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From planning school to local government - where are they now?

G

glutton

Cyburbian
Messages
433
Points
11
This might belong on the Student thread as well, but I was just wondering...for all the recent grads, roughly how much of your class is actually working as a planner at local government agency? (city, county, borough, quasi authorities, transit agency, etc.). There are so few people from both my programs who actually went into local government, so I was curious about everyone else. Do a lot of planning graduates actually end up working as consultants, at non-profits, or for developers?
 
O

OfficialPlanner

Cyburbian
Messages
930
Points
23
Good question - I graduated in the middle of the Great Recession. It was a horrible time as there was mass layoffs in planning departments, let alone for job openings. Very few started off working in planning. Fast forward to the present and I'd say most in my class that I keep in contact with are gainfully employed in planning or an allied field with a government agency. Folks that were most interested in transportation planning ended up at transit agencies doing what they loved. Most everyone else ended up with plan development, review or working with grants, regardless of their specialty. I'd say most are happy where they landed, but it took time to get there.

Some went into business on their own doing consulting, and others went on to get their PhDs to teach. Surprisingly, I'm unaware of anyone that ended up with a developer. Also folks didn't stay at non-profits very long before jumping to government.

All this based on limited anecdotal experience and facebook.
 
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