Landscape Architecture for Landscape Architects › Forums › GENERAL DISCUSSION › Internship -5 years experience
- This topic has 1 reply, 13 voices, and was last updated 15 years, 4 months ago by
nca.
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May 13, 2011 at 2:02 am #163014
ncaParticipantThats crazy.
I’ve seen a number of ads looking for ‘entry levels’ with 1-3 years which is hard enough in this econmy, but five…ridiculous.
May 13, 2011 at 3:55 am #163013Brent Jacobsen
ParticipantI guess it remains a “buyer’s market” for employers. Ditto on the crazy.
May 13, 2011 at 4:16 am #163012
mauiBobParticipantThat’s what you call getting experience and paying them with intern salary! Those are the firms you stay away from on long term basis.
For me, the South Carolina Planner job is worst! The only person able to fit in that candidate description lives in someone’s imagination. I showed a few co-workers and everyone laughed.
May 13, 2011 at 2:09 pm #163011
Jeffrey Trojanowski,ParticipantIf you have 4-5 years experience, do you really need to be an intern. Most internships are no pay.
May 14, 2011 at 3:03 am #163010
Andrew Garulay, RLAParticipantThis one does pay, but with four or five years of experience and the type of experience required, one would think that it is similar to calling a fourth year football player who has made the Pro Bowl a rookie.
May 14, 2011 at 3:39 am #163009
Thomas J. JohnsonParticipantHow is our profession going to attract new talent when, after going to school for 5 years and working for another 6, amassing vast technical abilities, project management skills, artistic, creative and spacial visualization talent, you can make a whopping $45k/yr?
You’d be better off going to mechanics school for two years… Chevy mechanics make $50k easy, Porsche mechanics make six figures… or you could spend those 5 years going to med school and doing your residency. If I can memorize and identify 400 plants and their scientific name, I sure as heck can do medicine…
Thank you for reminding me of the depressing nature of our field… hard-work, dedication, technical abilities with low pay and no job security. Not to mention dealing with the “personalities” of employers, peers and clients alike, you can add “the ability to absorb an infinite amount of $h!t” to the list of required skills. Sweet. Where do I sign up…?
May 14, 2011 at 4:27 am #163008Thomas J. JohnsonParticipantLombardi does do exceptional work though… he’s definitely practicing at the very peak of residential design. I’m sure that you’d learn a ton working for him, 5 years of experience or not.
May 14, 2011 at 6:10 am #163007
Zach WatsonParticipantWell I guess it is a good think that I have 3 years of work experience for a LA and am currently working for an EE who works on parks, street lighting, among other things.
May 14, 2011 at 4:28 pm #163006Andrew Garulay, RLAParticipantThat is a fact. I’ve been on a couple of sites and helped price one out with a contractor once as well. We’ve got one in the CE office currently, as a matter of fact. No knock on him, just the state of the profession when such experience is required for an internship.
May 16, 2011 at 3:06 pm #163005
Christopher PatzkeParticipantMorning Andrew. I didn’t know you had already posted on this!!
I live in the Boston area and the firm posting the position is a well known, high-end, award winning residential firm. I know I will never work for Lombardi now but once I saw the posting I immediately contacted the JobLink administrator and the Executive Committee of the ASLA with the following e-mail:
“I had to write to express my utter shock and dismay that the ASLA would allow a job posting for an INTERNSHIP that requires a degree AND 4-5 years of professional experience. In these tough economic times this posting seems blatantly exploitive. For an organization that was founded to promote the profession of Landscape Architecture, how can the ASLA post a job listing, from a member, that fundamentally demeans the education and experience of those desperate to find work? For shame!!”
I received two follow-up e-mails from Ann Looper Pryor, the publisher of Landscape Architecture Magazine:
“Thank you for bringing this posting to our attention. We will remove the posting and notify the firm that internships cannot require professional level experience.”
“Thanks for giving us the heads up—it’s an automated system, so we don’t pre-approve the copy. Most firms are well within the limits on their internship postings, but this one was definitely inappropriate.”
May 16, 2011 at 3:08 pm #163004Christopher PatzkeParticipantIf we don’t advocate for ourselves no one will. ASLA is supposed to help us but sometimes someone needs to raise their voice.
May 16, 2011 at 5:12 pm #163003
Elizabeth RentonParticipantThanks for contacting them about it. I’m glad they agreed with you and removed the post.
May 16, 2011 at 5:47 pm #163002
allandParticipantThis is the typical b.s. you see, now likely in all sectors. It existed before, but now its just beyond ridiculous. There is no recourse for the candidates. It existed before, with work sometimes able to sustain the employee. Now its just a free for all. Companies will cut to the bone and practically lay you off before you get the job, its quite disheartening. Project oriented work is so unstable, that the culture of any design or development firm is fickle. very fickle.
May 16, 2011 at 6:15 pm #163001
Andrew SpieringParticipantPosting internships to the JobLink were free at one point. It may have been their way of avoiding paying the $600 to advertise the job opening… just a thought.
May 16, 2011 at 9:43 pm #163000
Amy VerelParticipantI agree with the general sentiment about (the very real problem of) utterly ridiculous demands for skills/experience in many job listings, but to be fair this example appears to be more of a wording mishap than an intentional slight against qualified, experienced professionals.
Reading the listing (which is still up at 5:21 pm EST), the posting is ‘Summer Position with Full Time Potential.’ The only time they use the word “internship” is in the very last sentence: ‘This particular opportunity will begin as an hourly internship position with the promise of a full-time position depending on fit and project workload.’
They seem to be using the term “internship” to convey what that this is a ‘trial period’ position with pay but probably no other benefits (with the promise of consideration for full employment after assessment), a situation that is very common for the first three months of employment in ours and many other sectors.
Inelegant, definitely, given our professional perception of what ‘internship’ implies, but this doesn’t strike me as an attempt to undermine or insult/bottomfeed on the experience of qualified professionals. On a broader level though (speaking to the whole “non-RLAs calling themselves landscape architects” discussion), we need a lot more clarity in the profession about what to call ourselves, and this kind of sloppy wording doesn’t do anyone any favors. Architects have “intern” positions that are full time and paid for yet-to-be-licensed architectural designers, but that is not what’s being conveyed here.
I will say that this firm seems to place their job listings on ASLA as a matter of course, so I appreciate their support of the organization and willingness to open the field of applicants (rather than to never advertise open positions and only hire through who-knows-somebody-good sources), which I think is commendable. Definitely should get their wording straight though!
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