Some unsolicited job hunting advice for urban planners

http://planning.lacity.org/Forms_Procedures/ExpediterList.pdf

Ok, not quite getting back into blogging on this page, but since this is now a job board I thought I might give some unsolicited job advice and give everyone a free helping hand, especially for those who have struggled big time in the job market, especially if your entry level, trying to get your feet wet.

1.  The job market is bigger than you think it is.  Yes, everyone wants to work for a large/medium sized firm, like an AECOM, URS, HDR, MIG, DCE, etc.  But some of those companies receive a lot of resumes, and they may have an internal pipeline of applicants, to go with a bunch of other things.  Does that mean give up applying there, hell no, but it does mean be open to small businesses that work in the field of planning.  Both in the public and private sector, being an entry level person in a small city, or a small company allows for you to play a larger role, and be involved in a greater diversity of projects, and put your stamp on something, that you otherwise wouldn't get a chance to do working at a larger firm.  For those who are into the land use side of planning, I have attached a list of expediter firms who do business in the City of LA.  It would be good for a job hunter to maybe cold-call/email them to see if they are hiring, or keep an eye on them to both build a network of connections.

2.  Be open/flexible, and recognize the potential for opportunities.  I've come across people who are very limited in how they want to move forward in getting a job.  Some people only want a job in a certain area, it has be able to pay a certain wage, etc.  That can be severely limiting to a persons job prospects, especially if a person doesn't have an accurate gage of the job market.  It is awfully hard for someone with no experience to nab a 40-50k a year job in the planning profession right now.  It is getting a bit easier with real estate development turning back up again, but it is still hard.  By limiting yourself, be it in geography, and wage, it may make it harder to get into the game period, and there may be an opportunity to turn a low wage job into a higher one.  A personal story here, when I started out most of my wages were around what is normal for a planning intern, working at several different companies, when I got my first full time job, one of the employers offered to counter what I was being offered, which was significantly higher than what I was making currently.  I had another friend who had a similar case.  So some employers, and it is not suprising, took advantage of the recession, and paid workers less than their market value, which is their right, but it is our right as employees to find out what our true value is, and sometimes getting the skills and in the door, even at a lower wage, is better than waiting things out for things to get better.  Plus, be open minded about geography.  For example, I would never want to move to Texas, but jobs are growing like crazy out there, for a variety of reasons, lower regulations, and lower cost of living makes it easier for many companies to make it there then in other states.  Many of us may not want to go there, for political reasons, as a state that is "right to work" like Texas, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, etc., are notoriously conservative, and are not in favorable positions on a number of social issues.  However, there are states that are more liberal politically, and may have a leaner regulatory environment which would allow a healthier job market, and people should look into those states if California is proving to be a tough nut to crack, and find a state that is agreeable to them.  But relocating is problematic also, especially if you don't have a job lined up already, hell moving inter-state from Socal to Norcal is hard.

3.  For college students, be aware, be very aware.  A few things, and these are my value judgments, so you can take it or leave it.  These are a few things I wish someone had told me when I was a young and bright eyed 22 year old finishing school.  1.  Planning has a lot of fields, when you are interning, be sure to get in as many of them as possible, or find a company that is multi-disciplined.  I made the unfortunate mistake of getting pigeon holed into municipal-land use/development planning, now don't get me wrong, I like it fine, but I was stupid enough to think when I was younger I could do it all.  So that makes it very hard for me to get into water planning, or environmental or transportation planning, since all my experience is in one field.  Does that mean I can't make a switch no, but it is much harder in a tough labor market, and people have things like school loans, kids, mortgages, and rent, so it is harder to make the sacrifices necessary once your out of college to get yourself established.  2.  Don't let money influence your interning choices entirely.  Would we all love to get paid, sure, but sometimes it is better to be an unpaid intern at a place with a lot of stuff going on that you can get your fingers into, than a paid intern at a place that has nothing going on, and your basically manning the counter all the time, so the one planner can try and keep up with their workload.  Sure that is easier said than done, when you are trying to figure out how to keep your Honda civic, or whatever little compact car you got driving, balance school, a possible job, and you got family members still wondering whether or not urban planning is an actual profession, and basically thinking your screwing around all day at school. 

4.  The amount of time you have to apply varies wildly between the public sector, and the private sector.  You might see a job posted on a job board, for a chic private sector job, that seems like a dream for you, but it has been up there for a month.  If you have, trust me, 90% of the time, someone has already gotten that job, and is eating wine and crackers and enjoying the good life that you wished you had.  Does that mean not apply, no, as some companies are an exception to what I just said, and maybe Mr./Mrs. Wine and Crackers wasn't the right fit, so they will check the resumes they had on file and call someone back.  So to me, a good rule of thumb when it comes to private sector jobs is, if you see it has been posted within 48 hours, APPLY IMMEDIATELY.  The reason being, some firms want a person right away, and they don't operate under the same rules as the public sector, so if they see that they found someone they wanted, they will contact them, interview them, and hire them as soon as possible.  The public sector is different in that they operate on a set closing time rule for applications.  If you get that application in by 5pm on a certain day(or one of the first 50, or 200, etc.), your in, if not, your out(and there is some wiggle room here, since some places take into account postmarking, and the HR departments are chill, but it depends).  A couple personal stories, I have submitted a resume at 7am, and had a noon interview, both with small businesses, and one of the largest land use law firms in the United States.  So companies are weird like that.

5.  Be very thoughtful of your liabilities and why you are doing this profession.  Ok, I may not get this one out right, but I'm going to give it a shot.  Many of us have things that factor into our decision making, that may make it harder to take on new opportunities, or make changes for our career sake.  For example, now that I have had a year and a half as a professional(who am I kidding :)), I've come across planners who are in the relative infancy of their careers, but are turning down opportunities, because they just got a house, a child, or the child is reaching the age where it is "putting down roots" time.  I've also trained interns who are not sure whether planning is what they want to do, but have finished their bachelors degree, and/or are in their senior year, meaning they might be in some significant debt, which is also a liability.  Now don't get me wrong, I am not against children, or houses, or other things which may come across as what I call them, liabilities.  However, and I will say this, I love the field of planning, and I love what I do(sure there are plenty of shitty days, but I worked 10 years at In-n-out burger, and I know what it is like to get up every morning and hate doing something versus loving it), and I want to be the best I can be at being an urban planner.  Now sure, life is longer than many of us think it is, so I don't want to say that any of us can't do something in our lifetimes, but if you allow things like having children, getting houses, etc. to be limiting factors on what you do with your career, you will easily find yourself enslaved by them.  That can be very detrimental, since you might not keep your skills up date, and economic factors may significantly impact the areas you choose to put down your roots in, so you should stay flexible.  Now that also doesn't mean go out and be a neglectful parent either, focused solely on your career.  I think the gist of what I am saying is, be very thoughtful of what your doing, why your doing it, and where this ranks in terms of your general goal of your life. 

4.  The municipal planner quiz.  Ok, you might be wondering to yourself, wtf?!  So allow me to give a little details, recently I had the opportunity to vet some people who were interviewing for a position.  As I asked them questions, I asked them some basic questions that I have encountered more times then I can count in interviews, and they couldn't answer them.  I wasn't mad at them, I actually envied them, cause during the 3+ years I struggled to get a job, I wouldn't have been able to get a 2nd interview if I couldn't answer these questions.  Now let me say, this is only if your applying for say an assistant planner/planning tech position with a City, or a company that has a significant contract planner presence like MIG-HI, Lilley Planning, PMC, etc., so here we go:  1.  What is a variance, what is a CUP?  2.  What is a General Plan versus a zoning code?  3.  Can you give me a half decent explanation of what CEQA is(extra credit points if you can give a half decent explanation of an Initial Study, Mitigated Neg Dec, Neg Dec).  Ok, and here are some extra credit questions:  What is a site plan, what is a floor plan, what are elevation drawings, what are paint chips?  When you get a set of plans, what do you look for?  What are a tentative tract map, parcel map, lot line adjustment, lot merger?  Ok, so if you can't answer those questions, don't fret, ask a planner, and they should be able to give you some answers.  However don't get too pissed when you can't get a $50,000 a year job working in a city if you can't answer these questions.

5.  If a prospective employer actually gives a shit about your life, they will ask/DO NOT USE AN OBJECTIVE SECTION ON THE FIRST PORTION OF YOUR RESUME EVER.  Ok, remember something, when you are applying with small and medium level firms in particular, but also with large firms, you are dealing with people whose time is valuable.  Some firms have staff members handling the recruitments on top of their regular responsibilities, others maybe they only got 1 or 2 people reviewing resumes of possibly hundreds of applicants.  I've had the opportunity to review some resumes, and it is remarkable how so much resume writing techniques are bullshit.  You basically have half of a page to get a prospective employers attention.  Someone who reviews resumes is trying to ascertain your capabilities, in relation to what they are looking for.  The easiest way to do that is to include a paragraph summary at the beginning of your resume, basically summarizing your experience, especially as it pertains to the job.  Some people say have a 1 page resume, I disagree because when you get to the point of having several internships, and/or numerous jobs, especially if they cover a diverse range, it is hard to tell your story in 1 page, without selling yourself short, and possibly making yourself a weaker candidate.  However, do not use an objective section, cause as I said, the employers don't give a shit what an entry level person wants, they care about what you can do, and if they do care, they will ask, that is what an interview is for.  Partly interviews are for gauging your technical ability, and the other part is for seeing if your a good fit for a respective organization.  That also makes it important for you as the applicant to ask in the interview, what are the long term prospects for a job, if you are looking for a long term commitment(weird how this sounds like dating), and this can facilitate the conversation in terms of what their expectations are, and what yours are, and if your on the same page.  So why waste what little space you have to get an employers attention on bullshit.  Personally, I noticed my job hunting prospects improved on several occasions, as real estate development lending increased, and after I got rid of the objective section of my resume, and replaced it with a summary, in addition the tone in interviews changed as employers spent more time telling me what the position was about, and getting a feel for who I was, since they already could tell what I was about skillwise.  Now, if you are one who does not have experience, I have several things to say:  don't expect a full time job in this job market with no experience, if you are applying for internships/apprenticeships, you may want to combine a summary/objective section, to both let an employer know what experience you do have(as being an urban planner involves a lot of different experience, customer service is valuable since you might be dealing with the public, and/or clients, also experience with various software), and what you are looking for, since an internship is a different animal than an actual job. 

Ok, so here is some unsolicited job advice for all you people, if you have any of your own, please comment, or if you disagree or agree with any of my conclusions.  I think today's recent grads can at least take solace in the fact that the job market today is not as bad as it was in 2008-10.