Getting noticed and how to deal with anxiety

[Heather Smith]

It is that time of year. The time of year when we are worrying about our next season landscaping…dreaming of landing a job at a landscape architecture firm. It has been three years since my husband graduated and two years since I have graduated. He has been persistently advancing his professional career as much as he can including passing all the LAREs and becoming licensed. Honestly, we take long breaks from applying because we become overwhelmed with what we know are the sheer numbers of applicants. Recently, he has dipped his toe in the pool again landing his first phone interview in almost two years…he occasionally applied but had essentially stopped until he was licensed. So two questions.

 

How do you make yourself stand out when hundreds of people are sending in resumes for the same entry level position? Are there professionals here that have been part of a hiring process? What advice do you have?

 

Secondly, how do you deal with the anxiety that comes from the long wait. We become distracted from our reality here by the hopes of something better. This leads to some serious anxiety and is quite depressing. We have been patient. We have been waiting. Any advice on how to keep truckin’?

 

Sorry if this is a downer…this time of year is always hard knowing that even more entry level are coming down the pipe when we have never had a shot.

[Heather Smith]

Thanks for the laugh, Russel. Someone should draw a comic strip for unemployed LAs…I take it you would be the leper on the corner with the begging cup and a small container of colored pencils? Hhmm…I wonder what our characters would be. haha. Maybe we would be like Oliver Twist…staring through the windows of some beautiful firm…open mouthed, “Please Sir”. 😉

 

Edited to add: The more I think of a comic strip dealing with all of our insecurities the more I think of how much I would LOVE to see that on Land 8 Lounge.

[Heather Smith]

No, I don’t think you are lecturing at all! That comparison makes a lot of sense to me. I am sure that the people who will land jobs are the ones that are constantly retooling and “studying” up for interviews, etc. My husband has reworked his portfolio numerous times, etc. I guess I just needed to hear that we aren’t alone in this…and to keep applying. For us, with a family…we don’t have tons of time for my husband to spend applying…I think we just feel the double stress of needing to support a family and coming to terms (over and over and over again) that things have not turned out as we planned. Plus, we live in a very small town…but don’t have a way to leave in order to meet new people in person. Thank you so much for your input it IS helpful. 🙂

[Heather Smith]

The hardest lesson for me during the job search process is to practice detachment after a good interview and focus on the other jobs I was preparing for.

This is the hardest part for us as well. The week before the crash Jon had a company that wanted to hire him, and then strung us a long for months saying they had a position for him. This was my senior year and I was even willing to move and study from a distance! You can only imagine our deer in the headlights moment when that just vanished and there weren’t any others to apply for. I think we are just tired. Your suggestions make a lot of sense. And I think we have to continue applying without losing focus of our day to day needs of food and shelter for our children.

[Tosh K]

1. Wondering the same thing, at the moment using my network to feel things out; I’ve known people who made nice handmade packaging for their work samples that seemed to have had a positive effect (nice card stock envelope that had a foldout type of thing).

 

2. I keep myself busy by networking (volunteering, attending lectures, informational interviews/office tours) and diligently trying to find work through my contacts.  Waiting for opening posts is definitely slow, but I’ve run into quite a lot of “we may need to bring some one on in the next few months, so we’d love to meet you”s.  While it’s not the best scenario, it’s nice to be able to chat with people that are working on current projects and see that things are picking up (I’m in the northeast NY/Boston/DC, but have spoken to a few folks out in WA/OR too).

 

I definitely agree with the don’t wait for a response from the interview and move on; it’s good to keep in touch but being on the constant rhythm helps in staying positive.  On the positive side, the job postings are definitely up from the last couple of years!

[Andrew Garulay, RLA]

By the way, thee is an LA job advertised on USA Jobs in Orofino.

[Jon Quackenbush]

or…

each person on this site could draw one panel… who wants to start?

[mark foster]

Heather,

From what I know (from this site & not seeing your portfolio), you and your husband have many great personal qualities that an employer would LOVE to have (stability, maturity, commitment, eagerness, and “hands-on” field experience–not to mention the “two-for“: him full time and you available for short contract hire stints). Unfortunately, these are the very qualities that will be least apparent on a resume/job posting, and your geographic situation means this is the only way for you to look. Applying for work over long distances also plays on the employer’s worst fear–commitment.

I will second the other posts here–the uncomfortable truth is that careers are often made through sheer serendipity–not through exhaustive job searches and resume churning.  If your job search continues to be unsuccessful, my advice would be to find a living-wage job in a larger community you would like to live in, and start networking. (hint: If it’s a smallish city, pick one which has no landscape architecture college–too much competition!)

Remember: all jobs are temporary, your next job will probably not be your dream, and there is WAY more to the practice of landscape architecture then what was even mentioned in college.  

 

[Heather Smith]

Yes, we did see that and Jon has attempted to send in his info. but something is messed up with the hiring website and so he called…didn’t get a call back. I have a feeling that a classmate of mine may be in line for that one…as she has put in her time with them doing grunt labor. 🙂

[Heather Smith]

Mark,

 

That is exactly how we feel. We know that if Jon could get through the door he would have a great chance of landing a job. And we also ask ourselves how much personal info. would help to cement the notion that we strive for stability. We have children…and really do NOT want to spend the next ten years moving every two years. That is one reason we have limited some areas we would move to…we have to have good schools and communities for our children. Of course, everyone loves communities like that. 🙂 So we have stayed in Moscow, because Moscow is a wonderful place for children. But not such a great place to gain professional experience beyond a certain scope. We have thought of moving to Western Washington and Jon has applied for some work that isn’t directly related to landscape architecture. But then again we have our own doubts as to what a “living wage” would have to be over in the Seattle area. I am from over there and uff da!  The cost of housing is very high and the lack of walk ability is…sad. Ugh. Thanks again for your insight though…it is much of what we have been thinking of…and maybe we will find ourselves taking a leap out of the small pond of Moscow. One way or another.

[Heather Smith]

I really love this idea. Maybe we should draw up some funny sketches and start our own group? We could certainly use a laugh. I told Jon that I thought it would be funny to use landscape architecture terms to name the strips but give them a secondary meaning. I don’t know if that makes sense. haha. Heck, it would be really funny to see the bland 3-D models expressions with little bubbles speaking. haha.

[Boilerplater]

Henry, you get to be a more interesting person all the time!  I really admire the nerve of someone who goes for acting, despite an aversion to dramatic personality types!  I would have liked to try to make it as an actor, but I was quite shy when I was younger, and that is no business for the shy and sensitive types!  I imagine it did help with you public speaking and presentation skills.  I’d like to be a better public speaker, and I was in Toastmasters International for a little while some years ago to try to improve my speaking.

 

I guess there is reason to look up, as others have noted there are more job postings lately.  I’ve had a couple of phone interviews lately.  I’ve started to look at jobs in other parts of the country, but its a painful decision because it would mean a breakup.  My girlfriend can’t move because her ex is here and she has kids.  The Las Vegas market is still in very bad shape, even though there have been announcements of some new projects lately.  Major projects that were stalled due to the crash are still not likely to restart for a few years.  I just try to tell myself that this is likely the worst economy that I’ll have to go through in my life, barring the fact that its not actually “The Long Emergency” as described by Kunstler!

[Jonathan Smith, RLA]

Even in situations like ours, I’m eventually reminded of how great we actually have it.  I read a book recently called “In The Lap of The Gods” by Li Miao Lovett about the modernization in China – had a great passage “When there’s nothing left to hold you back, you can only move forward.”

And, in a more general context, a favorite passage from a book by Rohinton Mystery “There’s a fine balance between hope and despair.”

Nothing like a great book to help you gain perspective… 

 

[Andrew Garulay, RLA]

Jon,

 

You really need to have a cover letter that quickly covers the things that you have been doing. It seems that you got to rent space in an engineer’s office, get bid work on commercial jobs, collaborated with other LA (s) over a distance, … anyone can appreciate that this is high performance from someone who has not interned, lives in a college town with lots of other recent grads, and it is in the middle of nowhere. That is huge. … and as others have said, Heather’s degree and a tight family can mean translate to stability in many people’s view (Let’s not revisit the New Foundland thread). 

 

[Heather Smith]

Thank you all so much for your kind words. 🙂 It is encouraging.

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