Map Editor

Searching for things can be difficult: lost socks in the dryer, needles in a haystack, the perfect outfit for a big night out. As a Map Editor, you make finding things, or rather places, easier to do. You work with digital and paper maps to ensure that they’re correctly laid out with the right names in the right places.

Though a Map Editor can’t help with finding lost socks, you can ensure that a person finds a store that sells new ones when all their matches disappear. To get a map right, you verify information, like what direction roads run, the correct spellings of street names, and whether streets are dead ends. Just like a Book Editor, as the Map Editor you check over every little piece of information, from the tiny (Is there a stop or yield sign on that corner?) to the major (Does that street really end at a lake?).

When you work with streets in crowded cities, this might sound like a fairly easy job, but for more remote or obscure places, it can get tricky. In the case of places without a lot of previously mapped information (think the middle of the desert or remote mountaintops), you need to turn into an Investigator and do some serious research.

Most maps start with the use of specialized mapping programs, which employ satellite images to get a picture of a place. However, those images are sometimes blurry or don’t show enough detail to create a map. In those cases, you use aerial photographs or older maps to get a more complete view.

As a Map Editor, you oversee and work with Cartographers and Engineers. The maps you create can help everyone from the average lost Driver to construction companies to even the military.