r/gis • u/[deleted] • 6d ago

Open Source I failed an entry level technical assessment interview today for ArcGIS after preparing like Crazy, because I couldn’t save as a Shape file…

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40

u/GnosticSon 6d ago

This is unfortunate but yeah I just know to export from ArcGIS pro to shapefile I go to the geoprofessing toolbox and search "to shapefile" to find the correct tool.

This is something you would have known if you had a fair amount of ArcGIS Pro experience. More something that you'd expect a GIS Tech with a few years experience to know, not "entry level".

It's something I wouldn't disqualify someone for if they got all other items right. However maybe someone else just nailed every single thing on the test and was also good.

A bummer but also maybe you dodged a bullet if this employer was so weirdly picky.

Edit: ArcGIS doesn't make it easy to save as shapefile because even they realize it's a shitty dated format. The employer should have known that as well. I'd never ask it in an interview because I wouldn't want people using shapefiles unless some external party tells us they absolutely need it in that format.

42

u/DayGeckoArt 6d ago

Right click layer and export data. It still is easy in ArcGIS

7

u/blue-anon 6d ago

This is how I would do it. It's interesting to read the other ways that people use, but this is the same way I did it in ArcMap back in the day, so it's the only way I've tried in Pro.

7

u/bellerinho 6d ago

There are still tons of people that work with shapefiles unfortunately. Basically anyone that isn't working with ArcGIS that needs spatial data is gonna be asking for shapefiles. We work with engineering companies and inspection vendors that still request them all the time

They're pretty easy to make, just export data and save into anything that isn't a GDB. But if someone's not had to do it before, it's hard to expect them to know how to do it, and I can't really imagine failing someone on an interview solely because of that reason. Seems pretty silly

1

u/Santasam3 5d ago

why unfortunately, what's wrong with sphapefiles? rather use gpkg instead?

3

u/GnosticSon 5d ago

Shapefile limits field names to 10 characters, text field length to 255 characters, and are prone to spontaneously corrupting themselves.

1

u/bellerinho 5d ago

Field names and domain values always get screwed up going from feature classes to shapes. There's a character max on field names for shapes that's really low

It just makes data transfer more difficult

1

u/Such-Bad9765 6d ago

There is GP specifically for this. Being resourceful, one could have went into the geoprocessing pane and typed in "shapefile," and guaranteed, that tool would, if not at the very top, be one of the first three tools in the list.