The United States economy had nothing to offer and has slowed to a snail’s pace in design work. I graduated in May 2013 with the idea of moving back home to Atlanta, Georgia, a large city by US standards, and finding a job near my family and friends. I thought a large city would have plenty of work for an aspiring landscape architect but many positions in the States were filled by people with much more experience so the problem was that I found myself competing with people with years of experience who were willing to work for an entry-level salary. How was I going to compete with them?

I knew that, years before I graduated, firms had begun reducing the number of employees because of a declining economic decline. So, I widened my search and, instead of looking for jobs in Atlanta, I looked for work all across the US and, everywhere I looked, I gt plenty of compliments but my lack of experience caused every to lose interest This went on for several months and was extremely frustrating. And I decided to take a break from my job hunt and pay a visit to the town where I went to school because it always relaxes me. I also needed to get away from my parents. I had had to move back in with them because I couldn’t afford Atlanta and living with one’s parents after graduating from college is not something to be proud of in American life. Students actually try to avoid it as much as possible.

While I was visiting with friends and professors at my old school, I was speaking with someone about my struggle to find a job and their immediate response was to look overseas, especially China. I tossed the idea around in my head for the rest of the day and finally decided it was a great idea. Although China is slowing down a tad it still has much, much more to offer than the US and landscape architecture is still very new in China, which, I suspected, would mean room for tons of growth.

So, I went back home and applied for jobs in China, Korea, Switzerland, Morocco, Canada and a few other countries and simply couldn‘st stop once I got started and began thinking that working internationally would be a dream come true. I couldn’ t believe that I hadn’ t thought of this earlier.

The responses were slow coming but finally a firm in Beijing offered me the opportunity I needed and couldn’t refuse and applied for a visa, packed my bags and looked forward to the new adventure.

You never know where life will take you. I’ve been in Beijing now for almost five months and I'm loving it!

The oringinal blog: http://bbs.chinadaily.com.cn/blog-1456267-20442.html