Best time of year for the profession?

[brian matthew walker]

As a 5th year Landscape Architecture student I was wandering when is the busiest time of year for firms?  Also when searching for a career opening when is the hottest time of year that firms begin to hire? 

[Chris Whitted]

It really depends on the area of practice.  There are opportunities year-round, but I’ve always heard and observed through numbers of job postings that late winter/early spring is the peak of hiring as most firms are busiest over the summer since that’s when most construction happens.  From about Thanksgiving to New Year’s is usually pretty dead because of everyone (clients, officials, and employees) taking off for holidays and trying to wrap things up by the end of the year for tax reasons or whatever.  That said, most of the hiring in firms I’ve worked for seems to have been in the fall from what I remember.  The current economic climate is going to have some impact on that, as most firms will likely wait until they absolutely need to hire or are sure that they have the workload backlog to support a new employee for some time.

[Ernst Glaeser]

Are you looking for a job in the northern or southern hemisphere?

Usuall starting, changing, hiering cycle is quarterly starting 1 January.

Depending which cultural cycle you belong to one has usually 4 weeks to 3 month notice period.

Clients usually wake up late and contract last second resulting in majority of design contracts starting in spring.

Ideal situation for an office is to aquier new jobs and time delayed new staff acycli to the workload.

 

[Edward A Kinney, MLA RLA ISA AZA]

I moved from a firm in the south, where construction activity goes on year round, to a firm in Canada- where the local bylaws actually prohibit the pouring of concrete between November and April due to low temperatures.

I expected to see some seasonal cycling in work load up north, but there is none. We are busy year round. That being said- if you’re looking for work try to avoid the “Intern Season,” May – September. That’s when we hire free employees.

[Author]

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