r/urbanplanning • u/AutoModerator • 13d ago
Discussion Monthly r/UrbanPlanning Open Thread
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u/Grouchy_Document2097 13d ago
Freshman in college. Urban planning major, political science minor (might turn it into a major though) - what urban planning fields will be the most needed in the future when I enter the job market? I'm really into transportation. Housing is interesting too. I've been thinking about law school but I'm not sure (wouldn't be some corporate lawyer, but maybe something to do with urban planning) - also, any internship suggestions? Going to try to land a paid internship over the next summer. Trying to broaden my connections at my college and just maximize everything. Any advice is welcomed.
TLDR - I'm a freshman in college majoring in urban planning and likely political science as aell. Any advice?
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u/chazspearmint 12d ago
I think it'll all keep growing, for one.
Municipal budgets get more constrained every year despite work getting more complex, so I fear jobs may hold steady but be more painful. Consulting may take rise as less stuff is handled in house and grants/capital budget is easier than operating. But I think very generally, AI will be slower to integrate into municipal work than consulting.
For fields, transportation will keep demand but will have arguably the most AI involvement. Same with infrastructure planning. Housing will continue to be needed. I fear for my friends in environmental planning even though they're needed now more than ever. Food systems is actually very interesting to me and I don't know enough about it. Certain niches like military base planning feel very steady to me, for example.
In all I wouldn't stress it too much. Depending on your school, maybe see if there's a lab manager or research assistant position you'd be interested in. Sometimes your professors are working on cool stuff. For diversity of experience, maybe not how you want to spend a summer. But think about a small town. You tend to touch a lot more areas, just less in depth. If you have desires for grad school that's something that should be considered too in making choices.
Good luck! If you're open minded I think this experience can be very fun. I loved my internship and first job, it was actually in construction inspection. Learned a lot not about planning that's been very useful my whole career.
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u/Sweetteet7 11d ago
I’m majoring in business administration- management, have been thinking about changing it to political science, but my future goal is to be a town manager. I don’t know if that will get me a job over someone else with a business administration degree.😭
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u/Yellow_Vespa_Is_Back 8d ago edited 7d ago
Does your university offer Public administration majors/minors/certifications? I got a public administration minor and that was more useful for government work than a political science degree. You should also aim for internships at a municipality. Those connections & practical experience are more important than any degree
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u/Sweetteet7 7d ago
I worked at a municipality for a year doing admin work and permit technician I resigned a month ago because of an awful new town manager. I also have 3 1/2 years on planning and zoning board.
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u/Yellow_Vespa_Is_Back 7d ago
Oh then you have plenty of experience. I genuinely do not think a polisci major will help you at all.
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u/Sweetteet7 7d ago
No, unfortunately, not they only offer it as a masters degree. Hoping I can go back and do public administration when I finish my bachelors.
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u/chazspearmint 13d ago
Continually interested in how to approach data centers at the land use level.
The big but murky elephant in the room is power draw (water to some extent too) but a municipal code handling power draw is... interesting. Can't think of (m)any places I've seen that done before, at least in my general region. Feels like a realm desperate for state intervention first.
Beyond that, they're basically lower end impact industrial users. More impact than a warehouse, far less than an indoor recycling facility I'd think. The conversation shifts, naturally, to mitigating industrial impacts where they don't belong.
The real conflation is with the proliferation of AI/LLM, which is more of a federal or state issue than local land use. But at this point they're so tied together, I totally understand why the public in particular has a hard time separating the two.
Tough spot for local/state lawmakers to address in a legally defensible, airtight way.