12 replies to this topic

[JimBlakeslee]

Nice Kids Post treatment of the profession in today's Washington Post. Nice picture of Allen Carroll and his desk at National Geographic Society. The web version is just the article:

http://www.washingto...7012901707.html

Sidebar says:

11,000 cartographers in the US.

Average Salary: $51,340

Two most important course for kids who want to be cartographers: Algebra & Geography.

[DaveB]

Had to laugh at a couple of bits
"cartographer (mapmaker)" - I see they had to clarify that (in case people thought they were talking about cardiologists or photographers of cars? )
"Cartographers (pronounced car-TOGG-ruh-fers)" - maybe we should put this on our business cards?

I guess the article is aimed partially at kids and the newspaper wants to make sure they understand it, but it does seem a little condescending. Oh well, I guess the good thing is they are trying to tell people (kids and adults) about cartography as a profession.

[MapMedia]

Its a shame Latin isn't taught in the public schools anymore, otherwise people would be more apt to put the word into context quicker.

When I translate it into Italian (cartagrafo), average Italians understand it right off the bat.

What are other translations? (Hans, frax, Jacques , et al).

[Hans van der Maarel]

Its a shame Latin isn't taught in the public schools anymore, otherwise people would be more apt to put the word into context quicker.

When I translate it into Italian (cartagrafo), average Italians understand it right off the bat.

What are other translations? (Hans, frax, Jacques , et al).

Latinised version for Dutch: kartograaf. German is kartograph (speaking of German, I saw Andreas "Kartograph" in here the other day...)

Funny coincidence... I used to have a thing with an Italian girl whose last name was "Carta"... (Italian for map)

[Mike H]

photographers of cars?

Carts, Dave - we spend our time taking pictures of carts. the really smart people reproject carts into other objects

m.

[Jean-Louis]

Nice Kids Post treatment of the profession in today's Washington Post

Interesting anecdote about the profession. Many years ago when I was living in Toronto I had a blind date with a Russian girl who just came to Canada. When I told her I made maps she wasn?t at all impressed because she made maps too back in Russia. She told me that she worked in an awful factory and that they spent their time putting all this false information on maps - a soviet habit inherited from the war. Of course everyone knew this so despite regular and massive print runs, the maps were never used. In her mind being a cartographer was about the most useless and stupid profession around....It was a Seinfeld moment...We never went on a second date.

[CHART]

Always nice to see articles describing our profession. Makes it easier to explain...

Chris, In French.... Cartographe. pronounced (CARTO GRAPH)

Jean-Louis.... your Russian friend was maybe looking for a Canadian cardiologist making more then 50K a year...

[frax]

cartographer would be kartograf in Swedish, but I am not sure people would clue in directly... A surveyor, lantm?tare or a map/gis-engineer would maybe be more easy to understand for people...

Not being a full-timer (I do many other things), I don't call myself or introduce myself as cartographer...

[BEAVER]

11,000 seams bit high. If National Geagraphics has only 25, where do the other 10,975 work? I would say that NY State has maybe 50 Cartographers.

[frax]

On the translations for Swedish - I can just add that the word kartograf would send a bit pretentious and academic - people would probably be more familiar with an outdated word such as kartritare (literally - map drawer).

[MapMedia]

All Latin based derivations I see - very nice. Another thing is that in the US when I mentioned my work, people would ask if I was always in the field, measuring and 'making maps' from scratch.

Those Soviet era 'funny maps' must be collectors items. Were these maps to throw off the US intelligence agencies during the Cold War? 'Oh look! There is a large research facility along Bolshevik Blvd. Lets send a spy in to get more information.' oops.

Re: 11,000 cartographers in US, I think its likely true with one caveat: if the survey included people whose workload includes, to some extent, cartographic work along with other work (GIS, graphic design, engineering, etc.).

There are 'cartographers' tucked into almost every public agency in the US (city, county, state, fed) and medium to large environmental NGOs typically have a staff GIS/Carto person.

[natcase]

Re: 11,000 cartographers in US, I think its likely true with one caveat: if the survey included people whose workload includes, to some extent, cartographic work along with other work (GIS, graphic design, engineering, etc.).
There are 'cartographers' tucked into almost every public agency in the US (city, county, state, fed) and medium to large environmental NGOs typically have a staff GIS/Carto person.

US Bureauf of Labor Statistics lists cartographers and photogrammetrists as a job category (17-1021), but also surveying and mapping technicians (17-3031)

They say that as of May of 2005, there were a little over 11,000 of the former. See the attached from the Bureau of Labor Statistics based on a search here.

Attached Files

•  cartocareerstats.tiff   67.8K   81 downloads

[MapMedia]

Nicely done Nat!

The 90th percentile annual wage for cartographers is pretty decent. I friend of mine works for the UN as a GIS Analyst/cartographer and makes over $100k.