What do you love most about your job?

[Tracey]

Hi,
I’m new to the forum – it’s a great resource so far! I’m considering a big career change to landscape architecture (I’ve been in marketing for 8 years), and would love to know:

What do you love most about your job?

What do you most dislike about your job?

Thanks!

[Philip (PJ) Benenati]

what i love most is simply looking at the work differently. Everywhere you go you think about “how and why was this built” and you start to notice funny things like spatial relationships and circulation. I know its kinda nerdy but that’s part of the fun…

[Tracey]

Thanks! By plant aspect, do you mean having to know & research them?

[Stephen Buckle]

It is to easy to repeat previous successful designs, but being involved in unique, diverse and challenging projects that stimulate fresh design responses that keep my passion burning.

[jeffrey Gordon Smith]

Materials and learning how they work, plants, concrete, wood, lighting and that new material that I have always wanted to use but have yet to find the right project and application. The ability to push people outside their comfort level and have them love it. Exposing or connecting people to their environment and having them see or appreciate it from a new perspective. That every time I see a new project it is a fresh canvas of ideas.

I dislike most about my job not having enough time for all my clients they all want it now, most do not understand the creative process and what goes into a project even though I make a concerted effort to explain it.

[Eric Galvin]

hi, glad to hear your looking into LA as a career. Its very broad and diverse, so there are a number of different niches you can get into. If you can get your hands on a copy of the april (i think.. maybe march..?)issue of Landscape Architecture magazine, they had a great article that talked about different positions people were in, how they got there, and how they like it. For me, im a designer at heart and thats what i love most about it. i found a place that i design something interesting from the very initial concepts almost everyday and i couldnt love that more, doing graphic work a few times a week is also really nice. The more aggravating part of the job is that i rarely see my concepts get built. I am in a small planning firm, so alot of the jobs we do take many many years to get started in the field, so its def different than other peoples experiences i would assume – well, hope that helps a bit, good luck if you decide to dive into the profession ~

[Tracey]

Awesome, thanks… I will check out that issue!

[Tracey]

That makes sense; thanks for the feedback. While not having enought time for clients must be hard, I am at least heartened by the fact that LA is an in-demand profession.

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