Originally Posted by benoist
Its weird to see so many planners.
I'm a Planning and Urban Affairs major with a Comp Science minor. I work nights as a barrista at a local coffee shop and help run the local Bike CoOp. Any of the established planners want to throw an internship my way? I'd love you forever.
^ i really didn't want to work for the city/state/etc....(and was a barrista with a master's for a while) and since i'm just outta school no private firms wanted to hire me on full time, so i just started calling and emailing every planning/arch/urban design/whatever firm i could find offering my services on a part-time or project basis as someone who is flexible, can work from home, doesn't mind doing the boring stuff (phone surveys, internet research, etc...) and has a planning background. it took a lot of time and effort to get my foot in the door, but after that first job your work will kinda multiply. -also, ANY contacts are helpful (and i mean ANY: your neighbor's brother the architect, your mom's friend's kid who works for the state, it doesn't matter)
you can probably also spin those comp sci skills into something really marketable. for example, my BA was in english so i get a lot of work editing planning docs.