Friday, February 24, 2012

First Steps to Becoming a Successful Garden Design Career

One of the first things that many potential garden design students will ask themselves is what's the potential for a career in garden design? It's an important question to ask because, like with any new career, you need to be absolutely sure that you're heading in the right direction. But whilst you may get the support of your family and friends when you start a garden design course by the time you've graduated they might be so used to your new direction that you're faced with a lot of choices on your own. So what are these garden design career choices?

First and foremost the majority of students aim to be setting up their own businesses if not straightaway then within a year or two of graduating. For many this can be a daunting task but a good design course will already be setting you up with both the tools and the contacts to hit the ground running. If you're setting up your business as soon as you graduate then look around to see if there are any people who might help mentor you. The Society of Garden Designers runs a mentoring service for student members so this might help but you might find that you have a person within your social network with great business skills. They may not be involved in gardens but it's the objective business expertise you're looking for and someone outside of the industry might give you a new angle to market yourself.

A real bonus is to get a work placement with an established designer. Sometimes this might be possible through your garden design course but remember that most design companies are small businesses and taking on a work placement designer is a big deal for them. You need to offer something that compliments their busy day-to-day schedule. Offering a one day a week helping hand is more trouble than its worth. A two-week stint helping them out in a busy period will be much more useful as they can put you on to one project and whether is drawing up a design or setting out plants on site you'll get a nugget of first hand practical information that will reveal some great ways to do business.

What you can offer an established designer is of primary importance when applying for a job. And despite being a profession of small businesses there are jobs to be had. Larger design firms often have a regular turnover of newly qualified staff and landscape companies are increasingly looking to add a design function to their services.

Top of the list for skills these days is an ability to produce great 3D models with SketchUp and back this up with a good knowledge of Vectorworks Landmark. So you should start thinking about embracing and using those skills as soon as you get them on your design course. If you are still to decide on a course check that the studio tutorials will include CAD specialists both as lecturers and in your studio time so that you develop skills quickly. Depending where you are and your role you could be paid anything from £9 to £25 an hour so you need to think if the experience on lower pay is worth it. With a great designer with real skills to pass on then it just might be. But don't ever work for nothing, you'll have no enthusiasm on a dark winter morning to go to work and that's not going to get you a great reference.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/6844543

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