Hope you know about these but planning.org , planetizen.com, governmentjobs.com, and usajobs.com are all resources to find planning job listings.
Hope you know about these but planning.org , planetizen.com, governmentjobs.com, and usajobs.com are all resources to find planning job listings.
They are also the most heavily used resource. Once a job listing hits these sites, you better believe an applicant pool will at least reach over 200. Best stick to other sites to find some diamonds in the rough.Originally posted by TranspoPlanner
When someone yells "stop", I ask myself if I should collaborate and listen...
Check state municipal leagues website. Most have a smaller communities don't spend the money to advertise on nationwide websites.
"If you don't like change, you're going to like irrelevance even less" General Eric Shinseki
Yes x1,000. This is a very underutilized resource. I would saw also don't forget to look at state APA websites. As Raf said, once a job hits the national site you are talking very intense competition.
Right there is more competition, but that's never scared me away. I've always been in a competitive academic environment so that is just standard operating procedure. As i said earlier, as long as your flexible and mobile you should be able to get a job pretty easily. If you're only looking in one location, well then good luck.
There is a difference between academic competition a "letter" grade, and competition for livelihood. Sorry, it's just not the same.
When someone yells "stop", I ask myself if I should collaborate and listen...
Nothing wrong with reveling in the competition, just keep in mind that nationally advertised jobs attract a lot more competition. If these are the only jobs you are applying for be prepared for a lot more competition and the possibility of a lot more rejections. It is going to be more difficult to land a job in Portland than Peoria. It is great to have the dream of working in a planner-topia but sometimes you just need a job and getting some experience in a smaller town will make you a lot more competitive for the "dream" jobs.
::raises hand::I honestly don't see any other way other than going straight from undergrad to grad..
How can anyone get a job with an undergrad degree?
I got a job with just an under graduate degree. I'm starting my Master's next month. However, I graduated with my undergrad in 2010 and worked for almost 2 years as an intern with a city part-time and as a retail bookseller.
The last 6 months of that time is when I really started applying everywhere, all over the country. I applied to at least 50+ jobs, got about 15-20 rejection emails/letters and got like 6 responses, 2 interviews and finally 1 job. It ended up being out of state and I moved away to get it. So it's not impossible to land out of state jobs. Hell, I'd never even been to the state and knew almost nothing about the place.
When I got here I asked my now supervisor, why me?!
He said they had lots of people with Master's degrees and such apply, but that it was an entry level job, so they weren't looking for that. Also, one main question they said they asked everyone is "Who are your customers?" ... he said the others all answered "the public, the developers, etc"... he said I was the only one that said "everyone you work with, including the public, developers and co-workers and boards and commissions". They said that was the best answer and also that they liked how passionate I sounded and how much I just wanted to learn.
Also, they liked that I kept 2 jobs that entire time which they said showed I was a hard worker.
So... it's not impossible, but apply EVERYWHERE you are willing to go.
I graduated in December 2012 with a master's in planning and it took me 4 months to get a planner I position. I also had to "move", but I had already decided I didn't want to live in Texas so i was moving upon graduation whether I had a job or not. While 4 months is not a small amount of time to have no income, it certainly could have been worse. Some people in the cohort behind me were looking for jobs 10-12 months and counting when I left.
Alternatively, many friends in my cohort found jobs very quickly: I know of classmates hired in Bloomington, IN, Boston, Dallas, Houston, and Austin within a month to 6 weeks of graduation. These are jobs at private planning/architecture firms, an energy firm, a university, city and county planning departments, and one with a developer.
Reading through the previous posts, if I were to pull out a couple of the common themes they would be patience and flexibility. I also sent out dozens of applications only to get one interview - and that interview led to three more and eventually a job in a place I never even considered living until the job posting. (Though, judging from previous jobs, I could be considered a slacker on my job search!)
The only thing I can add to the really great advice already given in this thread would be that if you are have very narrow place criteria (you only want to work in New York City, for example) then I would consider broadening the job type - maybe include other departments in addition to planning, like community development, housing, transportation engineering, etc. Look at non-profit community orgs, research jobs at universities. Don't be too concerned about finding the perfect job right from the start. If it happens great, but just don't make that your only game plan.
I am a year out from graduating with a MRP and having advanced GIS, I am currently working as an unpaid intern with in NYC. This is my second stint interning here. In between interning I have worked a paid internship "a full time job with really low pay and no benefits" and on a six month contract as a consultant.
Please stop saying that it is not that hard to find a job, my situation is unique, your situation is unique, and so is everyone else's. I come to this thread to get ideas, hope, and see what people have to say about their experiences. I know I am in one of the most competitive job markets in the country, but it is difficult to get a job. I am close(hopefully) to obtaining a full time paid position but it has taken a lot of interning and building of a network. I am sure it is possible to get hired without knowing anyone, but my recommendation to anyone looking is to make as many connections as possible.
I only obtained my consultant position through an email chain passed on by a supervisor as it was an position that was not posted and they hired me in 5 days, starting work on the 6th day(a Saturday). I was just interviewed by a person I have been able to develop a relationship with, who knows my references personally.
In my still unemployed opinion, your best shot is to intern with a company that you would like a career with in the future. My internship is unpaid, but I only do it two days a week, it has allowed me to stay in the field and make further connections while looking for full time employment and supporting my self through other forms of temporary employment (they pay a lot for amateur film work).
I don't think anyone has said it isn't hard, but like you said yourself, situations/experiences vary, so the process may been easier for some, and much harder for others.I am a year out from graduating with a MRP and having advanced GIS, I am currently working as an unpaid intern with in NYC. This is my second stint interning here. In between interning I have worked a paid internship "a full time job with really low pay and no benefits" and on a six month contract as a consultant.
Please stop saying that it is not that hard to find a job, my situation is unique, your situation is unique, and so is everyone else's. I come to this thread to get ideas, hope, and see what people have to say about their experiences. I know I am in one of the most competitive job markets in the country, but it is difficult to get a job. I am close(hopefully) to obtaining a full time paid position but it has taken a lot of interning and building of a network. I am sure it is possible to get hired without knowing anyone, but my recommendation to anyone looking is to make as many connections as possible.
I only obtained my consultant position through an email chain passed on by a supervisor as it was an position that was not posted and they hired me in 5 days, starting work on the 6th day(a Saturday). I was just interviewed by a person I have been able to develop a relationship with, who knows my references personally.
In my still unemployed opinion, your best shot is to intern with a company that you would like a career with in the future. My internship is unpaid, but I only do it two days a week, it has allowed me to stay in the field and make further connections while looking for full time employment and supporting my self through other forms of temporary employment (they pay a lot for amateur film work
Also, I know that many people have been pointing to internships for interim experience, but I haven't heard much mention of contract/temp jobs and stuff like that. That's what's been holding me up as I look for full-time work.
In addition to the above, I'd like to recommend Indeed.com. It scans the web for job announcements from company websites and indexes the results. A job seeker can then search by key words. Think of it as a search engine for job postings.
It's no secret the planning job market is saturated, and it's okay to work in an allied field until landing a bonafide planning gig. IMHO, too many planning grads make the mistake of having a very narrow scope with their job hunt and end up staying unemployed or being taken advantage of as an unpaid or minimum wage intern. There are jobs out there, but focusing all efforts on trying to land an entry-level planner position with a municipality may be futile due to the intense competition from well qualified planners with decades of experience that were laid off during the Great Recession.
I've been preaching this for years now...
The content contrarian
I think it can be hard to know what jobs to look out for outside of "Planner". I am working towards a planning degree with the idea that I will do something that involves social-science-y work. Thats.... pretty much it for criteria for me. I don't care if my job title doesn't end up being "Planner". That said, I have no idea what is available, the plethora of job titles that people have is daunting to someone new in the field. I think a lot of people are in the same position as myself, where they don't know what to look for, what they're qualified for, or what's available all together.
Along with searching for "Planning" titles, base your searches on your skill sets. Do you have any experience using GIS? Try punching that into indeed and maybe you'll see a GIS tech position, which is a very plausible transition into the planning world. Any interest in transportation planning? Maybe you can couple that with your experience using GIS or Microsoft Access, try punching in combinations of those words and see what you come up with. Take a look at key words you have already decided to select for your Resume, and use that as a baseline for searching.
Insanity in individuals is something rare - but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule.
I graduated in June 2012 with my MURP degree and started my current position in January 2013. In all, I applied for about 30 jobs, many of them a little early with respect to when I would be graduating. I primarily applied in Oregon, and for a time applied for positions in Washington and Colorado. I came close to getting positions multiple times and it got very old to find out that I was the number 2 choice more than once, or that I was the number 5 choice, and that the first 3 declined and number 4 ultimately took the job (!!!!). I sucked up my pride and took a job as a Planning Technician, where I had a chance to prove myself and eventually move up into a more traditional Planner role. The key in this was that it was expressed when I was hired that they were looking to grow somebody into a planner position.
Based upon this, I would highly encourage people to apply for positions perhaps a level below where you feel like you should be and see how that goes. I have found that during the interview process that you get an indication if it's the sort of place where growth is encouraged, or where people tend to stagnate. Also, if you are an intern, especially a paid intern, I think that any employer at that level would have to be surprised if you didn't ask them about getting full-time employment there. I have known many people that took on special projects or short term full-time employment with places they interned.
As an aside, I also know that prospective employers can seem non-responsive, or terse, but I wouldn't recommend taking it personally. It's really a matter of them having to balance their day to day tasking with the huge addition of the hiring process and needing to sift through numerous applicants.
Check ICMA and other professional associations' websites. In CA there is also CSAC and MMANC/MMASC, which all post jobs on their sites.
This thread is very helpful, I don't know where the OP went, but I am still listening intently.
Can I ask - to the people that were "unemployed" for 3, 6, 12 months etc after graduating... how on earth did you not end up homeless? Were you employed in the service sector, or are some of you really able to not-work and still pay rent? I've never understood how that can be done, I havn't been without a job in 9 years, and I'm only in my 20's. I'm perplexed by the prospect of perpetual unemployment. (hah, alliteration)
You save your money and hope something comes along before it runs out and you need to find a part time job.
Up to 90 apps now and I got another interview request. So 3 months into the search I will have had 2 interviews. Really wishing I could do the Pay as You Earn Plan, guess they don't want people over 27 going back to school.
My lease runs out in August and there aren't jobs in this region that support living in this region, unless you are on the welfare or working for the University. Northern Virginia kids really screw up the land rent structure for what is basically Appalachia. In my case, I'm in the process of selling everything I own, and will probably end up living in my car come September unless something changes.
You know, I was in your spot after graduating with my BA in Planning in 2011. I retooled, went to school, and took a much different approach to everything. I know that my situation is not typical, but I landed a job as a transportation planner at a mid-sided firm near the end of my second of three semesters in grad school. I'm finishing up this fall (9 more credits), and have been working since April. On the flip side, I have had a number of recent grads from my program ask my if I knew whether or not my firm is hiring. We were... but went with candidate that were out of state. Sometimes it is random, sometimes it is luck, sometimes it is applying first. For me, I had a few things going -- a great internship at a regional transportation planning agency, I networked with planners that are at the firm, my former boss used to work at this firm and maintained friendly relationships, and I worked my butt off to make my portfolio stand out from the pack. Most interesting of all, the job I applied to was listed on Planitizen. Know how many people will be applying, and shine accordingly.
My advice is to get creative when applying, network, and leverage any intern experience you have. Don't worry -- people are getting jobs. There isn't the same kind of doom and gloom that there was a few years ago. Things are looking a bit better, and opportunity is out there.
I've been working in another profession, and have been out of planning for over 2 years now... Unfortunately, my employer recently laid off hundreds of us contract workers for 6 months, and I'm unemployed again, and my 3 1/2 years of planning experience seem worthless.
I hit 130 applications today. This is starting to feel absurd.
are you still going to live in your car come September?
are you making any cold calls, going to conferences, etc?
how are you keeping up on your planning knowledge?
It's only been 4 months since you're out of school right? That isn't so bad...
are you applying to an array of planning related fields?
I am just asking for my own curiosity, not trying to grill you. It sounds like youre searching really hard.
I'm having to move back in with the parents on Tuesday, every 30 year old's dream... But it is in DMV exurbs (MD side), so yeah, I'll be "living" in my car so to say.
I am not making cold calls to any public jurisdictions (the ones I have interacted with in the past had statutory advertising requirements for position openings), I might start doing that with private developer/real estate side once I'm in MD, although I don't think I could ever afford to live in that metro without living with the rents. I straight up turned down an offer to proceed to an interview with one jurisdiction in the DMV because the pay was well below HUD definitions for section 8 housing assistance, and that was for a p4/p5 position.
I went to the Virginia APA conference because my group won an award, but that really didn't lead to anything, they didn't even have a receptacle for resumes.
I don't really understand the planning knowledge question. Are you asking if I do specific things? What does planning knowledge mean to you?
Today is 3 months out from graduation, 4 months into the job search. I'm applying to full time permanent and temporary positions with the exception of a few high paying part-time positions that allow for independent thought and action. I'm applying to local municipalities as a planner (ptech-p3; transit, long-range, comprehensive, and current), GIS tech/administrator, public works administrator, or executive level administration; county jurisdictions as a planner (same as above), general level administration (excluding positions requiring a CPA), and project management; state and regional governments as a planner (p1-p2) or GIS tech/administrator; nonprofits as a development coordinator, director or sub-administration project manager; NGO's for project management; real estate developers for sales consultant and acquisitions positions; and universities for project management positions related to planning, gifting development, and building construction (not requiring a professional license).
Come winter I'll have to start looking in the service sector with nonprofit work to cover the loans, and apply to Ph D. programs that actually provide funding.
I've pulled three person to person interviews with county governments and one with a large city. The city interview went nowhere. I don't know about the county interview outcomes yet.
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