Helen Widdicombe

Curriculum Vitae for
Helen Widdicombe
Address: 25 Ryrie Street, Balclutha 9230

Home Landline: 03 418 0369

Mobile: 027 419 1675

Email: kaliana1974@gmail.com

Drivers Licence: Class 1 (private car)

 

 

Personal Statement
I would like to advance my GIS career technically.  I am prepared to move anywhere in New Zealand for the right job, but would be even more keen on a position that would allow me to work from home in Balclutha.  I have a phone, internet (UFB comes to Balclutha in 2019 hopefully), there is an airport 50 minutes’ drive away.  You benefit by not having to pay for my electricity and constant cups of tea.  I benefit by keeping all my medical and social contacts where they were now.  Let me work for you from home!

 

 

Work History

PowerNet                                                GIS Technician                                                Balclutha
September 2014 – present

As part of a team of four GIS technicians and a GIS administrator I was responsible for keeping PowerNet’s electricity network model up to date.  All office staff in the company had the option of using the GIS, and as contracts were completed in the field, I had to enter it into GTechnology.  From time to time I also had to use GeoMedia for custom maps for internal and external parties.  For this role I had to learn new software, and explain GIS to others.

Key Tasks

Ø  Entering data into GTechnology accurately

Ø  QA of my work and others

Ø  Custom maps in GeoMedia

Ø  Occasional use to AutoCAD

Ø  Answering queries through the Before U Dig system quickly and accurately

Stratford District Council                   GIS/ Asset Info Officer                                   Stratford
April 2013 – July 2013

I was employed on a short-term contract to update the council’s spatial information from AutoCAD files, paper records, and “people’s heads” into MapInfo format, to make it useful to all council employees, and external parties

Key Tasks

Ø  Spatial data updates

Ø  Entering data from a variety of sources including AutoCAD, Excel, As-built plans, experienced staff members accumulated knowledge and any other source

Ø  Data checking and quality control

Ø  Moving datasets between AutoCAD, Manifold and MapInfo

 

Wellington Regional Council            GIS Technician                                              Wellington

September 2013 – November 2012

The Biodiversity Department of Wellington Regional Council (Greater Wellington) contracted me to tidy up an existing data set.  The boundaries of their biodiversity management areas needed to be snapped to the cadastral dataset so that actions like showing all the owners would give meaningful results.  I also entered (both manually and automatically) data from other sources to create a geodatabase as requested by the client.

Key Tasks

Ø  Manipulation in ESRI Arc-GIS

Ø  Data editing

Ø  Data updates and maintenance

Ø  Database work

 

Landcare Research                             GIS Analyst                                       Palmerston North
September 2011 – April 2012

I was hired as one of the temporary staff for a six person team to update the New Zealand Landcover Database (LCDB) in 2011.  All the work was completed in Arc GIS 10.0.  The job involved taking a shapefile of polygons identified by remote sensing software as being incorrect, making a decision about whether it was a change since the previous version was mapped, an error in the previous version, or a natural variation in the colour of the satellite imagery.  Once completed we began processing the next set of imagery which will be used by Landcare Research for another project.

 

Key Tasks

Ø  Data capture from satellite imagery for LCDBiii

Ø  Data capture drawing polygons over clouds in new imagery for the 2012 LUM mapping

Ø  Data capture from satellite imagery for LUM mapping

Ø  Working with scientists

 

Wellington City Council                     Assistant Software Tester                          Wellington
May 2010 – August 2010

 

Wellington City Council updated their property system in 2010 to a more portable web based version.  I was part of the team providing user acceptance testing for this system and reporting faults back to the external programmers.

 

Key Tasks

Ø  User Acceptance Testing of a new property system

Ø  Writing test scripts for the testing

 

 

 

Environmental Challenge                  GIS Analyst                                                   Lower Hutt
April 2007 – March 2010

 

I was Environmental Challenge’s first GIS analyst.  I was responsible for all GIS work, from mapping to creating 3D terrains for the landscape architect.  Where possible I integrated AutoCAD and SQL databases with the GIS, and wrote scripts for repetitive tasks.  As the only GIS staff member in the company I was responsible for keeping our spatial technology up to date.  I was also the first level of IT support for the office before faults were escalated to the outsourced IT company.  IT work involved installing software and help with Microsoft Office and other applications.

 

Key Tasks

Ø  Mapping

Ø  Spatial analysis

Ø  Spatial modelling

Ø  Basic IT support

Ø  GIS

Ø  Scripting and building models

 

Environmental Challenge                  Admin Assistant                                          Lower Hutt
March 2006 – April 2007

 

While still studying at Victoria University I was hired by Environmental Challenge to do a major data entry project, documenting their library in Excel.  Once it was in this format it would be possible at a later date to migrate it to a database.  While in this role I did many other general administration tasks, and started working with GIS, initially with WEL Networks GT Viewer (a spatial data viewer with one editable layer) and Terraview, then with Manifold once this software had been purchased.

 

Key Tasks

Ø  Data entry of all books and documents into Excel

Ø  Answering phones

Ø  Collecting mail

Ø  Printing

 

 

Super Shuttle                                        Dispatcher                                                      Wellington
July 2005 – July 2006

 

While studying I worked at the weekend in the Wellington office, dispatching work to the drivers and making bookings using Remedy.

 

Key Tasks

Ø  Dispatching work to the drivers

Ø  Taking phone calls

Ø  Making bookings

 

Victoria University                               Tutor                                                                Wellington
February 2005 – June 2005

 

I worked for one semester tutoring the IT course for the Certificate of University Preparation.  This involved assisting the students with the practical side of the material they had learnt in lectures and marking their work.

 

Key Tasks

Ø  Teaching IT tutorial for the Certificate of University Preparation

Ø  Empathy with a wide range of people

Ø  Punctuality

 

Key 4 Free                                              Facilitator                                  Lower and Upper Hutt
July 2002 – December 2004

 

Key 4 Free was a free computer training funded by the government and run by the Tertiary Accord of New Zealand in association with Warehouse Stationery.  The students worked through self paced workbooks and the facilitators answered any questions they may have.

 

Key Tasks

Ø  Empathy with a wide range of people

Ø  Microsoft Office Products including  Word, Excel, Access, Powerpoint

Ø Internet and Email

EDS                                                          Data Entry Temp                                          Upper Hutt
February 2002 – July 2002

 

New Zealand Dairy Group (now Fonterra)            Computer Operator                 Hamilton
October 2000 – October 2001

The team I was part of performed all the company’s computer backups each night plus the routine and project tasks assigned to us during the day.  I also assisted the helpdesk when required.

 

Key Tasks

Ø  Backup theory

Ø  Helpdesk phone support

Ø  Tracking helpdesk jobs to completion (internal and external)

 

 

 

 

Community Probation                             Administration Officer                           Wellington
March 1998 – December 1999

 

Community Probation manages community-based sentences handed down by the courts for criminal offences that are punishable by imprisonment, but which the judge feels does not warrant a prison sentence.  I was part of a team to two administration support officers who serviced the Wellington office.  While I was there our main computer application was updated, and I prepared data from two old systems to be migrated into this system.

 

Ø  Answering phones

Ø  Filing

Ø  Typing

Ø  Data maintenance of Community Probation’s data

Ø  Financial ordering, goods receipting and paying invoices

 

 

 

 

Otago University                                       Tutor-Supervisor                                         Dunedin
February 1996 – March 1998

 

Our team were visible in the student labs to help the students with computer use. Our team’s aim was that all the students graduated knowing basic computing, with an idea of how to work things out for themselves. Questions were diverse and exciting.

 

Key Tasks

Ø  Helpdesk services to students

Ø  Training services to students and staff

Ø  Ability to relate to a wide range of individuals

Ø  Changing passwords

Ø  Norton Utilities

 

 

 

Qualifications
Postgraduate Diploma in Arts (GIS)         Massey University          GIS                                2011

BSc                                      Victoria University of Wellington            Computer science      2006

MA                                       University of Otago                                   Anthropology               1997

BA (Hons)                           University of Otago                                   Anthropology               1996

 

 

Courses
Introduction to Geomedia                                       Intergraph                                                  2014

QGIS Introductory Course                                     NIWA and DPS                                         2014

PostGIS Introductory Course                                NIWA and DPS                                         2014

Be Your Own Boss                                                  Work and Income                                     2012

Modifying Database Schema in Arc-GIS             Greater Wellington Regional Council    2012

Interests
Member of Milton Lions Club

Playing the double bass

Playing the euphonium

Archaeology

Knitting