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How would I go about becoming an Urban City Planner?

What path did you take to become a city planner?
What do you love/hate about your job?
Any other advice?

career-path community event-planning urban-planning urban-design city-planning
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Laurel’s Answer

This is a great question! I pursued city planning early in my career, and my best advice to you will be to make those connections! Volunteer with your local park initiatives. Get involved and become a familiar face. It's tough to get your foot in the door with an education background alone. Experience in organizing groups, working with vendors, making signs, networking are all incredibly important skills in this field.

What I love most about city planning is seeing a space transformed. It's magical. What I hate most is dealing with the prioritization of funding. Politics get messy and there's no avoiding them.

Best of luck to you!
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Martha’s Answer

This is an interesting question, Christina. It seems that there are two paths to an urban planning career - engineering or public policy - maybe ideally a combination of both. Similarly, you could take an urban planning education in different directions, such as environment, transportation, housing, or economic development.

While I don't do policy work now, I have two degrees in it and my earlier career was focused on it. It was satisfying to address issues I could see and feel that I was making peoples' lives easier or better. It was a bit frustrating at times dealing with cumbersome rules or processes. I still enjoy policy work, but my career branched into education policy and then directly into education.

I put two links below about urban planning education and career prospects. Good luck!

Martha recommends the following next steps:

Indeed.com - https://www.indeed.com/career-advice/finding-a-job/how-to-become-urban-planner
Green Build - https://www.usgbc.org/professionals/green-careers/urban-planner
Thank you comment icon Thank you for responding! Do you mind if I ask what is your favorite project that you've worked on? Christina
Thank you comment icon You're welcome! It has been many years since I was on a project, but my daughter is working on reclaiming vacant and deteriorated properties for housing and public art. What she is doing is so creative and great for the community! Martha Kramer
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