Just like any other field, there's no straight foward answer to this one ... but my suggestion is that if you're seeking money, and depending on company size, you'll be working and developing the following skills:
- Coordination: you'll have to deal with a lot of professionals from different backgrounds, from architecture to project finance to technical engineers and other specific consultants (hospitality, cultural ...)
- Land use planning and project phasing
- Coming up with strategic planning reports
- Community facilities allocation
- Writing proposals for hiring external consultants (probably?)
- Invest in green and sustainable development education (e.g. LEED accreditation)
- Lots of research to be done, and improve your economic and financial analysis skills over time ...
- After5 years in the field, consider an MBA and move into managing projects >> it's where the money is.
These are some of the tasks and recommendations I could think of by now, however, do contact me if you have further questions. And keep in mind that every urban planner/designer's job is different, it will all depend on where you like/end up working: private or public sector, for-profit corporations of not-for-profit (e.g. NGOs, UN ...)
