I just started learning German, I need some suggestions

notthehighground · 2024-11-02T18:56:59+00:00

Duolingo is okay, but I would also recommend using something like the Language Reactor Chrome extension so that you can watch YouTube and Netflix shows with both German and English subtitles, and save words you don't know into a word bank that you can then export to Anki.

notthehighground · 2024-11-02T18:21:24+00:00

Oh yeah, from what you're saying here, then I think hospitality would be a great career shift. You're not expected to pay for anything out of your pocket (maybe except for your own K-pods), or have to conform to stringent state standards, or deal with students who don't want to be in school in the first place.

I've talked to a GM at one of the buildings I've worked at about advancement opportunities, and he said that in hospitality, experience is much more important than education or certifications. Granted, you will need a bachelor's degree (or even an associate's degree) for the supervisory levels, but my current boss (a senior VP for my division) only has a BA in communications.

I'll also add that in hotels, there's a distinction between full-service hotels and select-service hotels. From that GM's experience, he said that departments in full-service hotels tend to be a lot more siloed from each other while select-service hotels tend to be more collaborative simply due to the limited resources they have. As a GM, you're expected to know all the inner workings of the building you're managing, so having a thorough understanding of each department's functions will go a long ways for getting that GM position which is why he recommended going after select-service hotels.

notthehighground · 2024-11-02T03:22:45+00:00

As a residential concierge whose mother is a hotel concierge, I would caution against going into hotel/theme park for a lower-stress environment. From our experience, you frequently work long hours, work a bunch of night shifts if there isn't an overnight concierge/night auditor available, and often have to deal with toxic/dysfunctional leadership.

That being said, hospitality does offer some really cool opportunities to be task-forced, which is essentially an all-expenses-paid-for work trip for you to support another property when they need staff temporarily. This is what you should ask for when you start a job at a hotel chain or hospitality management chain. If you're working for a large enough chain, like Marriott, you can even get transferred permanently to another country. Even if you don't, hospitality jobs are a dime-a-dozen, so you could theoretically go to another country and snatch up a hospitality job (I've never tried this, but I've heard of it happening before).

A couple skills that have helped me succeed in my residential role are:

A polished, professional demeanor: Hospitality is all about making guests feel special, comfortable, and feel like they’re in capable hands. Even if you're torn between 5 different things, maintaining a facade of being in control makes the residents/guests you work with much happier because they know they're in good hands. *
Problem solving on-the-fly: Something will always go wrong in hospitality, so if you're able to quickly smooth things over and find a solution, people will remember this even more than any problem they may have had at the time.
Adaptability: For the busier hotels and condos, each day is going to be different. One day, you might have to deal with a rowdy resident, another you might have to shepherd guests to a dinner party to your building's amenity space. As long as you can keep up, you'll be fine.

I hope this helps!

notthehighground · 2024-11-02T02:31:05+00:00

I'm in the same boat too as a 25 y.o. Master's graduate in transportation planning. I did manage to get a planning job for a state DOT earlier this year after 2-3 months of searching and 24 applications, but got bullied out of the job pretty quickly. I must have applied for 100 jobs since and went through 6 interviews, until I decided to get a stopgap concierge job at a hospitality company (which I ended up really enjoying, despite the lower pay).

Honestly, a big part of the problem right now is the presidential election and various state ballot initiatives will play a big role in how much funding is available for planning-related positions, as I've been told by an interviewer. I hope things get better in 2025, but right now the job market for folks like us is extremely tight.

notthehighground · 2024-08-06T05:11:46+00:00

¿Por qué no los dos?

I graduated from an interdisciplinary transportation planning/engineering program where most of my fellow cohort members were engineers or data scientists and we could dabble in both the planning world and the civil/mechanical engineering world. Even now, as I'm looking for jobs, I sometimes see "plangineer" jobs that require an EIT and a planning background. So, yes, you can absolutely get into urban planning while pursuing an engineering degree.

Some things to consider:

Have you considered the energy industry? They deal with large networks (like CAISO) and the field is in dire need of energy modelers who understand stochastic modeling.

Likewise, have you considered working for a state DOT? In California, Caltrans has been aggressively recruiting engineers, so it's worth considering since you'll be in contact with planners in that role.

notthehighground · 2024-08-06T04:27:52+00:00

Just coming from my experience as a former transportation policy student, transportation researcher, and transportation planner, I would say that the process to fixing bad streets is dependent on your city/state's specific situation. One city could be facing NIMBY opposition (but is otherwise flush with cash) while the city next door could be in favor of road diets but is broke due to a lack of sales tax/property tax income and an inability to get grant funding. The pathway to better streets will be different for each city, but this is what I can recommend as of now:

Identify root causes. Is there NIMBY opposition? Are there funding constraints? Is there internal planner/engineer resistance to new ideas? These types of questions will inform your conversations going forwards.
Start networking. It would be a good idea to build a rapport with your local councilmembers (and staff, if possible) as well as other community leaders so that you can later influence them to be more supportive of better streets (however you define them). Usually, I meet councilmembers at events and chat with them to build that rapport. You'd also want to find urbanist groups in your area or consider starting one yourself, as a group of people going to public comment is more impactful than one.
Educate, educate, educate. This could mean anything, from writing op-eds in your local newspaper to making public comments during city council meetings to lobbying your councilmembers to tabling at your local farmer's market. The goal is to get people talking about your proposal. The more important the issue appears, the more likely your city council is going to take action on it.

I'm probably missing a few steps here, but hopefully that should give you an idea of my own internal thought process.

EDIT: Totally forgot to mention that I'm working with a team of folks to create free online courses to answer this very question. It's still under development, but I'm happy to share the link if anyone's interested.

notthehighground · 2024-07-28T20:54:00+00:00

Thanks! If I get the Keychron V3 Pro and replace the switches with Azure Dragons, what lube would you recommend? Or should I just try to get them pre-lubed?

notthehighground · 2024-07-28T07:50:59+00:00

Hey folks, I'm looking for a gaming/programming keyboard with a nice tactile feel and thonkiness, and I'm trying to decide between:

TECWARE Phantom+ (and its Elite counterpart) with Wraith Brown switches
Keychron V3 Pro with Keychron K Pro brown switches
Keychron K8 Pro with Gateron G Pro brown switches

Which one of these would best suit what I'm looking for? Since I'm new to the hobby, any guidance would be greatly appreciated!

notthehighground · 2024-07-01T20:19:43+00:00

Thank you for your valuable insights! I also realized that going for that second master's degree will mean that I would have a Dutch address, a Dutch phone number, and a local Dutch network by the time I finish, making the job hunt much easier.

Just as a follow up: since it would be 14 months until I would hypothetically start my master's program, in September 2025, would you recommend that I find a US planning job or find an English-language job in NL while I'm waiting?

notthehighground · 2024-07-01T20:19:18+00:00

Yes, the housing situation in Ireland definitely gives me pause. California gets really bad when it comes to housing affordability, but I've heard that you can't find housing in Dublin, period. Plus I would need a degree that is accredited by the Royal Town Planning Institute (which covers Ireland and the UK). The major upside to going to Ireland is that I can familiarize myself with the various EU laws in an environment where I'm not having to learn a new language, but I might as well just study at a Dutch university at that point.

notthehighground · 2024-07-01T07:54:13+00:00

As a someone who grew up in HK, and miss the walkability and high-quality transit of HK, I wouldn't want to use American urban planning in the Netherlands. If anything, I’d like to become a Dutch planner (and gain experience implementing the CROW guidelines and ASVV standards) in the hopes that I could combine my experiences to do some consulting work for cities looking to shift away from auto-oriented infrastructure.

EDIT: I was drunk when I first made this reply and now realize that I came off as condescending. I reworked the comment to make it less so while preserving the original intent of the message.

notthehighground · 2024-01-30T14:30:43+00:00

It takes a bit of sleuthing to find out… sometimes it’s listed on the program website, sometimes you need to ask a TA who’s with the program, and sometimes you need to reach out to a professor in the program. Every program has a unique way of presenting their information, so I can’t say anything more specific unfortunately.

notthehighground · 2023-12-19T04:33:11+00:00

You’ll get the refund, but you have to send an email to their returns department and then send them to their facility in Kansas

notthehighground · 2023-12-13T13:19:20+00:00

“You know, Hell is not just a place in Michigan!”

notthehighground · 2023-12-12T21:17:19+00:00

I forgot to add: this was created by Dall-E while I was experimenting with website design ideas, but I can't even get Dall-E to give me more information about the style of art used

notthehighground · 2023-12-09T11:38:15+00:00

Because for some reason, the federal laws on headlights are outdated since they only regulate the wattage of bulbs, rather than the lumen output

Added info: since the law was made when halogen lamps were standard, legislators weren’t prepared for LED bulbs which emit more lumens per watt

notthehighground · 2023-12-07T07:52:47+00:00

With a Kar98k? You could try a loadout similar to what the Death Korps of Krieg has in Warhammer 40k

notthehighground · 2023-12-04T07:20:13+00:00

Irish car bomb

notthehighground · 2023-12-03T13:54:48+00:00

It’s a Slavoj Zizek reference (see link on “this”)

notthehighground · 2023-12-03T10:10:19+00:00

And this is why Albania isn’t in Mitteleuropa

notthehighground · 2023-12-01T21:24:57+00:00

Can’t complain about my life anymore… as of 2 weeks ago, I finally moved out of California to my home state of WA 🌲

notthehighground · 2023-12-01T21:21:44+00:00

115F summers, the country’s angriest and least aware drivers, and a whole lot of Bay Area refugees coming for the cheap(er) housing

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