How to become a transportation planner, my story

1) How did you get into the field, what was your experience and education, what is your current job title?

That’s a long story, but I’ll try to do it justice. I studied literature and art in college. When I got out, I thought I would go into publishing or journalism. But I had no idea how to go about that. Then I met a man at a gumbo housewarming party, and we fell in love. He was finishing his degree in landscape architecture, and when he finished he won a fellowship to travel around the world and study design approaches to water in an attempt to address the urban runoff issue. I tagged along.

I’d traveled before but not to this extent. We went all over southeast Asia, the Indian subcontinent, the Middle East and Europe. We rode planes, trains, donkey carts, rickshaws, autorickshaws and bicycles, and we walked. When we came back from the trip, I very quickly got a job at a mental health insurance company doing admin and writing. The job was part time; so, I took calculus and other business classes at night for fun.

My boyfriend’s roommate when we met was also a landscape architect and around the same time we started dating, the roommate started dating a woman from the planning program. I met her and her friends, and I was impressed with how smart they were. My first thought was, I wish I was that smart. My second thought was, maybe I am.

Actually, backtracking, I had the same reaction to the movie Singles, which I saw when I was in college, where the one guy is a planner for the regional train system. Except back then, I didn’t have the second thought.

My boss was irritating me at the mental health insurance company; so, I quit to find an admin job in planning to see if it interested me. I did temp jobs related to the field (riding SF Muni, our city bus and lightrail system, and writing down how I felt about it) and that caused me to register for this temp agency which I eventually let assign me (very reluctantly) to work as an admin asst for the regional rideshare program. I revamped their systems, built them a new database for their marketing department and improved the tracking system. I guess they were impressed bc within a few months, I convinced the Director of Planning to hire me as his staff planner. That’s the word used, but the job was really market research and program evaluation. It was a tremendous break since normally you have to have a relevant degree for a job like that.

I completely loved that job. And then I started getting bored with the limits of our perspective. For example, I wanted to take land use into consideration when looking at the region’s transportation problems. But that was outside our realm. So, I applied to graduate school at Berkeley, and finally they admitted me.

I was pretty wishy-washy about what my focus would be. I wanted to do land use (I think because it was new to me), but I kept getting pushed in one way or another back to transportation. The reality was and remains that there is more interesting work in transportation (to me). So, that’s where I’ve stayed. I’m glad now.

I’ve changed jobs several times and worked for myself. My current job title is Senior Transportation Planner. Since grad school, I have worked in transportation, but not always planning. I’ve done a lot of transportation demand management work as well.

2) How would you describe the work you do in a typical day? What are the most common tasks?

Research such as reading and synthesizing reports, talking to people, and surfing the net for relevant information
Writing memos, reports, and emails
Public speaking, meeting facilitation, determining how to frame an idea for the right response (this also goes under writing)
Project management – paying attention to schedules and budgets, checking in with people about their schedule and budget, organizing people, paper, ideas, motivations

3) If you could give advice to a young person who wants to work in this career field someday, what would you tell them? How can they best groom themselves for this field?

Get trained and volunteer.
You will need the Master’s degree.
Be well-rounded.
Pay attention.

4) What promotional and advancement opportunities exist in this field? What salaries could one expect (entry level to advanced top level.)?

Opportunities for advancement are endless. I guess the best you can do it run a planning department for a big city, region, state or country, but you could get out of the field a little and climb more. You could also run a successful planning non-profit or consulting firm. Salaries vary substantially based on your location, focus, and sector (npo, consulting, public). You can definitely be comfortable but probably not get rich.
I’m guessing:
Entry level: 30k-60k/year
Midlevel: 50k-100k
Upper level: 80k-150k+?

5) In your opinion, what are some of the best schools, degrees and certificates that are most marketable for jobs in this career field?

Planetizen has a ranking. I think Berkeley is best. MIT is supposed to be good, but it’s in Boston and doesn’t have a transportation concentration. As with all things, see which professors/researchers/professionals you admire and ask them.

6) How does someone without previous experience in this career field land a job? What are the best strategies for job-hunting in this field?

You get a Master’s degree. With admin or marketing skills and no degree in the field, you can get a job working with planners. I would shoot for nonprofits or private consulting firms for the best exposure (before you get your Master’s). You can get a planning job without the Master’s degree, but you’ll probably have to get the Master’s eventually. I’ve had the most luck networking as opposed to responding to listings.

7) Are there any professional associations that you would recommend joining?

Join advocacy groups relevant to your interests. Attend the public meetings to watch the proceedings and speak your mind. There are a lot of professional associations – I’m not a member of any of them tho.

8) What emerging or high growth careers do you see developing in the future for this career field?

I wouldn’t use the words “high growth”. I would use words more like “steady” or “solid” or “recession-proof” at least regarding transportation. Urban design is probably more volatile, and the salaries are lower, but you get to design things. People become planners because they are practical and they care about people and the planet not because they want to “emerge” or “grow”; we leave that to the politicians. People who succeed in planning, generally do so because they are convincing and have natural social skills, but you can wonk out and be a techy too if that compels you.

Written April 8, 2008, A shorter version of this "interview" will be included in a forthcoming book titled "Green Careers"
Photo by Mitch Aidelbaum of me manning a commute fair table while editing a survey on Halloween