What must planners do differently?

Careers in planning: "It’s not you, it’s me": Navigating careers in planning and finding an 'organisational fit'

Your first job as a planner is likely to be your first ‘serious’ job. For some it’s a great experience and they may stay with the organisation a long time, but for many it doesn’t work out. Or they might have a great first experience and then move jobs for a better position, a different challenge, more pay or improved work-life balance, only to find that it doesn’t work out. Why? Is it you? Is it some lack of skill, knowledge or fundamental personality characteristic!? Or is it the boss, the team, something about the organisation and what it does or expects of you that you can’t get along with?

All organisations have a culture and even in a relatively small profession like planning there exists a wide diversity of ways of working. These build up (and change) over time, influenced by many things such as the legacy of management strategies, the personalities of key colleagues, and their blend of different professional ways of going on. This affects what they value and what they look for in a team member, consciously or not.

Planners too have a biography and a moral compass. What if the organisation does things that the planner doesn’t agree with ethically? Can they ignore their carefully honed sense of good design on a particular application? What if they are asked to supress information that might shed light on the impacts of a policy or decision? They might also come to realise that their skills won’t be valued or that there are limits to how far their career can progress in a given role or organisation.

By speaking to planners about their careers, our research has explored the ways different people navigate these challenges of ‘organisational fit’ and career progression. The results provide a range of insights that may be of particular value for those starting out in planning or thinking about a career move. How anyone deals with these issues is usefully summed up by Albert Hirschmann’s ideas of exit, voice and loyalty (Ref 5). Faced with a workplace dilemma people can either leave the organisation, speak up to challenge a colleague’s position, or stay loyal. Over the course of any career many people will opt for each of these, although some are more likely to speak up than others. For those who do want to speak up about issues, or pursue particular agendas such as ecological promotion, economic growth or social justice, it is important to understand whether this will this be valued or whether the organisation is not a place that values dissent. Such issues can be especially challenging for early career professionals.

These are issues many planners in our study reflected on when thinking about how career moves had worked out for them. Finding the right fit is different for everyone but involves a combination of the planning values of the organisation, the opportunities on offer (there and elsewhere), personal priorities (for career progression, work-life balance etc) and often some blind chance. Whilst researchers have tended to extol the importance of planning as a vocational commitment, exhorting planners to uphold exacting ethical standards, it’s important to remember the messy realities that shape how people’s careers develop as their lives and ambitions change.

Public, private, voluntary? Does it matter what sector you work in?

One key axis of career choice lies in the sector the organisation belongs to. The distinction between sectors is more blurry than in the past as local government has become more managerial, including increasing commercialisation of services. Work formerly done in the public sector is often outsourced to the private and sometimes voluntary sectors and increasing numbers of local authority planning departments are staffed by agency workers.

Another key feature of recent years has been the increasing purchase of smaller private consultancies by larger, often global, concerns. Such moves provide opportunities, of work overseas etc, but they often bring creeping corporate managerialism and an emphasis on proceduralism. In contrast, smaller consultancies and local authorities can give planners an opportunity to really know a place or region. Whilst nearly all planners value the fact that their jobs allow them to work on diverse projects, some remain more committed to particular places and this shapes their professional choices.

Private consultancies vary greatly not just in terms of size but also in the work they do, offering opportunities for specialisation. Some are oriented toward working for developers, housebuilders, or local authorities. Others work in niches, such as design. Different local authorities too can take certain issues more seriously than others. Smaller authorities may not have in-house teams for particular specialisms or may rely on a single individual for conservation advice, for example.

Many graduate planners are now attracted to the ‘training schemes’ offered by larger firms. Reversing a former belief that planners needed to ‘learn the ropes’ in the public sector, these are widely seen as a good basic training, offering structured exposure to different areas of work and support for the completion of professional accreditation requirements. Outside of some larger local authorities, the public sector often struggles to compete with this offer.

Most planners will move jobs several times over the course of their careers (sometimes more). At more senior levels attractive pay and benefits packages tempt people into the private sector or to swap one firm for another. ‘Missing generations’ caused by recruitment freezes during periods of recession have led to serious shortages of qualified planners at certain levels, intensifying competition and creating opportunities for sometimes rapid career advancement. This has generated the increasing reliance on agency staff in the public sector in areas with high development pressure. In other areas meanwhile, smaller, often rural planning authorities can struggle to fill posts; unable to compete with the lure of bigger cities and what are perceived to be more dynamic challenges.

In short, planning work is very diverse. Opportunities may not be limitless but, outside of major property recessions, they are plentiful. For early career planners, it is worth spending time thinking through what might suit them at this career stage. For those in work, thinking through some of the reasons why a job may not be working out and what else might be out there could be helpful.

Key questions

The nature of planning work and the landscape of job opportunities have both changed markedly over recent years. In some respects there are more and more diverse career pathways open to planners now than ever before. Does this lead more to choose exit when the going gets tough? How much scope is there in the contemporary workplace for voice or loyalty?