Skills You Need to Become a Landscape Architect

Skills You Need To Become A Landscape Architect

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Many skills will come in handy in the field of landscape architecture. If you want to pursue a career in this field, there are a few skills that will help you stand out in your field and land clients. Let’s dive in and look at which skills in particular will help the most.

Skills you need to become a landscape architect are an in-depth knowledge of the role you will perform, great customer service skills, good interpersonal skills, a knowledge of various technologies, and problem-solving skills. These five skills will help you succeed in this industry and help you continue to land and retain clients.

Having an In-Depth Knowledge of How to Perform Your Role

Skills You Need to Become a Landscape Architect

Here is the big one, learning how to correctly perform each service that you offer as a landscape architect will be the key to landing additional jobs and getting previous clients to want to continue working with you. You are required to get a degree from an accredited university before you can enter the work field, so a good chunk of your learning will come from your time spent in school. So, pay attention in class and retain what you learn here. Then learn how to apply it throughout your career. As a landscape architect, you will oversee large-scale projects and need to understand the various regulations you’ll need to follow. Whether they are construction regulations, drainage, sewage, city restrictions, or something else – you will need to make sure to follow all rules when you carry out a project.

Even after leaving school, there will be plenty of opportunities to continue learning on the job. Since a large part of your role will be meeting with contractors, designers, vendors, merchants, etc. you will need to understand how each of them affects how your final job is completed and you will want to understand how to work best with them.  

Never hesitate to reach out to others if any part of the role is difficult or confusing to you. That is what co-workers, colleagues, and professors are for. Or when in a pinch, the internet!

Have Great Customer Service Skills

Providing great customer service will help you go far in any industry. It will certainly help when you are working in landscaping and are dealing with large-scale projects. Think about any time you have been a repeat customer. Whether it was a burger shop or a five-star hotel, I bet the service you received there had a huge role to play in why you decided to go back a second or third time. The landscape industry is very similar, in that clients will choose to work with you again if you provide them with great customer service the first time around.

Gestures such as completing a job ahead of the promised date, quoting fair prices, making communication easy for the client, being transparent with the work being done, and of course delivering exceptional work are all small things you can do to provide great service. The list could go on and on, but since I don’t want to bore you, I’ll leave it at this. The key takeaway here is to make sure that you are providing the customer with service that will not only exceed their expectations but will keep them coming back and referring their friends to work with you.

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Have Good Interpersonal Skills

Skills You Need to Become a Landscape Architect

This skill goes hand in hand with providing great customer service. It’s no secret that individuals who are good at being outgoing and building connections with others tend to have better luck in landing clients. You will want to use this to your benefit when it comes to work. Networking is a large part of your job – whether it comes to working with clients, vendors, merchants, etc. you’ll do a lot of talking and communicating. So, having good communication skills will help you build connections and clients. 

A huge part of building connections is the give and take. People like to talk about themselves, so ask general questions that aren’t too personal or intrusive. They also like learning about the people they are working with, so share information about yourself that you feel comfortable sharing that will help them not only get to know you but also make you memorable to them. They may forget about the boring conversation you guys had about purchasing bricks and cement from them, but they won’t forget about the cool fishing story you told them or the story about your cliff-diving adventures! 

Try the tactic of sharing a fact to get a fact. Share something about yourself to help them get to know you and then ask them something about themselves. You’ll get to know each other a bit better, and this will help you work together better. 

Have an In-depth Knowledge of Various Technology

As a landscape architect, you will need to learn how to use various technologies to help you design the landscapes you will work on. A landscape architect will need to learn how to use 3D rendering technology or graphic design programs during their time in school. These are skills that they will need to become proficient in considering it will be something they will use daily during their work week.

The various software they may want to learn how to use may include Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, Environment for Revit, or BIM. If you need to refresh your skills, there are always videos on YouTube that you can go over to revisit anything you may need a reminder on.

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Be Able to Quickly Problem Solve

A huge part of successfully being a landscape architect is being able to oversee many different duties at once and being able to think on your feet and problem-solve when problems arise. Since you’ll be dealing with different regulations and laws that you must abide by when doing work, you’ll have to think quickly when your project hits a snap halfway through. Throwing up your hands is not an option. You’ll have to come up with solutions quickly and sometimes in the moment. Being able to refer to the things you learned back in school and being a creative problem solver will help you to quickly overcome problems and get the project back on track.

If you are someone who tends to freeze up and panic when problems arise, try practicing problem-solving in your own time. Once you’ve been in the industry for a bit, you’re sure to know the typical problems that could come up. Practice with yourself the multiple different solutions you could come up with for each problem and how you will execute them. This will make you more confident when problems do arise, and even if they aren’t the exact problems you practiced problem-solving with – you will still have the practice under your belt of solving various problems. Your brain will put that practice to use in helping you solve your current problem.

Utilize All These Skills to Thrive in the Industry

Skills You Need to Become a Landscape Architect

If you learn to utilize these skills, it will help you go a long way in being successful as a landscape architect. These skills will help you navigate the industry and build strong connections with both clients and vendors alike. You will be able to build up a strong clientele through the customer service you provide and through the referrals you will receive from existing clients. Overall, your career will thrive, and you will have a very full pipeline of connections.

If you struggling with any of these skills when getting started, don’t fret. Like all things practice makes perfect and all things will come with time. If you find any of the above difficult, take some time each day to practice and get better. Even setting aside an hour each day to work on these skills can help you in the long run.

As we talked about above, there are plenty of YouTube videos to help you refresh your skills with any software you’d like to get more familiar with. There are also videos on how to grow your interaction skills and become a stronger communicator. There are also plenty of books out there that can help with these skills if you aren’t the strongest communicator. Even reading a chapter a day can help you grow these skills. Keep at it, and you will continue to get better!

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Frequently Asked Questions

What are some top universities to earn a landscape architecture degree?

There are various factors to take into account when picking out the right university for you. Take a look at this list from collegefactual.com that not only lays out the top ten schools for landscape architecture but also talks about starting salaries, how many graduates each school had, and provides you with a few facts about each school. Take a look at this list to learn about the various options you have and decide which is the best fit for you!

How much money can I expect to make right out of college if I master these skills?

As a landscape architect just starting in the field, you can expect to make around $47,000 per year at your first job (with the range falling between $41,000 and $55,000 depending on which state and company you start with). Once you become more established in your field, you can make anywhere up to 130K a year. So, if you put in your dues in school, this is a field that can be very rewarding. 

To learn more on how you can start your own landscaping business, check out my startup documents here.

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