Working at 1Spatial

Charlotte Lawes - Graduate Spatial Data Consultant

Hello, I’m Charlotte. 

I joined the Cambridge Consultancy Team as a Graduate Consultant in January 2021 after graduating from the University of Exeter in 2020 with a BSc in Geography with Applied GIS.

Although my induction process was completely online due to lockdown, a bit of a different experience to what may have been ‘normal’, I’ve felt part of the team from the beginning as everyone (especially the consultancy team) is so welcoming and helpful.

1Spatial has a good community with a friendly and inclusive atmosphere – during my time here, I’ve still had the opportunity to work with a meet people from different departments. The lunchtime seminars have also been a good way to get a feel for the company on a global scale as well as what goes on outside the consultancy team in the Cambridge Office. Many activities go on outside of the office including a group on strava trying to get the distance between the global offices, Quizzes and even Hiit sessions!

The first year has flown by - probably because I found myself learning something new every day. The work we’re doing applies some of the world leading geospatial technology in Location Master Data Management to solve real world problems, making every day interesting.

Prior to joining 1Spatial I had experience mainly using Esri products such as ArcMap and ArcGIS Online. Since joining 1Spatial I’ve regularly been using QGIS to view and edit data. In the first few weeks I set up practice databases in PostgreSQL I learnt SQL for working with PostgreSQL and Microsoft SQL management studio to search, update and maintain the database, changes in which could then be seen in QGIS and vice versa. Building on this I completed the Introductory Training Course for FME which is used to extract, translate, and load data. Since joining 1spatial I have developed my database knowledge and understanding as well as the importance of data validation – skills in which we use every day on project. 

I have been involved with several projects so far, all of which are using 1Integrate’s rules-based logic approach for different applications. After the 1Integrate training we received in the first few weeks, it’s been good to get stuck in using the software on a project - after all it’s the best way to learn. The project premises have covered everything from creating 1Integrate rules to validate data within a dataset or perform data translation to creating output cleansed or inferred data. This just highlighting versatility in the software and the range of projects on the go at 1Spatial. I really enjoy using 1Integrate and putting the rules logic together to get the output required - there’s something quite satisfying about it!

Working at 1Spatial has joined a combination of aspects I enjoy and I’m looking forward to this next year and beyond!