LA’s searching for a JOB….a few suggestions.

Great advice, Bob!  

Actually, I found that (this) generation of students has a fairly realistic expectation as far as scale of projects. Everyone should be very cautious to pigeon-hole new LA’s as having starchitect expectations. From my perspective, the reason why the largest percentage of students become disillusioned / leave the LA industry (or at least why I did) is because many (most?) of the basic employment expectations are not met by the LA industry/current market. Some of those expectations include: getting employed, making a living wage, upward mobility, not suffering at the hands of your principal, etc. You know, the basics of 21st century employment. Would it help if successful LA’s like Bob or Leslie shared their experiences with projects to students? Doubtful. Neither of those designers ever dealt with the great recession in the most fragile period of their careers (aka the beginning). I think students would be eager to hear from a LA from the depression era, though … if only they were still alive. But until that miracle happens, sharing your prolific career that spanned the most affluent period of american society to people that are just worried that they can get an entry level job and pay off their student loans grossly smacks of ego-centrism.

And yes, not having a LA degrees sucks. But, the most important part is the experience and licensure. No one cares if you have a MLA from GSD if you aren’t licensed. And, if you did have a BSLA from Cal, then it wouldn’t be as good as someone with a MLA from GSD, and so forth and so on. Everyone get’s prejudiced against because of something. 

As someone who left a decent paying solid position doing civil site plans in a civil engineering / land surveying office in 2011 to go full time as a self employed landscape architect I think that the unrealistic expectations in the profession were based in the belief that the profession should provide a mechanism for advancement rather that of what type of work there is.

They tell us in school that “the profession” provides advancement through “internship” or “apprenticing” or whatever you want to call the experience requirement for licensing. They spoke of mentoring and hoe LA’s like to give back to the young people in the profession. I do think that is a real build up of expectations that is not well planted in reality.

Reality is that it is a Darwinistic profession. You (or me) have to adapt to the current environment and re-adapt as that environment changes whether it is for employment or for business opportunities. That environment is both geographically and economically specific.

It is absolutely necessary to study and adapt to that environment on what you observe on your own and not rely 100% on what others tell you it is. It is also necessary to understand that in any environment there are lots of successful adaptations. Sometimes the most unique are the most successful  like a giraffe. Other times many successful species have very similar characteristics.

All adapt from what they once were. When less change is needed to complete the adaptation the more likely the species is to complete and for the species to survive.

I hope that was not too “out there” and no, dope is not legal in Massachusetts until tomorrow.

Jonathan, I sense your frustration but in response to the “Neither of those designers ever dealt with the great recession in the most fragile period of their careers (aka the beginning),” there is a lot more to tell but I spared the readers.

Two recessions hit me (and HARD), one being exactly right after I graduated in ’74, another severe one in ’90-’92. (Deletion of tales of woe here). It is because of them and wondering if I ever really recovered that I do truly sympathize. I looked back to the icons of earlier history and thought THEY had it easier. Then in the building boom you refer to I was tucked away in a planning department doing some pretty awful stuff (mixed in with a bit of satisfaction). Nearing retirement it seemed the best place to stay. But yes this last recession has been horribly protracted.

Not exactly. The analogy is primarily about recognizing the current environment in which you are working in and adapting to it. The secondary point is that each of us has our own strengths and weaknesses from which to adapt from.

I’m anything but the “strongest”. I can’t draw with my hands to save my life, I don’t do perspective drawings or 3D computer renderings to name some biggies. I’m actually a very weak candidate for a job in an LA office.

My point is mostly about  the expectations that we were groomed to believe in having to do with how our career paths would go. They make it sound like we enter the profession as if we are in a raft in a stream that carries us along to bigger and better waters into bigger and better vessels.

Because I have a weaker skill set I knew my paths were more limited so I had no choice but to always be looking for other opportunities that I could fit and hopefully grow in. I could not begin to compete with anyone coming out of school with a BLA trying to get into an LA firm. Consequently, I had to find other paths.

Fortunately, those paths had me working in between other design professionals including LAs. I learned what those others thought about the LAs that they worked with. I learned what I thought of the different LAs that I worked with from the perspective of the position that I was in. I saw ways that some LAs did things that the others that they worked with liked and other things that they did not like (I don’t mean design things). I saw what they did and what their staff did. I saw who advanced their “interns” and who replaced them with new “interns”. I saw many of those “interns” show up again in various other positions and self employed.

Most try to do things the way the firm that they came from did things. Basically they chose to compete with well established and well experienced firms (or candidates for jobs) while trying to be the same thing. Unless you have superior skills by which they are measuring, you’ll be disadvantaged doing that every time. Yet, we are taught by our professors that this is how the profession works. There is that saying “never bring a knife to a gun fight”, but that is exactly what we are taught to do.

The reality is that other professionals pick and choose whom they work with based on their own needs. Firms pick and choose who they hire, who they replace, and who they advance based on their own needs as well. Those needs are always centered around profitability. It is never directly about “giving back” or “developing professionals”.

You might take that to mean that everything is a competition against individuals or other firms. Far from it. The best way to advance in any job is to always be working to improve the profitability of your employer and to be trustworthy. The best way to advance as a firm is to always work toward improving the profitability and building the trust of those who are in the position to refer you. Sometimes doing less is a better way to achieve that goal.

If I can survive in this profession with the lack of skills that I have then anyone can. The only question is whether or not you, me, or anyone else can thrive more in a different profession.