Post: #1

I'm looking for members of this forum who know something about urban planning or potentially have or had a career in this field. I am about to take this subject at university as a bachelor degree in the top 10 universities in the UK, my initial choice for this degree coming from my interest in geography. I have obviously researched what urban planning is but my decision to study the course was taken a couple of months ago. I am looking for an insight into what an urban planner does if someone is familiar with the subject or line of work.

Post: #2

I don't know anything about urban planning, but this tweet thread may be helpful or interesting to you.

https://twitter.com/wrathofgnon/status/8...2933236736

Sadly, the tweet won't embed.

G

Post: #3

Duplicate See response below.

Post: #4

(08-12-2017 02:06 PM)Mikestar Wrote:  I'm looking for members of this forum who know something about urban planning or potentially have or had a career in this field. I am about to take this subject at university as a bachelor degree in the top 10 universities in the UK, my initial choice for this degree coming from my interest in geography. I have obviously researched what urban planning is but my decision to study the course was taken a couple of months ago. I am looking for an insight into what an urban planner does if someone is familiar with the subject or line of work.

I studied Urban Planning for my Masters though only finished with a relevant certification in Geographical Information Systems (GIS or Geospatial Sciences).

There are a couple of plans I think you might be able to focus on:
1) Get that certification in GIS and try to leverage it in relevant fields in the Oil/Gas Industry. Yeah you might be able to get into that field with GIS though the entry way will also allow you to take on different roles in the industry too.

2) Try to pair Urban Planning with say Construction Management & go work for a big investment firm like CBRE or JLL. That's where the real career path is.

3) Scrap that & focus on say Commercial Real Estate Finance. This is where the real money is that will give you much more exit plans.

While I enjoy the educational perspectives of Urban Planning which I found to be versatile, your peers & faculty will place more of an emphasis on stupid ideological "save the world" nonsense that is just not practical. Their suggested remedy is just flat out "more research" aka more schooling as the discussions never really go anywhere.

I don't want to get into too much detail but there was a falling out at my university where our planning program merged with one department resulting in many of the faculty getting demoted or just flat out fired. Year and a half later, the new people who got hired to run the program were just canned yet again. Makes sense why I'm just working for now until I figure more things out.

For some universities, urban planning is completely separate from architecture which is the way it should be. It gives aspiring professionals more flexibility of how they can utilize their urban planning education towards GIS, commercial real estate finance, real estate development, and construction management. When urban planning & architecture have a merged program, students are pressured into planning roles with architecture firms that:
1) pay shit,
2) have low job stability
3) are not a bridge towards better opportunities

If you have any further questions, let me know.

Post: #5

^^^
What that guy just described is hell on earth to me...
My friend I just visited majored in Urban Planning.
I went to Architecture school.

I dropped out and design things for myself everyday.
He works for the city and works for some bean counter manager.
Depends if you want what Mr. Bro said or not... What he does for a living is boring to me.
Hopefully he takes no offense. Because I mean none.

The dream of Designing Cities is false. The flash of Urban Design and making a difference doesn't exist like Bro said...
It's mostly ran by policy makers. Which I am glad these are not the classes I did not take...

My two cents is worth as much.

Post: #6

Friend got a master's in it, worked an entry level position in the public sphere, now works in an unrelated field despite having got his degree two years ago. His options have mostly been to relocate to undesirable locations or just live where he wants to live and have a job in a different field

Post: #7

(08-13-2017 07:08 PM)crdr Wrote:  ^^^
What that guy just described is hell on earth to me...
My friend I just visited majored in Urban Planning.
I went to Architecture school.

I dropped out and design things for myself everyday.
He works for the city and works for some bean counter manager.
Depends if you want what Mr. Bro said or not... What he does for a living is boring to me.
Hopefully he takes no offense. Because I mean none.

The dream of Designing Cities is false. The flash of Urban Design and making a difference doesn't exist like Bro said...
It's mostly ran by policy makers. Which I am glad these are not the classes I did not take...

My two cents is worth as much.

Agree with everything you said.

I however don't work in Urban Planning, but it's definitely something interesting to study if you're looking to apply that to the different types of careers mentioned above.

I'd say more government positions are available for urban planners in my state but salaries have been slashed dramatically. Long story for those that are actually interested

I even have a colleague who studied GIS within an Urban Planning program as he uses his skills to help a fast food chain determine their next prospective locations.

Post: #8

I studied it a bit but found out through a friend that civic governments do not care much about making things better unless there is something in it for them.

A friend of mine was city manager here for a while. He is an urban planner, and like most urban planners, is a turbo lefty. Even though he is an extreme liberal, he was never liberal enough for the city council who would throw him under the bus at any opportunity. I joke that when he started lifting and got jacked, it was the end of his career. He did get fired, and was very controversial at the time. No in the city wants to take a stand, and for all his lefty dogma he was still a masculine man who took no shit. This does not bode well to civic politicians who are generally the weakest and biggest bunch of fags around.

He spun his publicity to get his consultancy up and running and is killing it now. Travels the world and gets to go to lots of great cities. Then he gets to tweet about it.

Post: #9

^ Everything you said hits nail on the head.

Despite the many exit opportunities you have with studying urban planning, some of my professors with some exceptions were characterized like this:

1) Taught 1-2 classes per semester (one lecture a night per class)
2) Made 6 figures
3) Had 3 weeks of vacation time in Summer
4) Had 3 months of vacation time in Summer
5) Constantly bragged about their travels & benefits
6) Pushed SJW/leftist agendas
7) Would discuss innovative planning implementations on a global level though would push their students towards crappy non-profit employers that didn't pay shit & didn't allow them to travel.

At least in the US, graduating with an urban planning degree is 2-2.5 years going to school full-time whereas its 3-3.5 years part-time while working during the day.

Students of a professional program need to be 120% accountable for their career networking though it just really sickened me how the biggest SJW cunt professor who taught one class per semester while making 6 figs was not connected to prominent employers at all despite the privileges & spare time she had.

Post: #10

Thanks for all this info, all of you gave me a better insight than my teachers and career advisors. Once I start my degree and begin to learn I will definitely take into account these career paths, especially GIS. I have no specific vision of what I want to be when I finish but this will help me decide for sure.

Post: #11

Alright I am 3 weeks into my degree, whilst some lectures on the technical side of urban planning have been alright I have a module which is the social science side of urban planning. The female lecturer was talking about how Donald Trump assaults women and how there is still gender equality in the UK LOL. Whilst I have no problem with this module why does my lecturer have to mix her own super-left political views into the lecture - that is her opinion. I can now see what you say Brosemite, there is always that SJW professor - I am trying to learn about the subject not get personal political views regurgitated at me (now I see the brainwashing side of uni). Luckily my other professors don't seem as SJW and are chill, when I explore more in my modules and make connections with more people in the field I will look back at the career directions list here and try to incorporate that into a future plan.