Blogs

September 19, 2023

Getting Hired: Compensation and Salary Negotiations

Members of the Women and Planning Division held a webinar offering their perspectives on how to approach compensation and salary conversations as part of the job offer.

August 22, 2023

Getting Hired: Answering Tough Interview Questions

How do you best navigate the 'thorny' questions during a job interview? Get tips on how to answer the difficult interview questions.

August 8, 2023

Getting Hired: Tips for Interviewing

Hiring managers that are members of the Women and Planning Division held a webinar offering their perspectives on preparing for and acing interviews.

July 6, 2023

Understanding Opportunities and Challenges in Publicly Traded Planning Firms

Uncovering JAPA: Understanding how to balance the opportunities and challenges of working in a publicly traded planning firm.

May 15, 2023

Practical Tips to Foster Diversity and Inclusion in Your Workplace

Understanding the barriers to diverse planners' recruitment, retention, promotion, and leadership. How employers can promote a welcoming environment and encourage access to opportunities for career growth.

March 3, 2023

Understanding a Career in Urban Design

From APA's Urban Planning and Design Division - learn about what a career in urban design entails.

January 30, 2023

Not Quite Ready For Retirement

Mark Hinshaw reflects back on a 40-year career in urban planning. Aging, dealing with a layoff, and not ready to retire, Mark had to get creative to find a soft landing to close out his long-tenured career.

December 7, 2022

Finding Meaning in Municipal Careers: Insights From Planning Directors

Municipal planning careers can be the main focus of one’s work life — or one chapter of a larger story.

7 Tips for Starting Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Committees

As municipal planning departments adopt a fairness and equity mindset in their work with the communities they serve it highlights the state of their own workplace practices and the work needed to elevate equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) goals within the planning firms and public agencies. Offer how to get unstuck on translating the goals into action.

July 29, 2022

Making Strategic and Ethical Practice Choices

A Guide for the Idealist: Rick Willson, FAICP, offers an original framework for decision-making in the planning process. Using reflection on choices considering types of information, and analysis tools, as well as addressing the values served and the planners interactions with the public and elected officials.

February 25, 2022

Reflect | Act | Release

A Guide for the Idealist post from Rick Willson, FAICP that expands on the process of reflection in practice as it works both in the moment and after the fact. Action is on a scale that can go from listening to forgiving. Release refers to letting go of personal expectations and doing ones' best without the guarantee of the outcome; that is the work of the ethical and effective planner.

February 15, 2022

What Will the Third Stage of Your Planning Career Look Like?

APA member Eunice Roxann Read shares her personal career journey and gives insight into the resilience needed to continually adapt and thrive in the course of your work life.

Hiring Neurodiverse People to Enhance Planning Teams

Awareness of neurodivergence, conditions such as ADHD, autism, dyslexia, dyspraxia, are on the rise, though the needs of neurodivergent people in the workplace are still widely misunderstood. Gala Korniyenko, Ph.D. co-creator of APA's Planning for Underserved Populations Interest Group shares how to broaden your EDI efforts to include the neurodiverse.

2021 Year in Review: Six Topics That Had Planners Clicking

What got members clicking in 2021 about climate change, equity, foresight, technology, infrastructure, and zoning reform? Check out the year in review.

October 18, 2021

Reflection Reset: Pathways to Effective Practice

A Guide for the Idealist post on using reflection-in-action and reflection-on-action to make practical judgments on planning episodes that are grounded in ethical and practical considerations.

October 11, 2021

Three Ways to Attract Diverse Talent

Continuing to expand on the topics raised during an APA Learning Circle on equity, diversity, and inclusion initiatives in planning offices Chloé Greene and Monica G. Tibbits-Nutt, weigh in on how the Black Lives Matter movement has provided the opportunity for planning organizations to reaffirm a commitment to the value and importance of diversity and in creating inclusive and equitable spaces.

Getting Started With EDI in Your Office

Equity, diversity, and inclusion initiatives are about translating values into actions. During an APA Learning Circle, facilitators Elizabeth "Libby" Tyler, FAICP, and Miguel Vazquez, AICP, led a conversation with representatives from different sized offices as they shared their EDI initiatives.

How Technology Is Shaping Planning and Your Career

From the webinar "How Technology Is Shaping Practice and Your Career," members of APA's Technology Division continue the conversation on the technical skills and knowledge that emerging professionals need to consider to keep pace with the future of planning.

May 12, 2021

Equity, Technology, and Infrastructure: What Got Planners Talking at NPC21

Read about the planning issues that got NPC21 attendees buzzing online. From micro-mobility to advancing equity to the impact of the built environment on mental and physical well-being, NPC21 covered the issues planners are addressing in today's communities.

Seven GIS Trends: A Call to Action For Planners

At the NPC21 closing keynote, Jack Dangermond of Esri offered seven GIS trends for planners. APA and Esri have partnered to create a step-by-step GIS learning plan to grow or build existing GIS skills for planners.

March 4, 2021

2020 The Year in Review: A Planning Manager's Perspective

Aimee Nassif, AICP, hosted a facilitated discussion Learning Circle, "2020 The Year in Review: A Planning Manager's Perspective On WTH Just Happened?" Here are some key takeaways and ideas you can implement into your workday from the discussion.

January 15, 2021

Reflection for Radical Planners

A Guide for the Idealist post: Planners need to be more reflective about their practice, and radical planners might adopt different reflective frameworks.

A Path to an Enlightened Planning Future

Incoming AICP President Mitchell Silver outlines upcoming changes to the AICP certification program that represent continued evolution and relevance to the needs of planners and communities.

November 13, 2020

Reflective Planning: Navigating Idealism and Realism

A Guide for the Idealist post: The value of professional reflection is widely recognized, but how do you do it? A new book looks at how to develop reflective habits.

November 13, 2020

AICP Digital Credentials: A New Benefit for an Online World

Tips for making the most of the AICP digital credential.

August 18, 2020

Being an Idealist in Difficult Times

A Guide for the Idealist post: Challenging times may challenge idealist commitments but they endure with a focus on higher ideals of justice, truth, and beauty.

July 27, 2020

Changing Planning Practices to Honor George Floyd

A Guide for the Idealist post: Planners of all types have a role to play in addressing racial injustice by connecting each decision to its effects on the whole community.

Cultivating Planning Career Resilience

The pandemic has caused a delay in the job search processes, leaving many challenges for recent grads and job seekers. In this Guide for the Idealist post, get ideas on how to keep moving forward with optimism.

Leading Remotely in a Crisis

Get 10 tips for how to be a strong, flexible leader when your team is working remotely — plus a rundown of technology to get the job done.

March 27, 2020

Career Advice for Recent Grads: Navigating the Pandemic

New Grads: Here are recommendations for your job search and career aspirations in the time of COVID-19.

January 10, 2020

Reflex or Reflexivity: Which One Is Good for Planners?

A Guide for the Idealist post: Practicing reflexivity — asking "why" in the middle of things — is a skill worth developing for planners.

December 13, 2019

Spinning Planning Experience into Practical Wisdom

A Guide for the Idealist post: Spending time reflecting on your planning experiences will develop a storehouse of practical wisdom that supports real-time practice decisions.

October 15, 2019

Time Triage for Planning Managers

A Guide for the Idealist post: Determining priorities and managing time are skills worth developing for new planning managers.

Seal of Expertise, Credibility, and Ethics: Benefits of AICP Certification

APA Board member Wendy Shabay, AICP, finds that there's a direct correlation between the AICP credential and the success her firm has had building relationships with local communities.

5 Keys to Igniting Your Job Search

Career coach and author Samorn Selim offers her top strategies to stay motivated during a job search.

August 6, 2019

Negotiation Skills Are a Must for Planning Managers

A "Guide for the Idealist" post: Negotiation skills are a must for planning managers, both inside the office and in the community.

July 24, 2019

Emerging Professionals Plug Planning Across Borders

SRC Chair Rachael Thompson Panik and Past Chair Ellen Forthofer recently traveled to Ottawa, Canada, to speak on a panel of young professional leaders in APA and the Canadian Institute of Planners (CIP).

Planners, Here Are Your Keys to Successfully Facilitating Meetings

Meeting facilitation is a vital skill for planners' career success, but it takes a lot of practice to learn the key techniques.

July 9, 2019

First-Time Planning Manager? Let Go, Step Up

A "Guide for the Idealist" post: New planning managers need to know when to let go and when to step up.

July 1, 2019

International Planners: Tips on Finding a Job in the U.S.

The vice-chair of APA's International Division, Jing Zhang, shares his job search tips for international students on visas who want to stay and work in the U.S.

April 8, 2019

Career Ordeals Await — You Can Build Resilience

A "Guide for the Idealist" post: Be on the lookout for obstacles and ordeals that can help you be a more resilient planning professional.

March 18, 2019

Enhancing the Value of the AICP Credential

The American Institute of Certified Planners is invaluable to all planners as they establish, grow, and excel in their careers.

February 11, 2019

Do You Plan With Caution or Courage — or Both?

A "Guide for the Idealist" post: In the career of every planner, there is tension between personal hopes and preferences and the constraints of the process.

January 8, 2019

Did I Take the Wrong Job?

A "Guide for the Idealist" post: What to do when you start a new job with high expectations and smack up against a reality that is much more complicated.