I’m 26F, graduated about 3 years ago.

I moved to a different state for my first job right out of school. I got let go 5 months in because I couldn’t keep up and had a big learning curve right out of school. I have a lot of beef with my college because I truly don’t think they set any of us up for success for real work. Anyways.

Found my 2nd job in same state. Stayed for a year. I developed work anxiety and depression. I still don’t know why. I would uncontrollably cry at work and at the thought of work. I was let go for those reasons. I then went to a different firm in another city closer to my hometown where my family is thinking that would help. I lost that job in 3 months because my work anxiety was never solved and I couldn’t stop crying.

I moved back to my hometown, a medium sized city, a year and a half ago. I cannot find work here. There’s only 3 landscape Architecture firms here. There’s 2 design-build or landscaping companies here. None are hiring. I emailed all places just to express interest. Still not hiring.

I interviewed with 2 different firms in a bigger city of my state. Got ghosted from both. Did follow up emails and heard nothing back. Which I find disrespectful. I’ve applied to many jobs and only had interviews for 2.

I am frustrated that a) this profession is more location based and you have to move to find a decent job b) it barely pays well as entry level for cost of living c) because of my work anxiety, I don’t have good references even though I did good work d) cannot find a job currently and also because of the gap in my resume e) I thrive best in a hybrid work environment and cannot find jobs like that either due to my anxiety (it’s better now but I still have it)

I’m also frustrated that licensure is $535 for each test. I can’t afford to get licensed. So I feel like I’m never going to be able to find a job in this profession again. I’m so disheartened and sad.

Hi friends. 7 YOE licensed LA here. Just wanna post some thoughts about my career. Not sure if I'm asking for advice or just anecdotes and maybe someone to gas me up a bit. Been thinking about this for a couple years now. No idea if I'll actually go for it or not. Just want to throw this idea out there and see what comes back.

1. I can't say I have much passion left for design. I'm good at design, was top of my class, maybe even one of the better young designers at my workplace, but I don't love it or want to invest much energy in getting better at it. I like my job. It's not bad at all. But I can see the difference between myself and a real, passionate designer who's really committed to landscape architecture and wants to go the extra mile. I'm somewhat talented, but not hardworking. I think I'm a hardworking person, and I worked very hard for my degree, but working hard as a professional LA doesn't make me any more money, and so I lost steam. I don't think I'm motivated enough by cool design alone.
2. My bosses and other designers at the firm seem to be motivated primarily by the love of doing good design. They don't care if the process is efficient or if our contracts are profitable. I find myself wanting to optimize things and make as much money as possible, but they don't care about that nearly as much as they care about seeing beautiful design work. I can't fault them for that, but I find myself having a different mentality. To me, it feels fussy. I don't want to dis what they do, because it's great work. But worrying about all these aesthetic details... how to hide fasteners, where to put the rocks, the perfect kidney shaped concrete pad... it's so annoying!
3. I have simply never been able to get into plants. Everyone in this field loves plants, and I just don't. I love the idea of plants, I respect planting design, and I really appreciate having green space, but I don't want to memorize a bunch of plant species or think in depth about planting design. I would much rather think about a big concrete and steel structure or solve a grading problem. You wanna know something really weird? I enjoy value engineering. It's fun to figure out how to solve the problems and get code compliant with the minimum investment. I'd never admit that to my boss :P
4. I am interested in construction and I like solving spatial problems as a landscape architect. I'm great at grading. I love efficiency problems where the goal is a bit more on the pragmatic side. As an LA I've built up considerable technical knowledge and experience related to sitework. I'm also great at CAD.
5. I'm one of the only LAs I work with who is good at math and likes math. Everyone is like, ew math, we can't do that, call the engineers. I find myself thinking, no, I want to solve it myself. I do coding for fun. Calculus was one of my favorite classes. And then I wonder, why shouldn't I be an engineer instead? I find myself envying the engineers a lot for their pragmatic approach and the importance of their role in projects. I'd love to do more math at work.
6. I had no idea how unhappy I'd be with the pay range of landscape architecture. 7 years in, I'm still unhappy with it. Everyone is unhappy with it, I get it, but for me it has become a really, persistently negative thing... I feel like it's holding me back from my primary goals in life. Civil PMs make 2x what LA PMs make in my state, and it seems like more of a real, profit-driven business. I think I could grow my wealth a lot more as an engineer.
7. CE seems to be in demand. The civil sub is full of people saying they can't find enough qualified workers. Other engineering fields seem over saturated with new talent. There's a ton of infrastructure that needs work in the US. The housing shortage will, I think, ultimately create a big development boom and all that comes with it. I think it might just be a great opportunity, but I can't know for sure. I think my experience in LA could give me a significant advantage in land development and/or construction engineering.
8. I think I'll miss the creativity of landscape architecture. I'm very creative. But I have plenty of creative hobbies, and if anything, not doing LA for my occupation will leave me with a bit more juice in the tank to put toward music and painting.
9. I'm still a licensed LA, so if I get a master's and work up to a PE, I could potentially start a small firm and offer both services as a package if there were demand for it. I could partner with an architect and we could do a bunch of development together. If I get 5 years into civil and hate it, I could just go back into LA, bringing a whole bunch of related experience with me. Whereas if I switched into something else like software, I might find myself starting from scratch, and if it didn't work out, I'd have wasted time.

Looking for some hope. I've had a pretty terrible time in school. It's really plunged me into some pretty dark places mentally. Part of it is poor program leadership/management, part of it is experiences of micro-aggressions as one of the very few POC in the program, part of it is being one of the only working class people in the program, and part of it is burn out from having to teach myself stuff that's required of the profession but not covered in the program on top of an overwhelming course load. I'm just having a really hard time.

Still, I love various aspects of the field and I get so excited when I delve into topics, projects, theories, and practitioners that I find exciting. I've also loved learning about the visionary ways communties strategize around environmental design around the world or the way certain firms are organized as community based collectives. These are all people/projects I just admire from afar while my current point of connection with anything related to landscape architecture is this oppressive and seeming outdated academic structure that I'm sloughing through.

It makes me feel apprehensive about all the time and money I've already soent going down this road. Wondering if there's anyone else who had a hard time in school but is now working a prosperous and fulffilling job/career? Any words of encouragement would be greatly appreciated.

http://classicnursery.blogspot.com/2015/11/an-attitude-of-gratitude.html

Hi all! I’m looking for some advice from LAs or anyone currently in school on my MLA application portfolio. I have a variety of media including ceramics, painting, and photography in my portfolio, but a large part of my identity is cooking. I’ve been cooking & baking since age 9, and view it as a creative outlet and medium. I was wondering if it is a good or bad idea to include a few photos of dishes I’ve made at the end of my portfolio. I feel like it could differentiate me and show my personality, but it could also be received poorly since it’s not really an art or design form.

Looking for some thoughts from more experienced people! Also happy to send the photos for reference.

Thanks in advance!

How many of these did you get?—-

“Can you plant some flowers in my backyard”

“Hows the buildings coming along?”

“What do you do as a turf manager?”

“What is this plant?”

“Why does my succulent look like this?”

“How do you plant plants from states away?”

“How do you plant plants sitting from a desk all day?”

Happy Thanksgiving all! Hope this brought some joy to you.

Please use this thread to discuss whats going on at your school or place of work this week. Run into an interesting problem with a site design and need to hash it out with other LAs? This is the spot. Any content is welcome as long as it Landscape Architecture related. School, work, personal garden? Its all good, lets talk.

In general, how long does it take to get everything prepared to apply to a graduate program? I think the writing parts will take me about a month or two but how long does it take someone with a non design background to put together a portfolio? Thanks for the help!

I got depression and was not very motivated to do applications. I have a core statement of purpose but haven't specified it to different schools. I have project for my portfolio but have not put it together.

The schools I'm applying to are uc berkeley. University of Washington, University of Virgina, TU Delft and maybe one more in the uk or upenn.

Can I do this in a month by the end of December or should I wait until next year? I want to try it this year but I don't know anymore.

This has been my first job out of my MLA and I’ve done some crazy cool work - lots of grading, wildlife focused design, shoreline restoration, etc. HOWEVER, I’m having some trouble translating this work into flashy portfolio pages. I’ve got a handful of nice perspectives, but a lot of what I’ve produced is very CAD heavy and technical.

Does anyone have any advice on how to represent real-life work in portfolios, or places to look at example portfolios and get a bit of inspiration? I feel so stuck and I’m about to pop out a baby in a couple weeks so I want to get this portfolio updated asap.

I'm in a 2 year MLA program and currently taking grading and drainage during my first semester. I haven't taken a math course since high-school, and feel so traumatized and embarrassed at how difficult it is. We're working out of the textbook site engineering for landscape architects. We're currently learning Mannings equation and the hydraulic radius and it all feels so unintuitive.

I'm thriving in every other class and receiving wonderful feedback from all other professors, but grading and drainage makes me question whether or not I'm "smart" enough to be a landscape architect.

Are there any good youtube videos or online (free?) resources that people love? Our final exam is coming up and I'm so worried.

I am trying to use SketchUp and Enscape but I don’t know if it’s the best choice for Landscape, above all SketchUp cause I didn’t find too easy to model terrain.

Long story short, my boss sat me down yesterday and told me that I need to be working more. This was brought on by a project that’s being issued soon that has had a litany of complex late-developing issues making us go over budget and be a bit behind in development. I have been working overtime on this on top of being completely exhausted with a 3 month old baby at home, and the conversation struck me as insensitive and demanding, especially considering I have not missed any deadlines or coordination items. This is not the first time this has happened, and at this point I’m considering leaving the company.

I’m considering other career paths as I’ve noticed this seems to be a pattern in multiple LA jobs I’ve worked. What are some other paths I can consider that have a better work-life balance? I’m considering project management, real estate/land development, LA for engineering firms, or anything else that may be an option. I am open to new training but do not want to get a new degree and would prefer to use my experience.

I am looking to buy a new laptop and would prefer a Mac but right now I am using Land FX quite often, anyone have luck with this? Or any other laptop recommendations that isn't a massive gaming laptop? Any advice is appreciated!

Hey everyone,

I’m just a guy who’s really into landscape architecture—no big agenda or burning questions, just a genuine interest in the field. Whether you’re studying it, already working in it, or just as passionate about it as I am, I’d love to have a relaxed chat.

I think it’d be cool to hear about your experiences, ideas, or even random thoughts about the profession. Who knows, maybe we can learn something from each other or just geek out over a shared passion.

No pressure, no formalities—just a laid-back convo with someone who loves talking about designing landscapes and connecting with nature. Drop a comment if you’re down!

Cheers! 🌱

I am currently in my final year of landscape architecture in Serbia and planning to pursue a master’s degree afterward. I am torn between Italy and Germany. Does anyone have experience with universities in these countries? Where is it easier to find a job after graduation? Please share your experiences and any general insights about master’s programs in Europe and job opportunities.:))

I'm a Kenyan student doing undergraduate in landscape architecture and I'm in my final year (4th). I have a great passion in sustainable urban design and planning, mainly focused towards climate change. Here comes the problem, it is quite hard to practice LA in Kenya because it is not recognised constitutionally, and I am not ready to pursue a masters in my country for this matter. If I may ask, how can I get into my desired fields more easily or if there's an additional undergraduate course I can take to make myself more marketable. My last option is pursuing my masters in a foreign university but the problem of funding then comes in.

I'm basically starting from zero and really want to learn. Done some basic landscaping projects for my own place but really want to experiment more and help some friends with projects to start.

Any good resources you'd all recommend?

New to the space and want to soak up a ton of learnings! (So new I might be in the wrong place tbh, but very interested in the "theoretical/architectural/academic" side in particular (once an academic, always an academic)

Any newsletter, groups, or whatever else you'd recommend for folks just getting into the space? Might be a world where I look at turning this into a side hustle, but even for now it's just great to soak up knowledge.

Much appreciated ❤️

Looking for LA to work in Wilmington, NC small fun engineering form. Entry along with experienced accepted. $80,000 to $125,000 assuming a 1 to 5 year range. Will consider sponsorship

Specifically, questions that aren't easily answered on school websites and student events.

Please see here for additional resources:

Weitzman student ambassadors: https://www.design.upenn.edu/people?name=&area=11&type=All

MIT PASS program (not MLA but still helpful) https://dusp.mit.edu/admissions#peer-application-support-services

GSD events are great. Berkeley also has a mentorship pairing program under the College of Environmental Design Students of Color (CEDSOC) organization!