Two years into his role as a Geospatial Consultant in our Digital and Geospatial business, Amitay Moody tells us about his dynamic and rewarding career at Tetra Tech Coffey.
“It was the breadth of what Tetra Tech had to offer that really appealed to me. My journey kickstarted when I joined Tetra Tech in my final year of university as part of an internship program,” says Amitay.
After completing his bachelor’s degree in Environmental Science from Curtin University and a master’s degree in Geospatial Science from RMIT, Amitay started working at Tetra Tech in his final year of study. The Digital and Geospatial team acts as a support function to the entire Tetra Tech Coffey business and Amitay enjoys the opportunity for the constant variety that this offers.
He explains, “I feel lucky to have landed a role that has this level of contrast. Our day-to-day work supporting the different teams internally is quite fast paced. It’s mostly supporting our direct to market clients on diverse projects, such as environmental watering, wind farms, construction projects, and asbestos heat mapping. It’s primarily problem-solving, and each day can present a new challenge,” he says.
Amitay and the team focus on helping our people and clients apply GIS technologies across their projects. The diversity and applicability of GIS to different fields and problems is vast.
“Helping our clients understand and work around their needs, scope out solutions which can range from map production and data management, to WebGIS and Mobile GIS, right through to spatial analysis and data analytics. The diversity and applicability of GIS to different fields and problems is remarkable!” Amitay says.
Laying the foundation for a flourishing career
Amitay presenting to students at RMIT
According to Amitay he was not expecting the level of diversity when he started his role, but it is something he loves about it. “No two days are similar, which is awesome. In my opinion GIS is applicable to every field of study within the broader environmental sciences, construction, and engineering, which is really cool,” he says.
Amitay attends graduate networking events, allowing him to share with others his insights into his graduate experience. “Through various spatial student associations, I have been able to connect with students and present at universities such as RMIT. I’m in a great position to speak to students and share my recent experiences. Having only worked in the industry for a couple of years now, I thought it was a good opportunity to provide guidance to students, and practice public speaking which is something I want to get better at,” he adds.
Amitay is also looking forward to sharing his experience of the last 12 months with the new cohorts and graduates starting at Tetra Tech in 2025. “It’s good to think about what was useful when I was starting out and try and pass that on, so it might also be useful to them.”
He offers some important advice to the new graduates. “Learn as much as possible from your team and take every opportunity that comes your way – work with different people and get a sense of what they do. It’s an opportunity to be able to learn from others, but also think about what you can do to give back.”
Having a positive impact on the environment and society through his work.
Starting off in his career, Amitay could never imagine the positive impact his work could have.
“One of my first projects at Tetra Tech was working on a project aiming to reconnect floodplains and wetlands along the Murray River. It is a really big project with lots of moving parts, but that was a really great introduction to what GIS can do for that kind of scale of project, where you have dozens of different agencies all working together,” he says.
Amitay goes on to explain the level of spatial data and insights. “It was a cool project to be involved in because the project aims to have a very positive impact on the environment as well, which is something I’m pretty passionate about. The scale and the detail of the project really demonstrated to me the power of GIS. For anyone starting out their career who are thinking the smaller tasks that you might do every day seem almost pointless, or trivial, but even at this stage, they have a positive impact in the broader scheme of things,” he adds.
For the next generation, it’s important to understand that it’s all about the people. That’s the power of GIS! You can pull insights and information out that people haven’t even thought of before.
Amitay says to people looking at a future career in Digital and Geospatial field, “a big part of the role in the GIS industry is about the people. As a GIS expert, one becomes the central point of contact for all different specialists and acts as an intermediary. The job involves chatting with people, helping them understand what I do, and understanding what they do. For the next generation, it’s important to understand that it’s all about the people.”
Connect with Amitay – [email protected]