Planning Careers

Careers for planning graduates are available in:

Private and corporate practice

• Multidisciplinary design firms
• land developers
• real estate agencies
• urban, regional or city planning firms

Public practice

• Economic development agencies
• Environmental organizations
• Health departments
• Housing authorities
• Federal, state, regional, county and municipal governments

Nonprofit practice

• Chambers of commerce
• Environmental advocacy organizations
• Environmental, cultural and historic resource protection organizations
• Neighborhood and community advocacy groups
• Peace Corps
• Social service organizations

Recent Iowa State University Planning graduates have pursued the following career paths. This is not a comprehensive list of the possible career choices available to someone with a planning degree. Please note that some careers require additional education beyond the Bachelor’s degree.

• Comprehensive planning
• Downtown development
• Economic development
• Environmental planning
• Geographic information systems specialization
• Growth management
• Housing
• Historic preservation
• International planning
• Land-use planning
• Neighborhood planning
• Planning management
• Policy planning and management
• Regional and metropolitan planning
• Rural planning
• Site design
• Small-town planning
• Social planning
• Strategic planning
• Sustainable development
• Transportation planning
• University or college teaching, research and administration (requires additional education)
• Urban design
• Urban revitalization
• Zoning administration