Unemployed Recent Graduates

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I am an unemployed recent graduate. I graduated+!@#$Laude from a fully accredited university in May. I moved to Denver, Colorado in July '08 hoping that the big city would have lots of job opportunities for me. I am currently working for a small design build company doing general landscape maintenance and snow plowing. My boyfriend is in the same position as well as a few others in our graduating class. Some are looking into other fields, one woman I graduated with wants to start an organic horticulture business.

If there are any of you out there, you are NOT alone!
I hope that we can share our woes and make it through this little slump together.

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Noah Mabry on January 23, 2009 at 8:44pm: I graduated in August with good references and real work experience. After some very promising interviews and discussions with firms last fall everything stopped for me when the bottom fell out of the economy. Many of my talented classmates haven't found jobs yet either.

I really don't think this is our fault. That is, that we are not as recent grads, unprepared or unqualified. However, the market for what we do is rather close to non existent. So don't despair Brittany!; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by nrschmid on January 28, 2009 at 12:38pm: Did you move to Denver with a job in hand?; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Vance W. Hall on January 28, 2009 at 12:41pm: Brittany,
I would not limit yourself to strictly LA work either. Check with city orgs for any related field that would allow you to work, make money and gain work experience. I agree it is more than likely a waiting game. In the meantime get LEED certified, study for the LARE, or fine tune those graphics and program knowledge.

Vance Hall
Denver CO; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Brittany Brock Birdsong on January 28, 2009 at 1:02pm: I graduated in May 08 and moved to SF with a job in July. I got laid off with almost all other new hires a few months ago. This is definitely a hard situation for recent grads to be in. My friends in TX and Louisiana are having pay cuts and people are getting laid off all over the country.

I'm studying for the LEED exam and applying to arch/engineering firms for admin/marketing jobs. I'm applying for CAD and rendering jobs too, mostly contract or part time. I'm also looking into volunteering at the park systems, planting trees, etc. and looking into other environmentally friendly work like greenpeace.

I hope it turns around soon though because I miss designing and the paychecks!; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Michael Watkin on March 19, 2009 at 2:34pm: Hi Brittany, just curious, what large firm were you with? Give initials if you wish; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Roland Beinert on February 8, 2009 at 11:03am: I graduated in 2006, found a job in Reno that lasted a year and a half. After being laid off, I found a job in Boise last February. Within about six months I was laid off again. I'm now living on unemployment. I'm three years out of college, but only have two years of experience. There's a landscape maintenance company interested in hiring me, but they won't hire till March and when winter comes around I'll face unemployment again.
I know the Census Bureau will be hiring soon. It isn't a bad option for temporary employment. Apparently the EPA will be hiring in October. They might have a use for people with our skills. The Bureau of Land Management and other government organizations might be able to use landscape architects as well. Those will probably be the most stable jobs for a while. My dad is even trying to get me to apply to the FBI. I'm still not sure exactly why.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Brittany Noelle Fish on February 19, 2009 at 5:27pm: Hey Roland!
I actually just got a position as an assistant designer in a design build firm. I am making peanuts and don't actually get to do a lot of designing, but I am really happy to be working again!

I highly suggest checking out design build firms who don't necessarily have positions open. I don't think the recession has hit the high end residential folks yet, so that 's a good place to start.

Don't worry I am sure something will come along shortly.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Nick Aceto on February 19, 2009 at 7:19pm: I agree with Andrew. On the flipside, or at least in adding to what Andrew said and contrary to popular belief, there is ALOT that could be learned in design-build. Before I came to school for LA I was a designer/project manager at a higher end design-build in Boulder. I found myself working most days in and out of the office splitting time between job sites in the early morning and late afternoon, designing or filling out bid sheets mid day , and meeting with clients in the evening. I also did what many design-build business owners discourage and ran my own small projects on the side. It can be very rewarding work and the design is usually alot of fun since there are usually few constraints. Good Luck!

-n; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Roland Beinert on March 12, 2009 at 12:04pm: Sometime this month I'll start a job as a mow crew leader for a landscape maintenance company. It has nothing to do with design, so I'm still looking around for something else, but I'll take what I can get for now.
At this point my goal is to go back to school when I've saved enough. There's a lot of computer programs that became popular right after I graduated, like sketchup. I'd like to learn them in an environment where I have someone looking over my shoulder. I also remember enjoying GIS work in college, and would like to relearn that. Tuition is actually fairly low as long I stay in Idaho where I have residency.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Daniel Miller on February 19, 2009 at 8:46pm: The 3 things I learned the very first day of Landscape Architecture:

1) If you have a boyfriend/girlfriend...get ready to break up with them, because you'll be spending more time in lab than with them and they probably won't like it.

2) If you're in this for the money, you can leave now.

3) Be prepared to look elsewhere for work ever 15 years, because the economy turns and the profession goes with it.

While they all didn't turn out 100% accurate, they're pretty true. It's a tough profession to get through in tough times, but this is the worst the profession has ever seen it. This downturn is global, not just national.

Be thankful for the work you have, people have to do doing things far out of their "job descriptions" just to get by. Good luck with it all, keep your heads up..; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Rob Williams on February 19, 2009 at 10:53pm: My biggest advice to you is don't be too proud to work! Whatever that work is. Sometimes when you are climbing up the rope of life you need to tie a knot and hang on. Network as much as you can now while you have the chance. All economic trends cycle.

Get as much practical experience as you can now and when the economy turns, you will be ready! Then you can start the climb again to greater opportunities.

Lastly, diversify as much as you can. Don't get your attitude down. Remember, people will hire you first because they like you and not so much how your portfolio looks. If you have a poor attitude and lack confidence, no one one will want to invite that 'cancer' into their organization. Good attitudes as well as bad attitudes are infectious!

Keep your head up and expect great things to happen to you and they will!; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by nrschmid on March 12, 2009 at 7:44am: I agree 200% with this. If you have solid skills in AutoCAD, rendering, redlining, and plant material, focus on these. No matter how good you were in school, what you learned in studio will not easily translate to the working office. There is still a learning curve. Emphasize how you can reduce that learning curve so THEY can spend less time showing you the ropes so THEY can go back to their own work.

To keep existing clients and earn new contracts, many consultants are freezing most or all of the billable rates or cutting back hours on new contracts. To stay afloat, some consultants are having to go back to their beginnings where they had to take a hit and turn out high quality work with barely making a profit, in the hopes that something better would come along. LA's that had 100 billable hours for a park design phase in a better economy might have to make due with 80-85 hours for the same project with the same high quality in a terrible economy. This means you have to be more efficient than ever. In your interviews, I would strongly urge your ability to work smart on a lean budget. Not only stress how your skills meet the needs of the firm but also how you can meet those needs better than anyone else.

However, there also comes a time when you are sacrificing your hard-earned degree by doing something barely related to get the foot in the door. That happened to me back in college during my last semester. I was the only undergraduate GIS tech for the county regional planning commission and worked about 10-15 hours a week creating a GIS database for the county. I had 15 hours of classes my last semester, including two semester projects, not including a job search, so I was VERY busy.

My boss was a under a tight deadline and wanted me to work 30-35 hours a week without benefits. He also wanted me to enroll in a course in C++ and Visual Basic course at the community college outside of town so that I could understand GIS network and server design. I said to myself, this is ridiculous! I may be a student, but this has absolutely nothing to do with my planning degree. I politely told him I had to cut back my hours so I could focus on my final projects and look for planning jobs back up in Chicago after graduation. I tried to convince him that computer programming work is very important, but it was not my calling. My boss was furious, and he docked my hours and demoted me to GIS intern. I still had the job, and I told myself I did all that I could do.

I agree that you really need to be flexible with work in this environment. If that means writing specs for irrigation or slapping on lighting details instead of designing that city masterplan, you might need to adapt. However, everyone EVENTUALLY reaches a point where they are pidgeonhoing themselves by compromising their training in an unrelated job in the hopes that it will turn around. I had to risk leaving on bad terms with an employer so that I could get back on track with planning, and in the long run I never regretted it.

If you reach that point where you are sacrifcing too much of your training for something you don't even tolerate doing, you might want to consider just caughing up the money and earning another degree in a related field (architecture, planning, horticulture, engineering, interior design, etc.). Hopefully by the time you come out of school the economy will be better and you will bring added value to the position.

Hope this helps-; ▶ Reply to This