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I had a friend go to Brazil to do farming and was taken advantage of by his employer. Did really well for a while, but eventually stopped getting paid.

I think that the best thing you can do is to treat the installers like they have a career too. The best foremen I ever worked with were in the business for multiple decades and prided themselves in the work they did. It was not just a summer gig for them it was their career. They went to the same education sessions I did and were very…[Read more]

That’s true, Trace. I’d never move overseas without a job. I may move to Seattle without a job if I can’t find anything by the end of the summer, though. I’m living in the tiny town of Moscow, ID now, because that’s where the university is. But now that I’ve graduated, there’s really no point in staying in a place where I’m not likely to find a…[Read more]

seems like you should get the job first, Roland. I have often moved without a job, and it is not fun. Recently I have moved WITH a job, and it is a lot better. Why stop at Brazil, if you are willing to go abroad? Seems like Dubai and China are pretty  hot (literallly and figuratively..unfortunately)..
Or even Canada, for that matter – perhaps…[Read more]

I took the CSE last week and passed. Thank you to all who’ve posted here–it definitely helped! A lot of questions about irrigation, mostly related to the Model Water Efficient Landscape Ordinance. You should know a bit about irrigating with greywater. Quite a bit on ADA. If you study the DSA links provided by others in this thread, you should be…[Read more]

We have a very high Brazilian immigrant population on Cape Cod. Many have gone back home, for what it is worth.

 I have found that if an employee’s desire and technical experience is sufficient, this is usually the fault of the person at the top (que the mirror!!!).  The “quantity vs. quality” tension is omnipresent, and having been on both sides (employee/employer) I know there can be some real mixed messages.
As we all know, materials and overhead are la…[Read more]

Hi Andrew,

Thanks for the reply. In the early days, i was the site manager, I was everything but in order to grow the business, I had to start hiring other people to assist with installations… I know that in the States, there are numerous very big landscaping design and build companies and I would love to know how they deal with quality control…[Read more]

Thanks for your reply Mark,

They do have the technical skills to pull it off, I think it’s more about laziness and hoping that no one will notice.

Here is something I found that as far as statistical data goes, this is probably a fairly reliable and recent indicator because it comes from a fairly credible economic and global affairs journal, the Economist.  Still, it does not tell you what kind of jobs these countries are having a hard time “filling”. I am a little skeptical for two clear re…[Read more]

For what its worth we get an influx of ‘Brazillionaires’ every winter in aspen. They are typically very well-off. From what Ive heard they love to shop here in the states for deals if that tells you anything.

Some things I’ve found out:
Americans and Europeans have been moving over there for some time, according to this article: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/13/world/americas/13brazil.html?page…
There seems to be a bit of a brain-drain thing going on. Well-educated Americans with degrees from Harvard and other ivy league schools have left the US for…[Read more]

These are not abilities that you can make through incentives. The either have the ability or they don’t. If they don’t, it takes years to develop through working with those that do. You don’t have time to develop them, so you either have to find people who have the ability, deal with their lack of ability, or cut back to a manageable size.
 
This…[Read more]

 “but whenever I do visit a site, I see problems that I believe should be obvious to my team leaders, yet seem to be missed completely”.
Are they just not seeing it, are they making a value judgement about quality which is below your standard, or do they not have the technical skills to pull it off? 
 

 Reply by Craig Anthony19 hours ago
Five years and it will be boom times again!

That’s what everyone was saying five years ago. Meanwhile, the clock is ticking.

Healing Gardens in Canada  It’s becoming quite popular here.  Check out the link…

Craig,Yeah, you heard me my friend. Loud and clear too. Mano a mano. See the latest business news today? New round of market jitters, unemployment rate goes back up, consumer spending went down, new construction permit applications fell…it all spells doom for the landscape architect. Minimum of 5 years before any significant construction boom…[Read more]

You heard right about the  UofW program. I am proof positive of that. Did it increase my employment appeal ? Yes, back when there was real, positive employment in our profession.
Your encouraging naysayer.
Landplanner

They’re supposed to hit their sweet crude reserves this year (hence the backing to get the Olympics and the WC); rumor has it that their reserves may be greater than what the Saudi’s had, so that’s a lot of potential cash to be spent.  Some of the big boys have already been maneuvering to get work down there, so we’ll see.  Wouldn’t hurt to s…[Read more]