Last post, I yammered on a little about mentorship; something that I think is tremendously valuable and rare. Useful information doesn’t always come from “above”, though, and I think we’ve got a lot to learn from all levels – so this time I wanted to find out what it was like…

A mentor is a person who is more experienced than you are (in either the same field or a closely related one) who helps and guides you in your career. I thought this concept was simple enough until I had a few conversations with someone who’s direct supervisor is called his “mentor”. “Baloney!” I…

I love how stuff comes together sometimes. I recently overheard a conversation between a firm principal and a prospective Landscape Architecture student. This principal probably spent 45 min answering questions, and gave out plenty of information about the profession. They reminded me of discussions I had when I was a student which got me…

Last post, I put up some benefits of losing your job. Here, I want to illustrate how important networking is to getting that job in the first place. I realize I am jumping around a bit, but when this story came to me, I just had to…

Last time I posted, I was concerned with copyright issues and Pinterest. But today, I had a conversation with a friend who inspired me to finally put down something that's been on my mind: the benefits to losing your job.

When I started this post, at first I listed all the things you get to do with your new-found free time: like…

Last time I shared some information about the latest in the PLA/RLA/LLA saga. Today, I want to send out a few thoughts about Pinterest. Here's where this came from:

A project I worked…

Last post, I tried to get after demonstrating the intangibles that make you desirable as an individual in addition to the projects in your portfolio. Today, I think it is important to look at one little detail that makes a big difference. A few…

We all want to stand out as unique designers while at the same time hoping that our portfolios will be accepted as meeting expectations, right? We hope that our portfolio is good enough gives the right number of samples, contains all the needed information, and projects professionalism. In the…

My New Year’s Resolution is to sketch more. This decision was inspired by a couple of things from the ASLA 2011 Conference in San Diego (last post on that here):

First, I attended an education session given by…

Last post, I listed some questions to ask in an interview. Since then, I attended the education session “Today’s “New” Job Market: Current Trends and Perceptions in the Hiring Process” at the ASLA professional conference in San Diego so that I…

The ASLA conference was a whole lot of fun and I have tons to share with you from it (I am really excited about this, so stay tuned). Last post, I listed a few questions that you should be prepared for in your next…

Last post, I mentioned some things to avoid in your portfolio and I hope that was helpful. Now that your portfolio is starting to take shape, you've selected some projects and started thinking about how best to show off those gorgeous projects,…

ASLA's national conference is coming up at the end of the month in San Diego, and with that conference is the JobLink LIVE and Emerging Professionals Portfolio Review at the Expo. Whether you are…

Oh, look! a FREE portfolio template! Roundfolio is a free download from Webgraphics.net and I thought it was pretty cool, especially for a one-page (samples of work) portfolio. Last week, I…

Last week, I posted three videos. The video on book design and the one on cover design both discussed typography.…

I am excited that the Employer Interview blog posts (especially last week's) are starting to generate some comments! This is one of the reasons I thought it would be interesting to post them and see how the employers are similar, where they…

Last week, we discussed a few different ways of ordering the materials you put in your portfolios. But today, I have another employer’s feedback to share with you.

As many of you know, I have been asking colleagues for their perspective.…

Last week, Leslie Golden said something very important:

“I want to see nice renderings, and the thinking behind the design. I need the whole package put together, start to finish. I…

Last week's post on print portfolio resources was so much fun, and I have more stuff for you in the future....but as I mentioned, this week I have another "Interview with an Employer" to share with you and here it is. As I mentioned in…

Last week’s Interview with an Employer post was not the last, I have another in the works….but first, let’s get back to your portfolio.

I recently posted about…