u/Blueland918

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I’m planning to do a bachelor’s in Cartography and GIS, followed by a master’s in either Geography and Territorial Planning or Cartography at Vilnius University. I’ll attach the degree programmes/curricula for reference in the comments.

I discovered GIS mainly through maps, statistics, geography, and urbanism, rather than through programming or technology. The more I dig into GIS, though, the more I see how tech-heavy it can be, and I’m not sure yet how much I’ll like that side of it.

Programming does seem interesting to me, and I’m not terrible at math, but neither of them has ever been my main interest. I’m pretty certain that I want to do that bachelor’s and a master’s, but I’m not sure which master’s would suit me better.

My plan is to figure out how much I enjoy programming and the more technical side of GIS during my bachelor’s, and then make the decision about the master’s based on my experience and interests.

My questions are:

1. Are the programmes offered by Vilnius University good and do they open up many opportunities? It’s generally considered the best university in Lithuania, but I’m wondering how its GIS/cartography degrees are viewed by employers and internationally.

2. Is my overall plan reasonable? Bachelor’s in Cartography & GIS → master’s in either Cartography or Geography & Territorial Planning.

3. Is it difficult to get a good position with that combination of degrees? What kinds of careers could I realistically pursue?

4. Is it necessary to go deep into programming for GIS? Do you need to become genuinely good at programming, or is a basic/intermediate knowledge of things like Python and SQL enough for many GIS jobs?

5. What are the main differences between these two master’s degrees in terms of career opportunities, salaries, remote work, and long-term prospects?

6. Which skills would you recommend focusing on during the bachelor’s to keep the most career options open?

I’m writing this before even starting my bachelor’s, so I’m mainly trying to get an idea of what I’m getting into and what kinds of career paths these degrees could lead to.

Thanks!