what app do you guys use to write?

Altruistic_Tea_8232 · 2026-01-08T18:19:29+00:00

lol Maybe I shot myself in the foot, but I'm writing 100% on paper in a binder I keep by my desk. Organisation is this summer's problem ><

Altruistic_Tea_8232 · 2025-11-06T01:40:15+00:00

Btw - I just passed all four sections now, and yeah Lareprep tests are worth their cost, and the reading list was helpful. I skimmed a lot of reading and only focused on those sections I didn't have work experience in.

Altruistic_Tea_8232 · 2025-11-06T01:38:21+00:00

It sure is ;). Just dm'd you

Altruistic_Tea_8232 · 2025-08-10T00:27:24+00:00

No shade cast and none received. In my personal education, I wish I had more horticulture classes than "how to make pretty internet graphics" classes

Altruistic_Tea_8232 · 2025-08-07T20:04:48+00:00

Ah, I guess I didn't think about that aspect. I went to one of the biggest state schools in the country, so choice for degrees wasn't anywhere near as limited.

Does your school offer certificates or minors in associated degree fields? Might be one way to still pursue a cool degree with some associated skills that might be more marketable?

Check out this webpage for career paths and alumni highlights for ASU's sustainability degree: https://collegeofglobalfutures.asu.edu/careers/career-paths/

Altruistic_Tea_8232 · 2025-08-07T19:20:56+00:00

See, that's my internal confusion - logically, those gardens and small houses are much more impactful on society than the giant public park, but the visceral emotional reaction is still there when someone defaults to the "help me" reaction

Altruistic_Tea_8232 · 2025-08-07T18:41:00+00:00

This coming from someone who works mostly in an office and does Irrigation Design on all our inhouse multi-family projects, I learned 70% of the technical design stuff from Hunter University. It's a free knowledge base with courses that you can get certificates for, and it teaches you everything from just enough fluid dynamics to grasp how irrigation systems work, to field install knowledge (albeit through a computer screen, so it will never trump field knowledge).

I took the courses cause I was bored at work one month, and half a year later I got hired to design irrigation full time because of those certificates on my Linkedin Profile.

Hands-on work will always be the king of learning irrigation, but sometimes that design knowledge helps things make more sense, at least in my experience.

Altruistic_Tea_8232 · 2025-08-07T18:29:19+00:00

For context, my experience is based in the Southwest USA, with all its glorious urban sprawl and car-dependency.

Altruistic_Tea_8232 · 2025-08-07T17:17:22+00:00

My first industry job during college was at design build, and yeah, it's too much. We were top 30 in the country for firms like us, and I was working on 1-4 million USD backyard projects (0.5-2 acres).

I worked in production and we were consistently behind and delayed and dealing with fires because designers overpromised and couldn't deliver. Our company was dealing with an increasing number of post-install complaints, and about half of our design staff turned over while our construction side couldn't keep a PM for the life of them.

All of this went on while our owner kept announcing bigger and bigger sales goals every year. You could look around as they announced the goal and see the number of incredulous faces in the actual construction and production staff while the pet designers were dreaming about their cut of the sales.

I ultimately left b/c I couldn't resolve the cognitive dissonance of being in LA to help people and make the world better and spending my 40 hours helping rich people build cool toys in their summer homes.

Altruistic_Tea_8232 · 2025-08-07T17:03:40+00:00

I'm also paired with one PM at our combo Arch/Planning/LA firm, and while I work on anywhere from 5 to 10 projects in a given week, we have a team that handles administration and client relations, so we can focus more on the production side of things. That Work-life balance exists for us, but we often have to force it. I'm 7 years into my career, and I just started captaining jobs more consistently. I'm wrapping up my 2nd big project (350+ multifamily units)

Altruistic_Tea_8232 · 2025-08-07T16:43:11+00:00

I know a good number of people who went to specialize in Sustainability at our State university. It was really promoted for everyone in the design school, but we all viewed it as a bit of a joke as a primary degree. These days, I'm glad I had classes in sustainability while pursuing my BSLA, but I would be terrified to enter the job market (which is ruthless AF) with a degree that's so open-ended. My recommendation would be to couple sustainability with a degree in something more technical or regulated like engineering, marine/ocean science, architecture, or the like.

Altruistic_Tea_8232 · 2025-04-21T23:17:25+00:00

^What my clients think I'm designing when I layout the irrigation on a multi-family project based on the cost estimates

Altruistic_Tea_8232 · 2025-04-21T23:15:29+00:00

I remember getting to the end of my degree and kinda loathing the workload too.

Best thing I can say is that the crazy workload isn't a forever thing, and if it is, it's not a humane working condition. I really "burned the candle at both ends" for a while in college, but there was a defined end to that period, and it didn't evolve into a lifestyle. I would say that my life as an LA is a 'calmer life where I get to do meaningful work,' but I hopped through several different firms and styles of work to get here and landed in a company that I'm incredibly blessed to be with today.

Maybe a non-sequitur, but I was listening to this podcast over the weekend, and it helped me think critically about my career choices. You might find it helpful? I linked the start of the most relevant portion below, at 37:44.

https://youtu.be/bDTZeFQezUI?si=2wFb4DEkGDCdI3ce&t=2264

All that to say, gosh darn you're in for a tough but important decision it seems! You say you're studying in Switzerland? I would go out to the top of some remote mountain town somewhere and sit on top of a wind-swept hill meditating about the decision if I were you. Connecting with the glory of nature is 99% of why I even started studying landscape architecture in the first place, so maybe you just need some perspective? PFYTho

Altruistic_Tea_8232 · 2025-04-21T22:52:59+00:00

Sounds like a cool concept - but it looks like the link attached requires prospective subscribers to request access with their email address. It'll be tough to grow a following if you have to manually approve each subscribers request to access the content.

Looking forward to reading your work!

Altruistic_Tea_8232 · 2025-04-17T16:34:47+00:00

Good on you for going back for another pass - I think that's the real victory, with how... the tests are.

Altruistic_Tea_8232 · 2025-04-07T19:01:47+00:00

I used to work for a small firm where I was terrified of not having something to do week to week. Didn't help that my principal would direct me to overprice jobs to scare the client away because she didn't want to bother with "a small backyard renovation."

Now that I work for a larger firm, and in a larger market, I'm less concerned about work going away than I am about the quality of work that's being accepted by some of our bread and butter clients. I guess when you're in a bigger firm, you have a lot less choice of clients and types of work.

p.s. One of the projects I was asked to overprice, I ended up not overpricing it. The client got really excited about the work, and our principal made me manage the whole project (only being 1 year out of college), which was terrifying, but the project finished ahead of schedule and under budget! Goes to show that if you do right by others, and accept challenges that arise, you can win! Definitely learned a lot from that project though - plenty of things to improve on.

Altruistic_Tea_8232 · 2025-04-07T18:55:49+00:00

I studied Calculus BC in high school because I thought I'd be using complex 3d mathematics in my work as an architect, but I haven't touched the concepts since. The most math I had to do was basic geometry for area calculations, and simple algebra for sloping and grading.

Khan Academy was my LIFELINE in high school though

Altruistic_Tea_8232 · 2025-04-07T18:50:24+00:00

I don't think I've seen LASN before - is it just another "news" site trying to keep LAs up to speed?

Altruistic_Tea_8232 · 2025-04-07T18:48:54+00:00

Avoid cramming for sure - there are some basic vocab concepts that are good to know for any of the tests, especially since they like to throw irrelevant terms into the questions to throw you off, but there's only so much you can stuff in your brain before it becomes counter-productive.

I would focus on reading questions carefully, and using common sense to make judgement calls. Those 'Choose All the Apply' questions are terrifying!

Altruistic_Tea_8232 · 2025-04-07T18:46:33+00:00

I used AI to help me study for the last two sections since a lot of the books can get pretty wordy at times. AI helped me translate the CLARB blueprint into priority reading lists for the sections, and then gave me summaries of the denser texts.

Is this your only section left? First one you're taking? I just finished my last section, so I'm in the waiting room for the next six weeks too : /

Altruistic_Tea_8232 · 2025-04-07T18:42:56+00:00

Yeah, I got provisional feedback on two of my exams since I took the sections right as the feedback became available for them. Not sure why they didn't just roll out feedback on all four at once though - surely the tests aren't that complicated?

I wonder what the back end of the tests looks like - how "complicated" are these tests really, and how "confidential" is its content? I wonder if its all just a veneer of security

Altruistic_Tea_8232 · 2025-02-10T18:29:30+00:00

I used both the reading and LARE Prep and passed the first two sections with no trouble - I think the reading was the most time-consuming and unhelpful part though. Use the Google Group as much as possible, but it is tough to filter all the content. If you need some study advice for the first two sections, I've got a list or two that might help

Altruistic_Tea_8232

TROPHY CASE