[Carla]

Thanks everyone for your advice.  I’m sure this will help.

[Carla]

I pick one CAD drawing for a project and describe it briefly mentioning my coordination with the client, architect, civil and MEP.  I also talk about my involvement in the project from concept to construction admin. phase including responding to RFI’s and doing walk-through’s and punchlists.  Photos of the site are good once the plants grow in some.  I may be wrong, but I think most employers understand that most people working in firms with less than 10-15 years of experience that aren’t senior associates or senior designers or partners aren’t really designing the projects or at least the high profile projects unfortunately.  You have an advantage of going to school in Landscape Architecture.  I have 8 years of experience in the field but got my degree in Parks and Recreation.  I’m just am now going back to get my MLA.  It’s going to be a challenge for me to redevelop my portfolio with school work after all of this experience.  For you, since CAD drawings are all the same and can be a bore, unless you want to show off excellent graphics and how organised you are and how complex of projects and the project types you are experienced with, your resume might showcase your abilities more.

[Carla]

I entered this field eight years ago with merely a Bachelors of Science in Parks and Recreation emphasizing in Plan and Design. I knew AutoCAD and GIS (never used the GIS). The positions I applied for always required a BLA but I always sent my resume and portfolio anyways. I posted my resume on ASLA’s website in 2004 & 2007 and couldn’t keep up with the amount of firms that wanted to interview and hire me in CA and FL. I’ve been employed as a plan reviewer and landscape inspector with the City, and as a landscape designer, and a job captain that has led up to a junior project management position with firms. My responsibilities are the same as someone who has either a BLA or MLA. In one instance, with one firm despite that I had four years of experience and knew irrigation and had more responsibilities, I was paid the same as my cowoker who had no experience but had a Bachelors in Dance and a MLA from Cornell.

Because of this recession, I have been working part time since 2009 and plan to get an MLA now even though I don’t want to take out those dreaded loans. I want to keep active during this recession as I see there are limited job opportunities like there were. I am hoping an MLA will increase my design abilities and lead to a big leap in promotion and look great on my resume in addition to all this experience. I should have no problem finding the position that fits me best when this field recovers from the recession.

I hope this helps you all. Just for those of you entering the field, be very prepared for an unstable career. Find a firm that has a variety of clients. For instance I worked for a firm that did mostly master planned communities and when the housing market crashed, they went from 20 to 4 employees. With another firm, 60% of our work came from one client. One day they called and told us that all projects are to be terminated. That meant we started working part time, some weeks only 5 hours a week! This causes you to have to go to firm to firm based on the market and then your resume is filled with 2 – 3 year positions which now employers are picky about, as they are with everything.

About the requirements to know all of those different types of software, many firms are looking for people who can still do hand graphics and that’s what’s most important to them. In Southern California there are a lot of mid sized firms that like showing their clients hand drawn or photoshop renderings and most of us can do that. If they go beyond that, they hire a graphic artist to prepare the specialized digital graphics. So perhaps think about that role you want to serve in a firm, as a technical graphic illustrator or a landscape architect managing and designing projects. Be careful not to get type-casted right out of school, because they will keep using you for those tasks. They get into those habits. You earned that MLA for a reason, for your future career goals. The economy will get better and we can do what we want perhaps open our own firms! Good Luck!

[Carla]

No, it was a complicated situation. It was an existing site. Buildings were being demolished and the landscape improved. There were a number of existing mature giant sequoias, pines and other trees common to the region. Pretty much all of the existing trees were demolished during construction. The city wanted the client to replace all of them, inch per inch d.b.h., at the time of installation. Considering that trees fresh out of the nursery don’t add up to mature trees, not to mention the building footprint increased and the landscape area decreased, this became a challenge. The client proposed to present a SSI narrative for the city to reconsider the tree mitigation.

[Carla]

It was the City of Fresno in California.

[Carla]

It is all relative to the type of projects and the client you are proposing a fee to. Be sure to research the client and their previous work first. If it’s just someone’s backyard, then a $50/hr fee would probably scare the ordinary residential customer off.

[Carla]

I would say that $50/hour is pretty reasonable for entry level consulting. If you fear that you have a learning curve that might gauge the client, then perhaps charge a lump sum fee. Otherwise, I would avoid a lump sum fee, especially if the site plan might change.

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