I’ve got 5 years doing NEPA EAs/EIS in ArcGIS Pro with Sentinel‑2 and lidar for habitat and viewshed impact analyses, and I’m weighing an offer from a big consultancy against applying to a state wildlife agency. For those who’ve made this switch, how did workload, field time, and ability to push conservation outcomes compare, and did pay or project stability surprise you?
Consultancies gave me variety, newer tools, and better pay, but 75–85% utilization meant more desk time and less sway on outcomes; my state agency stint had steadier projects, more field days, and slower tech. @OP ask both for their “utilization target,” average % field days, and whether you’ll be writing decision memos or just map packages — then speak with a current staff analyst, not just the PM. For pay sanity-check, match the agency series/grade on https://www.usajobs.gov/; otherwise you’ll learn utilization is like gravity — it’s invisible but it runs your day.
@OP One concrete step that helped me: ask the consultancy for a 90‑day project roster with your role plus the utilization target, and ask the agency to define your exact ‘sign‑off authority’ on methods (e.g., can you lock lidar classification thresholds and buffer rules during scoping). For me, agency pay lagged a bit but I had more sway by setting standards early; consulting had shinier tools but I was mostly responding to pre‑baked scopes. Do you want to be the person who sets the schema or the one optimizing it under a deadline?
If you want real sway, @OP, ask both to show a recent EA/EIS where GIS changed the selected alternative — who wrote the effects determination and who signed it. At my state agency I owned habitat thresholds and could push mitigation in the range of alternatives; at the big firm I mostly shipped Sentinel‑2/lidar outputs and debated methods in QA — better pay, less pull. If publishing your ArcGIS Pro workflows matters, confirm you can release methods or code; CEQ leans hard on transparency: https://ceq.doe.gov.
I’d pin both down on the ‘data/tooling runway’: annual budget for new imagery/lidar, Pro extensions, AGOL credits, and whether IT will approve conda packages quickly — I’ve seen agencies with real sway but weeks-long waits, and consultancies with instant access but client-driven publishing. Also get their comp‑time/overtime policy for comment‑period crunches; that’s where the hidden hours live. @kevin14 made good points — do you care more about influencing the selected alternative or about owning the post‑ROD monitoring and dashboards?