Hello Everyone!
Basically, I want to know - if I want to work on planning projects internationally, would a civil engineering degree suit me better than an urban planning degree? My impression so far is that planning degrees (at least in Australia, where I come from) often focus on local (state/national) laws and regulations which means the skills are less transferable to other countries. Also most planners (in Australia anyway) most planners work for local/state governments. As well as that, the international companies that I would be interested in working for AECOM, PB etc seem to be more interested in hiring engineers.
Aside from my international aspirations, I suppose my main interest in urban planning lies with transport planning and design. In other words, highway, subway, rail, mass transit etc. Correct me if I'm wrong but the complex transport modeling and traffic forecasting courses tend to be mostly found in engineering faculties. As well as that, most of the positions I have seen advertised for 'transport planner' specify an engineering degree.
I guess you could sum up my dream career as something like helping to plan and design public transport solutions in emerging Chinese cities.
I should also just mention that I'm already 24 with one degree under my belt (Bachelor of Asian Studies, major in Chinese language.. so my Chinese is fairly fluent) so I wonder if age is going to be a factor...
Anyway, thanks for reading, any suggestions or advice you guys have would be very much appreciated.
Peter
