"GEO Jobe really stood out to me when I was job hunting because everyone that I met seemed genuinely passionate about their work and the field of GIS. Now that I have been here for more than eight months, I can say that this has been undoubtedly confirmed!"
GEO Jobe has been serving our clients and partners since 1999, and the key to our success is the people behind our growing company. Here is a brief Q&A with Skyler Favors from the Professional Services department, who joined GEO Jobe in Q1 2023.
Q: What is your job at GEO Jobe, and what does it entail?
A: I am an Application Developer, and my job is to engineer solutions for customers. This means creating brand new web applications, fixing bugs, and adding features to long standing applications. I am here to make whatever the client needs. So I guess you could say if a client wants me to build them the next Twitter, then I build them the next Twitter.
Q: What has your career path at GEO Jobe looked like and what attracted you to join the team?
A: I got hired at GEO Jobe as Junior Developer, with the goal of getting promoted to Application Developer and then, hopefully, Senior Application Developer. GEO Jobe really stood out to me when I was job hunting because everyone that I met seemed genuinely passionate about their work and the field of GIS. Now that I have been here for 8+ months, I can say that this has been undoubtedly confirmed!
Q: What jobs and experiences have led you to your present position?
A: Before I started work at GEO Jobe I was delivering pizzas with the dream of one day writing code for a living. I had just dropped out of college after feeling like I wasn’t getting enough out of it. All I wanted to do was code, so for the next 8 months I learned as much as I could off the internet, taking online courses and tutorials. Then I found the Mississippi Coding Academy—an 11-month program that teaches you how to code and land a job. And it did exactly that, the academy connected me with GEO Jobe, as they are a sponsor, and I eventually got the job.
Q: What particular skills or talents are most essential to be effective in your job?
A: Everything I do boils down to solving a problem. The faster you can iterate through solutions the better. There are a thousand ways to cook an egg, but not all of them will fit into your dish. I also think that communication is extremely important. You need to be able to explain your ideas to your team so that you can get proper feedback and grow that idea into something great.
FIRST PHOTO: My dad (pictured right) giving me my first black belt in April 2013.
SECOND PHOTO: Us in May 2022
Q: Any advice for recent graduates entering into the job market and aspiring to a similar role?
A: It’s easy to be blinded by the goal of getting a job as fast as possible and making a living. But I believe that if you truly love programming and enjoy the process of consitent learning, no matter what, you will eventually land a job. So my advice is to just keep programming and building things that you find interesting because as soon as you get bored, chances are you will start to stagnate and eventually get left behind.
Q: What technologies and strategies do you use in your day-to-day work that are key to success?
A: My #1 tool is the terminal. It allows me to interface with my computer in a fast and programmatic way. No other tool on your computer is more versatile than this. I can do stuff like: write code, read documentation, automate tasks, manage my system, and so much more.
Q: What would you like to learn more about or incorporate into your daily work?
A: I want to explore more programming languages, you can learn a lot from the different ways they do things. This knowledge then transfers to your everyday languages. For example, I started learning the Rust language in my spare time, which has taught me more about functional programming and how to be more conscious of possible errors in my code.
Tippy & Tank
Q: On a more personal side, do you have a favorite newspaper, magazine, blog, or sources of inspiration?
A: I get most of my tech-related news from Youtube. My favorite people to listen to are The Primeagen and his second channel The PrimeTimeagen, Theo, and FireshipIO.
Q: What kind of technology do you prefer and why? (Mac or PC, iOS or Android, and other cool tech)
A: Linux ~= Mac > Windows,
Linux and Mac are pretty similar in the ways that I use them. They are both unix based which means they have a great terminal experience. Windows wants you to use your mouse for everything which I find annoying and tedious.
Q: What do you enjoy doing outside of the office?
A: I’m a programmer so I enjoy all of the typical nerd stuff. This includes: Video games, Magic The Gathering, Dungeons & Dragons. I also enjoy working out and playing competitive sports.
Learn more about Skyler by connecting with him on LinkedIn. Interested in joining the GEO Jobe team? Keep an eye on our Careers page for future opportunities!
To learn about our variety of GIS products and services and how we could benefit your organization, email GEO Jobe at connect@geo-jobe.com.
