Who deserves jobs?

[Vanessa Alyse Thompson]

ouch…so then go into political science? and spend my life on a computer…gag

[Vanessa Alyse Thompson]

…also…im not saying you have to go into a liberal arts program…one of my TA’s is a displaced architect pursuing geography and learning GIS…his enhanced technical abilities will ceratinly make him more valuable…

[Andrew Garulay, RLA]

You can’t grab employment in a down economy.

It will have to grab you. All you can do is to make yourself desirable to those who are doing the grabbing. It starts with assessing what skill sets are actually being hired rather than loading up with what is perceived to make you more valuable. No one hires a lawyer to dig a ditch and no one hires a dtch digger to get them acquitted.

I’m not saying that there is only ditch digging out there, but broader skills in one person are more attractive to more employers than highly refined niche skill sets. If you are running a small office and only want one, two, or a few on the payroll, you still need to get all of the work done. It makes sense that the people whose skill sets stretches over what used to be done by three different people on the payroll is more valuable than one who does not.

It seems that every single person coming into the LA profession thinks that they will move to the front of the class if they add “environmental credentials” without realizing that all of the profession has been doing this for decades and it is almost like a plumber thinking he’ll get more work than the others if he touts that he’ll work on pipes. I can’t think that it does very much to separate anyone from the pack – just another fish in the school.

[Tosh K]

Starting a year before graduating (2009) I visited offices, showed my portfolio in progress and tried to get a feel for what firms were out there and what they were looking for. It definitely helped me prepare myself to assess a firm’s needs and sell myself as a good option for them. While I had very little luck initially, I’ve been able to get a few firms interested and continued to be interested in hiring me. Most of my class and the class before and after mine are employed in the profession, some on their second jobs. Positions are scarce but keeping an active network that understands your value and limitations can help when someone needs to fill a position. It isn’t a demographic issue so much as supply and demand of specific skills/experience.

[William M. Davenport]

Regarding government jobs: Hooray for all who remain in private practice and hats off to all who remain in the private sector even if it’s not Landscape Architecture. With only one (1) private sector paycheck now available to pay every 1.4 public sector paychecks, it’s high time all Americans consider it their personal and civic responsibility to abstain from further burdening the system. We are upside down with a bloated public sector. This is where it’s a good thing ~if you can elect~ to be part of the solution rather than part of the problem…

[Claudia Chalfa]

Rob,

 

I put myself through three years of graduate school as a single Mother of two.  When I graduated, I was one of the only people in my class to get a job right away.  And you know why?  Not because they felt sorry for me, but because anyone who is able to accomplish a rigorous graduate program and still have two well-adjusted kids has to be excellent with time management, efficiency and prioritization. I didn’t pull all-nighters in school, I got my work done ahead of time because I had to.  I didn’t feel I deserved a job more than anyone else because I have a family, but because having a family makes me a better person and a better employee.

 

[mauiBob]

Ohh Noo, she didn’t?! Claudia, your comment is too juicy to pass up. I’m trying to refrain myself from blowing a gasket! Then, I realized it’s just someone’s opinion…which is on opposite ends of my experiences. I’ll keep my views at a minimum. At my past employers, the married co-workers were always the last ones into the office in the morning and the first ones to go home. Why? Because kids needed to go to daycare, school or whatever, and those were the same reasons to go home early. When your boss is married and with young kids, guess who he asks to stay late and finish the project for submittal the following day? Yup, the single worker! And married workers seem to take sick days more often too.

Having a family doesn’t make you a better person than someone who is single. Do you volunteer your time one Saturday per month helping Habitat for Humanity or the local Humane Society? Do you donate canned foods to local food banks on a monthly basis? Just because I do these things doesn’t make me a better person than someone who is married. There are numerous mass murderers in our society who were described as “a family person.”

 

‘Single vs Married. Who has the edge?

Entrepreneurs are often categorized as intense visionaries who sleep little and cheerily work around the clock to be successful. One could assume that being single would then automatically help your business. But is that really true? 

So, who’s better off in business: the single entrepreneur with an unlimited supply of midnight oil to burn or the married entrepreneur with obvious time limitations, but also the support of a loving spouse and family?

Flexibility

Who has the edge? Single.

A single entrepreneur has the benefit of not stressing out about getting home to take care of building a relationship or be at the next PTA meeting. They may date, but it doesn’t really take the same sort of energy.

For example, having the flexibility to attend networking events in the evenings, while married entrepreneurs may not be able to, can certainly offer an advantage when it comes to growing a business. If your industry also requires constant travel, the flexibility of being able to hop on a plane at a moment’s notice can also offer an edge to the single entrepreneur.

 

Work-Life Balance

Who has the edge? Married.

Finding ways to balance work and family is often top of mind for married entrepreneurs because they grapple with it on a daily basis, while single entrepreneurs can — albeit unwittingly — shift their personal needs to the back burner.

 

Time & Energy

Who has the edge? Single.

A single entrepreneur has more available time and energy to throw toward their business, and I think that unquestionably contributes to the success and thriving of a venture. Ask Steve Jobs, Mark Zuckerberg or Bill Gates when they founded their companies.’

[BZ Girl]

in terms of job protection (i.e. not being laid off), i feel like the ‘married with kids’ crowd have an upper hand, at least in offices that claim to be ‘family friendly.’ I can relate to maui bob’s experience though, in that the ‘married with kids’ coworkers are the last ones in the office in the morning, first ones out in the afternoon, and DEFINITELY take more time off and sick days, etc. Who’s more likely to stay late and burn the midnight oil, go the extra mile, to meet the deadline? The singles. But who’s also more likely to be let go when times are tough and there’s not enough work to keep all staff employed? The singles. When the boss is looking around the office, who do you think he’s going to kick to the curb: my coworker next to me, with a wife and 2 small kids to support, or me, the solo agent who has no dependents and is theoretically able to pick up and move across country if needed to get a job? In a perfect world this wouldn’t be a factor in considering layoffs…it would be based on job performance, profitability, etc. But i think it does anyway.

 

Just my two cents.

[Trace One]

I think having kids and an unstable job , or no helpful partner, is a sign of lack of planning, recklessness, and lack of interest in your childrens well-being, therefore selfishness, that I do not think is very noble.  People with kids can’t make friends, so they need to reproduce themselves, and then leave the kids at home like dogs, until they might be lonely again, eight hours later..

But mostly, it is completely illegal to consider marital status in hiring and firing. This thread is just  inane

It’s just stupid..The gamut of personalities for parents as well as for singles is thorougly covered I am sure..

 

[Andrew Garulay, RLA]

It is nice to see that we are all open minded and don’t stereotype.

[mauiBob]

Puhlease! Obviously you have no idea how to get a position in the public sector or what we do. Stop drinking the Governor of Wisconsin, Scott Walker kool-aid. And if you did get a job in a public office…I seriously doubt you would walk like you talk. The original question does not ask private vs public sector employment. So the school’s your firm design are privately funded, right? How many more projects are exclusively from “private” clients?

 

Did you know? General Electric (GE) made over $15 Billion dollars in profit last year? That’s BILLION $$$ and somehow received a sweetheart deal from the Federal Government to not pay corporate taxes? How is that possible or a good thing? How about if I didn’t pay my income taxes for 2010, what would happen? Care to guess how many millions of $$ in bonus pay their executives are going to receive? Where’s the public outrage?

[Jay Smith]

“Most of my class and the class before and after mine are employed in the profession, some on their second jobs.”

 

Tosh, I have to say this is the first such statement I have heard from a recent graduate in several years.  Usually you hear just the opposite, that no one has been able to find jobs.  Just out of curiousity, where did you and your colleagues go to school, and what region of the country have most of you found jobs?  Are you in the states?

[Jay Smith]

Any luck yet Ashish?

[Anonymous]

No, I am have enrolled back in school this past spring trying to get into a Masters in Environmental Economics degree. I took the GRE and everything. I got an internship this summer in web design locally.So who knows where my career is headed.

[Author]

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