[bdbspeed]

Lets be real. Employers require degrees because they’re lazy. It’s a fast way to weed people out. I know tons of people that graduate with no billable skills. If they learned anything practical it was from internships. Working for free would be much efficient than paying hundreds of thousands of dollars for a worthless degree

[bdbspeed]

Thanks for the feedback everyone.

You’re right nothing comes easy but some jobs do pay more for the tremendous effort and work. Some work is more important than other work. Some work is more valuable than other work. I’ve come to the realization that landscaping is mostly a joke that people ignore. . . and that’s reflected in the market value of landscape architecture services. Landscaping is really one of least paid and respected consultants in the A&E field.

I’m throwing in the towel because the work that I’m doing professionally is not what I signed for in school. Long hours, low pay, low impact. This profession is a total joke.

[bdbspeed]

Spot on. To sum this up — I’m in it for the money. Being paid and doing good work makes me “fulfilled.”

[bdbspeed]

Thanks for your thoughts everyone.
In school LA was spending 3-4 weeks on a single project doing as much research as possible on the site, history, context, geology, everything, and then pitching the coolest idea I could think of with illustrations, sketches, concept statements, renderings, etc to demonstrate the idea. It was all about ideas. This was between 2008-2013 and I applied for over a hundred unpaid internships and maybe had 2 phone interviews that resulted in nothing. So unfortunately I wasn’t able to even get a glimpse of what a Landscape Architect office even does. Not to mention I was naive in general.

Here’s how I see it: I paid over $100,000 for a degree that pays the same as an Uber driver. Sure after 6-10+ years I’ll make more. But I could make more right now by making the lateral move to an established CE firm. I’m talking an immediate 50% pay raise and more room to grow. As I get older, money, respect, and power are more important than vague notions of “making a difference” or “being fulfilled.”

[bdbspeed]

It sounds like you’re at the bottom of the totem pole. That happens. But your victim mentality isn’t helping. Neither is your baseless accusation of “sexism.” Nobody is going to give you opportunities if they don’t like you. That goes for everybody. I’ll repeat that one more time: if you’re the new kid on the block working for a bunch of old timers with more experience and tenure than you and nobody likes your attitude you will get zero opportunities.

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