to this, I am affiliated to the Institution of Surveyors of Uganda (ISU) as a graduate member.
In my university times, I happened to represent student surveyors to the governing council in 2019-2020. This is one of my major leadership positions in my university tenure time.
I also love going for parties, especially dinners, meeting new friends and playing volleyball.
What ignited that spark that made you want to take up drone piloting?
I am a futuristic person who loves to stay relevant in the latest job market.
Many times, you can tell when something is going to be a big deal in the near future without rocket science.
For a novice, if technology is improving efficiency and productivity, then it's the way to go. This is because the population in the world is increasing at a fast rate, hence, we have to plan ways to meet the population needs of productivity.
My ignition was, " I wanted to stay relevant in the skills and job market."
The next step after identifying that interest in drones is finding a reputable school to do training. Where did you study, and what costs are involved?
Well, I did not go to school. I was taught by a friend who I paid $200. However, the training costs of drone piloting to the level of certification really differ depending on the school, location, scope of work among others.
.....And what are the prerequisites for training (ie school/university grades or any other paperwork required)
As far as I know, it's open and is not really based on academic credentials or university grades. Anyone enthusiastic about it can go for it.
Despite the fact that I had so much interest in learning drone piloting, I did not get lectures from the school; I got them from a friend who had gone to school outside Uganda.
But since I did not have money to look for a school outside Uganda, my friend Isaac provided an offer which I could not hesitate to take up, despite the fact that there was no certification at the end of the practicum.
Once you successfully complete training, what certification does one get and what privileges does this certification/ rating offer the new drone pilot?
I don't have a certificate yet, but it's in the pipeline.
Certification of a drone pilot is a great added advantage to anyone who has it especially when it comes to mega projects and project bargains.
Certification plays a pivotal role in pricing your works because it shows a high level of professionalism.
Once a person has it, they have to continue with the same spirit and look for clientele. The clientele will not look for you until you have widely spread out yourself with your works on various social media platforms. All in all, certification is an added advantage, but the hustle continues.
What does a typical work day look like to you?
As a drone pilot enthusiast and GIS Analyst, my day starts with some physical work outs and proceeds with completing slated tasks as per the calendar. I love the fact that on some days I am dealing with solving new problems; and if a new problem is solved, then that is a great day for me.
You mentioned that you are a GIS Analyst. For those not familiar with this, what does it entail and how does it go hand in hand with drone piloting?
GIS stands for Geographical Information Systems and an Analyst is a person who assesses and derives meaning from the patterns/trends of anything with the location aspect.
Being a GIS Analyst, we are mainly analyzing patterns of features/information with different locations and thereafter, aid in decision making with authority.
With GIS, we mainly concentrate on designing data collection tools, then we do data capture, data processing, analyzing the collected data, interpreting the information and representing/displaying in an understandable way so that decision making is made. For a novice person, that is what I can precisely say.
With respect to GIS Analysis and drone piloting, these are two skills that can be integrated especially for technology advancement.
As a drone pilot, you stand a good position to be familiar with drone data processing and generating outputs that can be used in the GIS environment, say DEM, Ortho-mosaics, Contours, Topo-Maps etc.
and as a GIS Analyst, having the ability to generate, process, analyze and guide in decision making is key.
Because a lot of fieldwork is carried out in your profession involving different people to get the job done, what qualities (good and bad) do you look out for when working in a team?
It is a good habit to be reliable and a team player on a job.
On the other hand, I feel very uncomfortable with people who consistently do not keep time and take it for granted.
For those really eager to pursue this kind of profession, is it something you would recommend?
I absolutely recommend anyone planning to pursue this kind of career to take it on. It is a worthwhile career that you can't regret having taken it in the future.
Your closing thoughts and pieces of advice.
In conclusion, I just have three statements to make:
- The decisions we make can either make us successful or disappointed in life.
- Having academic qualification gives us an added advantage over those that don't have them, but it does not mean the world is going to kneel down for us.
- Build that extra skill you lacked when you saw a job advert. Next time, you will be good to go.
On a side note, a recurring sentiment that I got from my interaction with Godwill as well as other GIS Analysts I have engaged in the past is the need to be up to date with mapping and analysis software, as the GIS field is constantly changing.
Having proficiency in ESRI Products (ArcGIS Pro, Dashboards, Data Collection tools etc) Programming Languages such as R, Python and JavaScript as well as visualization software such as Tableau puts you many steps ahead of the rest.
I hope you learnt alot from this because I certainly did
Comments