Before emigrating to the US, Lin was engaged primarily in practical construction. After moving there, he began a thirty years of teaching. He went from assistant professor to associate professor to full professor to department chair in the Architecture Department of the University of California at Berkeley.
去美國之前，林同棪做的多半是實務工作；到美國以後開始了卅年的教書工作，從加州大學柏克萊分校土木系的助理教授、副教授、正教授，當到了系主任。