this post was submitted on 04 Sep 2023
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Asklemmy
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I decided to make my own to mostly avoid classes in each of the majors I wasn't interested in tbh. I wanted to go into some type of urban/housing career, but after interning in a planning department for my city, I realize how limiting this career really is. I have been interested in community development since high-school.
Playing devil's advocate, I'd be worried you'd avoid doing work you don't want to do, but is core work that needs to be done. Not all employers want or are set up to employ wildcards. You may have to make your own path here, too.
That's fair, I have done jobs and internships and I have learnt there's just things I don't like about but I tough it out. I wouldn't frame it like that in a job interview tho! I would say it was about to best use my time in college studying and developing a topic area I was passionate in! I go to a small liberal arts college with alot of different topic areas but not a lot of depth, and didn't want to transfer due to financial reasons so this was good compromise.
Good organizations will recognize the problem solving you did for your own learning outside of just following a curriculum. You may need to spell that out on the resume and interview
If you're looking to get into urban planning I can tell you that your undergrad is not that important. I did my undergrad in geography which is a typical route and it was helpful in some aspects but I wouldn't say it was necessary. In my masters cohort we had people with degrees in psychology, business, art history, philosophy, ect. and a couple architects from India.
A lot of degrees are useful to urban planning, even if they aren't the typical route. It's really about how you apply that degree and understanding to the field. Philosophy and sociology are good for the policy part, business is good for the finance and economic part, ect.
Working for a city can be challenging especially if you have aspirations and want to see real change, something that was drilled into my cohort in school but took a couple years in the field for some people to figure out. Maybe non profit or a private company aligned to your values might be a better route than public of you're looking to get into something adjacent to public planning. That being said, just being an active member in your community and speaking up for projects you believe in at council meetings is more impactful than writing the policy.