[Lizelle Wolmarans]

Sometimes you can still change the base plan. There have been many times that I have done an alternative layout, especially parking layouts (they are always to rigid) and they have taken up the changes whole heartedly! YOu still have a say!

[Lizelle Wolmarans]

I agree with Matt Landis. As someone from South Africa who also worked for 2 years in the UK, I can really say that we (Landscape Architects) do not get paid what we should and employers love to “use” people as cheap labour and try and make you beleive that you are getting more out of the experience, so you should be happy with what you get.

Although it can be a fulfilling career, we should not forget the fact that it is a job, that we studied long and hard for it and that we deserve to be compensated. We have families to support, dreams to fulfill and lives to live.

Matt Landis said:

To expand upon Adam’s comment regarding lack of organization…something else that I feel plagues our profession is pay scale compared to engineers and other professions outside of design. Wages out of school are sometimes even hard to live on. Not to mention that some interns work for free. Often people that are higher up in firms make a great deal of money…but those with 0-5 years of experience typically don’t break the bank.

I realize that everyone doesn’t do this job to make a lot of money. Money aside, it is a very fulfilling job most of the time. That said, there are definitely ways to make money in our profession, but it usually doesn’t involve private design firms or working for governmental agencies. Working directly with land owners or developers as an owner’s representative can prove to be fruitful in terms of compensation, but the lack of design in this capacity doesn’t always make a “designer” happy.

With as much education that is required for our profession, it is somewhat surprising when you compare our payscales to that of business professions which often require less education and experience. Someone with a 4 year finance or management degree and 5 years experience can earn drastically more than someone with an MLA and 10 years of experience.

Again…it isn’t all about the money, but I just feel that compensation is definitely lacking in our profession. I also don’t have an answer about what should be done….(if anything) so I don’t know if any of this is helpful. I guess one thing we could do is hel get the word out to stop doing “free” internships…and stop accepting low-paying jobs with big name firms. If the people doing the hiring can’t get people to accept low offers…they will eventually have to increase the bottom line.

Do some research on ASLA regarding average slararies…and incorporate cost of living into offers. Someone making the “average” ASLA salary in NC will do much better than someone making the “average” salary in NYC. However…from what I have seen…pay doesn’t go up that much in the big cities. Don’t be affraid to counter your offer with some good data to back you up.

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