SITE MAP EDUCATION PAGE ECON & BUS GEOG RESOURCES A-Z INDEX


AT LAST: OUR CASE STUDIES

(http://faculty.washington.edu/krumme/207/projectlong.html)

Return to: 207 Project Directory || List of Collaborative Group Themes || List of Concentrations || From Concentration to Case Study Project Presentation (Options) || Research Problem || Employment Plan || Business Plan || Consulting || Service Learning Option || Poster Option || Home Page Option || Class Presentation ||

Please forward your comments, suggestions and questions related to Geography 207.

"PLANS"

FOR GEOGRAPHIC EMPLOYMENT, BUSINESS OR CONSULTING

The development of a Geographic Business, Employment or Career Plan should give you the opportunity to put your conceptual and practical skills to good use and to anticipate to find a job or, better yet, to pursue self-employment and start your own business. The number of options you might suggest within your "Plan" are endless, and the following are merely examples:

(1) Employment in Private or Public Sectors

During my 30+ years of teaching economic geography I have seen many employment ads for cartographers or GIS specialists, one (1) employment ad for a 'geographer', none for an 'economic geographer'. Economic Geographers are not employed under that label. Our economic geography graduates are hired as all kinds of specialists, including as urban or regional "economist", marketing or location analysts, researcher of rural health care systems, urban, regional or transportation planner, foreign trade or marketing specialist, and, believe or not, as teachers in the K-12 school or junior college system. Your "plan" should aim for the employment of an economic geographer, such as you, who needs a somewhat more specialized label. The "economic geography" in your plan should address both the skills and concepts you wish to exploit in your plans for employment, the geography of the job- or labor market in your chosen field and the "geographic elements" in your job-hunting strategies.

Readings & Resources:

Rick Roth's (Director of Undergraduate Services, UW Geography Dept.) Guide to Jobs in Geography (inquire in the Geography Advising Offices, 303 Smith)
INTERNSHIPS, JOB SKILLS AND CAREERS

Employment Related Resources (Job Searches and Employment Information)

Cirrincione, Joseph M., "Careers and Employability of Geographers in the United States," in A.Rogers, The Student's Companion to Geography. Oxford: Blackwell, 1992, pp.340-44.

Richard Nelson Bolles. "What Color is your Parachute?", 1995 (or other Guides or Manuals for Job Hunters)

Hunt, Earl B., Will we be smart enough? : a cognitive analysis of the coming workforce. New York : Russell Sage Foundation, 1995. [Business Admin General Stacks HD5724 .H88 1995]

The Employment Paper: The Puget Sound's Original Employment Newspaper. (free distribution) (or other employment-, job- or career oriented journal, magazines or other publications)

Visit the UW Career Center (Low Hall)

Explore more specialized sources in your particular sector or profession.

Explore the Internet for Job Opportunities

(2) STARTING YOUR OWN BUSINESS IN WHATEVER ACTIVITY

The second example suggests a plan for "Starting your own Business in whatever activity". As an economic geographer, you are asked to make use of your geographic skills to cover the geographic facets of the Business Plan which -- let's assume -- your bank wants to see before it is willing to provide you with the necessary loans. The obvious geographic components of such a plan would be the (a) locational choice and (b) the analysis of your targeted market territory. However, there may be others, such as, for example, an analysis of the labor market which you are planning to tap for your labor intensive, specialized-skill dependent activity. Whether you plan to become a residential real estate developer or contractor, retail businessman, or proprietor of a computer based service, you need to investigate thoroughly the interdependent questions of location (of your activity) and the geographic market to be served. Frequently, inputs are not ubiquitous and play a role in your locational choice; so may the desired institutional, political, and "business climate" (taxes, quality of governmental service delivery systems and infrastructure, incl. transportation, telecommunications, health care and education, etc.) within which you want to operate.
Example:

Last, not least, you may want to make use of your GIS skills, not only because you may have such skills (through Geog.360 or other classes), but because this geographic organization of the data is probably exactly what you are looking for in your analysis. Besides, "geographic information systems (GIS) could soon become as widely used as spreadsheet software to a broad cross section of American Business. The principal reason is that GIS encompasses a fundamental and universally applicable set of value-adding tools for encoding, interrelating, analyzing, and displaying information. GIS imparts new meaning to the ancient Chinese proverb that 'picture is worth a thousand words'". (Gilbert Castle, Profiting from a Geographic Information Systems, 1993, p.xi)

READINGS:

Kishel,G.F. and P.G.Kishel How to Start, Run, and Stay in Business. New York: Wiley 1981. (more recent editions) Ch.2: "Determining the Best Location" Ch.11: "Developing your Promotional Strategy" (Many similar books are available in bookstores and libraries)

Covello, J.A. & B.J.Hazelgren, The Complete Book of Business Plans: Simple Steps toward writing a Powerful Business Plan. Naperville, Ill.: Sourcebooks 1994.

J.K.Lasser Institute. How to Run a Small Business. 7th Ed., N.Y.: McGraw 1994.[Ch.4: Deciding on the Location of Your Business] [HD62.7 H68]

Jones, K. and J. Simmons, The Retail Environment. London: Routledge, 1990. (This and other retail texts may be on Reserve in OUGL)

The journal in which you are most likely to find reports on actual site selection processes is:
Site Selection (published by the Conway Data Inc. Atlanta, Georgia and can be found on the shelves in the Business School Library).

Other Small Business Readings and Resources

Look for professional or industry-specific journals for further information.

(3) GEO-ECONOMIC CONSULTANTS

Thirdly, you may want to make use of your skills in economic geography (possibly in combination with your GIS or other skills) to become a "consultant": There are location consultants, marketing consultants, plant-closing, lay-off or "downsizing consultants, tele-commuting consultants, public relations consultants, consultants for finding educational scholarships, business opportunities, tourist or travel destinations or health care services for the mobility-handicapped. Click here to get to the Consulting Page for much more.

Internships & Service Learning Option

Geography 207 students have, for a long time, linked the learning environment of the 207 classroom to internships in the private and public sectors. Since 1996, many 207- students have also signed up for Service Learning as a component of Geography 207. After having found an appropriate community-based organization whose work relates thematically to course objectives, these students have not only benefitted from class activities, they also have a build-in site and context for testing and applying classroom knowledge. This is an excellent "opportunity to combine theory and practice, to use what you learn, and to learn while you are making a difference in many people's lives." (Carlson Center NEWS, November 1993)

If you are interested or want to learn more about this opportunity, come and talk to us during the first or early second week and/or contact the Carlson Office directly (Room 34 of the Communications Building in the Undergraduate Advising Area; Tel: 543-2618).

Students who wish to link their present (or planned) service-learning or other appropriate internship experience to their 207 project may select the "research", "plan" or "report/journal" option as the last project segment. Students should discuss these options as early as possible with Prof. Krumme and then submit a brief proposal. Specific guidelines for these options will be made available upon request.

RESEARCH FOR CASE STUDIES

The Guidelines for the focused research problem will be short since there are several guides (e.g. those listed here) on Reserve in the Undergraduate Library.

This segment should be organized so as to include the following:

1. Significance of study and its relationship to Economic Geography AND to your Group Concentration.

2. Background of the research question you are posing: To what extent have you found evidence in the literature that similar questions have been investigated already? Such publications will help you to refine your question without unnecessarily duplicating earlier work.

3. The research question or "hypothesis" itself.

4. Some attempt to answer the question (fully aware that we have not stressed research methods in Geog.207). However, since you have had access to some limited sample of the literature, you may want to identify or refer to methods you have come across and suggest whether they might be applicable.

Research Assistance:
Durrenberger, Robert. Geographical Research and Writing. Ch.2 "Identifying a Problem and Developing a Research Plan". The book is on Reserve for Geog.207 in OUGL.

Forsyth, Alfred S. LEARNING GEOGRAPHY : AN ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY OF RESEARCH PATHS. Indiana, Pa. : National Council for Geographic Education, 1995. vi, 80 p. [Z5818.G4 F67 1995]

Kennedy, Barbara, "First Catch your Hare... Research Designs for Individual Projects," (from A.Rogers, The Student's Companion to Geography, pp.128-134).

Guides and related Literature:
Research Guides
Employment Guides
Business Plan Guides
Consulting Guides
How to make Posters

Project Options || Research Problem || Employment Plan || Business Plan || Consulting || Poster Option || Class Presentation

Please forward your comments, suggestions and questions related to Geography 207.

"Don't worry about people stealing your ideas. If your ideas are any good, you'll have to ram them down people's throats." (Howard Aiken)

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1998 [econgeog@u.washington.edu]