Intern 101

Redlined Resumes: Cut it in half and you're there

2012-02-13T05:32:00.001-07:00

Today's Redlined Resume comes from JB, who appears to have the same problem that I have every day--so much to say and not enough time and room. Believe me, I hate the idea of trying to cram everything about myself into one page--it seems like something's going to get left out. Well, that's true. A lot gets left out of a resume, and your job in crafting your resume is to distill what is most important and then laying it out in a way that conveys all the intangibles for which you don't have room to articulate. JB has two pages here--and when I received this resume, JB knew s/he had to thin it down to one page without me saying anything. Indeed, JB's main issue here is editing and thinning: deleting the objective and limiting the non-architectural jobs to only two or three tasks each.

Double-click on each image to see the image/page enlarged in a separate browser or tab.

The other issue of concern is how JB is describing his/her titles at his/her various architectural jobs. One of many problems I have with the architectural profession is that we don't do a good job of standardizing what our non-licensed and almost-close-to-licensed folks do. For example, JB uses "Project Coordinator" to describe his/her position at one firm but "Job Captain" at the job before that one. At some firms, "Coordinator" is the name for any unlicensed person, regardless of their experience or job tasks. Firms also may have a wide range of what they consider a "Job Captain"--for example, at my firm I wasn't a "Job Captain" until I was licensed and running the CDs and CA on a project. By listing the titles on his/her resume, JB looks like s/he's taken a step down from one firm to the next. Titles can be troublesome, so sometimes it's more helpful to eliminate them completely. If you describe what you did at each job, that tells a firm if you're capable of doing what they need you to do for their firm, regardless of what you were called at your old firm.

Eliminating the fluff from the resume will give JB a clear, solid document with which any hiring manager would be impressed. S/he has lots of great skills and experience doing a wide range of work at architecture firms, and s/he clearly has a good work ethic by finding other jobs during a bad economy, such as working at the driving range and as a notary public (both of which might really come in handy for a firm!).

Redlined Resumes: Nicely done!

2012-02-06T05:12:00.000-07:00

Today's Redlined Resume comes from GPV, who combined a fantastic image of his/her work with a clear method for describing his/her experience and education. Contact info is snugged up underneath an image of the work, while Skills are then set at the bottom of the page so they a) save space in the body of the resume for the Education and Experience as well as Honors, and b) they stand out to anyone who just wants to know "does this person have experience with X or Y software?" Also, by turning the date vertically and setting it off with a colored bar (that is bold/dark enough to show up well if the resume is printed in black and white), GPV saves space on the resume and allows more room for his/her experience and education to speak.

Double-click on the image to open it larger in another browser tab or window.

GPV has a few spelling and grammatical errors here, but overall this is a great resume that reads well graphically. I would recommend deleting a few of the earliest studios, and I'd be a little wary of telling folks over and over that you had your work printed in the same publication. If it's a school publication, that might not mean as much to someone who doesn't know much about that school. At the very least, the publication needs to be defined early on in the resume.

Overall, GPV has a resume that will really appeal to a firm that's looking to improve or continue its design-related strengths and focus, and the resume reads like someone who knows how to design well but not over-design. Would that I were so sharp myself!

Redlined Resumes: nice and clean

2012-01-30T05:37:00.000-07:00

Yes indeed, Redlined Resumes is back after a very long hiatus. I have a few resumes to share, all of them with good points and ideas and formats. Our first is from CP (double click on the image to open larger in a separate window):

CP has a clean non-serif font and a simple graphic strategy--a dark bar with a reverse-contrast title printed in them. CP also puts his/her software skills first, before his/her work experience. This is an interesting tactic, but for CP it makes sense: if the work experience isn't so strong, lead with the software skills, which are very strong and may be all a firm needs to decide to interview CP.

CP does have a couple of misspelled words in this resume, and there are a few abbreviations that may need to be spelled out so that a potential firm can understand their importance. I would also remove the objective at the top in order to give that space to a better description of the work experience. The work experience is a little thin, but when CP puts in things like "supervised building events", that's a big responsibility that I as a project manager would like to know about. Meanwhile, the "studios of note" is the section that can be thinned or deleted depending on the kind of firm at which CP applies. If they're design-heavy, it might be worth keeping, but if they're more of a production firm this section can be thinned.

More Redlined Resumes to come in the next few weeks--if you would like your resume critiqued and featured here, please send it to me via email in the sidebar. And feel free to send me any other questions as well, and I'll do my best to address them here. Thanks!

Lulu Brown's basic guide to resumes

2012-01-23T05:20:00.012-07:00

With the economy slowly recovering, and a rash of new Redlined Resumes to post (I know, it's been forever!), I wanted to post (or even repost) about my basic rules for architectural intern resumes. First, a caveat: this advice is based on my professional experience plus the experience of some of my colleagues; while it's based in hiring and recruiting realities, it's not set in stone. You may get the perfect job by breaking one or more of my rules, so there are no promises here. However, it's never a bad idea to have someone who's already in the business to look over your resume and find misspellings, flaws, graphic issues, etc. That's what I'm here for.

And so, my basic rules:

If you're unlicensed, keep your resume to one page. I've caught some heat for this in the past, but I think if you ignore every other Lulu Brown Resume Rule, stick with this one. I advise the one page rule for two reasons: it keeps you honest and it makes you more visible. If you aren't licensed yet and are less than ten years out of college, you truly haven't done enough to warrant two pages for a resume. If you do have tons of cool projects and awards and activities, you need to edit them to be the most relevant for the firm(s) to which you're applying. Also, if you are unlicensed with less than ten years' experience and you give me two pages to muck through while looking for a potential new employee, you're making me work too hard to see why I should hire you. It's a resume, not a thesis. (Note: the only way I might give you two pages is if you were in the military and did some pretty badass stuff while you were there.)
Get rid of anything from high school. Working at various high school jobs definitely builds character and teaches you the value of an honest day's work. However, if you've graduated from college, high school is now moot. I realize that also means deleting that fact that you were in the Governor's Honors program for art, or that you made Eagle Scout--too bad. That was then, and this is now. Save it for the interview. I promise that if you went to 4-6 years of college, you're way more interesting now.
Delete the "Objective" and the "Hobbies/Interests" from your resume. Your objective is clear: you want the job I'm advertising on Monster.com or the AIA job board. If you want me to know how you're the right fit for the job I'm advertising, use your cover letter. Hobbies and interests are superfluous for a resume and are taking up valuable space where I can find out about your recent work experience (architectural or not), your education, and your skills.
Check your spelling and grammar. This is a given. You're about to go into a field where the big picture and the details are all important, so focus on both. If you can't be bothered to spell correctly on your resume, I can't be bothered to look at it when I'm trying to hire someone.
Think about your resume as a design problem... In a sense, your resume is a design project that you won't be able to present to the jury. It has to speak for itself. All text and pictures have to read well in a variety of media-does it look good on any computer screen? Does it print well in black and white as well as color? Does it take special knowledge of Adobe Acrobat or some other graphics program to get it to print the way it should look? How will it look on 8.5" x 11" paper instead of the cool format you made in InDesign? Are the pictures and graphics big enough to read? Is there enough white/negative space on the page so that your words and images can breathe?
...but don't overthink it. Because your resume is a project that you can't present in person, we sometimes think that we really need to go all out and make it unbelievably amazing. But look again at the questions in Rule #5: if you have a negative answer to any of those questions, then you may have overworked your resume. Just as in a Studio project, you don't have to use all your good ideas in one resume.

Coming in the next few weeks--the triumphant return of Redlined Resumes! For those of you new to Intern 101, I take resumes that have been sent to me for review and critique (with the person's permission, of course), I blank out identifying details and information, and I redline it. I make notes on what's great, what works well, and what could be tweaked and improved. Then, I post it here for everyone to learn from. I've received a few resumes over the past year or so, and it's finally time to post them in their redlined glory. If you'd like for me to include your resume in Redlined Resumes, feel free to email it to me via email in the sidebar. Stay tuned!

On the other side of burnout

2012-01-16T06:13:00.000-07:00

I posted at the end of 2010 about burnout, which was rampant during the recession and I'm sure is still happening in many workplaces, regardless of their field (architecture, construction, dentistry, accounting, what have you). America is slowly coming out of the recession, but the recovery is happening unevenly. The firm for which I work, for example, has managed to score some decent-sized projects and has a few in the pipeline (some we're sure about, some we're not), so we've been able to hire some new help in the past year. (Not all firms in Colorado, where I live, have been so lucky, and some are still struggling.) Some of the people we hired had been laid off in 2008 and 2009, and some are new people that were laid off from other firms. Having said that, we're still not hiring by leaps and bounds.

Some of the hesitation is due to trepidation: we're not sure that these projects are all going to come through and therefore be able to support a bunch of new staff; and if we did hire all those people and come up short, we're going to have to lay people off again, which gives our firm a bad reputation in town and just feels mean. There's also the ulterior motive of getting back to solvency--the Great Recession was/is a lot bigger than anyone thought, so many firms went through all their savings and have even taken out loans to stay afloat. As the work comes back, firms are trying to restock the coffers and pay off the loans, which sometimes means keeping staff levels the same and making the existing staff work more. Sadly, some firms are using the economy as a reason/excuse not to give raises or bonuses even though the firm is clearly very busy and productive. This reeks of Grade A Bullshit to me, and firms that do this will have to watch their best talent bounce on out the door once the economy recovers a little more (in 3-9 more months). Good luck with that.

My own burnout has improved since fall of 2010, when I originally posted on the topic. Because of the lack of staff, I ended up managing the largest project of my life. I was able to use that experience to negotiate for a better raise along with my promotion. (I have 11 1/2 years experience, licensed for 5, but i you're an intern with more than three years' experience and you've been doing lots of work above your experience level and pay grade for the past 6-12 months--and you've been doing it well--then I encourage you to negotiate for a raise.) My promotion also means I finally get help--that is, staff--to help me with getting drawings and research done. And while I've probably been working about 45 hrs/week this month, I'm working on things I really like and enjoy (though the deadlines have been hellish). Working on the things I enjoy (and am good at) and having help with my tasks have helped with my burnout, for sure.

So I'm curious about my Intern 101 readers--how are your energy levels? How are things going now in 2012? Let me know in the comments or via email in the sidebar. And as always, let me know of questions or topics you'd like to see covered here on Intern 101.

The 2011 AIA Compensation Report: What are the job descriptions?

2012-01-09T05:53:00.001-07:00

A commentor last week asked what are the different intern descriptions for the AIA Compensation Report. Good question:

Intern 1: Full-time entry-level intern on the path to licensure with fewer than two years of experience; develops design or technical solutions under the supervision of an architect.

Intern 2: Full-time intern on the path to licensure with two to three years of experience; works from the design of others under supervision, and performs routine and limited architectural assignments. Performs specific/limited portions of assignments using prescribed methods. Under general supervision, works from the design of others and performs routine architectural assignments. Limited judgment is required on work details. Assignments may include higher-level work for training/development purposes.

Intern 3: Full-time intern on the path to licensure with three to six years of experience; works under direction of others, responsible for projects' technical design, provides planning/design/coordination consultation on large projects; reviews/approves conceptual designs. Responsible for specific technical design aspects of an assigned project including investigation, evaluation, and recommendation of design solutions. Performs assignments under direction with limited responsibility for design. Provides professional architectural consultation in the planning, design, and coordination of large, complex projects. Independently makes decisions on significant architectural design problems and methods. Reviews and approves conceptual designs. Carries out complex or novel assignments requiring the development of new or improved techniques and procedures.

From here, we get into architects and design staff. For example, an Architect 1 is licensed and has 5+ years experience and "exercises independent judgment in evaluation, selection, and use of standard techniques, solves problems when encountered, and receives guidance on complex projects." The description in the Compensation Report then says that an Unlicensed Architecture/Design Staff 1 is the same definition as Architect 1, just unlicensed. Architect 2 has 8+ years of experience and has more knowledge, more responsibilities, etc., and is licensed; Design Staff 2 does the same stuff but isn't licensed. Architect 3 has 10+ years of experience and even more responsibilities; Design Staff 3 is the same but unlicensed.

Just before I got licensed, I was more of a Design Staff 1: I was definitely exercising independent judgment on standard questions and techniques and asking for direction on more complex questions. Getting licensed gave me a boost in pay along with a little less supervision--I didn't have to clear every single thing I did with my boss, just the larger stuff. Nowadays, I'm an Architect 3.

Knowing these job descriptions is helpful because these can be used to gauge how much responsibility you're taking on versus how many years of experience you have. It allows you to standardize (or at least begin to define) your job description even if your boss or firm has not done so. It also allows you to compare apples to apples better, either within your firm or between you and another firm.

Knowing your worth: the 2011 AIA Compensation Report

2012-01-02T05:28:00.017-07:00

First of all, Happy New Year to all my readers. I've received some good questions and post topics from some of you in the past month, and I hope to get those topics/questions posted on and answered in the next couple of months here.

I wanted to kick the year off with a little something on the 2011 AIA Compensation Report, which was finally released for purchase in mid-December 2011. It's available for purchase here for $249 if you're not a member and $195 if you are a member. (A summary of the nationwide averages is here, if you're interested.) As usual, I'm frustrated with AIA that the report is so ungodly expensive, especially for a document that is only available via emailed PDF. By charging so much for the report, interns end up being excluded from having access to an arguably vital piece of information for our profession--the going rate for our specific experience level in our specific state or city.

My husband and I bought it and split the cost, which I recommend all of you doing. By doing so, we found out that my husband was on par with his colleagues and I was underpaid. I used the information to bargain for (and receive) a good raise that put me level with others at my experience level in my geographical area. This report could be worth having, especially if the cost is shared among a group of recent graduates or interns with little experience. If you're looking to move to a different state or city, it's good to know what to ask for in those new locales and at your experience level. (Regional reports are also available for $50 less than the full national report price, but I say spring for the whole shebang.)

New Year's resolutions for yourselves and the profession

2011-12-27T05:34:00.000-07:00

I hope everyone's holidays have been going well so far and that you're able to take time to enjoy the season. As we have just passed the winter solstice, with its least amount of daylight all year, it's a good time to reflect and think about what we want to do with our lives, especially in the coming year.

On the professional front, I will gather all the necessary info and documentation needed to apply for my ACHA accreditation. I've finally gotten the years of healthcare architecture experience needed to apply, so it's time to add that hard-won honor to my roster of professional achievements. (Since I've confessed this here to all of you, you're my witnesses. If I don't get this done by 12/31/12, Armageddon notwithstanding, then you all get to heckle me soundly.) Personally, I also want to start working on a book for interns based on this blog. I've been asked about it a time or two, and I'm starting to wonder if it might be useful.

On the personal front, I have to start rationing my energy better. I'm getting older, and I'm running out of steam faster with my new management responsibilities at my firm, so Shorty needs to find a way to get things done without doing everything herself. This was also my goal for 2011, by the way--I think I mastered it sometimes and failed miserably other times.

I also would like to see our profession have a goal or resolution of its own: be a Profession. So often lately, it seems like my beloved profession is more like a cult than a Profession. It seems sometimes like architecture fails to value itself and its services the way other professions (medicine, law, dentistry, etc.) has done, and it forces its members to live in noble poverty. It tells its members that we all have to sacrifice to survive and just be grateful that you have a job, and when pressed for specifics on why things are being run the way they are the questioner is thumped (or even smacked) for daring to ask. Those running the profession seem to lean more and more in the past few years on secrecy and avoidance: secrecy with regard to what it takes to achieve or with what's going on with the firm or profession, and avoidance of big issues like poor performance or why every job seems to be losing money.

I don't imagine that running a business is easy--far from it. There's a lot to do every day, and it seems like most of it has little to do with Design. But more and more it seems that our profession is losing its viability and its relevance, from not really valuing and defining the importance of licensure to not really explaining to the public why the world needs architects and why HGTV and Ty Pennington are not the answer (and aren't reality).

I hope that even if this profession won't embrace this resolution, you will. I want us all to pull through this dark economic time and bring back our profession in all its relevant, awesome glory. I want us to show the world that design, codes, and profitability aren't mutually exclusive. That, my friends, would be an even better gift than a few more letters and credentials after my name.

So what are your goals or resolutions in the coming year? And what do you hope for architecture?

So how many architects are unemployed in the U.S.?

2011-12-22T05:29:00.000-07:00

An October 2010 online article from Architectural Record describes how using certain nationwide indicators of unemployment might preclude the proper reporting of unemployment for architects. Just as illuminating as the article (if not more) are the comments by folks with 20+ years of experience in the profession. Some of them are just jaded, but some are particularly sharp and solid in observation, such as two commentators with 45 years and 44 years of experience. I know the article is a) a year old and b) a little dark for the season, but I know that not all firms are hiring right now, though a few are. Things are slowly getting better, but it's going to take a while to get better in our profession.

More on getting licensed (or not)

2011-12-19T05:54:00.001-07:00

I've received some good feedback on whether to get licensed, and folks have brought up some good points, such as the cost of maintaining an NCARB record and the cost of study materials and the tests themselves. If you're not making a lot in the first place, and the economy has depressed your already-meh wages, it's pretty daunting to think about taking a test and possibly losing $210 because you had to borrow a study guide from someone who borrowed it from someone else and needs it back on Monday, etc. I also know that there are some folks who have done really well without ever getting licensed. For example, a colleague of mine said that there are no rules on calling yourself an "architect" in her home state of New York, so many of her classmates have thriving architectural design careers without a license. However, here in my adopted home state of Colorado, a designer can be seriously legally reprimanded for calling him/herself an "architect" if s/he is not actually licensed. (And your company cannot have the word "Architect(s)" in its title unless there are actual architects involved in the company's ownership.)

I received the following comments from an architect who got licensed in the 1980s:

I was determined to get my license as soon as possible after school was completed and after a nice travel break. I had enough experience from working in Architectural and Engineering offices (plus framed houses and did interior trim carpentry) during college to sit for the exam within 3.5 years after I graduated. I got licensed at 28. The study and exam combo was brutal for us. It was four days in a row!! There was no option to spread it out over an extended period like you can now. I studied very hard and passed it all the first time. What a relief!!

...[I]n response to your post on getting licensed versus not, my recommendation is for anyone that wants to make real progress in the profession to get it out of the way as soon as possible. You get more respect amongst your peers and it will allow you to pursue your own practice if you desire. Plus it looks very good on your resume.

Someone once described poverty not as a lack of money but as a lack of options. What I like most about having a license is that it gives you options. Not everyone will look down on you if you're not licensed, but no one will look down on you if you are licensed. You can start a design firm if you're not licensed, but you'll need someone else to stamp and sign your drawings. If you're not licensed, you may have to be careful about what you call yourself depending on where you do your architectural design or 3D modeling or whatever else you do, but it doesn't matter when you're licensed--you're an architect.

And that's a choice everyone has to make for themselves. Some firms won't care, some will. Some states/jurisdictions won't care what you call yourself, some will. Depending on what you want to do in life, licensure may not be the ultimate or even a necessary goal for you. But I never want to see any of you work hard and then find yourselves limited in any way, and jumping through those final hoops can open a lot more doors and possibilities for you.

The case for (not) getting licensed

2011-12-12T05:34:00.000-07:00

A recent issue of Architect Magazine included an article on how many members of our profession aren't getting licensed. It was a rather intriguing trip into the world of those who manage to thrive professionally without ever being able to truly call themselves "architect". The architect in me is a little saddened that so many people work so hard for the profession but don't bother with the final little push to take the ARE. I also get, dare I say it, a little perturbed that I did bother to get licensed but that it seemingly might not matter in terms of professional success. I know of unlicensed designers who do get paid more than I do because of how they've arranged their careers--changing firms a few times can bump up your pay, and finding the right clients for which to design allows for some good opportunities to further a design career. Working as an unlicensed designer is not without its pitfalls--one of my friends who is a fantastic designer (and is also brilliant at construction detailing) was cheated out of the credit for an amazing residence when he and his temperamental client had a falling out. The credit for my friend's amazing design went to the guy who actually stamped the drawings, and my friend lost getting his name in three different architectural and design publications and also probably lost future commissions. During the recent recession, he found it hard to gain employment at the age of 40 without his license. Talk about a double whammy.

I work with some 40-year-old and 50-year-old interns. I work with some folks who practiced for 15 years and finally got licensed in their 40s. I work with some interns who blew through their tests and got licensed before they turned 30. The firm at which I work encourages and supports licensure because the partners value it, but there is still a place in the ranks for those who don't make passing the ARE a priority. And while I hope the profession takes a moment for self-reflection and assesses just how important a license is (and makes the changes necessary to reflect that importance), I think the bottom line for now is that there is a place for everyone in the profession. What we need most is conscientious talent: people who can think and design and listen and explain and help their clients and understand the myriad of codes and standards and do flashing details and dream of more interesting and uplifting interiors and exteriors and believe in the positive role of architecture and design in a society. Licensed or not, we need professionals--at some point, the rest is just labels.

Licensing requirements changing for Colorado: what about your state?

2011-12-07T05:23:00.000-07:00

An intern colleague of mine recently mentioned to me that Colorado (my new home state) will soon start requiring that all non-licensed folk in the state must follow IDP in order to get original licensure in Colorado. Granted, this won't be full law until January 1, 2014, but the byline on the state's webpage reminds the public that some states require IDP already and won't reciprocate licensure without that record.

I realize that IDP can feel like yet another paperwork tangle and NCARB can seem like a bureaucratic nightmare, but they do have their purpose. IDP was created so that our profession could have a baseline standard for what constitutes an appropriate professional experience, and NCARB helps maintain the clearinghouse for that information, those standards, and all those records. Yes, that experience can be fudged and flat-out forged; yes, that description of experience may be an incomplete picture of our profession; and yes, plenty of mildly- to severely-incompetent architect complete IDP and pass the ARE. However, it's all we've got for now, and when done correctly and in the spirit of the process it can be very rewarding and educational.

I encourage you to check NCARB's list of state licensing requirements as well as the specific state-updated pages regarding this information to make sure you're on the best (and quickest) path to licensure, wherever you live or want to live.

Thoughts on working from home (or while you're away)

2011-12-05T06:09:00.000-07:00

As the holidays crash down upon us (or maybe it's just me), it seems sometimes like both the pace and volume at work is increasing along with the pace and volume of holiday and family activities that are required of us. Deadlines, projects, travel, parties, family gatherings, and volunteer activities might leave us wondering how we're supposed to get everything done this month? Something has to give, doesn't it? Maybe if we were able to work from home or on one of our days of vacation...maybe that would help. Or would it?

The first thing to know about working from home is that any work you do on a project belongs to the company and is therefore subject to examination if a legal claim were to arise on that project. This means that if you get CAD or Illustrator installed on your computer at home and work on a project for work while your family is in town, your home computer may have to be turned over to a legal team if a lawsuit arises regarding that project. Think of it like this: if you're working on a project on any computer in the world, your company "owns" that computer while you're working on that project.

The solution then would be to borrow a company-owned laptop with the necessary software and connections to your company's server while you're away. Just be sure that, before you take that machine out of the office, you understand how to protect it and what your responsibilities are if someone hacks the machine while you're using a public wifi system to connect back to the office. Another caveat: be cautious with using the laptop for non-work reasons. It's one thing to watch a few funny videos on icanhascheezburger.com or buy your parents a fruit bouquet from 1-800-Flowers.com or something, but it's another to shop or surf racy or questionable sites. If your company's IT staff doesn't clean these laptops after someone returns them (and even if they do), someone else can see what you've been doing on this laptop, whether or not you erase the browser history.

The final thing to remember is that your vacation/personal time off is just that: personal. Yes, sometimes duty calls, but do your best to get a clean break from work and rest. You'll be much more productive when January rolls around.

Conflict or concerns at work? Deal with it.

2011-12-05T05:03:00.000-07:00

Longtime readers of Intern 101 may have noticed a trend in how I recommend dealing with problems at work. I suggest going right to the person with whom a reader is having a problem and talking it out with them, briefly but clearly. This might seem a little like playing hardball for some interns. We all fully realize that interns are by and large the easiest people to replace at a firm, so they're usually the last ones to confront problems or even stick up for themselves sometimes, especially in a crappy economy. The fact is though that dealing with problems directly--even with bosses--can do so much to help rather than hurt an intern.

First of all, interns might be easy to fire or lay off, but firing or laying off anyone is generally a pain in the ass. Confronting bad behavior or sticking up for yourself now and again isn't enough to really make someone want to go through the paperwork hassle that is employee termination. And frankly, if a firm wants to fire you because you dared stick up for yourself, you really don't want to work there for a long time anyway.

Second and more importantly, there are many ways to confront people without being confrontational and to deal with problems without being a jerk. There are many books out there on assertive communication, so check some out and find one or two that speak to you. This one is my favorite and I use the skills constantly. (Yes, the book is aimed at women but the skills actually work just as well for men.)

Third and most importantly of all, good communication skills and good conflict resolution skills are the kind of skills you need to be a great architect, project manager, and/or firm owner. You've heard the phrase "dress for the job you want, not the job you have," right? Well, having and using good communication skills is like speaking for the job you want, not the job you have. I know plenty of very talented architects and designers who are being held back in their careers because they don't stick up for themselves and get run over all the time or conversely blow up or push people around and scream and shout. When you model that you know how to handle yourself and can deal with uncomfortable situations, it shows your managers that you're able to handle more than just Revit drafting and looking up flashing details.

What is architecture?, or, if I didn't laugh I'd cry

2011-11-28T05:49:00.001-07:00

Someone recently sent me a page from archdaily.com, in which one of their writers defined architecture in a variety of ways, all of them a little cynical and to me quite funny. A few of the comments on the post/article tried to take on author Jody Brown for his snark, but those comments appear to have been overwhelmed by those who truly find the article funny. While I can see where the "You're being negative about this profession and you're not as funny as you think with your cynicism" comments are coming from, I think they're missing the point.

Architecture as a profession is a long-ass trail ride. Projects go on for years, not weeks like they did in school, and when you experience all the steps it takes to get something built in the real world, it can be downright frustrating. Funding, construction loans, value engineering, bond initiatives, zoning laws, code review/enforcement entities, more value engineering, neighborhood associations...these are just a few of the tings that can make taking a building from paper to bricks-and-mortar reality so painful that you'd rather pull your own arm off, freeze it, and then beat yourself to death with it rather than deal with all this nonsense. However, the process isn't completely sucky. I've had user group meetings where we're all laughing so hard that we can barely sit upright, I've been on teams that managed to salvage a great design through two rounds of VE, and I've watched people's faces as they walked through a building I designed and helped bring to life. There's a lot of reward to go with that pain.

So when I'm in the middle of that pain, I think of things like Jody Brown's article. And I laugh my ass off. Then I go design and tweak and work some more to get to the good part of a project.

It's a holiday, so go celebrate!

2011-11-23T05:39:00.001-07:00

Thanksgiving is tomorrow, and I encourage everyone to take the day and even the day after off to rest and be with loved ones. It gets easy to think, "oh, I could get so much done Thursday morning without the phone ringing", but I beg of you to resist the temptation. You have to defend your time off and hold your ground, whether it's not checking email during a three-day weekend or not coming in on a holiday just because no one will be in the Revit model but you. Go enjoy the time off!

Lulu's Mailbag: My boss treats me differently now that I'm full time--what gives?

2011-11-21T05:16:00.001-07:00

I received a chilling email from C. regarding how her firm's attitude towards her changed after she went from being part time to full time:

I started an internship in June and got glowing reviews. Now that I have been hired full time still as an intern, I have been making small mistakes and my nice boss has turned a cold shoulder to me. I realize this is part of the learning process. But here are some of the examples: I was doing a quote before it was sent to the client and I had missed a line. It wasn’t a small quote…but I sent it to the lead designer to look it over to let me know if it was alright and they told me they went and fixed it instead of me fixing it.

This got back to my boss and I have never made a mistake that I did not want to fix…everyone makes them. I took over some of the duties of a person that was released for lying. But before that he came in late, talked all the time…but she never talked to him about it or looked down on him. But for me as the intern I feel slighted and I need some advice on what to do. This is not a conventional design firm. Not how I was taught in school. There are some “personalities” there also who have also marked their territory and the boss have sided with them also. When others make mistakes even huge ones, it’s okay…..but for me not so much. I know I need to improve to survive, but what do I do if I am thrown under a bus and made to feel less?

(in a second email to Lulu) There is some other stuff to say as well. I think I mentioned my boss won't speak to me and they hired 2 girls to replace me. (younger thinner) I was an unpaid intern and things were perfect; then I got hired and people were much meaner including people telling me f*** you and this is MY area and if i didn't like how things were run, get out. When I found solutions to some problems, they said you have to do it MY way...which until now "this is the way" wasn't presented to me until Monday which I am sure they cleaned it up for the person taking my place.

Oh, C. Oh oh oh. There's so much to say here. Mistakes are part of the learning process. Being shut down and shut out by your boss and other architects in the office for any error whatsoever isn't part of the learning process. That's being obnoxious at best and bullying at worst. But I almost don't need more details beyond the ones you provided in our second email exchange: you were treated great when you weren't being paid, but now that you cost them money, they're giving you grief for small mistakes and even hiring younger people with the apparent intent of replacing you. This. Speaks. Volumes.

It tells me that this firm is bad, bad news. Not only is it unethical not to pay people who work on billable work, it's also illegal. Your firm (hopefully soon to be former firm) has no problem breaking the law and disrespecting skilled architectural labor, so why should they also have a problem being generally uncivil? To me, the problem is clearly the not being paid--as an unpaid intern, your mistakes were only kinda costly, but now they have to pay you and fix the mistakes. Please leave this firm as soon as you can, and if you're feeling froggy, get in contact with Pimping Architects about your firm.

Let's say for the sake of others out there that both the part time internship and the now-full time internship were paid, and an intern was receiving this sort of suddenly-poor treatment from formerly-warm colleagues. A good way to solve this--as well as almost any other problem in an office--is to approach it politely but directly. For example, C's example above might warrant someone going to the lead designer who fixed the mistake and saying, "Hi, Vicki, I heard you fixed an error I made in that quote I sent you yesterday, and I wanted to thank you for for doing that. But y'know, I really do want to do a good job and learn from my mistakes, so please don't hesitate to send something back to me to fix." (This can also be good as an email in which you can copy your big boss, so you have a paper trail of trying to fix your mistakes.) You may also decide, especially if you feel like you have nothing else to lose, to confront your boss on the cold-shoulder stuff directly: "Everett, I really appreciate you hiring me on full time; it makes me feel like you like my work and can trust me. But it feels like something's changed since I came on full time--every small mistake I make gets a major stink-eye from Vicki. Has something happened that I should be aware of?" Again, this could be sent as an email just to Everett so you have a trail of an important conversation.

Got a question or topic you'd like to see discussed here? Let me know in the comments or via email in the sidebar! Thanks, and remember that this blog works best with your feedback and questions!

Center for Emerging Professionals Webinar: Talent and Culture

2011-11-19T10:44:00.001-07:00

Mad props once again to the AIA's Center for Emerging Professionals for putting on this series of webinars open to all levels of folks in the architectural profession. The fourth in the four-part series, is on Talent and Culture, which will be broadcast in December 1st. It's $15, and I've heard from others on this blog that the seminars are really good and worth it.

Dress code interpretations, or "wtf is dressy casual?"

2011-11-16T06:06:00.001-07:00

Holiday party season is fast approaching, my peeps, and it seems to be a field of landmines sometimes, what with all the various dress codes for parties and open houses and so forth. Often, the dress codes for these events has some version of casual in them: dressy casual, business casual, festive casual, etc. Casual may be one of the most abused words in the English language these days. I want to rescue the word casual and throw a cashmere blanket around its little shoulders and tell the work world to go put on a tie and leave casual alone. Why must everything be casual? What's wrong with occasionally putting on a shirt that needs ironing (or at least looks like it would be ironed, if it wasn't made of some wrinkle-free material) and some nice slacks? What's wrong with looking sharp for our colleagues, thereby showing them a little respect? I'm not talking about a three-piece suit for even the most mundane office meetings, I just mean not looking like you work as a lifeguard. But I digress....

I found a great resource online for translations of what various types of "casual" attire means. This might come in handy if you're asked to be "dressy casual" at an office party or professional organization mixer. Remember, you work in a field that puts a great deal of thought into aesthetics and assemblies of materials and colors, so put some thought into your own facade when you hit the door at these events.

Lulu's Mailbag: I feel like I'm a good designer, but am I wasting my time?

2011-11-14T05:37:00.000-07:00

I recently received this email from G., who is probably not the Lone Ranger in terms of what s/he's experiencing right now:

I graduated in May and have been searching for a job (more on this in a bit), but since starting graduate school I have been nursing a slightly growing inkling that perhaps architecture is not the right profession for me. I originally wanted to become an architect because I like most things related to design and drawing and was always being pulled toward the architecture section at the local library. Of course there are several things about architecture that I dislike—mainly the low pay coupled with the long hours. Knowing that perhaps my love of architecture would hopefully outweigh these two negatives, I continued along the linear path that seemed so defined and ready for me. I studied architecture at my undergraduate college on a full ride and graduated summa cum laude and with an AIA medal; I took a gap year between degrees to work for a forensic architecture firm; I was accepted into grad school with a full fellowship and have won several design competitions. I did all that was required and gave it my all, but now I am starting to wonder if I am doing it for reasons that truly appeal to me. Perhaps these feelings are now surfacing because I have not had much “real-life” design experience at a traditional firm?

Which brings me to my question/point. I graduated in May and have been searching for the ideal position that would allow me to have a second chance with Ms. Architecture. I declined a job offer upon graduation because I really wanted something closer to family and friends where I would be able to save money. I did this assuming there would be more offers. One month later I was offered a position with a startup company based in China that was looking to expand to the US. I took the job and absolutely detested it. It was a two person closet-sized office (me and a jaded, older design architect who had next to no experience dealing with interns), and most of my time, including unpaid overtime, was spent working on non-billable work that would not count toward IDP. After two weeks I knew that this experience was completely the opposite of my structured, professional internship with the forensic firm; I quit with the hope that I would find something more suitable. Is this internship experience typical of a design firm? After five months of searching for the right job, I am starting to wonder if I am being too picky and should just settle for some horridly similar CAD jockey position at a less-than-average design firm just so I can get experience. The alternative, to go back to school for an MBA in real estate, might be a possible alternative, but I feel like I just need to get out there and give architecture another shot. After all, I did just spend seven years of my life for this career and I know I could be a great designer.

Wow, G., you've certainly been through it, but the short answer is: yes, you still have a place in architecture. Now let me give you a longer, more thorough (if also boring) answer.

First of all, I can see how any work experience would be a letdown after having won so many awards and scholarships. You've been given every indication over and over that your skills and interests are perfect for this profession, so why should it be so hard to find a good firm? Well, the economy is a huge reason right now. Like many of your colleagues just getting out of school, there aren't a lot of jobs available right now, so you take what you can get. The corollary to that fact is that if there are very few places interviewing and hiring, you don't have a chance to compare potential firms against each other or even jump ship in three months when you figure out you've stepped into a firm that's more like Thunderdome with Revit on the workstations and your boss has an Axis II personality disorder. Furthermore, while starting intern pay is pretty low (as is the starting pay for a lot of college graduates, regardless of their major), it's even more depressed right now because the economy is keeping wages across the board either stagnated or increasing at a lower rate than usual. No wonder you (and I'm sure many other interns out there) feel so demoralized.

And yet, you had a great experience at the forensic architecture firm that showed you how good it could be--well-structured, respectable and respectful, and educational. That, my friend, is what a real firm can do for you. In this economy, I think it's hard to judge the profession on one crappy firm that abused your skills simply because they could. Yes, there are other crappy firms out there, but there are also so many good and even great firms out there that want to use your skills while also helping you grow as an architect and a professional. You may have to move away from your family to find those jobs and firms, but it can be so worth it. It may take you longer than five months to find that job and firm, but it will happen. (Remember that you're looking for a job during the worst economy since the Great Depression, so it could take some time.) If you're hankering for that MBA because you can and it's really what you want to do, then do so. But it sounds to me like you're not done with architecture, and I don't think architecture's done with you. It needs your badass design skills that won you those awards and fellowships, and there's a good firm out there that needs those skills. In return, that firm will teach you how to make those amazing designs come to life in real concrete and steel and drywall and glass and aluminum. And that is so worth it.

Got a question or topic for this blog? Let me know in the comments or via email in the sidebar. Thanks!

Reading a job ad, or how to make your cover letter work for you

2011-11-07T05:50:00.000-07:00

An article in the Sunday Wall Street Journal section of the 9/18/11 Denver Post on how to read a job ad reminded me of some good tips on answering job ads, especially unusual ones. The article began with a portion of a company whose help-wanted ad included the sentence "Wanted: Sales agents who are able to stare intently into client eyes while describing what they are looking for." The point of the ad copy was to help potential job candidates understand that the company needed people who could listen and really understand what the clients needed. A management consultant suggested that if someone were applying for this job, they should use their cover letter to deal with and respond to this strange comment from the ad.

I've seen cover letters fall a little out of favor these days, but I think even a short cover letter is still handy because it allows you to be conversational with your potential employer. It also allows you a less-structured way to address the job ad which you're answering. By writing a cover letter, you can include key words from the job ad and even from a firm's website in your lexicon--as if they were coming from your own mouth--which shows them that you understand what they're looking for. It's like using active listening, but with the written word instead of the spoken word.

You can also use a cover letter to highlight things that might get lost on your resume. By calling out in writing a recent award or achievement or successfully-completed project that mirrors and jives with the firm's focuses or interests, you can reinforce that you have what it takes to contribute to a firm and help them achieve their goals. The cover letter can also be a way to address areas in which you may quite fit the hard requirements from the ad. For example, if you have eight years of retail architecture experience and the ad asks for a minimum of ten years' worth, you can address that the projects on which you worked were rigorous (international and located on top of a Superfund site!) and would allow you to be a highly-useful and highly-valuable member of their retail architecture team.

Lulu's Mailbag: How do I follow my heart and my profession cross country?

2011-10-31T05:22:00.000-06:00

I got the following question/conundrum from B.G., who I'm sure isn't the Lone Ranger with this problem:

I am an intern architect with four years of full-time experience, presently employed at locally reputable, 20 person office on the East coast. I am also a LEED AP BD+C and am starting to study for the ARE. My boyfriend moved to the West coast last year to attend a 5 year phd program. We have made it long distance for a year and I am now in the process of the looking for work out West near where my boyfriend goes to school. Previously, I went to grad school out West, but not in the same city so I have no connections. I have been applying to jobs for a month now and am worried I won't find anything (my boyfriend reapplied to schools this year, but was unable to get in anywhere else). Additionally as a young intern architect, I can't financially afford to move out there without a job. Recently, I have been peer reviewing my job application documents with a more experienced colleague which I believe has been an improvement, but overall I am worried and the situation is causing me massive anxiety. Do you have any advice for my job search?

Ah, yes, the moving-cross-country for love and work problem. In our modern, heavily-mobile society, it's a big problem for folks of all professions and frankly of all ages. First, let's assess the economy: you had been looking for a job for a month when you wrote me this question back in the summer (and I apologize for not getting back to you sooner). In this abject economy (and even now), I would have been amazed if you had been able to find something in just one month. There's a lot of competition for jobs right now, so don't be surprised if you're having a hard time finding something. Having someone review your resume and help you punch it up a bit is a good thing. It's always good to have a fresh set of eyes on a document that you've slaved over, and it's especially helpful if those eyes have hired people before--they know what to look for and what can catch someone's eye (or make them drop you into File 13).

Now, let's look at your job search from a couple of different angles. First off, you lament that you have no connections in your BF's new hometown. Bummer. Wait, aren't you working at a firm now? Do they know of anyone even remotely in that area? For that matter, would anyone at a local networking event full of architects know someone on the West Coast looking for a sharp soon-to-be-licensed architect? Here's where you work this the way the social site LinkedIn is supposed to work: you go meet people and talk to people, and they know people who are where you want to be, and they connect you with those people. Yes, it's a bit of a stretch, but it just might work. You'll need to get yourself in front of those people, so find the next AIA wine and cheese event being touted, put on a good suit, and get thee to it.

Next, you mention that you cannot move unless you have a job in place. Fair enough, and it's good planning as well. But must it be a straight-up architecture job? I don't mean you should get hired at Starbucks and then move, but perhaps you could work for a contractor or even for an architectural product company. I recently met a sharp young woman who graduated from school as an electrical engineer just as the economy tanked, so she started working as a product rep/consultant/designer for a lighting fixture company. The job held her over for a couple of years, and in the course of her job she met dozens of great engineering firms, one of which was eventually able to hire her full time...in the state to which her fiance had just moved. What I'm saying is that your experience may allow you to branch out to work in more than just straight-up-vanilla architecture for the time being, which could give you the moolah needed to move to be with your sweetie.

(Bear in mind that no matter how you find a potential job out West, chances are good that you'll need to fly there for a face-to face interview, unless they'll settle for some hot Skype-on-Skype action. Make sure you've budgeted for that trip, or trips if need be.)

Got a question you'd like answered or a topic you'd like to see discussed on Intern 101? Let me know in the comments or via email in the sidebar. Thanks!

Taking the ARE early? Woohoo!

2011-10-24T06:02:00.000-06:00

I received an email from Intern 101 reader Joe, who passed along info on taking the ARE early. Indeed, some states allow you to take some or all portion of the ARE before you have completed the required work hours. You can find a list of what each state/jurisdiction allows by clicking here.

NCARB brought itself into alignment with this movement in 2011 and spoke at length about the changes at the 2011 National Convention in New Orleans in May. To NCARB, all you need is three things: the accredited education, the time spent in an approved work environment, and to pass all seven sections of the test. Who cares what order you do them in? While my inner fuddy-duddy harrumphs at this, I overall think it's a good thing. I think of interns in my office who have been hamstrung by the crappy economy and haven't been able to finish their on-site CA credits. With this rule in effect, they can start taking tests while waiting for a project to make it all the way to construction and finish their credits then. I also think of interns who have been laid off and unable to find a new job. With at least some of their credits in place, they can start testing while they have some time to study.

However, I would warn against anyone coming straight out of school and immediately starting into the tests. Why? Two reasons. Number one: While you do need to study for the ARE regardless of how long it's been since you were in college, some of the stuff on the tests makes more sense when you've actually seen or done it on a job. And number two: you may decide you don't want this. Yes, that's a weird thought to have, but plenty of gung-ho students realize a couple of years into the profession that they don't want to do this anymore. That's already a real downer after 4-6 years of schooling, but it's even suckier when you've dropped several hundred dollars on licensing tests that you'll never use.

Lulu's Mailbag: Racism in architecture?

2011-10-17T05:14:00.000-06:00

Recently, I got the following email from B, who was concerned about:

Lately I've been having a really hard time trying to find internships because of my race. I'm a minority and everywhere I go I have to face racial comments and criticisms. I'm starting to get really discouraged. Do you think that this profession is open to minorites, such as Latinos, Asians, and African Americans? And should I continue to try and find an internship or just give up?

It's a fair question, B, and one that's admittedly a little hard for me to answer. I'm a white woman in Colorado (where the racial makeup is only about 10% African-American and about 30% Hispanic), and before that I was a white woman in the South (where black and white were about 50-50 when I left in 2000, though Hispanics had been moving into the South for the ten years before I moved out), so my race has never been an issue (and my gender only rarely has been an issue).

But that leads me to my first question: where are you looking for jobs? Are you in Yazoo County, Mississippi, or in the greater Los Angeles area? I'm only half kidding. I don't know what is your country of origin (I've withheld your name in this post), so I can't imagine what you look like or what your accent sounds like or any other factors that might lead someone to be biased against you and not hire you. But I can imagine that if you're looking for a job in a smaller market (say, Witchita KS versus Philadelphia PA), and you're competing for jobs with a bunch of people who look exactly like the people running the firm, and people in that smaller market aren't used to seeing people like you on a regular basis, then I imagine you're going to have a harder time getting a job.

I'm also trying to imagine where you are that you're actively hearing racist comments and criticisms on a regular basis, even in 2011. Even in the small town in Georgia where I was raised, people say rude and ignorant things under their breath, but they at least have the good sense not to say them out loud where everyone can hear. I'm also going to ask a possibly sensitive/emotionally- and politically-charged question: How's your English? Do you have a solid grasp of not just vocabulary but also grammar and even slang phrases? Do you speak with much of an accent? Accents can be off-putting to some firms, especially if they're in small markets, because they're concerned that you don't know English well enough to understand what a client or consultant (or even your boss) is asking of you.

The reason I'm asking these questions is that architecture can be very accepting of different minorities, but it can depend on where you are in the country when you're looking for a job. Hell, it even varies from firm to firm--I know of firms full of white guys in Manhattan, and I know of a small firm in Cody, Wyoming that has people from Colombia and Trinidad working on hospitals all over the West. Even when people aren't actively being racist (i.e., thinking "Man, I would never hire him/her because s/he's black/Asian/Hispanic"), people can be subtly, almost subconsciously or unintentionally racist. You just don't look like everyone else at the firm or in the area, and something in their head says "no." Or, they may see and/or hear you and think, "Well, s/he looks perfect for the job, but I don't think my clients will warm to him/her."

I found a great report on interns in architecture that included a dissection of how welcome minorities felt in the profession. (To find your own copy, Google "AIA Demographic Diversity Final Report". For some reason, AIA.org no longer has it posted easily on their website, not that I can find anyway.) The report, compiled in 2005, indicated that of its respondents, about a third of women and minorities reported having experienced some kind of harassment or bias while working, and about a third of respondents felt that there were not equal opportunities for women and minorities. Having spoken with people from other professions, it would seem that architecture is no better or worse for minorities than any other white collar profession (though architecture school seems to do a better job of leveling the playing field for genders and races). The AIA has initiatives regarding diversity, but your best bet might be the National Organization of Minority Architects. Your question might be better directed to them, and they may have better resources regarding support for minority architects.

So B., the short answer is this: yes, there is a place for everyone in architecture; sometimes it's a matter of looking for the right fit (and in the right places).

Got a question you'd like answered or a topic you'd like to see discussed here? Drop me a line in the comments or via email in the sidebar. Thanks!

Lulu's Mailbag: How to handle a colleague doing personal work at work

2011-10-12T19:23:00.000-06:00

While I was ill and working (I know, I know, and after all my preaching against presenteeism...), I got the following email from longtime Intern 101 reader Intern Timmy. Here's his story of dealing with a colleague at his office who was clearly doing outside work at his day job:

My colleague "Laura" and I began noticing that our co-worker Seth was taking a lot of personal phone calls at work. Our office is small and relatively quiet so it's pretty easy to overhear anything. (It's a been a long-known fact that he does work on the side, and it's work that our company wouldn't do so it's non-competing and okay for him to be doing on the side.) The problem we had was it seemed like every day he would be on the phone from 30 minutes up to 2 hours. All the while he was supposed to be working on actual billable tasks ... and to our knowledge he wasn't putting in any extra time after hours to make up for whatever time he spent on his personal jobs. Our firm does a lot of government projects, and tracking what you worked on and who you billed is a big deal since our government clients do sometimes audit this information. If it isn't tracked correctly, our office can be in a A LOT of trouble.

These phone calls had been going on for a while, and we were becoming increasingly upset by it because all of us were busy working on a lot of projects and project-related tasks. Seth was supposed to be busy too...but he apparently wasn't if he had so much time to do this stuff. Also frustrating is that now and then between these calls, Seth had helped us out on some projects, and usually any part he worked on required one of us to go back and fix his work (keep in mind, Seth is licensed), so it was frustrating seeing him take these personal calls in between screwing up our projects and causing us extra work. The more junior staff was pretty ticked off by it, but none of us had said anything. Finally, Laura and I decided we can keep bitching about this internally or we can do something about it. We considered going to our manager--but there's a side story there I'll tell you about in a moment--so instead we decided to just go to HR because of the time sheet problems that his "work" were causing.

We met with the HR person and told her our concerns; she agreed with us that it's a problem and suggested we talk to our manager and let him know and that HR needs to be part of this conversation. So we set up a time to meet and put it out on the table. HR was very helpful and wanted to see something done, which is good. Our manager agreed to talk to him and let him know that it cannot occur in that capacity at work without him making up the time. Before the manager could even talk to Seth, another employee complained to HR as well. This forced the issue, and finally our manager spoke with Seth. It took him a week from the initial complaint to when it was handled, which is too long IMHO.

The side story about the manager: our manager is in my opinion someone who probably shouldn't be manager. It's not that he's not a good guy or bad at architecture (he's good at designing and great at detailing a building). But he avoids conflict and the fact that HR said something needs to be done and 2 of his staff voiced serious concerns about the issue... you'd think that would make him jump at the problem and solve it quickly. The fact that a week later nothing had been done and it took another person completely unrelated to the first complaint to force the issue is unacceptable.

Since the complaint/conversation, the phone calls at Seth's desk have declined; I won't say they've ended because we see him leave his desk with his phone and then come back 30 minutes later. But, at least they've subsided. He still isn't a very "trusted" member of our group because of all the mistakes he's made and the lackluster way he does complete tasks.

Intern Timmy, it sounds like you and your colleague did the best thing you could do given the circumstances. And actually, a week is an unsurprising amount of time between the manager hearing a complaint and finally doing something about it. He may have been waiting for a good time to talk with Seth. Since it's a small office, he might have been waiting for Seth to be alone or almost alone before he pulled him into a conference room so that he could speak with him without embarrassing him. However, I do wonder if it took only a week because of the extra complaint. It very likely could have taken longer. The fact is that most managers and bosses hate confrontation and will avoid it at nearly all costs. Just as we often complain that architects are lacking in business acumen, I find that they often also lack in managerial and communication skills as well.

And that's part of the sad truth about not just architecture but most professions--people advance into managerial positions with incomplete skill sets. Your manager, like a lot of architects that advance up the ladder in a firm, is a great architect and a so-so manager. One of the best, most useful skills you can develop as an intern is good communication skills, which include being able to confront people in a respectful way. It's a skill that most people, regardless of their major, don't have (or don't have much of), so if you can develop this in even a small way, you'll be ahead of the pack. The fact that you and Laura were able to triage the situation, consider the best plan of attack (i.e., talking to HR before the manager, and to frame the problem as a timesheet/auditing issue), and express your concerns in what was hopefully a respectful manner--those are good skills to have. Again, it sounds like you did the best you could. You'll probably not be able to stop the behavior totally, but at least more than one person in the management food chain knows that you know that this person is acting inappropriately, making it harder for management to ignore the behavior in the future if it escalates or morphs into some other unethical activity.

Got a question you'd like answered or a topic you'd like to see discussed here? Drop me a line in the comments or via email in the sidebar. Thanks!

A cold and a deadline? Why, you shouldn't have!

2011-10-03T05:39:00.001-06:00

Folks, it’s been one of those weeks…well, one of those months, really. Not only do I have a 100% CD deadline a week from today, I have a cold/flu/bubonic death funk to beat the band. And here I was, all excited to get some Redlined Resumes done and posted. No such luck.

I beg your pardon while I get through this deadline and illness simultaneously. Meanwhile, I was sent a great website that provides basic references for architects. ArchToolbox has all kinds of wonderful little bits on it—basic info on spacing sprinkler heads, this difference between all the cuts of lumber (plain, quarter, etc.), different types of locksets, and so on. (Man, where was this website 11 years ago when I first started working? :-) ) While it’s not complete with every single thing you ever wanted to know about architecture, it can give you a good start on understanding many of the building blocks of design and construction (or in my case, a good refresher course!).

Lulu's Mailbag: How do I respond when asked about salary and work hours?

2011-09-26T05:15:00.000-06:00

First of all, I cannot thank y'all enough for sending in some great questions lately. I've got so many topics to blog about that it almost makes me dizzy. I've also received some great resumes for my long-languishing feature Redlined Resumes, about which I have been gravely remiss and need to get off my ass and post a few. Meanwhile, here's a great question from A. regarding salary and other details in an interview:

I recently just graduated with my Masters in Architecture and just had my first job interview. I have a lot of questions for you if you wouldn't mind answering them. I feel as though my fellow colleagues may be withholding information from me to keep that competitive edge. During my interview, I was asked about starting salary, benefits, and work hours. Would you mind if I picked your brain and asked you a few questions? My concerns are that I am being taken advantage and would like to know where the profession stands on these topics.

Wow, A. You were asked about starting salary in a first job interview, where the interviewer clearly had to know that s/he was interviewing an entry-level person? That's kinda weird to me, as how are you supposed to know what the market really bears as someone with little to no experience? Websites like salary.com are only helpful to a point, as I think architecture as a profession holds its cards a little too close to the vest when it comes to what we make (and what we all should make). That being said, some firms do report what they pay to whom, and those results make it into certain documents, such as the 2008 AIA Compensation Report. That report showed that in the first quarter of 2008, intern pay averaged $45,400 a year. But note the asterisks by that figure--that includes interns with a wide range of experience levels as well as (or so it would seem) geographical locations. If you lump together an intern with one year of experience in Denver (making $32,000) and a six-year intern in New York (making $55,000), the mathematical average is $43,500. (Regional reports are also available from the AIA, which might be more valuable to the average architect or intern.) Plus, this report was compiled and released before the Great Recession really kicked in, so those numbers may be skewed even more.

Having said all that, I've seen and heard of a few interns with 0-2 years experience here in Denver getting paid about $16/hour for their starting salaries. I think it's unfortunate that our culture--American, not architectural--has a stigma towards money and discussing salaries. Especially among interns, it's helpful to know what you "should" be asking for or expecting so that you can know if you're being compensated appropriately or if you're being taken for a ride.

Asking you about benefits and work hours might be a way for the interviewer to test your work ethic and sense of entitlement, or at least that's my guess. S/He wants to see what you "expect" to have in a workplace, both in terms of the "freebies" (which aren't free) and how committed you are to work. Are you a slacker who just wants to warm a chair for 40 a week, or are you more motivated? Or are you so desperate that you'll let them abuse you week in and week out for 60 hours at a time?

If you're new to the job market, I would turn the question back to the interviewer: what would most of the employees here say if I asked them about their workweek and workload? If I were an intern and were pressed further on the topic, I might say something along the following lines:

work hours: "I suppose 40 hours is the norm in the workplace, and I'm fine with that. However, I understand that sometimes the job takes more or less than that number, and I'm willing to do the work it takes to make our firm look good. How would the employees here describe their workweek length and tasks?"
benefits: "I see working with a firm as a symbiotic relationship--I provide high-quality architectural services that help us gain and keep clients and make a mark on the built world in our market, and in return I gain knowledge about how to do that job even better through the support of the firm. Sometimes that support is through additional training or continuing education opportunities, and sometimes that support is through time off that allows me to heal from an illness or take a break and recharge. How does your firm view employee benefits?"

If you have a topic you'd like to see discussed here or a question you'd like to ask, feel free to do so via email in the sidebar or in the comments. Thanks!

Studying for the ARE: finding study buddies and materials

2011-09-19T05:45:00.000-06:00

Recently, a reader asked in the comments on this post I did about ARE study tips:

1. I just finished B.Arch at University of Oregon. And now I'm back in Newcastle, WA where I live and know practically nobody. Can you think of a source to find study buddies? And maybe what the best forum to work with?
2. Books, Visuals. I know you mentioned two sources up there, I'm going to try to look them up, but any other recommendations?
3. How did you go about choosing your order of the exams?

Let's start with the first question. If you've moved somewhere after finishing your degree, did you move there for a job? If so, get to know your coworkers and ask them if they or anyone they know are studying for the ARE. If you've moved home because of a lack of work, check with your nearest AIA chapter about classes or ARE study groups. AIA Denver (here in my adopted hometown) puts on low-cost classes to help interns prepare for each of the ARE exams. Also, NCARB's website might have some good info on study groups (either existing ones or on forming your own). As for forums, areforum.org can be helpful, but by the end of my husband's and my time taking the ARE, we quit visiting it because it seemed like the only people on the site were those with extreme panic disorders. Read the site, but take the OMG!!!?! THISTESTISSOHARD!1!!! tone of the comments with a grain of salt. And a large margarita.

NCARB also may have some resources for helping you study for the ARE; I haven't looked lately, but they've been getting more info on their website lately. The interns around me are saying good things about both the Kaplan study guides and the Ballast study guides. I've heard especially good things about the Kaplan ARE Complete Library, which includes 24 months of online access to additional online study supplements. It's pricey at $1300, but if you go in on it with several friends/study buddies, you can offset the cost somewhat. (Some folks sell their used study materials to other interns for less that what they paid after they've finished the ARE.) If nothing else, get the flash cards. I'd have to say that every test I took had at least three or four questions that came straight from the flashcards.

As for the order of taking the tests, bear in mind that I took them when there were nine tests: six multiple guess and three graphics tests. My husband and I thought about what sounded easiest to us, i.e., what could we have the best chance of passing, given our work experiences in the last year or two? For us, Construction Documents and Materials and Methods were the obvious first choices, since we both had a great deal of experience detailing buildings and working with the actual process of getting a project built. We then reasoned to take the two structures tests together (General Structures and Lateral Forces), as the knowledge of studying one added to and built on the other. We then took the last two multiple guess tests, which were MEP and Pre-Design. Finally, we took the three graphics ones, starting with the toughest one (Site Design) and saving Schematic Design for last because it seemed like the easiest of the three. By taking a couple of "easy" ones first, we were hoping to build our confidence up to take the tougher ones in the middle. Taking the tough ones in the middle would hopefully give us time to fail a test and wait six months to take it again while taking possibly-easy-ish other tests. While there are now only seven tests and they all combine multiple guess and graphics, the principle remains the same--start with the topic you think you might know best, then take the toughest ones so you have time to fail them if need be. (Note: my husband and I didn't fail any of the sections, but it's no shame or crime to fail one or more. It happens to the best architects.)

Got a question you'd like to ask or a topic you 'd like to see discussed here? Ask me via email in the sidebar or in the comments, and thanks for all the questions and input!

What makes it "worth it"?

2011-09-12T06:03:00.000-06:00

I recently got a comment on the very first post I ever did on Intern 101 that asked a good question. I noted at the end of that post that I myself nearly left architecture but am glad I stayed and that staying in the profession is worth it. Reader DRob26 asked:

I really appreciate your insight as I am a new intern. It seems to be a difficult transition from school to practice. I have only been here 4 months, and I have often wanted to quit. You say staying is worth it. What made it worth staying?

First of all, I really feel your pain, DRob26--the shock of going from school to work can make a person curl up in a ball in the bathroom floor sometimes, and even today I have moments where I think Good Lord, did I really spend all that time in school for this?! (Apparently, yes.) But the question still stands: why did I say it was worth it even if I find myself now and again wishing I'd gotten a degree in psychology or mortuary science instead of architecture? (Those who know me personally know that I'd make a great embalmer and funeral home director. I'm not particularly goth, I just find the whole process of dealing with death interesting. Every vacation I take eventually involves touring a graveyard. But I digress....)

One of the reasons I'm glad I stayed in is that I gave myself enough time to experience a wide range of the architectural profession's ups and downs. No offense to DRob26's four months in a firm, but anything less than two or three years isn't much to base a career (or career change) on. Projects in a firm last too long to make a quick decision about what's good, bad, exciting, or craptastic about the profession you've chosen and for which you've spent volumes of time in school. In a way, joining a firm is where the rubber really meets the road--it's where things get exciting, and you find out if you really can handle all that's being asked of you. Furthermore, time spent at one firm also may not be enough experience on which to base a career. I've spoken with interns whose first firms out of school were everything from bland to Stephen King-esque nightmares; interns either did the same types of plan details over and over for two months straight at the blah firms, while other interns were forced to work 20 hours of unpaid overtime a week or sexually harassed by the firm owner. All of the interns in these firms I just described have since left those firms and are now much happier and fulfilled at other firms.

I considered leaving architecture while working for a frustrating jerk back in the early 2000s. He was arrogant and would behave either passive-aggressively or as if he were bipolar--laughing and joking one moment, then fifteen minutes later he was cursing loudly and throwing code books. Other people at my firm were talking about how great my firm was and how much better it was that where they used to work, and all I could think was Jesus, really? If it's so great, and I'm so miserable, then clearly I shouldn't be in architecture at all. However, a few months after I had this feeling/realization, he told his project team that he was leaving our firm and moving out of state to start his own firm closer to his family out east. It was only after he left and I was able to work with another manager in the office, one that many people refused to work for because he was "strict and overly-serious", that I found out that the problem wasn't the firm or the profession but rather the manager. I was finally working with someone who was more interested in teaching me how to be a good architect than in eating a whole bowl of crazy every morning before coming to work. Once I was able to experience that difference, I could settle down and enjoy the profession for real.

The other reason I'm glad I've stayed is that after working my butt off, I'm now reaping some of the fruits of my labors. I spent years slogging through details and drawings and code books and project after project, and I've finally developed the expertise to know if I can or can't locate a soiled utility room in a certain part of a department or how a room has to be built differently if it has one kind of equipment versus another. I've developed the ability to look at a corridor in a floor plan and know almost instantly if it meets code (IBC, ADA, or various state and national healthcare guidelines). By learning constantly and producing good work and retaining knowledge and managing my projects well, I've earned the right to run some of my own projects and have interns help me draw and detail and do code research on those projects. And because I'm in charge, I finally get to do it my way. While adjusting to the changes in my workdays and workweeks hasn't always been easy, at least I'm not doing the same thing over and over for eleven years. And because I learned what I needed to learn and am still learning more and more, architecture is, in some ways, becoming easier.

Architecture can be an addictive profession. You work so hard for so long for that brief, strange payoff of walking into a building you drew that has been built and indeed has come to life. For me, it's the payoff of having the users--the people without whose input I couldn't have done the work--run up to me in the new building and proclaim how great it looks, and how well it works, and how wonderful it is. Those moments are rare and few indeed. I've done a lot of remodeling jobs lately, one of which was in a very busy clinic in a metropolitan area. The clinic's project manager, the contractor, and I were all standing in the newly-renovated lobby recently, discussing the open items from the punchlist and wondering how to phase the next part of construction because there had been so many complaints about the temporary walls we'd had to put up for the first phase...and a little old lady came out of nowhere and put her hand on my arm. She looked up at me and said, "I want you to know that this lobby looks so nice...it's just so pretty in here, and I just love it!"

That, my friends, was worth it.

Happy belated Labor Day, hopefully without the labor!

2011-09-06T19:54:00.000-06:00

I just got back from an extended Labor Day weekend, in which I unplugged and checked no email or voicemail, turned off my cellphone, and didn't watch a lick of TV. It was unbelievably relaxing, and it was just what I needed. I actually heard someone lament today at they were annoyed that our IT department shut down the servers over the three-day weekend so they could do some upgrades. My colleague had wanted to work on a deadline over the weekend, and he was rather piqued that he hadn't been able to use a three-day weekend productively. I thought to myself, what could be more productive that staying the hell home and getting a little extra sleep and having brunch with a mimosa or twothreeseven?

I've emphasized before on this blog that there are times when you're just going to have to pull long days/nights and weekends, but as the book of Ecclesiastes said, to everything there is a season. There's a time to work a lot, and there's a time to go home and actually enjoy your three-day weekend. Here's hoping you all did just that.

I've been emailed some great questions and comments as well as post ideas, and I plan to get to them in the next few weeks here. I welcome more comments and questions, as always. In the meantime, please be patient as I get through the pileup in my email inbox from a five-day weekend!

Lulu's Mailbag: following up on some comments

2011-08-29T06:10:00.000-06:00

I've gotten some new readers recently who posted some good questions on old blog posts. Being that they were good questions, and being that I'm about to go on vacation and am not feeling particularly motivated to say anything fresh or new, I thought it might be helpful to post responses to these questions. First, a question from Anthony, on this post about whether or not to go to grad school:

I have a B.Arch already, is there any need to get an M.Arch besides 20% salary boost? Just curious for an outside and well experienced view. Especially from one that has an M.Arch.

Good question. The short answer is no, the M.Arch probably isn't worth your time in the eyes of an employer. If you have a B.Arch, then you already have a professional degree--you'll be required to work for the same number of hours to complete IDP as someone with an M.Arch. The longer answer is that more than just education gets you a boost in salary. For example, you and Intern X might work at the same firm with the same amount of experience, but you make a dollar less an hour than Intern X because he has an M.Arch. But let's say you get licensed a year before Intern X--you keep on top of your IDP hours, make sure you get them, and don't drag your feet when it comes to signing up for and taking the exams. In general, bam, you get a raise over Intern X. Let's say you then decide a year or so later that you're ready to move on and you change firms. Again, in general, bam, you get another raise over Intern X. Suddenly, you've closed the pay gap and passed Intern X without having to add another degree. (Also, I think there's a rule against having more than one professional degree in architecture, unless you go from a B.Arch to a Ph.D. Arch.) Bottom line: there's more than one way to increase your pay in architecture, and an M. Arch is only one of those ways.

Next question is from Drob26, who commented on a post about being underpaid. When I mentioned that up until about three years of being out of school, interns are mostly interchangeable, Drob26 asked:

Why is it three years of experience? Is that because that's, normally, how long it takes to get licensed or finish the IDP?

Not at all. Technically, it's supposed to take three years to complete the IDP if all goes according to plan, but it's more about experience. After three years in a firm, it's highly likely that you've experienced all the phases of a project at least once (or at least have passing knowledge of the phases), know how to act professionally in a firm, and are skillful with multiple types of software. Three years of experience has given you a chance to figure out where your skills lie--planning, CA, software, rendering, code research, etc. Also, if you've spent all three of those years at the same firm, it means you have a great deal of firm understanding--you know what the standards are, what typical details the firm uses, how the firm's drawings look, and so on. Having those skills makes you more valuable, especially when a lot of work needs to be done quickly in a short amount of time--you know what you're doing, and no one has to train you on the majority of typical tasks for the project.

Got a question you'd like to ask or a topic you'd like to see discussed here? Drop me a line in the comments or via email in the sidebar. Thanks!

YAF Mentoring Series: Doing Good Work Webinar

2011-08-24T06:01:00.000-06:00

Yet again, the Young Architects Forum (YAF) is sponsoring another webinar (with which you can gain 1.5 LUs!) on doing good work. I love that the YAF is doing the kind of thing that I encourage firms to do with their interns in my AIA seminars and hopefully on this blog. If you work at a firm that doesn't yet have any mentorship programs going on, or if you're between firms, this is a good option. (Though frankly, I think this kind of webinar can be helpful even if you get great mentorship wherever you work.) You can see a description of the event and register for it here.

101 Things I Didn't Learn in Architecture School

2011-08-22T18:50:00.001-06:00

I'm a fan of the little book 101 Things I Learned in Architecture School. It's compact, simply illustrated (and illustrative), honest, and well-done. However, a colleague of mine recently sent me this link for 101 Things I Didn't Learn in Architecture School. First of all, how have I lived my life without knowing that ArchDaily existed? I think I really do live under a rock. Second, this list is the perfect counterpoint to Matthew Frederick's lovely tome. This is the realistic side of architecture in a no-nonsense but civil list.

My personal favorites:
9. It's architecture, not medicine. You can take a break and no one will die.
12. The industry underpays. Push for what you are worth.
49. If you are an architect, you should automatically qualify for psychotherapy and medication.
68. Archi-babble does not make you sound cool.
98. Being good at software does not make you a good architect.

Have a look at the list and tell me in the comments: which ones ring true for you? What's missing from the list?

Managing Up: Lulu, this is the print button....

2011-08-15T05:43:00.000-06:00

As I've moved into a more managerial role in the last 18 months, I've had to rely on my interns more and more to do things that I used to do for myself when I was an intern or new architect. While I'm answering an onslaught of emails and phone calls about the project, someone else is doing the redlines instead of me. And that's a weird feeling, handing off something I used to do all the time to someone else, hoping they do it right. I've gotten more used to the process now, and my interns are good, solid folks. They know what they're doing and how to do it, and if they don't know, then they ask.

The same goes for me--if I don't know, I have to ask, and sometimes the people I ask are my interns. When I began working on a large project in Revit with an intern, I grew frustrated when I would print out a floor plan and find that notes had still not been picked up from my redlines. I finally confronted him about this, asking him if I wasn't giving him enough time to complete the redlines. Turns out that I was printing from the wrong plans in Revit--some of the notes he was making were view-dependent, so of course they weren't going to show up on what I printed out if I didn't print the plan he put those notes in. Fortunately for me, I had a good intern who did two things right away: one, he assumed ignorance and not malice and began problem-solving and troubleshooting; and two, he taught me how to do what I needed in less than five minutes.

The first point is important regardless of who is giving you criticism and regardless of the setting (architecture firm, graphic design, English department, etc.). While I did try hard to approach my intern with a mindset of that I'm causing the problem (i.e., not giving him enough time to finish the job), it would have been easy for him to jump to a defensive posture: "how dare you question if I'm getting my work done!" Instead, he approached the situation with a problem-solving mindset: "huh, that's weird, I know I did those redlines...here, show me how you printed them out and let's see if there's a setting that funky on your computer...." By troubleshooting the problem instead of taking personal offense, he figured out that I was printing out the wrong plan views.

The second part of my intern's smooth move was to show me what to do instead. He showed me which plans I should use to print from and what settings to use in order to print the plans correctly. Moreover, he made that process easier wherever and whenever he could. I would get an email occasionally that explained briefly how to print something or find something with only one or two mouse clicks. This was brilliant on his part--now, not only do I not feel quite so stupid, but I also have the knowledge to print something for myself on a late night or weekend, or if he's busy working on something urgent for me and needs to stay focused, not printing random plans.

While not everything might be solved this simply in your office, it's a good lesson overall. My intern figured out how to manage up, how to explain and make simple for me a quick lesson to help me get what I want, even if he's not available to give it to me. Just as interns need to learn from architects, the opposite is also true. Bear in mind that not all of your bosses have worked a lot in Revit or Illustrator and don't always know what to do when they need something. They don't always know what they're asking you to do; they may not realize that asking you to change how something looks means a laborious three-hour process of practically rewriting the software itself. Anytime you can teach your boss how to do something or how something works in five minutes or less (ten for really big stuff), you not only help them help themselves, you also decrease your own stress a little. Plus, the added benefit is that, as weird as this seems, your boss feels kinda cool--suddenly, they know a little more about this complicated, futuristic thing you work with all the time. Knowledge is power, and giving your boss a little power and actually helps him/herself is, well, empowering.

Got a topic you'd like to see discussed here or a question you'd like to ask? Feel free to leave it in the comments or ask me via email int he sidebar. I've gotten some good questions lately on mentoring in a small firm and on looking for jobs long distance, so i'll be getting to those shortly. Thanks!

Further thoughts on overtime: avoiding the extremes

2011-08-08T06:00:00.007-06:00

This week, one of my colleagues became very ill and left work in the middle of the day due to an unbearable headache. She could barely see, kept throwing up in the women's room, and couldn't stop crying from the pain. One of our managers followed her to the hospital, where she learned she was having a compound migraine. The physician on duty in the ED said that it was likely cause by a prolonged lack of rest--not just lack of sleep, but lack of rest. No one was surprised, in a way--all of us who sat near this colleague knew she had been working a lot on her project, but it turns out that even with being out sick for nearly three days, she still managed to log 51 hours for the week. Yeowch.

What I also find interesting about this incident is that the colleague in question is not an intern with a couple of years' worth of experience trying to prove herself, but rather a licensed architect with 12 or so years in the business. But I knew her before she was licensed, and she did the same thing--worked and worked and worked until she nearly couldn't see straight, then accidentally hurt herself in some way, either by cutting her hand while fixing a sandwich or getting into an accident on her bike or in her car or something else along those lines. My coworkers and I respect our colleague deeply and admire her work ethic and the quality of projects she puts out, but at what cost are these results happening? Is it worth it? We've suggested to her that she temper her work schedule a bit, but it seems to fall on deaf ears.

When it comes to working overtime, neither extreme is a good one. If you never work overtime, especially when it's clearly available and needs to be done, you make it clear that work is really not that important to you--not the client, not your colleagues, not the project, nothing. It will make your colleagues resentful and reluctant to work with you in the future ("Really? S/He can't come in for one weekend day or just stay late or come in early for a couple days this week? Nothing over 40, really?"). It will also make advancement difficult if not impossible; no one is going to give you more responsibilities or more interesting or complicated work if you have shown that you're barely willing to do the smaller stuff you were given at first. If doing the minimum at work is what you want, then have at it...but bear in mind that you'll be easy to get rid of if management needs to thin the ranks at some point.

But always working overtime is no better than working none at all really. It's Bad, but it's a different flavor of Bad from never working overtime. Sure, you prove yourself worthy of being kept on versus someone who never works overtime, but you run the risk of becoming one of these people (who, by the way, are all personalities that I've personally witnessed in the workplace):

The Muck-Up: you work lots of overtime because you mess things up during the 8-to-5 and have to fix them. You think your dedication to your job and the projects makes you look good--I'll fix my mistakes even if it takes all weekend, because I care!--but what it means is that you're not getting the training or support you need from your project manager and your more experienced colleagues. Solution: check in with your colleagues and/or managers more often, perhaps even three or four times a day. Getting regular input can stop a small misunderstanding from being a huge eff-up that robs you of a weekend.
The Surfer: you work overtime because you waste time during the 8-to-5: chatting away with colleagues, surfing the internet (hence the moniker "Surfer"), taking long lunches, or constantly running personal errands during work hours. (Note: while there's room for all of these activities in a workday and workweek to a point, the Surfer does them extensively and very regularly.) You think your overtime makes you look dedicated, and even gives you a bit of the Martyr flavor (see below)--I just can't get it all done during the day, so I'll work overtime and look good!--but your colleagues know how much time you waste...and maybe you do too. Solution: Really do a gut check about how much time you spend working, and/or how that time is spent. I personally used to think that I could get work done while IM'ing my sister, but I realized that the constant interruption was keeping me from focusing. Know that there is a season for everything--a time for checking out LOLCats, and a time for getting those plan details knocked out with some real attention.
The Martyr: you work constantly and complain about how much you work and all the things you have to do, but you don't take the opportunity to solve the problem: get more staff, get your manager to take something off your to-do list, move the deadline out a little (occasionally, this can be done), and so on. You work the overtime thinking that you're the only one that can do it and that everyone will notice--they'll see what they're doing to me when they look at my timesheet and my haggard expression and wrinkled workclothes!--but it often gets overlooked and frankly taken for granted. Your boss only know that you're doing the work and it's getting done, but s/he has no idea about the self-flagellating monologue in your head. Solution: ask for help--there's no way around it. Your boss will take whatever you'll give him/her, and s/he only knows that you're giving too much when you speak up. If you're giving too much week in and week out, show him/her what needs to be done and what would be the ideal solution (i.e., another person to help out for a week or two, more time, someone to check the drawings). Failing that, take a weekend off or only work 40 hours a week now and then. It's not going to kill you, and you'll probably be more productive when you've had a break.
The Go-to Guy: you work overtime constantly because you've been willing and available to do so in the past, so your boss (or other bosses) put you in the position of having to work yet more overtime. You work the overtime thinking that it makes you look like a keeper--Well, they know they can depend on me and I'm capable...and I can always use the money!--but it's likely that you agree to overtime because of fear. You're afraid to turn down the work because you think you might get fired for saying no, so you say yes to anything and everything, and you become exhausted and run down...and burned out. (I've seen the Go-to Guy and the Martyr most during the recession, by the way.) Solution: I know it's hard, but say no once in a while. Just like with The Martyr, your boss will take as much as s/he can get out of you, so it's up to you to set and maintain your boundaries with work and your energy. This can be one of the hardest things to do, but holding a boundary, saying no once in a while, and refusing to let your boss make you feel guilty or frightened because of the occasional no is very empowering. Also, it ultimately helps you save your energy so that everything you do is of high-quality...which is why they asked you to help in the first place!

Lulu's Mailbag: Should I use a headhunter to find a job?

2011-08-01T05:36:00.001-06:00

Intern 101 reader C. writes:

Might it be usual/helpful for job-searching intern architects to use headhunters? And do you know if there any that cater towards architecture in the US? (I've only been able to find ones in the UK!)

Good question, C. The short answers to the two questions posed here are, unfortunately, no and kinda. Headhunters in general are professionals who find other hard-to-get professionals for companies that have a specific need--a hospital administrator who used to work in Canada, a software designer who has used certain types of software and can speak Chinese, a geologist who has worked in the oil and mining industry, and so on. Architectural interns in the U.S., especially those with less than four or so years of experience, are not that hard to find--there are literally thousands, if not over 10,000, to choose from. Therefore a headhunter is of no use to an architecture firm when it comes to finding interns. You're better off looking for jobs through local AIA job boards, looking at firm websites, and asking your friends if they know of anyone who's hiring.

I should confess that I was once called by a headhunter about seven or so years ago when I was an intern with about three-and-a-half or four years under my belt. The headhunter was looking for someone with a lot of healthcare experience to fill a position at another firm somewhere in the West. Turns out that this headhunter had received my name from an architect who used to work at my firm, which is the firm at which I'm still working in 2011. (Guess the architect thought I might be ready to get out of there. He guessed wrong.)

That leads me to C.'s second question. Headhunters do exist in the architecture/ engineering/ construction industry. They mostly look for people with a special skill set, such as experience in certain building types (e.g., healthcare, correctional, stadiums) or with unusual situations and experiences (e.g., have worked on buildings in New York or California or Alaska, have built projects for the BLM or Corps of Engineers). Since I've been licensed, I've received a couple of calls from headhunters, but the jobs for which they're seeking candidates are usually out of state. (Those poor guys--it's hard as hell to find someone willing to move out of Colorado. Once they've lived here for a little over a year, most people don't want to leave.) I usually send these people along, maybe with a couple of names. I like where I am and so far don't have a reason to leave.

Since the economy took a dive in 2008, the headhunter's calls have been rarer, to be sure. Just like with interns, there are now so many architects and engineers in the pool of talent that you don't need a lot of help finding a good candidate. Your best bets for finding a job in this economy are to peruse job boards, ask your friends, and be willing to move. Mobility is something many interns have over architects. You're less likely to have spouses and kids to uproot, so it's easier to get you to move to the next city or state, or even several states (I moved from Florida to Colorado in 2000 for my job, the one I still have today).

Got a question you'd like to ask? Let me know in the comments or via email in the sidebar. And thanks--remember that this site works best when you contribute!

Speaking of dress code...

2011-07-27T20:23:00.000-06:00

In case you're all wondering what you should be wearing at work (and everywhere else) these days, here's a handy little graphic to help you understand. I received this from a recently-licensed intern at my firm, and I only wish I'd known about the Prada glasses earlier.

Work is about more than showing up, Part 4: finally, being the part

2011-07-19T13:10:00.000-06:00

I realize I've been harping a bit on this topic lately, but it's for good reason. My firm has hired a large number of interns in the past six or eight months, some with several years of experience and some fresh or almost-fresh out of school. And lo, I now watch them make some of the very mistakes that I was trying to fix when I started this blog two years ago. Some of them make mistakes out of sheer enthusiasm--they're so excited to finally be working and even have a job in this economy, so they do too much or the wrong thing. But strangely, I see some of them make mistakes out of sheer...what's a good word for it--mediocrity? It's as if they do not fully understand the world into which they've stepped and perhaps hope to stay in for a long time. But if they continue to do the things that they're doing now, they won't be.

At the aforementioned happy hour, a colleague of mine at another firm lamented about an upcoming deadline. He was trying to find a polite way to ask his interns to work some overtime; he hated to ask people to give up their weekends, but due to the deadline that his boss had dropped on him, he couldn't see any other way of getting it done. As he chatted with his interns, one of them piped up and said that she "would never offer to work overtime." My friend facepalmed for a moment and said, "How can you be an architect and never work overtime, or even be able or willing to do it now and then?"

A longtime friend of mine visiting from Chicago snorted, "I have an intern fresh out of school, and he managed to set his own hours! He's in 6:30am to 3:30pm, which would be fine if he had four years' experience. He knows so little about what he's doing that he doesn't even know what he doesn't know, and I'm constantly having to fix or review or re-review the stuff he's messed up in the hour and a half before I get in. And if I suddenly need help getting something put together before 5 because a client calls with some sort of emergency? It's all on me. I swear, sometimes it's like not having any help at all."

I try on this blog to be honest and optimistic at all times, because life is dark enough without having old and cranky people tell you how bad the world is. Sometimes I lean more heavily towards optimistic because I know that whatever crappy thing I'm explaining is going to pass, such as this economy. For now, I'm going to lean a little more towards honest, because some (though surely not all) of you may need this information for your present or future job. And here is the honesty: we cannot just show up to architecture; we must be architects, and first, we must be interns. This means doing the crappy work and the sometimes-unfulfilling work. This means sometimes working late nights and weekends and through lunches. This means scrambling for three deadlines in a week now and again. This means being open to learning how to do something, and being open to learning more than one way to do anything and everything: ceiling plans, code studies, flashing details in a wall. This means learning how to manage up, how to deal with odd or volatile or strange or moody bosses.

It means that the late nights and long hours don't disappear just because we have our degrees--we still have work to do and clients to satisfy and deadlines to meet. Longtime readers of Intern 101 know that I'm repulsed when a firm has its interns constantly working 45+hour-weeks, because those hours mean that someone isn't managing the project--or perhaps the firm--very well and the interns are picking up the slack for that bad management or project planning. But the other side of that coin is that every project--every project--will require some overtime here and there. If nothing else, extra effort will be needed during the week or two before a major deadline, as everyone on the design team is making sure that all the details have been drawn and checked and everything is coordinated. And because you a) are on the team, b) are good with the documentation software, and also c) need to learn this stuff, you will occasionally have to pitch in on a weekend or early morning or late evening.

It also means that we don't start out in this field making the rules and on our terms. The less experience you have in architecture (or the worse your initial work experience was), the harder it is to face this fact: you don't know how much you don't know. That fact has nothing to do with age and everything to do with experience. (Remember: architecture pays you for your experience, not your education. Your diploma is the cover charge that gets you into the nightclub of the architectural profession.) Because you are still learning unbelievable amounts of information and concepts and problems and solutions, your managers and bosses will look over your shoulder more, want you to check in more often, want to review your work constantly, and yes, will want you in the office when they're in the office. Why? So you and they can correct for errors before the problem gets too far along, and so they can answer questions and not leave you in the lurch. Again, there's wiggle room here and there, depending on the boss, project, firm, etc., but you will still for a while have to go along with certain rules while you're still learning.

If you want to be the boss and/or make your own rules and terms, which was point #2, then you're going to have to spend some time doing point #1, which is pitching in and going the extra mile while also learning and retaining that knowledge. And that is the ultimate point of these four recent posts: it's not just about showing up but rather about being here. That's kind of Zen, even for me, but it's the truth. I have colleagues at my and other firms that complain about how poorly they feel they're being treated at work, but when I observe or ask questions about their performance, I'm not surprised that they feel like their companies don't care: they often behave as if they don't care about the work. It's one thing to warm a desk for eight or nine hours a day, but it's another to engage in the work and the learning process and really get something out of it and grow even more from what you got out of it. That, at the end of it all, is what I hope for all of you.

Work is about more than showing up, Part 3: acting the part

2011-07-18T12:50:00.000-06:00

Some of my architecture friends and I met for happy hour recently, sharing our triumphs and tribulations. (Note: I shouldn't say "architecture friends" but rather just "friends"; most of my friends are architects. Sad, I know.) One of my friends, an architect I've known for seven years, was fretting/complaining about an intern on her project. "He has four or five years' worth of experience and does good work, but sometimes it seems like it's pulling teeth to get him to to anything. He waits for me to call him or see if he needs something else to do, and he acts like he can barely tolerate what he's working on. I mean, we're doing a bank, and I know it's not the most exciting thing to do, but can he not act like it's leaching his soul? Am I asking too much?"

Well...as usual, my answer is yes and no.

It's a lot of ask of anyone to sublimate all their emotions about everything at work and act like all is well and life is wonderful, like every project you work on is heaven and magic. Not every project we work on is going to be what we like doing, nor is every task we do to our liking or using our strengths. You're allowed not to be ecstatic at all hours of the workday--work should be fulfilling overall, but not 100% of the time--it just can't be.

At the same time, I think back to a reference letter written about and for me by my favorite undergrad studio professor. A grad school that turned me down accidentally sent his letter to me, and among many nice things, he wrote: While Lulu is not the strongest designer, her energy and enthusiasm make her an integral part of any Studio. Being 22 years old, I only focused on the "not the strongest designer" part. Ouch times one million. I shared the letter with my godfather, who also happened to be an interior designer. "Lulu honey," he replied in his delightful Southern drawl, "that's a bigger compliment than you think."

"Projects in the work world go on for months or even years," he explained. "Keeping a good attitude and enthusiasm and energy and a positive outlook can be hard on a project, and if you can do that, it makes a long project go a lot better. And the people you work with want to work with you again, and they're more willing to go along when you need them to change lighting or move a deadline to a week earlier or whatever. Good energy on a project touches a lot of folks."

It's that part of working on a project team, the energy part about which my godfather was speaking, that make me say to my friend: No, it's not too much to ask that someone not roll their eyes or sigh heavily or complain about the client every time you hand them some work to do or ask them to print this or research that on their behalf. We architects and managers know that you don't always like what you're doing, and we know that doing SD renderings in SketchUp is way more fun than checking a door schedule in CDs. But being able to greet those requests with a "sure, let me see what I can do" or a "no problem, consider it done!" makes all the difference on a long and arduous (or short, furious, and crappy) project. And to be sure, I don't mean that you're delirious with joy to look up ADA clearances in a building's toilet rooms--that's not having a positive outlook but rather suffering from a dangerous mental condition. Acting willing, ready, and able to take on any task or challenge, no matter how cruddy, tells your boss or project manager that you're on this team and at that firm for real. You want to be there, and you want to be useful and productive. If you want that, your manager can teach you Revit, CAD, building codes, whatever competencies you're missing in order to do your job better. But if you don't want those things...good luck hanging onto your job when so many other interns--and some architects--are willing.

Work is about more than showing up, Part 2: talking the part

2011-07-14T05:30:00.000-06:00

I find it interesting that college prepares us--not just architects, but most if not all professions--with nearly every skill necessary to their job except that of communication. In architecture, we learn some communication skills, of course, but they're mostly visual and very trade-specific. We learn how to draw and build models of what's happening in our heads and how to get that point across to the jury in school, and then we learn how to explain visually to the contractor how to build our vision. But we spend a lot of time learning how to speak an insular language, that of architecture, and then find ourselves unable to speak to the average person about how what we're doing is important and why we're doing it and what it means and so on. Further, it seems that we spend so much time learning how to speak--or refuse to speak--our insular language that we forget how to speak to any other human being about anything. I could write a hundred pages on my issues with archispeak, but I'll spare you because 1) you seem like decent people and 2) I want to focus a bit on everyday communication in the workplace.

If you're working in a architecture firm, the chances are extremely high that you have a college degree. Your bosses, clients, and consultants know this: they know your degree is part of what got you in the door to this office in the first place. And especially in this economy, they know that you must know your stuff. With so many well-qualified interns and architects to choose from right now, you must be really sharp to be working right now. So imagine someone's surprise when they open an email that's poorly-spelled or confusing, or perhaps they receive a slang-filled, profanity-laced, or sharply-worded accusatory email from you. Suddenly, your credibility is gone (or at least damaged) with a few keystrokes. I've seen it happen with architects, not just interns, and I've seen it happen in person as well as with email. Again, I've compiled a few things I've learned in 11 years of practice and from my colleagues' experiences as well.

Don't just fire off emails; take the time to pause and understand them. Are you clear with what you want the outcome of this email to be? Is it something that might be better handled with a phone call first? If you've received an email, do you understand what is being asked of you? Is there an undertone to the email (whiny, bossy, belligerent, confused)?
Don't just fire off emails; take the time to pause and reread them. If you're sending out the initial email, is your request or question clear in the email? Have you provided all the necessary information for the recipient to respond or make a decision? If you're responding to an email, did you answer all the questions asked of you? Is your response neutral and factual (especially important if the received email was nasty or cranky or accusatory)? Again, might this be better served by making a phone call first?
A one- or two-word response is rarely acceptable. Every now and then, they're okay, but in general, use complete sentences to respond to a question or request. If your client emails to ask if you would send them a color hard copy of a site master plan you've done, the best response is something like, "Absolutely. We'll print it today, and you should have it via UPS tomorrow." Not "okay" or "yup" (which I've actually seen in an email to a client). If a consultant emails you to say that they need a ceiling lowered in a specific room in order to get ducts to work with beams, a good response is something like "Got it--we'll make that change right now, and it will be in the Revit model we post on Friday." A real sentence shows that you've read the email and understand the request or information being presented.
Watch the slang--not everyone hangs with your crew. I say this regardless of whether your favorite phrase is "holla back,g" or "git 'er done." Slang implies a level of intimacy that you possibly don't have (and probably don't want to have) with your clients, consultants, or contractors.
Remember that everything you send or write on company email is fair game in a court of law. I've talked about this before, but it's worth repeating. If your email has an inside joke, profanity, or some sort of snide comment about a project or another team member, think about how that email would sound being read aloud in court...or having a belligerent client find it in your files and using it against you.
Know when to hold 'em, know when to fold 'em. Some of the stuff you deal with might be better handled by your boss, or even your boss' boss. If you're ever unsure, forward the email to your manager and ask them how you'd like to handle it. This is especially important when someone asks you about something in which you had no part of making, such as a contract, fees, or project schedule.
Pretty much all of these things apply just as much to verbal communication as they do to written communication. We are often taught that being able to immediately say "yes" or "no" or "two weeks" or "blue" makes us look on top of things and highly competent, but it's not always the case. Pausing in verbal communication to ask questions, check the drawings or code books, or talk to our colleagues and/or managers helps us make sure that we understand the problem or question fully. This understanding ensures that we're not revisiting the question later when our attempt to talk fast and go fast has forced us to give an incorrect answer or poorly-thought-out solution. Email has the blessing of making communication nearly as instantaneous as speaking face-to-face or on the phone, but this can be a curse when we think we have to respond immediately.

The bottom line here is that it's okay to pause and think before responding or acting on an email or a verbal request (or comment). That pause gives you the chance to make sure you understand the situation and are reacting appropriately. As a friend of mine says, "Don't mistake action for progress."

Got a question to ask or a topic you'd like to see discussed here? Let me know in the comments or drop me a line via email in the sidebar. Thanks!

Work is about more than showing up, Part 1: dressing the part

2011-07-11T05:47:00.001-06:00

(Note: I think I may have posted on this before, but I'm unable to find the post for some reason. My apologies if any of this feels repetitive.)

Alas, summer is in full swing throughout the U.S., and we have finally had several 80+-degree days here in Colorado after living through some chilly-early-spring-like weather in June. Because the weather is warming up considerably, everyone is dressing more relaxed and warm-weathery: cargo shorts, sandals and flip-flops, short sleeves and tank tops, and so on. And alas, these garments are showing up at some workplaces. Some warm weather gear is fine for the workplace, but some of it is borderline inappropriate even in a casual office.

Perhaps it's my old-school Southern raising speaking. I'm 35, but I was raised by a Southern grandmother that lived through the Depression and World War II, and damn if she was going to leave the house and go into town in any less that a full complement of makeup, jewelry, and a decent dress and jacket or at least a double-knit pantsuit. (Part of how we knew she was declining cognitively was when she started going into town in her house dress and apron.) I personally very rarely wear jeans in the office (more on that later), and I strive to look somewhat modest and business-y. While I was raised old-school Southern, though, I am a product of my time: if other people wear a polo shirt and jeans every day, it doesn't bother me in the least. But I have found that there is a line between casual fashion and "oh, whatever" that we in the under-40 crowd tend to cross, sometimes accidentally. Here are a few general pointers that I've collected from 11 years in the office, both from my own experience and my colleagues sharing what they've learned at various firms over the years.

Guys, wear a collar. Even if you don't have meetings and you never meet clients and your office doesn't insist on wearing ties, a collar on your shirt (like the aforementioned polo shirt) looks spiffy. A t-shirt with no collar looks like you're about to go to the beach/club/car wash. (Note: if your boss has you working in a dusty file room or moving boxes or the like, then the t-shirt makes some sense.)
Ladies, cover your shoulders. Yes, there are occasional tops and dresses that are sleeveless that look good and professional, but use them with care. Too-narrow straps make it hard to cover your bra straps, and the wrong material makes it look like you're getting ready to hit the club/bar/beach. Which brings us to a couple of unisex points...
Everyone, cover your underwear. Too-narrow straps, too-lowcut fronts or armholes on tops, too-low pants, too-thin materials...these are all telling me way more about your choice of undergarment than I ever want to know. If you're ever in doubt, layer something under it or leave it at home.
Maintain your garments. If something's been scuffed beyond recognition of its original material or has holes in it, it's time to mend it or save it for the weekend. And I know there are some expensive-ass jeans out there that come with holes in them--save those for the weekend.
Wear work clothes at work, and party clothes at the party. Cargo shorts, flip-flops, shiny metallic tops, gauzy/tight/shiny collarless shirts: quick, what do all of these have in common? They're meant for wearing somewhere other than work. They're meant for nightclubs, rafting trips, beaches, etc. If the garment could immediately go from wherever you are now to a beach or nightclub, save it for later.

I'm sure there are a few exceptions to all of the above, but they're good general guidelines to keep in mind. I follow these guidelines to the point that I don't wear jeans at work unless a) it has snowed eight inches and it's 10 degrees outside and my long johns need to fit under something, b) I'm really sick or physically injured but need to come in and do a few things before I go home and rest, or c) I'm in for a few hours before I get on a plane and go somewhere. Notice a pattern there? It's a similar pattern to the one running through the above guidelines: when I dress super-casual, it's because I want to be (and am about to be) somewhere else. It's become almost a code now at my office; when people see me wearing jeans, they always take note, and some of them will ask, "Are you going out of town today?"

If you consistently dress like you're here to work, you send the message that you are ready, willing, and able to take on tasks and challenges. If you consistently dress like you're too cool for the 8-to-5 with your hacked-up jeans, or just came straight from the club with your shiny halter top, or you're ready to be a lifeguard in your cargo shorts and flip-flops, then you're telling your colleagues (and bosses) that your mind isn't really here. And this may seem silly or nit-picky, but remember: we are a profession full of people with a well-developed sense of aesthetics and details. We critique design in part on the basis of whether it fits its surroundings and what kind of purpose it telegraphs. These same skills will be applied, consciously or subconsciously, to the people we see. And because we (and your colleagues and bosses) do this, thinking about the message you send when you put on your "exterior skin" each morning can really make a difference.

Got a topic you'd like to see discussed here or a question you'd like to ask? Let me know in the comments or via email in the sidebar. Thanks!

For your consideration...a few interesting blogs and websites

2011-07-06T19:52:00.000-06:00

The July 4th holiday found me in a lazy-as-all-hell mood, so I failed to post anything good or useful...well, at all, really. So if nothing good is going on at Intern 101, perhaps you'll want to check out some other fun blogs and websites, such as:

The Hamilton Road Project: written by a civil engineer in training who's remodeling his own house, God love him. (The occasional person in his remodeling photos tell you that he's not an architect--there are people in his pictures, for the love of Eisenmann!) There's nothing like actually doing the work to really teach you how to draw the stuff you ask other people to build.

Ramblings of the small town architect: A good read, Small Town muses on the profession of architecture. Though he hasn't posted much lately, his most recent post on the "value" of Architectural Record and similar publications actually made me spit iced tea on my laptop. Good thing I have a plastic film over the keyboard.

Lovely Listing: Part of the I Can Haz Cheezburger group of websites, this site makes fun of odd, amusing, and sometimes downright terrible buildings, houses, furniture, and photos of real estate listings (hence its name). Presently on its main page, they're paying homage to/heckling Frank Gehry.

Are there some other good sites I should post about here? Drop me a line (via email in the sidebar) or tell me in the comments!

Down Detour Road -- sound familiar?

2011-06-30T05:25:00.000-06:00

A friend recently loaned me Down Detour Road: An Architect in Search of Practice by Eric Cesal. In his early 30s and getting out of architectural grad school just as the economy tanks, Cesal makes some interesting observations about our jobs and our profession. One of his first observation is how come architects seemed to get laid off and/or be unemployed at much higher rates than any other profession in the U.S., even more than contractors, whose employment would seemingly depend on us. By discussing starchitects, the economy, and many other factors, he makes the point that we as a profession do a great job of defending our necessity and worthiness to other architects, but not the rest of the world.

To be fair, I'm only about a third through the book. (Two deadlines have curtailed much of my pleasure reading down to mostly flipping through a Crate & Barrel catalog while waiting for the white wine to chill.) But so far, it's quite interesting and has actually made me laugh a time or two, which is hard to do. So, have any of you read this book yet? If so, what were your thoughts?

Lulu's Mailbag: Starting up and over as in intern

2011-06-27T05:48:00.002-06:00

I received an email recently from an intern who graduated from architecture school just as the economy tanked. The intern managed to find a position working in marketing at an architecture firm, in which she worked with project managers who were licensed architects and help them create project proposals and other marketing materials. She wondered what would be the best way to transition from being the marketing person to being a project manager. After all, it seemed as if the project managers don't do a lot of CAD or Revit now, mostly Microsoft Office and various graphics programs (though they all started out as drafters, CAD jockeys, and interns back in the day). Since she had been working with them for three years, and she had joined them on so many walkthroughs of buildings and projects and had worked on so many of these presentations and proposals with them, she has a good idea of how to do a PM's job, right? So what's the best way to become a PM?

My response: become an intern first.

I'm pretty sure this isn't the response she wanted to hear, and I don't blame her a bit. It's hard as hell to be told that all the architecturally-related stuff you've been doing for the past two to three years isn't enough to help you get the job you want, and now you basically have to start over as if you just got out of school yesterday. But the truth is twofold: 1) there's a lot of very necessary skills and information to be learned by working on projects as an architectural intern; and 2) not everything you just did is a waste, both in terms of architectural and IDP experience.

Let's take the first point first. If you are two to three years out of school and haven't been doing redlines or CAD/Revit or researching products or figuring out details or doing code reviews for projects, then no one is going to make you a project manager. The reason that project managers don't do a lot of drawing and CAD work but rather do more directing, managing, and even marketing is because in general, they've spent a lot of time doing the code studies and CAD drawing and product and detail research already. They've worked side by side with engineers (mechanical, electrical, plumbing, and civil to name a few) and followed multiple projects from early SD through to turnover to the owner, and they've learned a lot along the way. These PMs now have years of experience understanding what it takes to put a building together, therefore they know what it takes to put a project together, and therefore they know what it takes to put a proposal for a project together. PMs understand some aspects of marketing because they understand so much of what makes a project happen and how to make it happen. And they learned first by doing.

Going from marketing (or a contractor's laborer or carpenter, or architectural product sales, or admin staff at an AIA office, or any related field) to a project manager position without first getting some good, solid experience as an intern/coordinator--doing redlines, research, code studies, flashing details, working with consultants to understand how the mechanical systems work in the building, etc.--is practically impossible without having serious repercussions for you and your firm. Promoting you to a PM position without you having been an intern/designer first would put you in a position of having to walk around an existing building and look up at walls and ceilings and ducts and doors and so on without really knowing what you're looking at.

That lack of construction knowledge would eventually show, and it would put your job/career and your firm in a bad position. Furthermore, it would put you in a bad position with your colleagues: "Look at this green kid who went straight from marketing to being a project manager, never did a redline in his life. What the hell does he know? Whose nephew is he?" Or worse (of which usually women are victims): "Who did she [insert obscene activity here] to get that promotion?" I've seen this happen, and it's ugly and demoralizing for everyone in the firm, regardless of the gender of the person, by the way.

I completely understand how what PMs do looks like just a bunch of marketing, and I thought the same thing in my first three or four years of working: "What the hell does s/he do anyway? Crap, I could type all day on a Word document!" However, the reason their job looks so easy is because they've done lots of hard work before this moment that makes all the right answers sit on the tips of their tongues. The things they learned during their years as architectural designers and CAD monkeys makes those marketing and project walk decisions easy because they learned those answers the hard way. The only way there is through. You don't need an architecture degree or architectural experience to do marketing for an architectural firm (or be an architectural product/material rep, or work in the field with a contractor), but you do need it to be a project manager.

Now, let's address the second point, which has some good news. As I've said here recently before, NCARB is changing the rules on IDP to allow for some less-than-traditional conduits for gaining credits in order to help the many interns whose employment paths and prospects have been derailed and detoured due to the economy. Review the new requirements for IDP 4.0, and you might find that some if not all of the time you've spent working in an allied field may count for IDP credits. But there is a deeper core to the experience you've gained in your related-but-not-exactly-architecture gig: everything helps.

For example, if you are working in marketing for an architecture/engineering/construction firm, ask questions like "why did we ask for a 9% fee on this project but only a 7% fee on that other one?", and even "what do you consider when you're putting one of these together--schedule, complexity, the building's function, etc.?" Those are great questions that you can learn from and apply as you advance in your career. If you're working with a product or material rep or a contractor, ask questions there: what makes this hard/easy/fun/frustrating? Which of these products/materials is best for what application? What if you used this product/material in a spa/kitchen/hospital/prison?

So few interns ever get to deal with the front end work of getting a project, and just as many have a hard time getting the chance to pick materials and fixtures or even do on-site CA (which is the best way to learn), so that gives you an additional advantage when working on projects (or applying to other firms to be an intern/designer there). So learn from whatever your present workplace is and bring that knowledge to a firm once hiring starts up again. Been working at a restaurant? Look for firms that do food service and hospitality. Been working at a clothing store or a bookstore? Look for those that do retail and commercial. The best education you could get would be to work on a project from the real beginning (marketing) to the real end (punchlist and closeout), and all the skills you've learned at other jobs and other places can put you ahead of the pack. You can use those skills to excel as an intern, then get licensed as an architect and eventually be a PM.

But you have to do the architectural work first.

Have a topic you'd like to see discussed or a question you'd like answered here on Intern 101? Let me know in the comments or via email in the sidebar. Thanks, and remember: this blog works best with your feedback!

workworkworkworkworksleepworkworkwork

2011-06-22T19:13:00.000-06:00

I have a deadline next Tuesday, but my firm's servers are going to be shut down for replacing, revamping, and reawesoming this weekend, so my team and I are working hellbent for leather before we lose two days to IT concerns. There's plenty to blog about, but I'm going to need a nap and some time away from a computer before I can sit down at the old laptop and come up with something even remotely useful or interesting.

Lulu's Mailbag: How do you find a mentor?

2011-06-13T05:17:00.000-06:00

I101 reader Trevor commented on a recent post about the changes to the IDP:

As an intern in architecture at the moment, i've found that the most difficult thing for me is finding an architect to be my mentor (as opposed to my supervisor). Finding an architect from outside my office who's willing to spend time with me ever week or two is an awful imposition. It was hard enough finding someone who would take me on in exchange for 8 hours a day of work, but asking for help from outside the office is even harder.
I don't live very close to my University anymore either, so having a professor mentor me would be impractical. Do you have any suggestions for finding a mentor under the new guidelines?
My course of action has been to start a new blog over at http://fstoparch.blogspot.com as a sort of cover letter for myself.

This is a great question, Trevor, and one that all interns (and dare I say even architects) should consider: how do you find a good mentor, especially when the whole mentorship process seems like such a burden? First of all, let's consider the point of a mentor. A mentor can provide guidance and advice on matters small and large regarding your job and your career. Small things might be "I did this and my boss said that and I said this and I think I've messed up--what should I have done instead and what should I do now?" A large matter might be "should I change firms/go back to grad school/quit the profession?" A mentor, quite frankly, should also be something of a friend. Not a drinking buddy/loan you money to pay off a credit card/bail you out of jail friend (though you should totally have at least two of those, no joke), but someone who will speak with you honestly but kindly, someone who will listen to you patiently and ask questions without judging you, but also be willing to call you on your bullshit.

This would seem a tall order indeed, and yet...we all have many people around us who are willing to do this. Consider every friend you've ever had in your life or have now: did you walk up to them and say, "I'm looking for a good friend who will listen to my crap and laugh with me at Farrelly Brothers movies and make sure I get home after one too many Jager bombs. Can I interest you in such an arrangement with me?" Probably not--it just happened. So, the first thing to remember about mentorship is that it doesn't have to be necessarily formal. Some mentorship programs (often sponsored by colleges) have an essence of formality to them, and that's fine. However, asking someone formally to be your mentor might suddenly trigger in them a response of oh God now I have to add yet one more appointment to my planner and come up with something to talk about with this person I barely know and so on. Sometimes, first getting to know some architects, whether in your office or outside your firm, can smooth the way for a further, better, deeper mentorship relationship. (Interestingly, my recent survey of interns showed that a majority have an informal relationship with their mentor, and the majority also felt comfortable asking their mentor for advice on things other than work/professional stuff.)

Second, consider how often contact needs to take place. Maybe it's exchanging emails every couple of week and then actually meeting face to face once every month or every other month. Truth be told, I've had mentors that I've literally never seen--I've met them through my blog and I've never spoken to them in person or even on the phone. But they have provided me with immeasurable advice and insight, and frankly some kindness in there to boot. Contact in general would ideally be regular so that neither of you forgets about the other, which would kind of undo the whole point of mentorship anyway.

But the bigger question we have yet to discuss is why mentorship is such a burden, or at least seems that way. I think it's because mentorship has been seen as such a one-way street. It's often viewed through the lens of "here's a young kid just starting out, and now I've got to download my thrity years of exprience to him/her during what precious little free time I have." No wonder so many people say "no thanks" to the arrangement. Too bad--mentorship really is a two-way street. I can't tell you the number of times I've emailed, called, and talked/met with my interns, past and present to ask for their advice or ideas on everything from the best way to set up a website (including this blog) and how to best use Revit and even what's the best new music coming out these days. (This last one is especially important for someone who grew up listening to Paula Abdul and Huey Lewis and still thinks that Def Leppard is the best band in history. I'm sure there are some Killers/Muse/Conor Oberst fans out there begging to differ with me. Bring it.) Part of making your mentorship relationship work by starting out informally is that it can allow you to show your mentor(s) what you can do for them. I say that not in a business transaction-type of way, but in a friendship kind of way. If your friendships were a one-way exchange, you'd quit being friends with that person, right? Same thing applies here.

And yes, I did say "mentor(s)" just then. It might be that the best way to get good advice is to have more than one informal mentor. I have more than one mentor, and it serves two purposes: one, it lightens the load of any one person (see above about the "burden" of mentorship); and two, it gives me more viewpoints and allows me a little more data collecting before I make decisions. Remeber: everyone you deal with, work with, live with, interact with brings all of their mental illnesses to the table every day. If I have only one mentor and s/he has a real bug in his/her hair about, say, the AIA, and I ask him/her a question about doing some event for the AIA, I might get a really strong negative reaction to something that is actually a good idea.

Finding a good mentor (or multiple mentors) can be a challenge, but by relaxing the formality of the situation and thinking of it as a two-way interaction can help the process along. If nothing else, maybe you can convince a 35-year-old hair metal enthusiast to put Meaghan Smith and Li'l Wayne on her iPod.

Got a question you'd like to ask or a topic you'd like to see covered here? Got a band or musician I should be listening to instead of Warrant? Drop me a line in the comments or via email in the sidebar. Holla!

Using your skillz to pay the billz

2011-06-09T05:26:00.001-06:00

I went to lunch with an intern at my office recently to find out how things were going for him, both project-wise and firm-wise. The intern has only been at out firm for about three months, and he was put on my project about a month ago and really thrown into the fire. Between bites of empanada, he told me that things were going well, but he was a little disappointed--he wasn't doing what he thought he'd be doing, the reason he thought we'd hired him in the first place. When he interviewed at our firm, he explained that he was really good at working through a design into how it actually worked and got built. He was great at Sketch-Up and used it as a design tool to then explain how to build something, then carry that design through to CDs. However, for just about the whole three months he'd been with our firm, he was all Revit all the time.

I had to laugh a bit, mostly because I think our profession is a lot of "this is not what I thought I was going to be doing." But I also tried to comfort him by revealing a bit of the Big Picture. He may have wanted to do some design stuff in Sketch-Up, but the fact is that right now, when he was interviewing, we need people to draw designs that have already been partly- to mostly-thought out. But his skills aren't going to waste the way he might think. Thing is, firms hear about plenty of interns (and architects, mind you) who want to design pretty stuff, but some of these folks will have a nervous breakdown if you ask them to actually detail and figure out how to build it, how to make it so. When my intern stated that he enjoys and is good at taking a design in Sketch-Up into the how-and-where, that's a great skill that transcends software platform. That kind of thinking and problem-solving is useful and important in all areas of a design and construction project. Further, the opportunity to use the exact skills and software he described will come. He can remind people that he can do that (and he should remind them), but the chance to do what he enjoys will come. It's just that we don't have the exact need right now...but we will.

When you tell potential or present employers about your strengths and skills, dn't just think about the exact situation and platform on which you're trying to do the work. Think about the overall skills that you use when doing those tasks to which you feel particularly suited. That intern of mine is now designing and coordinating the ceilings in a 250,000-sf medical building--he's working through design intent and ideas with one architect and the interior designers on one hand, and he's making it work with the mechanical and structural engineers on the other hand, all using Revit. It may not be exactly what he hoped to do, but it uses the same skills. Those are skills that firm managers can use now and in the future, which is how they make hiring decisions.

YAF Mentoring Series: Operating Profitably Webinar

2011-06-06T05:19:00.000-06:00

The Young Architects Forum (YAF) is sponsoring another webinar (with which you can gain 1.5 LUs!) regarding operating profitably. Now, while this webinar may discuss general issues regarding the topic (as opposed to training you on the topic itself), it's still very useful stuff to know. It's the kind of thing that I encourage firms to do with their interns in my AIA seminars and hopefully on this blog.

You can learn more and sign up by going here. I hear from those who have seen a previous webinar in this series that they're really informative and worth the $15 or so.

IDP 2.0: Changes even an architect can love

2011-06-01T05:17:00.002-06:00

While in New Orleans, I had the good fortune to sit in on a seminar with Nick Serfass and Rachel Kros of NCARB, who outlined some of the finer points of the changes being installed by IDP 2.0. Usually it seems like governing boards and bureaucracies tend to obfuscate in their attempts to clarify, though their aim is usually the opposite. However, the various changes to IDP to be rolled out anytime between now and Spring of 2012 are doing some really good things that I can get behind, even as a licensed architect. As Kros and Serfass explained in the seminar, IDP was created back in the 1970s, and some of its requirements no longer reflect the way architecture is done anymore, especially with respect to technology.

Its biggest changes evolve from a change in NCARB philosophy. In order to get licensed, you need three things: a degree, the experience, and the passing of the ARE. So who's to say in what order those things need to happen? So, the first big change I can get behind is that you're eligible to join NCARB and start racking up IDP credits as soon as you're enrolled in an NAAB- or CACB-accredited degree program--no more waiting until after your junior year to start working!

It used to be that, in order for your hours to count, you had to work at least 32 (or 35?) hours a week for 8 weeks straight to get credit for IDP. Under IDP 2.0, you only have to work 15 hours a week for 8 weeks straight (minimum). This change does two things: one, if you're working in an area still affected by the economy and no one can hire you full-time during a summer or while you're working and in school, you're not hosed out of credits; and two, it acknowledges that we no longer hand-draw and can actually learn a decent amount of stuff in 15 hours a week (e.g., in 1975, you worked with an architect for an hour, then went and hand-drafted the changes into the plan for 6 or 8 hours).

Another great change is that IDP now allows for some of your experience time to be virtual--a portion of your direct supervision time can be achieved through a mix of personal contact and remote, electronic communication, such as email, teleconferencing, and Skype. This is great if you end up working onsite of a big project, or if your project is far away and you have to do some of your project meetings or OAC meetings via teleconference or videoconference. Another great change in the experience setting category is that you can get credits for not just working through supplemental education courses (such as those supplied and produced by NCARB), but you can also get credits for passing the LEED exam or working on a design competition.

You can read more about the changes here, and I encourage you to do so. Even as a licensed architect who no longer has to worry about IDP, I think these changes acknowledge the wide array of experiences from which interns learn and benefit.

Happy Memorial Day 2011!

2011-05-29T07:17:00.000-06:00

I hope everyone's taking advantage of this three-day weekend (well, my U.S. readers are, anyway) and getting some downtime. I once worked both days of the weekend for several months in a row, and I was tempted one year to work through Memorial Day. It was then that my husband threw a fit, stating emphatically that I had the right to a holiday like everyone else, no matter what my workload, and that he himself would go scream at my boss (we worked at the same office at the time) if I worked that weekend. Hence, I stayed home and was much better for it.

It's tempting to use our holidays as opportunities to get "caught up" on things, whether work-related or domestic, but we all really need a break to go for a walk, have a cookout, or just stare at the sky and do nothing. Hope you're all enjoying the holiday weekend, to-do-list free!

Back from New Orleans, and pausing for thought

2011-05-17T19:58:00.000-06:00

I presented my seminar on intern mentorship and training Saturday morning at this year's national AIA convention in New Orleans (Mary, Joseph, and Fumihiko Maki bless everyone who dragged out of bed and showed up for my 7am show!), and it appeared to be well-received for the second year in a row. (Though I have yet to receive the reviews for the presentation...we'll see.) It would seem that there are people--many firm owners and high-level managers--who are interested in and understand the importance of good intern training and mentorship. But as I looked out on the 50 or so folks who bothered to show up for a 7am seminar and discussion on intern mentoring, I realized that my words fall on the ears of the already-partially- or fully-converted. No one's going to get out of bed to see a presentation that they're not really into or don't really care about or agree with.

So, I've been wondering: how do I get the word out to architects and project managers that a) aren't self-selecting to come to these seminars, and/or b) to put a word in the ears of those who might not be as interested in the topic? I mean, look at the green/environmental issue--I'm sure few people would really consider themselves really into the environmental movement and sustainability, and yet I bet a majority of people in any decent-sized city recycle and have at least one CFL in their house. Is it a different website? A book? (Someone's asked me about writing one, and I've been toying with the idea.) A Bansky-esque piece of graffiti on the wall of an AIA office somewhere?

I've returned to Denver for yet another deadline, so once I've had a chance to catch up and let the dust settle, I'll be sharing some of the intern and architect survey results with you.

If it weren't for the last minute, I'd get nothing done.

2011-05-09T19:57:00.000-06:00

Apologies for the lack of posts, all. I'm getting ready to present a seminar on intern training and mentoring at the National AIA Convention in New Orleans in six days, and I'm having to tie up loose ends at work so that I don't leave my colleagues hanging while I'm gone for four days. When I get back and have a moment to collect my thoughts, I'll post on the results of my interns and architects survey, which turned out to be quite eye-opening.

Lulu's Mailbag: I'm still unemployed; time to quit architecture?

2011-05-02T05:53:00.000-06:00

I received a timely email from "K", and I bet a lot of you are wondering the same thing s/he is asking here.

I graduated last May with my Masters degree from an accredited university, and at the top of my class. Since then I have applied for over 100 jobs in many different areas, had few interviews, and am having zero-luck in the field of architecture. It is approaching the one year mark of unemployment, and I am highly discouraged.

I have been trying to make myself more marketable, studying to be a LEED Green Associate, brushing up to stay current on software, even teaching myself new software. Even if I could find an unpaid position, I am simply unable to work for free with all of my loans.

When is it time to abandon all that I have worked so hard for? My student loans are just accruing interest, becoming more impossible to pay. I have been forced to move back home because I cannot afford to pay rent. How should I proceed in this job market where I cannot acquire a position in architecture or a related field? How will this affect my chances in the future when employers see such a gap in work experience?

Good questions, all of them. I've been getting so many of these kinds of emails over the past year-plus that it's nearly demoralizing (and sometimes, frankly, I feel like I'm repeating myself). So in a fit of brilliance (?), I forwarded K's questions to my husband, Mr. Lulu (Hubby) Brown. Hubby has worked at more than one firm in his lifetime, unlike me. He also had some difficulty getting a job right out of college during the 1990s, so I thought he might have something useful to say here. I've reprinted Hubby's responses to K below, with my commentary in a contrasting color afterwards (wherever I felt like I should add something).

It is a desperate time. There is no gap really, since you have not worked. You are in transition and it's ok. I agree--if you're just getting out of school during 2008-2011, and you have little to no architectural experience on your resume, any employer with half a brain knows that you're a victim of the economy. No harm, no foul.

1) Are you committed to staying in architecture? If not, start looking into good paying careers outside of architecture. If yes go to 2.

2) Get a part time or full time job to pay some bills. Apply in any state and for every job you can find and get a job. Live cheap and start paying you loans. Limit your exposure to loan deferment. It will cost you later. And you want to be able to defer later if needed. No firm is too small. Also, go to the local AIA for the directory and send resumes out to every other firm you did not apply to. 100 resumes sent in a year is not even close to what a serious job hunt would require. This is not the time to pick and choose; it's time to get work. I concur with the get-a-job-in-general suggestion, especially in 2011 when the economy is picking up slowly across the board. I recently met an engineering intern who got a job for the past year as a lighting fixture representative, but she's about to move to California to start working as an EIT with an electrical engineering firm. That's another thing about getting hired right now: you need to be willing to relocate for work, which is how both Hubby and I found our jobs here in Colorado. 100 resumes in a year in a down economy is relative to where you live; if you're in the Northeast, then you're just scratching the surface with 100 resumes/year, but if you're in Wyoming, then you've probably sent one to everyone within 300 miles of you. Either way, it's time to get a job in any field so that you can put off deferring your student loans (which Hubby has done before, with only mediocre results).

3) After a year minimum experience you can a) Then you can start looking where you really wanted to live and apply for jobs you really want. Hopefully the market will be better by then, or b) figure out that you like where you are and finish your licensing after 3+ years.

FYI #1 - If money is your priority, jumping after one year is your best bet, even if you like where you're at. But jump too much and you gain no loyalty at a firm. A little firm-jumping can increase your income, but a lot of firm jumping means that you don't stay anywhere long enough to have anyone really fight to keep you if things got tight at a firm and layoffs needed to happen.

FYI #2 - You should be ready for the LEED exam after two to four weeks of solid studying, so just get it done.

This is what I, Lulu's husband, did and it worked well for me. I did not start working until I was about 6 months out of school and it never hurt my career. I was able to start saving serious money after five years and am still paying the minimum on his student loans. When times were tough, I deferred for 12 months. Just depends on how nice you want to live. But that is the only debt I have. How nice you want to live...this is a very good point. I've had interns at my firm complain about how much they made, but then they drove off in a one-year-old Audi to a downtown Denver loft apartment. It might be worth it to work with your parents (or whoever you've moved back in with) to get started saving for moving expenses, a down payment on an apartment, or some similar savings plan while you pay off student loans and credit card bills. I realized that by moving one mile away from my office in 2000 (from downtown Denver to a more residential/mixed-use neighborhood), I saved $400 a month in rent and parking garage expenses. Getting a roommate (who later became my husband, coincidentally) saved me an additional few hundred a month. Put plainly, it really sucked that I couldn't make it on my own out of college, and I think that's the big bait-and-switch that a lot of college graduates are given, regardless of their major. But we have to be realistic in those first few years about how well we "need" to live in order to get through this once-every-70-years recession.

If you have a topic you'd like to see discussed or a question to have answered here on Intern 101, feel free to ask in the comments or via email in the sidebar. And don't forget to take the 2011 Intern 101 Survey for Interns and Architects! The survey for interns is here, and the survey for architects is here. Please take the survey and forward to your friends and colleagues, both licensed and unlicensed. Thanks!

Lulu's Mailbag: Who's looking at my resume...anyone?

2011-04-25T05:28:00.000-06:00

I got a great question recently from "S" about getting your foot in the door at a firm and the "auto-response" that some firms give:

I am a senior who will be graduating this May. I have been looking up firms in my area. They usually put "hr@firmA.com" or "employment@firmB.com" on their career page. It seems suspicious to me that they don't let us know who we're supposed to address our cover letter to.

My question is, will our resume, cover letter and work samples get looked at? Big firms which require people to apply on their website have what is called ATS(Applicant Tracking System). My friend who majors in software engineering tell me that big firms usually have that to screen out potential employees and weed out the rest, without even bother to look at the work samples. It's one of those thing that automatically sends a reply after we finish applying no matter what time it is.

Back to the suspicious email address, I know how easy it is to make an email address on a server, since I have one. So, what do you think? Do firms which can't afford to pay for ATS, specifically make that so they don't have to look at the resume so they seem accepting, but are not? I know that they want the best bang for the buck and that Interns don't really have much to offer. So, I'm guessing it'd be nice for them if they could look at the resume and just pick the best.

A couple day later, I looked at job boards. The same firm which only gives out that suspicious email address, said that they are hiring a senior designer and they give out the name of the principal who I presume also acts as a hiring manager. I don't really know much about hiring, but it just seems weird to me that they said on their website that"they are always looking for qualified people", but don't give out the names of the hiring manager.

My professor also said that architecture is a "you-know-who" kind of job. Is that really true? I go to Massachusetts College of Art and Design. The BFA is not accredited and the MArch is still waiting for accreditation (4+2 program). Do firms acknowledge architecture education from a pre-professional school? The people in my grade who gets hired usually have some sort of connection or just a good ass kisser (I really need to learn how to do that...)

Last but not least, what do you think of cold calling firms?

Good questions, S. Let's start with some basic info about the hiring practices of firms right now. While the economy is recovering slowly, there are still way more applicants than there are positions. This means that firms that advertise for one or two positions can get as many as a hundred resumes in a week for those two spots. There is someone (or a couple of someones) that are reviewing resumes and are responsible for hiring, but chances are good that those people are also architects working on billable work. They're already way more-than-40-hours-a-week busy, and they're having a hard time getting back to all the emails and voicemails regarding their one or more projects. That's why everyone is instructed to send their resumes to a generic address--so they don't fill up some poor schmuck's (or schmuckette's) inbox. An official name isn't given out because the firm also doesn't want this person's voicemail full of calls (cold or otherwise) from the influx of job applicants. It's nothing personal, it's just that the person in charge of hiring wouldn't be able to humanly return all of these calls and emails in a timely fashion. And because they don't give out a name, they won't be offended if your cover letter starts, "To whom it may concern."

That being said, you'll see applicant tracking software especially at really big firms or firms with multiple offices. This is because they, being a big firm, get even more applicants than a smaller or privately held firm with fewer than 50 people. But that being said, every firm has some process of weeding out candidates. The first round of weeding resumes is spelling and grammar problems as well as resumes that are hard to read. The next round is about skills and experience--some firms may be looking for someone with only a couple of years, and some may be looking for someone with several years of experience. This round might also involve factors as random as where an applicant went to school or what project types they've done or where they've worked before or....the list is endless.

Of course, knowing someone is always a big help, and not just in architecture. The problem is that so many candidates are equally excellent--everyone's been to college and grad school and can use various types of software and has work experience here or there, so how do you choose? If you know someone already in the business--whatever field that may be--it helps to include that on your resume. Personal knowledge of a candidate allows a firm to know just a little more about you, whether you're going into law, medicine, architecture, marketing, teaching, or whatever.

Cold calling at this point in the economy is a double-edged sword. If you know a name to ask for when you call, that's in your favor. If you're blindly calling just to speak to "someone involved in hiring interns", your cold call may be met with a cold shoulder. Of course, you could call in the hopes that you catch a company's temp receptionist while the usual one is on vacation, in which case you might inadvertently get somewhere.

If you have a topic you'd like to see discussed here, let me know in the comments or via email in the sidebar. And don't forget to take the intern quiz here, and have any friends or colleagues who are licensed take the architect survey here. Thanks!

Interns and Architects: the Mentorship Survey 2011

2011-04-19T20:34:00.000-06:00

I'm presenting a seminar this May at the national AIA Convention in New Orleans about good/better/awesome ways to mentor interns, and I need your help. Not just your help, but the help of all your friends and coworkers and their friends and coworkers, licensed and unlicensed. For the next two weeks, I'm running two surveys: one survey asks about the work experience of interns, and the other survey asks licensed architects about how they work with interns.

Here's the link to the survey for interns.

Here's the link for the survey for architects.

If you put your email in the last blank/question, you'll be eligible to win a $50.00 gift certificate for Amazon.com. (One will be given to an intern, and one will be given to an architect.) Please feel free to forward this post (or at least these surveys) to everyone you work with as well as all your friends at firms around the country (US and its protectorates only, apologies to my readers outside the US!). Go! Go now! Take the survey! Oh, and thanks!

More on unpaid work (and other work) from interns

2011-04-18T06:01:00.000-06:00

I found this article on AIA's website regarding whether interns can work for free at a firm. The article concurs with DOL rules, which is that if you work for a for-profit company, you have to be paid for that work. Interestingly, this article appears to frown on interns gaining IDP credits if they work as independent contractors, saying that "an independent contractor typically does not work under the "direct supervision" that is a hallmark of training." While I understand the gist of the AIA's comment here, I'm not sure I fully agree.

If I pay an actual employee of mine $20/hour but my contractor $30/hour, that extra money as a supplement, to make up for for the health insurance and 401(k) contributions that I'm not giving the contract employee but that I am inevitably giving the actual employee. Either way, if I hire an intern as a contract employee and I've decided to cover that contract employee's work under my liability insurance, then why wouldn't that intern's work be eligible for IDP hours? If the person is an intern, won't I need to meet with them periodically to make sure the work they're doing is correct and up to my and my firm's standards? How is that different from meeting once a day or every other day with an intern in my office? And who's to say that the contract intern wouldn't be working in my office?

Have any of you had experience working as a contractor with an architectural firm? Can you share anything regarding your work experience? (And as ever, if you have a question or a topic you'd like to see covered here, feel free to leave it in the comments or via email in the sidebar. Thanks!)

I want to hug these people

2011-04-11T06:04:00.000-06:00

A friend and colleague of mine sent me a link to a blog called Architects Who Eat Their Young, and I have to say that I want to hug the people that put this blog together, and then I want to pay them fairly. First of all, I have to love any blog that puts the words "pimping architects" in their URL. Second of all (and more importantly), I'm glad to see someone saying what I've been saying for a long time: interns should be paid for their work--there's no such thing as an unpaid internship. If you've got the skills to be an intern, then you should be compensated--and fairly so--for having and using those skills. And not only are these guys saying it, but they're actually posting ads from firms (and using those firms' names) that advertise an "unpaid internship". Yes. Yes! YES!

Update: Decent news for interns in a not-quite-as-awful economy

2011-04-04T06:50:00.000-06:00

A reader commented recently on a post I did back in May 2009, on some good news for interns in a crappy economy. His comment is below, starting with a quote from my post:

" If my mid-sized firm's billings have been at all-time low levels for the past 18 months and I've drained what little cash cushion I had, and now I need to ramp back up and complete some projects but also rebuild that cushion, it can be worth my while to hire an intern with only a year's worth of experience out of college than an unlicensed intern with six years' experience."

So what happens to that unlicensed intern with 6 years experience?
Are they doomed because the new normal dictates that someone with too much experience=too much pay?? Seems to me that those of us that have fulfilled most of our IDP requirements and have started testing are stuck in the proverbial gray area.
And what about BIM and Revit. From the time I was ;right-sized' (about a year and a half ago) to now, Revit has suddenly become the latest big requirement, and a deal-breaker for me with at least a couple of interviews. I realize that it's been nearly 2 years since this post, but I feel as though there is a huge pool of experienced talent out there right now that is basically hosed as far as ever working for any firm ever again.

That's an astute observation, and I don't have a firm, applies-across-the-board answer. Some of those 6-year interns will be able to find work at small and medium-sized firms that need good, experienced help but can't yet afford an architect's salary. Some of them will get licensed during the lull and be able to find work because they're licensed but willing to work for a little less. (Note: I'm not saying any of this is okay or we should all be happy that some of the best and brightest of our profession's future are being underpaid--I'm just saying what it is.) Some firms will pass over a 6-year intern for a 6-year architect because for them the pay differential is minimal compared to the benefits of having a licensed and motivated employee. And some of all of these same folks won't be able to find a position at a firm, and they'll have to find something else to do for a living. And some of those people are really good. And it sucks.

The decent news is that in the past 6 or so months, the work has been picking up and firms are hiring again. Not hiring hand over fist, but hiring nonetheless. The problem right now is ultimately that there's a huge pool from which firms can hire--you have a lot of competition for not that many jobs right now, and anything can make or break your chances of getting a job. If knowing how to use a particular form of drafting or graphics software appears to be the only thing keeping you from closing the deal, then take a class or get a friend to tutor you in it. Almost across the board, a firm will have a hard time hiring you if you're unlicensed and don't know how to use the software that you'll be using every day, because so many unemployed interns do have that experience and skill. Also, some firms will see an intern with 6 years of experience and think, "well, why isn't s/he licensed yet? It's been 6 years!" Those firms will pick someone who's licensed and has 6 years' experience over someone who's unlicensed and has the same 6 years' experience. (And some firms will hire the unlicensed person if they're in the process of testing because they feel like they're getting a motivated employee, especially if that intern has been spending their unemployed time getting licensed.)

The folks I see really suffering in our profession in this economy are the folks who went 10+ years without getting licensed as well as those who came to architecture late (i.e., not before the age of about 23 or so) and weren't licensed when they were laid off. Architecture, like many professions, does have an ageist streak, and most firms find it hard to pay a 43-year-old unlicensed intern more than they do a 31-year-old licensed architect. I recently met someone who works at the Department of Labor at a party, and she said that she's noticed a bit of hiring bias at companies across the board, regardless of what field they're in: it seems as if the best way to get a job is to already have one. Some companies will only hire you if you're already working in your field, because they think you have recent experience and your skills aren't rusty. (If this is true, it's a pretty bogus standard for hiring. People who have been unemployed for a while are probably pretty hungry for a chance to prove themselves and work in their field. Go figure.)

Conversely, I've seen firms hire interns with 6 or 7 years' experience because of what their experience was in, such as a particular project type. I know of firms that actively like taking in relatively inexperienced interns because the firms feel like they can "train them right" and not have to undo other firms' poor training. It just depends on the firm, what they like, and what they need. The best you can do is look at your skills, brush up on anything you feel is weak in your resume (if you can), and keep applying and interviewing. You just might be exactly what a firm is looking for.

What's better than one deadline? Two deadlines, of course!

2011-03-30T19:46:00.000-06:00

Apologies for the delay in posting, all. I just wrapped up one deadline today to discover that I have another (smaller but still important) deadline this Friday. Welcome to architecture, eh? After I've gotten these behind me and have had a chance to sleep in (and not work a weekend for the first time in a month), I'll get back to posting. I've had some great email questions and comments that are food for thought, and I'd love to get all of your comments on them as well.

More thoughts on gender and the architectural profession

2011-03-21T06:25:00.000-06:00

I posted recently on how/if/when I've ever been treated differently in my job and career based on my gender. I and at least one of the commentors made the point that working hard and being really good at your job generally overshadows any gender difference. Being experienced and knowledgeable about how to put a building together or knowing what codes apply in a certain building type is what pushes you farther in your career. As I've mentioned here before (and as D commented in the last post), architecture pays you for your experience, not your degree. With the experience and the knowledge (plus the ability to relate to others and have good working relationships with clients, consultants, and colleagues), you can go as far as you like for the most part.

When I'm not practicing architecture or maintaining a blog, I teach a communication class here in Colorado. While the class is aimed at women, the skills I teach are unisex and useful regardless of age, gender, nationality, etc. The women I teach in this class generally range in age from 18 to mid-60s, and they're all interesting and wonderful people, and frankly I learn as much from them as they do from me. (Hope they don't feel conned by that.) I remember in one class, as I was discussing the importance of mindfulness in communication, a twenty-something African-American woman spoke up:

"I grew up here in Colorado," she explained. "When I went to visit a black friend in Chicago, we went shopping, and I mentioned how nice it was that the salespeople were always nearby if I needed some help. My friend was all, 'Girl, they aren't here because they wanna help--they're makin' sure we don't shoplift anything!' It never occurred to me, growing up in a nice neighborhood in Highlands Ranch where everyone taught their kids that everyone was equal, that someone might think I was gonna steal something based on the color of my skin. I was blown away that people still thought that way."

The reason I bring up this young woman's astute comment is that it highlights a concern I have for the Millennial Generation, of which many interns are a part. Many Millennials (and some Generation X folks as well) have been raised to be color blind, gender blind, orientation blind, age blind, and so on, and I think that bodes well for our society and culture. But there are still people out there who do see color or gender or orientation or a foreign accent as an excuse to exclude or treat with less respect, and I fear that like the bright young woman in my class, you might miss it if it happens to you. Being able to tell when you've been disrespected based on some superficial trait, like race or gender, is helpful because it guides you to right action. It doesn't mean you have to make a court case out of it (unless you want to because the infraction was so egregious), but rather it means you know when the problem is something you can fix versus something you can't. If you're being treated differently because you're not performing up to a standard, that's something you can fix. But if you're being treated differently because you're not white or not a guy (or as D mentioned, if you're not at least 40 years old), then you know there's really only so much you can do.

There are schmucky people still out there, making judgments about us based on our color, gender, age, accent, orientation, or political bent. And sadly, these things rarely if ever actually affect the way we do our jobs or how we work on a project, yet we might get judged on that: "Of course he missed that detail--didn't you see that red state bumper sticker on his car at the job site?" "Well, I'm not surprised that she didn't know that part of the code, it was too much for her pretty little head to think about." "Well, did you expect anything less than shoddy work from one of these texting, iPodding kids?" When I go out to a client meeting or a jobsite, I'm representing my firm. Anything I do or say reflects well or poorly on the firm for which I work. But I'm also representing a bunch of other groups: white people, women, short people (I'm not kidding), my political leanings (though I try very hard not to talk politics at work), Southerners (I'm originally from Georgia and have been known to use the word "y'all" in an email), and so on. I know that anything I say or do also can reflect on whatever particular group of which I'm a member. But my goal is to obliterate the perception of group and bring it back to the task at hand. My goal is to be so good at my job that it becomes the only thing upon which someone could base a judgment, and I urge you all to do the same.

If you have a topic you'd like to see discussed here or a question you'd like to ask, feel free to let me know in the comments or via email in the sidebar. Thanks!

Lulu's Mailbag: How does a girl get some respect around here?

2011-03-14T06:21:00.000-06:00

Reader C sent the following question in:

I'm curious if you ever had any problems as an intern being female and young. I'm 28 but in the right clothes I can still pass for a 13 year old. haha Of course I'm in appropriate clothing when meeting with consultants and contractors but I still feel like they treat me like I'm a little girl or the assistant. I met with a surveyor and an attorney for a project that was applying for a variance and I was treated as if I was just the copy girl... the girl that answers phones. I know being an assistant comes with the territory of being an intern but I'm 5 years into my career and I feel like I have a great amount of responsibilities... enough to at least earn a little respect. I start testing this summer, by the way.

Partly I feel like I'm in this situation because my firm is quite small. Apart from the principal architect there are two senior architects and two interns.I suppose if I want to be treated like I'm in the upper rankings I should just move on to a different firm. I'll forever be at the bottom even when I'm licensed. Anyway, I'm going on a tangent and I hate to sound whiny but I just feel so strongly about this. Did you ever feel like you were treated differently for being a female intern? Even now as an architect, do you still feel you have more to prove yourself because you're a female in a dominantly male field? Do you feel like you have to be somewhat of a bitch to be taken seriously? I have many people telling me it's all about balance but honestly, I have yet to meet a female architect in the upper echelons of an architecture firm that has not been labeled a bitch.

This is a great question (or series of questions), and they're not whiny at all--rather they're quite important. They're a little hard to answer only because there are some variables involved in these questions. So let's start with C's basic initial question: Have you ever been treated differently as a female intern? The answer for me personally is: yes and no. I have had some people treat me like "oh, how sweet, a little girl is on our job!" and I've had some treat me like "oh, the architect is here--now we can get some questions answered." I generally have fewer problems with contractors, clients, etc. that are closer to my age (or at least under the age of 40 when I started out in architecture at the age of 25 back in 2000), but some of my best allies were men old enough to be my dad. There are some people who see the world as the Marines do: they address the rank (or job), not the gender. It is those folks who make it easier (usually) to get a job done because it's about getting the job done, not making exceptions along the way or treating you (or me or any woman) like they're less capable.

The next question was "do you feel like you have to prove yourself even now because you're in a male-dominated field?" My answer is this: I worked damn hard at being a solid, competent architect regardless of gender, which gives me the confidence to do my job now, regardless of with whom (or for whom) I'm working. If a situation arises in which it feels like a consultant, client, or contractor doubts my efficacy or skill, I call him/her on it immediately but in a way that is non-confrontational: "Marcus, I want you to know that if you have any questions about the CDs, I'm the one who can best answer them--I drew pretty much every line on this set, and I know it a lot better than Alex does. Do you have any concerns with calling me or directing the RFIs to me?" This is a little bit of hardball, but there's nothing mean about it. It's getting a situation out in the open and attempting to resolve it.

Now, that being said, let me address the "I worked damn hard" part. I think sometimes in architecture, there's a slight bias towards directing women towards space planning and tenant infill-type work, and directing men towards core and shell/exterior and construction detailing-type work. I recognized that early on, and I found myself struggling to keep up with the exterior detailing part of architecture so that I wouldn't get pigeonholed into just doing interior work. While I've still ended up being more interior space planning-oriented in my work, I also developed a knack for code research, which has made me pretty useful regardless of my gender. In terms of proving oneself, I've found that the best path to take is to work hard, keep learning and absorbing skills and information, and be really good at what you do, regardless of your gender. Your track record will speak for itself (though you may have to step up and remind others of your track record on occasion--more on that in a minute).

Finally, C asks if I feel like I have to be a bitch to be taken seriously. My answer: no, but it also depends on what your definition of "bitch" is. Some men (and a few women) will see any woman who stands up for herself or insists that work be done correctly is a "bitch". However, I've found that most people just want someone to tell them exactly what that someone wants or needs, and to be told that in a way that isn't mushy and isn't brusque and rude. Research by Dr. Linda Carli at the Stone Center for Women at Wellesley College found that people are most likely to perceive women as competent when a woman speaks clearly along with some basic "typically feminine" attributes, such as showing concern for others. I know some women with a lot of power in architecture (though certainly, there aren't as many women as there are men), and the ones I've found that rise to the top aren't particularly "bitchy". This might come as a surprise, but if you consider Dr. Carli's findings, it's not surprising at all. Being a jerk only goes so far, especially in a field like architecture, where relationships and good communication are so key. I've seen jerky communication and behavior stymie the careers of both genders. So if a high-ranking woman architect gets called a "bitch" by someone or other, I'm betting it's because she did stand up for herself/her firm/her client/good work/whatever. I've seen men get called "asshole" for similar behavior (though not as often as I hear women earn some caustic label).

However, C's email still gives me pause. Here's what I don't know about your situation, C: when you went to that meeting with the attorney and the surveyor, how did your boss introduce you? Did he even introduce you at all? How did and does your boss treat you in general and in front of clients, consultants, and contractors? People learn how to deal with you based on how they see others deal with you. If your boss said, "This is C, she's helping out on the project" or even just "This is C," then that's a lot less respect-inducing than "This is C--she's the job captain on this project and will be involved in the day-to-day running of construction. If you have a question about the CDs, she's the gal." (I also don't know how you sound when you speak, what your body language is like, and so on, which can affect these dynamics.) I think part of what has reduced the need for me to have to prove myself with those outside the firm is that my managers have usually (though not always) imparted my skill to the rest of the team. The others understood from my managers that Lulu was the person to talk to and she knows what she's doing, end of story. I'm sure we're not all so lucky.

Ultimately, C's struggle at her firm may be the same as one I've experienced lately, which is that of reminding everyone that you're not an intern anymore, but rather a really skilled, talented, and useful architect-in-training and even an architect (once you pass the ARE, C!). I've had to remind managers lately of that fact when asked to do some arcane task on a project. I frame it in economic terms: our office charges a lot more for my time now that I'm licensed, and I remind the managers of that fact when I'm asked to print out some documents or do some other thing. It's not that I'm above it by any means--it's just that I'm an awfully expensive copy girl.

I'm not sure if I've answered C's questions to any satisfaction, and I'm certainly not done with this topic, but I'd be interested in hearing your thoughts. I know my audience here skews young, and I'm intrigued to know what your generation is experiencing in terms of gender bias or differences in treatment in gender. What are you seeing and experiencing?

Lulu's Mailbag: How do I get a job with little or no experience?

2011-03-07T06:16:00.000-07:00

Today's question comes from B., who writes:

I graduated last May and I while I managed to get a temporary job (vaguely related to architecture) that lasted from July through January, I haven't been able to find any work for a firm. I had been hoping that the job market might pick up by now, but no one really wants to keep around, much less pay someone who has very little experience. At this rate, I'm worried that if I don't get any sort of experience, I'll be stuck with a very weak resume. Should I ask nearby firms if they'll take me on as an intern who'll work for free (either full or part time) so that I get experience, or hold out for something that will pay? (I've moved back in with my parents, so right now I don't have to worry about rent, etc). I would really appreciate any advice you would give.

I bet you're not the Lone Ranger on this one, B. While work is coming back, the job market is still slow to respond, as firms are still a little hesitant to hire someone at the risk of having to lay them off only a few months later. Let me first make one thing clear: never, never, never work for free. I've blogged on this before here as well as here, and it's worth repeating: never work for free. When you work for free as a professional with a college degree, whether or not you have experience, it's not only illegal, but it also undersells your skills and your professional worth.

Second, I've done a couple of posts on how to get a job in a down economy (here and here and here, for example). It might help you to get any job right now (perhaps based on a job you had in high school or college?), at least to keep you busy part time and get some money coming in, which might make your parents happy. You could interview with a firm to get even one-day-a-week work, even if it's just archiving their files and being their office manager to start with. Whatever it is, get paid. (I have a post about starting wages for interns here.)

Third, you might be surprised at what firms want. I know of firms that won't hire anyone with less than two years of experience. But where are these interns getting that two years' worth, huh? They're getting it at the firms that like hiring newbies--and those firms do exist. Some firms prefer to do some training of young professionals under the auspices of "teaching them right". Some firms, especially smaller ones of only a couple of people, may like to hire new professionals because, frankly, they're cheap. (Remember, architecture pays you for your experience, not your college degree. Your degree is like a cover charge into the nightclub that is architecture. Once in said nightclub, try not to act a fool on the dance floor or throw up in a toilet stall.) And while you're living with your parents right now to save on living expenses, you may have to move out--far out--to find a job. You didn't say where you live now, but if you're living in a more economically-depressed area (say, Detroit), you may have to be willing to move to another city or even another state in order to find work.

Questions? Comments? Something else you'd like to see discussed here? Let me know in the comments or via email in the sidebar. Thanks!

AIA Young Architects Mentoring Series -- right on!

2011-03-02T19:34:00.000-07:00

I apologize for the lack of posts--I've been on deadline and then out of town. Just as I got back, I got the email below from AIA Young Architects Forum. I'm glad to see them really taking a solid interest in mentoring. Hopefully I'll be able to catch one or more of these and report back. (And if you attend one of these webinars, feel free to write a review for Intern 101! And I'm having a hard time getting this to publish properly, so you might be best served by clicking on the links and going right to the website.)

AIA Professional Architect Mentoring Series

Session 1: Getting Work

The College of Fellows and the Young Architects Forum are sponsoring the development of a new, easy-to-participate webinar series to foster mentoring in the profession.

The mentoring series is directed to firm and organization leaders, unlicensed professionals, young architects, and current and potential trainers and mentors to help them understand what mentoring is and how to establish successful mentoring programs.The program will provide established practitioners with the skills and tools to act as mentors and career coaches to young licensed professionals and unlicensed interns.

Description:

Each webinar will help mentors and mentees deal with a topic, rather than train on the topic itself. Our first session,“Getting Work,”will deal with marketing and business development.

Schedule:

Session 1: Getting Work	Thursday, March 17, 2011 at 2pm EDT
Session 2: Profitability	Second Quarter 2011*
Session 3: Doing Good Work	Third Quarter 2011*
Session 4: Talent and Culture	Fourth Quarter 2011*

Participation:

View the Professional Architect Mentoring Series flyer, or Register here for the first session.

Fee: $15 per registrant (via Paypal.) Groups may view webinar, but individuals must register to receive the 1.5 AIA Learning Unit.

*Session under development, date and time to be determined.

Um...Architect Barbie?

2011-02-21T06:29:00.000-07:00

By now, I'm sure many if not all of you have seen Mattel's new "Architect Barbie", the latest role model in the "I Can Be..." series from the Barbie brand, developed in conjunction with the AIA. I greet this new doll with mixed feelings. To be fair, I had Barbies growing up, but I never thought that I should be thin, tall, and busty like Barbie. My sister and I mostly enjoyed taking our Barbies outside and throw them in the air, trying to hit the high-tension power lines that ran over a corner of our front yard. Which probably explains a lot about me now...but I digress. I'm annoyed because I, like many of my architect colleagues who have seen this photo, immediately zoomed in on how site-visit-inappropriate her outfit is. I do appreciate the fact that they included a real-looking hard hat, and I'm highly-amused by the nerdcore glasses perched on her elegantly-coiffed head. However, you really want to cover your legs on a jobsite, and I'm pretty sure you wouldn't want to wear those boots either (they're liable to get scuffed up or damaged on a jobsite, unless maybe it was an interior renovation project...but again I digress). I'm annoyed at the pink drawing tube, as well. Look, I was goobery enough to wear a Huey Lewis t-shirt in a non-ironic way in college and grad school, but I'm betting that any woman architect would probably not want to tote around a hot pink drawing tube. Why? Because I'm not seven years old, and besides, I don't need something to re-emphasize that I'm a girl to my (mostly male) contractors.

But of course, this doll wasn't made for me, it was in fact made for seven-year-old girls. And perhaps by seeing this, the thought might cross some young girl's mind that she can be an architect just as easily as she could be anything else when she grew up. And I, like my colleagues, are examining Barbie's outfit so closely only because we don't have any of her work to scrutinize. Other comments from my colleagues upon seeing Architect Barbie:

"Wow, glad to know this is where our AIA dues are going."
"Wait, is this Architect Barbie or Project Runway Barbie?"
"What is that next to her feet? A house for ants? How can we teach children to learn how to read in this... if they can't even fit inside the house? It'll have to be at least...three times as big!

So what do y'all think about Architect Barbie? Approved? Approved with Revisions? Revise and Resubmit?

How can you deal with negative feedback?

2011-02-17T06:01:00.000-07:00

A recent article over at All Things Workplace reminded me about the importance of negative feedback at work. Blogger Steve Roesler points out that negative feedback is necessary, especially when someone has high potential to do really well and move up in a company. It's been my experience with many managers that no one likes to give criticism, even if it's constructive. However, I wager that many interns have bosses who have zero problem flipping you off verbally and taking the criticism from useful to hurtful.

One of the best books I've ever read about communication skills stated that criticism comes in only three flavors: true, partly true, and not true. If someone criticizes you and it's true, then you can just say, "Yeah, you're right, I botched that--here's how I plan to fix it/I'm not sure how to fix it, do you have any ideas?" If the criticism is partly true, you can say, "Well, I can see how you might see it that way, but to me I really only messed up that first half/got better at returning RFIs after the XYZ proposal went out." When you believe the criticism to be untrue or even really imprecise, ask for specifics on when exactly you've messed something up terribly or been rude to a client, etc.

When I used to do improv comedy, our group leader set up two rules and only two rules: Say "yes, and..." and don't argue. Arguing doesn't move a scene forward in comedy, and it doesn't move a performance review or project forward either. Asking for specifics on negative feedback is the best response because it moves things forward: what exactly didn't you like about the way I put this set together, what concerned you about that email I wrote, what is it about my performance here at ABC Architects that you find to just be 'adequate'?, in what specific ways do you think I can improve my writing/detailing/designing/whatever? If you get a stone wall on these requests, it's important to frame your request in terms of the job yet again: "I'd like to improve my skills in X so that I can get these projects done better/faster/to a higher quality, but I'm not sure how to do that without a specific target to aim at. Can you help me narrow down what I need to do to improve?"

By pursuing the solution to negative feedback instead of being defensive or clamming up and shutting down, you can actually use the criticism as a chance to improve. (However, if your boss is unable to be specific after some pushing for those specifics, you may figure out that he or she has bigger problems than you can solve. Maybe he or she just doesn't like you, or the problem s/he described isn't really the problem, or s/he is a terrible communicator and you may never know what the problem is. Every now and then, you meet a person like this, and they just happen to be your boss. Take a deep breath and try not to take it personally.)

Insinuating yourself into the (design) conversation

2011-02-13T08:48:00.000-07:00

I wrote last week about my intern who had to keep his multiple managers informed because he was working on multiple projects, each with varying deadlines and varying levels of urgency. I've been concerned about this beleaguered young man because he is having to deal with so many bosses and so many demands right now. I've noticed that some of the redlines I've given him aren't fully getting picked up. Some of that may be due to the lack of time due to all his other deadlines. But some of it, I realized recently, may be because he doesn't fully understand this project. And while as his manager, it's up to me to make sure he understands it, it may be sometimes up to you to ask for that extra level of understanding if you're not getting it from you manager.

This is a healthcare project, which my intern has never done before. He has never had to arrange reading rooms in relation to modality rooms for a radiology suite, nor has he likely ever heard the word "modality" (unless it's in a Kenneth Frampton theory book somewhere, but I can't read Frampton--he's like Valium on paper to me). This intern has never listened to the user groups talk about the floor plans and how they do their procedures, what is the flow of staff through the department versus the flow of patients, the importance of separating clean and dirty instruments and linens and how they achieve that, and so on. It's a lot to take in, and it's hard to understand all the dynamics involved without literally sitting in that meeting and being there. I wager that some, if not many interns don't get the honor/joy/benefit of attending a user group or client meeting in which these conversations take place, and it's really to an intern's detriment. Hearing the discussions, watching people's faces and hearing their tones of voice as they discuss the layout of their building or portion of it, watching the users move the same room to three different places in the building over the course of twenty minutes...those are very telling conversations that explain not just the final lines you see on a plan, but how the user groups and the architect at the meeting got there.

If you haven't been invited to join a user group or client meeting on your project, you might just have to invite yourself. When you find yourself working on redlines and doing research for a project for the long haul, ask about joining in on one or more of the user group meetings during the early design phases. If your boss vacillates ("well...we really you need back here getting the drawings done, etc."), frame your contribution as a benefit to the project (which it is). First off, by meeting the players in person, they can attach a face to a name in their email inbox when you send them drawings or other information. Second, you can better understand the thought process behind the redlines you're having to draw into CAD or Revit or whatever software you use, and understanding that process can help you solve a problem if something isn't fitting quite right. And finally, if your boss can't make it to a meeting or will be late getting there, you can be his or her face in the meantime--it will look more like your manager sent a team member to the meeting, not just whoever-was-available-to-go.

The other benefit of attending user group and design meetings is to both you and your firm: you get training in how to run these meetings as well. I've been to many user group meetings during my time as an intern and even as an architect, and while I didn't run many of them up until about two years ago, I learned a lot about what and how as well as what and how not to work with user groups and talk with clients. Starting in 2009, I started running user group meetings on my own, much to the relief of my boss--the fact that I could do this well allowed him to stay at the office and get other work done instead of having to sit next to me. Now more recently on this large healthcare project on which I've been working, there are times when we have two user groups meeting at the same time. My boss can work in one meeting and I can work in the other, effectively doubling our capacity.

Multitask-managing your managers

2011-02-07T06:12:00.000-07:00

Those of you who have worked through the economic downturn--and perhaps some of you who have recently been hired--may be finding yourselves pulled in multiple directions. You may be having to work on more than one project, and it's quite likely that those projects are run by different bosses or managers. Actively working for more than one person is a bit of a juggling act, and it requires that you be organized and super-professional...sometimes more professional that the folks giving the orders.

The fact is, we don't always get to work on only one project. If the projects are on the small side, you may end up being on multiple project teams. If the projects are small enough, you may be the team. And if there are several small projects coming in at about the same time--three rooms here, a 2,000-sf remodel project there--you may find yourself being the project team on multiple projects. This is just a fact of our profession, and it's a smaller version of what our engineers go through (even when they have really big projects, it's rare to see an engineer work on just one or even two projects at a time--I usually see them work on anywhere from four to twelve). If you're juggling multiple projects for the same manager, then it's important to keep them updated on what's due when and what it'll take to get each one done.

That communication becomes even more important when you're working on more that one project for more than one manager. I've been dealing with this myself in the past couple of years, but I was reminded of it by an intern recently. I'm working on a major healthcare project, and my portion of the project was assigned (for the long haul) a skilled intern with lots of design, construction, and Revit experience but not a lot of experience in my particular project type (healthcare). This meant I was going to have to walk this intern through some of the redlines so that he understood rules of space planning a surgery center or a clinic, and because we have several deadlines coming up for this project, I need to make sure I have the information he needs in enough time to have drawings ready. However, I was surprised when he had to stay late to finish a drawing we needed for an early meeting the next morning. Turns out that he's having to finish CA for another project that's running almost three months behind. Because of the urgent nature of that project, he has to drop everything and focus on it whenever he gets an RFI or a shop drawing or any other question or request from the field. So while he only spends four to eight hours a week on the CA project, it can strike at any time, which is what happened when I handed him at 10am the redlines for my next-morning meeting--the emergency pushed everything else to the bottom of the list.

When you're working for more than one manager, it's even more important to let them know about your upcoming deadlines as well as general workload. For example, you may have been under the impression that you are to divide your time evenly between Project A and Project B, but it seems like Project A has more urgent stuff going on and has more to do. When you recognize that, ask both managers at the same time, whether in person or via email, whether they need to reconsider where you're putting your time. Remember: it's the managers' jobs to decide where you're spending your time, so do your best to avoid negotiating on either one's behalf. Make them slug it out as to who you're working for.

To comment or not to comment?

2011-02-03T06:58:00.000-07:00

As Intern 101 approaches its second birthday, I have to send out an early thank you to everyone who has visited this site, and I send out a double thanks to those how have emailed, commented, or both. I maintain the fact that this site works only if it's helping you in some way, and I cannot help interns if I don't know what's bothering you or what you need or want to know.

I find the comments interesting, partly because having someone comment on this site is pretty rare. I'm not sure why that is, but I want everyone to know that comments are welcome, whether you agree or disagree with something in the post. Likewise, if the post brought up more questions than it answered, then the comments are a good place to discuss that. I have a few ideas, I'd like to share with you regarding the commenting, inspired by this post over at Building Product Marketing.

First, please try to avoid commenting as "Anonymous". You don't have to use your real name--heck, you can call yourself Barney the Purple Horseman of the Apocalypse if you like, but Anonymous is problematic for two reasons: one, if more than one person comments as "Anonymous", it's a little tough for me to respond to the commenters ('well, First Anon,...good point, Second Anon....'); and two, I'd like to think that each and every one of you stands enough behind their convictions to attach some name to it, even if it's Barney. My blog name is a pseudonym, yes, but it's not Anonymous--it's Lulu. So if you're utterly pissed off at some nonsense I'm spouting on this blog, at least you have some name at which to hurl a rebuttal.

Second, I'm glad to approve comments that believe 180-degrees of what I believe, as long as those comments are stated clearly and with some degree of civility. I try hard to keep my commentary from getting personal--and hopefully I succeed at that, though I've probably slipped up somewhere--so I ask that you do the same. My goal is to keep the discussion about a topic or issue, not about a person or group of people.

Third, be sure to choose the right venue for your expressions. If it feels like your comment is dragging on a bit, it might be better to send it to me as an email. An email will allow you to work out your ideas a little more thoroughly, and I can even turn it into a post that gives everyone more food for thought.

At any rate, I appreciate all comments, emails, ideas, and input in general. If you ever have a question you'd like answered or a topic you'd like to see discussed here, you can let me know in the comments or via email (in the sidebar). And as always, thanks!

The gentle art of product-rep self-defense, Part 2 of 2

2011-01-31T06:45:00.000-07:00

Last week we discussed how to screen and deal with initial interactions with product reps and vendors. (We also got some great input and advice from product reps reading the site, and I'll address that at the end of this post. Also, check out the comments on the aforementioned post.) Sometimes, a product rep or vendor will want to take things a step farther and try to get more face time with you. They might ask to take you to lunch or to do a presentation for your office. These invitations can be good ways to learn more about a product or service as well as a person, but there are still a few things to keep in mind when accepting these invitations.

First things first: know who handles product presentations and continuing ed seminars in your office. If you're in a small office, that might mean you (or whoever's being asked by the vendor). As someone who handled every aspect of seminar coordination for ten months, I highly recommend that the scheduling, lunch deliveries, and presenter setup (e.g., if they need an LCD projector for a PowerPoint presentation) be handled by an administrative assistant or office manager, but the yea-or-nay on having the presentation in the first place be decided by an architect. (Trust me--even as an intern, you don't have time to do your actual architectural job plus field all the phone calls and coordinate seminars.) Ask the vendor if they have any AIA-approved continuing ed seminars. Even if your colleagues aren't AIA members, some states still require continuing education credits in order to maintain licensure, and these presentation can be a good way to get those credits as well as learn something that really helps you in your day-to-day jobs.

Second, check with your boss or firm principals if you're unsure about accepting a lunch invitation or an activity invitation from a product rep. In particular, ask him/her how much, if any, project information you're allowed to share. Bear in mind that part of taking you to lunch is sometimes to find out about possible leads, so they may want to know if the Thus-n-Such Elite Condo project is about to go out to bid or if it's still in DDs, and can they get their products in the project or help you with the specs?* If a vendor asks about a project, you may be able to at least say when construction is slated to begin and who is handling product inquiries. (For example, I do a lot of healthcare work with health systems and HMO companies that have contracts with various product and equipment vendors. In those cases, I tell vendors, "Those decisions are made at a national level--I have no influence over whose storage cabinets or autoclaves they use. If you want to get on their list, talk to X person in Minnesota.")

There are ethical rules in place that keep architects from buying work from a client by donating to that client's organization or favorite charity. Your firm principal(s) may have similar rules about accepting gifts, lunches, dinner/drinks, or golfing or skiing outings from vendors and potential consultants as well. Ask first just to be safe. Also, let your manager know if and when you'll be meeting with product reps regarding a specific project. Chances are, your manager has had experiences with similar products and materials and will have questions that they'll want to ask of that rep themselves (or want you to ask on their behalf). It's a good way to learn about the kinds of information you really need from product reps as well as gain a better understanding of how materials work in a building.

Bad product reps call you and leave a voicemail, then email you ten minutes later to see if you got the message, then show up unannounced at your office to see you two hours later (and yes, this actually happened to me recently). Good product reps, however, are much more than salespeople--they understand the forces and issues that affect their product and how it works in your building. Sometimes they were architects, engineers, nurses, teachers, etc. before they were reps, so they can bring an extra layer of knowledge to your project and product selection. This is why bringing some product reps in as early as possible into a project--during early DDs, for example--can be important. You can (hopefully) get the right knowledge and the right product for the job. Some of the best reps I've ever worked with have flat-out told me when their product was not the right one for the job. It made me want to use them again on another project as soon as I could. And frankly, there are a couple that I've worked with for so long that I actually hang out with them socially, just for the fun of it.

*Many product reps will help you in part or in whole with certain spec sections to make sure that their product--or at least one that works as well as theirs--is in your project, thereby assuring a certain level of quality. This happens a lot with door hardware, where the consultant who assembles and assigns hardware groups to your doors will also write the spec to make sure certain products (or at least products of a certain quality) are specified. I've also seen this happen with concrete mixes and admixtures, thermal insulation and waterproofing, and lighting.

If you have a question or a topic you'd like to see discussed here, let me know in the comments or drop me a line via email in the sidebar. Thanks!

Common interview flubs (and some unusual ones too!)

2011-01-27T06:42:00.000-07:00

This article on MSN's CareerBuilder website lists some common interview mistakes and also provides links to some other good articles on handling interviews with eloquence and aplomb. But I'm linking it here partially for comic relief--did an interview candidate really throw his beer in the trashcan outside the office before coming in for an interview? (I actually think we had a guy like this at my office for a while....)

The gentle art of product-rep self-defense, Part 1 of 2

2011-01-24T07:07:00.000-07:00

The longer you work on a project, the more your name gets associated with that project in your office. This is good when engineers or clients call and the receptionist needs someone to whom s/he can transfer those project related calls. It's not so good when product reps call and ask about the So-and-So project, and the call goes to your desk. Let's be fair: product reps have to sell their products (movable shelving, direct-vent fireplaces, decorative lighting fixtures and systems) or services (equipment coordination, BIM consultancy, HVAC system commissioning). They do that in part by hearing about new projects and following leads, which means calling architects about the projects and seeing if there's a chance the architect would use their product in the project. But while we're being fair, let's also be honest: phone calls and visits from vendors (as we'll call product and service reps for now) can be distracting, disruptive, and downright annoying. How are you supposed to handle these folks? On the one hand, you need to get your work done, but on the other, they might have a product or service that this client could really use.

I deal with this situation on an almost-daily basis for two reasons. One, I'm working now and have worked in the past on some decently-sized and/or high-profile projects, so some reps get sent to me form the front desk, and others are reps I've worked with on previous projects and call about new ones. Two, I was the continuing education seminar coordinator for our office in 2010, which means a ton of vendors now know my name, email address, and phone number. Thank heavens for Caller ID--if I don't know the number calling in, I let it go to voicemail. Interruption averted.

If you're ever caught off guard by a vendor, deflect and defer to your boss. If you get a phone call, transfer them to your boss with the indication to the rep that you aren't in charge of these kinds of decisions ("our project manager, Judy, is in charge of selecting and coordinating equipment along with the owner, so I'll send you to her voicemail"). If they catch you in person, say the same thing and take their business card to pass on to your boss. Taking product literature along with the card can be helpful as long as they don't give you a book. (A lot of product literature tends to go into the recycle bin, so it seems.) Remember: if any rep ever catches you off guard, defer and deflect, no matter the size of the project.

It's important to have a conversation with your project manager about who should handle these calls and visits. Ask your manager if there are any products or services that they're really needing: do you have a client that only uses a certain brand of light fixture? Does this client really need help with inventory planning, distribution, and maintenance? If you know what kinds of vendors you really need, you can thin the herd coming through your phone lines (or go find them yourself). It's also important to know what kinds of projects your firm does, and therefore what vendors your firm does and doesn't need. Now and then, the firm for which I work will get a call, a visit, or an info packet from a company that does custom kitchen cabinets or designs spa bathrooms or closets. Nice to know, but we do little to no single- or double-family high-end residential work. Hence, this person probably shouldn't waste a lot of time courting our business. Letting him/her know that up front is actually a courtesy--it allows the rep to go after people that might really use those products, and it keeps someone from needlessly blowing up your digits for weeks on end.

In Part 2: how to handle lunch invites, presentations, and product libraries. In the meantime, if you have a topic you'd like to see discussed or a question you're dying to have answered, drop me a line in the comments or via my email in the sidebar. Thanks!

...architect's hair is on fire, please stand by...

2011-01-19T12:50:00.000-07:00

Apologies for the lack of posts, all--we're getting ready for a bunch of meetings next week with some big clients, so my hair is on fire and I haven't composed a decent post all week. (Wait, have I ever composed a decent post?)

So in lieu of being original and creative, I'd like to suggest a few little website and blog posts worth reading, considering, musing, etc.:

Check out the Harvard Business Review's take on the Productivity Myth.
Steve Roesler's angle on self-awareness in the workplace.
Another great article from the HBR on cover letters.

Putting the "perform" in performance reviews

2011-01-10T19:48:00.000-07:00

I got a performance review at the end of 2010, which was nice since I hadn't had one since 2008. Overall, I like performance reviews, and when they're done right, they can be very useful (or even enjoyable). First of all, they serve as a great opportunity to have some uninterrupted time with you manager(s) to just talk about work: what's working, what's not, and what are some ways to improve. If you take a moment to prepare for your review, it can be a conversation that works in your favor.

Note that I said "conversation". It's true: a good performance review is a conversation, a back and forth between you and your manager(s) about your job, your career, the company, and even your manager's job and career. It's a chance to ask them for their perspective on the company and the economy as well as how they've handled the kinds of challenges that you're facing now. By making this a true conversation, you can learn things about your boss' point of view that might help you do your own job better: does she see work as something that permeates every aspect of her life? Does she buy into the "work hard, play hard", or is she interested in just putting in her time and going home?

Before you go into a performance review, have ready the answers to some basic questions:

What do you most like doing and why?
What were some tasks or experiences you really enjoyed or at least valued in the past year?
What would you like to learn more about in the coming year? What do you still need some experience in (CDs, code study, CA, etc.)?
What are some tasks you've struggled with in the past year?
What are some problems or gaps in responsibilities/tasks that you've noticed in the office? How would you fix them?
What were some achievements you had this year that you could point to as being positive?

As you're wrapping up, ask about doing this again in three to six months. Performance reviews are supposed to help an employee know what they're doing well and what they need to improve, and it can be hard to know how well you're doing on both of those fronts if you only get feedback once a year. Touching base more often--even if it's over lunch or a mid-morning coffee--can help you know if you're on the right track. Performance reviews are also supposed to protect companies, by the way: if you get fired for a performance problem that no one ever brought to your attention, you could sue your former employer for not giving you a chance to rectify the problem. that being said, if your manager gives you some ideas on ways to improve your performance, then you need to act on those suggestions or expect to have problems with the manager later. (If the suggestions are things you're not sure you can do for whatever reason, then now is the time to discuss them, up front with your boss, not later at the bar with your pals.)

New Year, new chances, and new challenges

2011-01-04T18:36:00.000-07:00

Happy New Year to all my readers, and many many thanks for continuing to visit this nonsense of a blog and sending me questions. I was sent some great questions at the end of last year, and I know I need to get to them (and so I shall). As we step into this new year and say goodbye and good riddance to 2010, I do have a few observations, comments, and predictions:

2011 is shaping up to be a decent year economically, but don't dare expect a good, solid recovery to 2007 levels. Here in Colorado, we've seen a sizeable uptick in healthcare and smaller movements in educational work, but it might be a while (six months, perhaps) before we see movement in other sectors. Real estate has to get moving again for some sectors to move forward.
That slooow increase in work should add some entry level jobs in architecture for interns, but some of you may benefit in unexpected ways from the downturn. Some of your cohorts have left the profession due to being laid off for too long, or due to being laid off from a profession that they've realized they really didn't like. Either way, depending on your market, you might be able to find a job more so than in 2009 and 2010.
Tired of the public debating who designs better museums, Frank Gehry will fight Daniel Liebskind in a no-time-limit MMA match on pay-per-view. I predict that Gehry will win by tapout.
Personally, I think some firms are going to lose people as the economy comes back, especially if those firms didn't treat their employees very well. (Some of you may fall into this category. If so, I say carpe diem.)
Some of you who are still at firms will find yourselves getting stretched a little thin when the work comes back but your firm is scared to hire more folks. While this can be frustrating and exhausting at times, use this lack of staffing as a reason to learn about more/unusual parts of a project and a firm and get those overdue IDP credits.
If you haven't had a performance review, now is a good time to ask for and/or schedule one. It's a good opportunity to ask for feedback on what you do well and what you could better as well as share your thoughts on what can make work easier and more productive for you and your colleagues.

I don't really make resolutions each year, but I do plan to learn how to set some limits and use my energy a little more wisely this year. What about you?

And now, for a break...

2010-12-20T16:36:00.000-07:00

I managed to get two weeks off here at the end of the year. It occurred to me that I really needed a break, and as all my projects got nice and quiet at the end of the year, I figured it was as good a time as any to not be in the office. I also realized that I hadn't taken a lot of time off in the previous eleven months, which I why I had so much time left to burn. And I needed to take it now mostly because I was so burned out.

Recent studies have shown that taking vacations are good for you, even if the positive effects are short-lived afterwards. Part of what helps you, some researchers surmise, is that people get positive benefits from anticipating the vacation as well as going on the vacation itself. Therefore, it's better to take smaller, more frequent vacations than one or two big vacations. I did take a couple of vacations this year, but each of them involved work in some way, like a presentation or teaching gig. I needed was to completely get away, which I'm about to do.

The next two weeks will be spent doing anything but architecture, which will be refreshing and I think will actually amp me up to come back and do architecture again in January. So posting will be pretty light for the next two weeks, but I hope you all find some time to take a break and rest this holiday season. Cheers and see you in 2011!

Lulu's Mailbag: Is becoming an architect worth it?

2010-12-13T06:49:00.000-07:00

Today's question comes from B in Australia (wow!):

I am currently studying architecture in Melbourne, Australia and have just completed my first year, with another four to go :(.

I feel that you might have the best advice for me. I'm starting to consider a drafting course as I have been hearing that it is a 3 year course and obviously less stressfull than archtiecture.

My question is, is becoming an architect worth another 4 years of hard work? Is there light at the end of the tunnel? Or are the long hours even worse in the work force?

Alas, B, this is the million-dollar question: is any profession worth the effort and schooling and stress and time? I have friends who went into architecture and, after having been laid off a couple of times, are now pursuing other jobs and even other careers: government work, teaching architecture, not teaching architecture, managing a small business, construction management, and so on. Others have stayed as close to architecture as possible, even if they weren't able to actively work in the field. After spending six years in school and ten and a half years in the profession, I can honestly say that I really like architecture and enjoy practicing it, though there are some aspects of it that annoy and sometimes even infuriate me.

I'm sure that the 3-year drafting degree will lead you to a job that is less stressful than architecture, but will it be as satisfying and interesting as the career and jobs you get with the five-year degree? It depends first on why you started the architectural program in the first place. Do you have a passion for design, for thinking creatively, for making and shaping space, for having a positive effect on people and the built environment? If so, then stay with the 5-year program. If you just want to draw buildings, then maybe the drafting program is the way to go. Neither approach is "right" or "wrong"--it's about what your ultimate goal is, whether you want to just row the boat, or if you'd like to help steer it as well. Some people are totally happy to just row, and that's excellent. Some people want to help steer, and that's great, too. I know plenty of people who went through the trouble of architecture school, and they have become glorified drafters and refuse to get licensed, even thought they're pushing fifty years old. But the position they have makes them happy, and who am I to tell them their choices are bad?

And that brings me to a third option, B: with the five-year degree, you can be an architect or a really well-educated draftsperson who can think beyond the average drafter, but if you just get the three-year degree, then a drafter is all you'll ever be. That three-year degree may make it harder to move up and ahead into architecture, if you ever decide that you want to do so. (Now, granted, I'm giving you all of this from an American point of view. Here in the U.S., there are very, very few architectural drafters--we architects do our own drafting. Engineers (mechanical, electrical, etc.) are more likely to hire drafters, people who simply put into software what an engineer has hand sketched for them.) With a five-year degree, the extra years of training can open more employment doors and opportunities for you.

And that can be good news. When you get out of school in four more years, the economy will very, very likely have rebounded and recovered, and there will be more jobs for you to do and places for you to work, both in Australia and here in the U.S. if you'd like to move. If architects are using pure drafters, they're going to use people in India or China, not in Australia or the U.S. Having the extra two years of thinking will only help.

I realize I'm handing you advice without really corresponding with you on this, B, but that's my superficial two cents' worth. If you (or any of the readers) have more questions or comments, feel free to post them in the comments here or send me another email.

Lulu's Mailbag: How do I make my engineers do their jobs?!

2010-12-09T06:30:00.000-07:00

I got a great question from C, who writes:

When I started here (at my firm) I was told to start compiling Navisworks clash reports and models so we could coordinate the models on this project. Simple enough – combine the models – run the clash – sort through 30,000 clashes to find the legit clashes – export viewpoints – export report – email off. Rinse and repeat on a weekly basis and track the progress of the clash numbers.

This starts simple enough – any time I’ve done this in the past on other projects, that’s all we had to do – give the engineers a Navis model and let them work through their clashes on their own, help them with the difficult ones and assist them when they clash with architectural. Which is what I’ve done. Am I crazy to assume that they should be able to be grown professionals and work through their own clashes on their own (ie. Pipe hits duct, someone please move something)?

Well, fast forward to today – we're 2 weeks from the finish and clashes still exists – roughly 100 or so legit ones. I’ve gone as far in recent weeks as to take a set of drawings and literally highlight and redline where the clash is and who it involves. Scanned those in and sent those off to them, basically providing a roadmap to the clash. They don’t even need to open the Navis model for this – yet still they ignore the clashes. We hold bi-weekly BIM meetings where I walk through clashes with them – they’re in the same room together they can talk through the clash – and they always say “ok, I’ll move X to here and you move that to there and boom we're good” - next week come along and that same clash STILL EXISTS!

I’ve literally drawn them a picture and walked them through the fix. Short of going to their office and holding their hands and fixing it for them I’m not sure what to do. I shouldn’t have to be the one that fixes their clashes for them – considering MEP is all in the same office they should be able to walk to the other cubicle and talk it out like grown adults.

I’m at wits end dude. I’ve done everything I know to aid in the clash resolution process just to be ignored essentially for 5 months by the MEP guys.

C, the short answer is this: if your manager is aware of this constant struggle on your part, then you've done all you can. If you're at the point with a consultant that you're having to go over to their office, put your hand on their mouse hand, and do the clicking for them, then the problem is pretty much theirs. It's time to get the managers involved, or at least aware: email the engineers and copy your boss(es) and their boss(es) and ask what's going on: "I've sent you the Navis report on X/XX/2010 and I gave you a marked up plan locating the clashes on X/XX/2010, and I see in the latest model that over 100 clashes still have not been picked up. I'm concerned that we're about to issue a project that has unresolved clashes that could adversely affect this project's construction. We really need to get these clashes resolved--what do you need from me/us to make that happen?"

Working with consultants is usually an enjoyable and educational experience, but that experience goes sour fast when basic issues go unresolved. You can't make people do their jobs per se, but if all of your efforts to gain compliance and cooperation go ignored, then it's time to let managers know what's going on.

'Tis the season to (still) act professionally

2010-12-06T06:26:00.000-07:00

December heralds the season of Christmas trees, singing carols, fake snow, Secret Santas...and holiday office parties. These parties elicit a number of reactions from employees, ranging from joy at free food and adult beverages being offered to dread and annoyance at the notion of spending an evening with your effing boss and your effing coworkers. In my opinion, office parties are generally worth going to as long as you keep a few things in mind:

You're still at work. No matter what everyone's wearing, no matter how much alcohol is being served, no matter if your boss is dancing around with a lampshade on his/her head, remember: it's still a work function. Resist the urge to overimbibe at the open bar or freakdance with the cute new hire--you're still going to have to be on your best behavior (or at least on your work behavior). If anyone in charge sees you acting a fool at the office party on Saturday night, it will be remembered on Monday morning.
Take the opportunity to talk to people in a non-structured environment. While you are still kinda at work, you're not on the clock. So an office party is a good time to chat with your colleagues about non-work stuff: what do they like to do on the weekends? What are their kids into? Where did they go on vacation this year? What are they doing for the holidays? You likely already know that office parties are a good time to chat up the boss, but it's a good time to chat up other managers in the office, as you never know when you may end up working with them. Further, chatting with coworkers--whether you work with them or not--is a great chance just to get to know them better and develop a better working relationship with them.
Have fun or go home. Having zero fun at a party is just about as bad as having way too much fun--they're both inappropriate reactions to the festivities. If your office party has a ridiculous theme--hey everybody, we're doing Hee Haw!--don't feel like you have to play it to the hilt. Just wear a nice outfit that's not formal but doesn't involve khakis. If you don't really want to go but feel like you need to make an appearance, get there right at the beginning, not fashionably late. Stay for a couple of hours and chat up a few people that you really like, then use whatever excuse you feel comfortable with in order to leave--I'm double-booked for parties, I have a migraine, the cat's having kittens, whatever. Say some pleasant goodbyes, go home, and relax, knowing that you're not going to have a hangover tomorrow.

Burnout: the unspoken bane of emerging professionals

2010-11-30T08:08:00.000-07:00

I haven’t been very good about posting regularly lately—I’ve struggled with keeping up with Intern 101, trying to come up with good topics to discuss and eagerly pouncing on a topic when someone emails me a question. Really, I’ve struggled with posting anything at all at least once a week. I’ve come to the conclusion that I’m fighting some kind of burnout.

I don’t usually post about what’s personally happening to me, but I feel like mentioning it might be worthwhile, as I imagine I can’t be the only one. If you’ve managed to stay employed through the recession, you might be feeling this way yourself. You come into work and sit down at your desk, and suddenly all the energy drains from your body. You can’t even pick up a pen, and you can’t bring yourself to answer the urgent emails filling your inbox or to complete the rather simple redlines sitting on your desk. All you want to do is surf the internet or go home and do laundry. It’s a different feeling from spring fever or holiday restlessness; it’s a feeling that is a sudden draining of energy and focus at best, and at worst it’s what one of my colleagues once described as “the day is ruined the moment you turn the key in the ignition to drive to work.”

After months—if not years—of trying to do more with less and watching your coworkers get laid off in waves and struggling to keep your job and do the jobs of those who were let go and accomplishing all of this with a brave face, it’s no surprise that you’d be feeling burnout by now. Or perhaps the work has come back with a vengeance, and you’re working like hell with a paycheck that reflects your 2008 skills while doing a 2011 job (yours and someone else’s because no one’s hired extra help just yet, just in case there’s a double dip recession). Myself, I’ve just spent the past few months working at a breakneck pace, leaping from deadline to deadline after nearly wearing myself out with projects plus preparing and giving a presentation at the national AIA convention. I spend my days frenetically jumping from phone call to department layout to email to QC of a set of drawings to—oh, wait, have I eaten lunch yet? And of course, because the economy has been so bad for so long, it seems like sacrilege to complain. But the weariness, the anger, the anxiety are all there, and the passion for what we do—for what I do—is gone. I come home from work, bone tired and drained, and I can barely even flip through a catalog or magazine, let alone put together coherent thoughts for a well-meaning blog providing so-called professional advice.

Burnout is a weird feeling for me, because I’m one of the most motivated people I know. Burnout is what other people deal with, what people who don’t really like architecture feel, I think to myself. But I’m finding that even the most committed amongst us, the most devoted to this art and craft and profession and obsession that we call architecture, even we the truly dedicated feel some annoyance with this field and wish for a break to do anything, anything other than this. I don’t yet have any answers for working through my burnout, but I do know that the only way out is through. I also know that I have to find a way to get some breaks in before Christmas, and I have to make sure that those breaks don’t get used up by holiday shopping or filling out greeting cards or the like. My goal is to post on Intern 101 at least once a week. Any questions, observations, comments, gripes, etc. are welcome, as they help me get ideas for post topics. In the meantime, I do hope that all of you got to enjoy your holiday and are finding better days coming at your firms (or in acquiring a job), and I beg your patience in the coming month or so while I work through this exhaustion.

Lulu's Mailbag: Is doing a competition like cheating on your employer?

2010-11-29T06:34:00.000-07:00

I know, I know, more Mailbag. But why not? We've had some great questions lately, including this one from R, who hasn't been able to get a job yet in the economy...

So in the meantime I've been working with another unemployed from my graduate classes to do a couple of competitions. We haven't won/place/show/honorable mentioned in anything yet and are now starting to think we need to seek out ways for our participation to be known. It seems like competitions are a bit light on publication of entries and we might be the only ones who have seen what we've put together (aside from new pages in our portfolios). How do we get our images out there? Any thoughts?
Secondly, although we're not architects yet, we appreciate the ability, and freedom, of making our own designs. We are hoping to continue doing competitions in some manner when we do land jobs. Any thoughts on this sort of competition moonlighting? (Really, it doesn't feel like cheating-the-employer type of moonlighting yet, although that might change when we do win something!)

There are two questions here from R. One is how to we publicize our involvement in competitions, and two is how acceptable is it to do competitions while working. Let's address these in order:

First, it's a little tough to drum up interest in your competition work if you haven't won anything yet. Winning makes it easier to toot your own horn. That being said, there are other ways to broadcast your efforts. The obvious first way is to create a blog or website that allows you and your pals to showcase your work. Then, any potential employer can surf on over and have a look at your efforts. The second is through the print media. First, you can write a press release to a local architectural publication or even your local paper about how you and your pals are making the best of a down economy by gong after design competitions. This might also allow you to get featured in the paper or some other publication as a human interest story: look how these kids aren't just sitting around at their parents' houses, waiting for a phone call--they're out doing cool stuff! There are books and online articles about how to write a press release. However, I have to say that I wrote up press releases for the seminar I did at the national AIA convention this year, and no one picked it up. Here's hoping you have better luck than I did.

Second, the competitions and work: overall, it's a good thing. Firms know that you don't get much creative control in your first few years in the business for a variety of reasons, and there's nothing wrong (and many things right) with entering competitions. However, if the competition is to do an actual project that could be built, you might want to talk with your manager(s) and/or firm owner(s). If you win a competition to do a building that will actually be built, you're going to need a licensed architect on board to oversee the design. That's where your firm would come in handy--suddenly, you'd have built-in support to get a project done, plus you'd actually be bringing in work for the firm. When you talk to the firm owners, be sure your group is all in agreement on how the work would be done. Explain that you're happy to do all the work and design on the front end, and that if you win the project that you'd like to be on the project team. If the firm insists on putting someone else on the competition team with you and your buds, be willing to either work with that person or stand your ground about it just being you and your friends...and know that standing your ground might leave a bad taste in the firm owner's mouth. (Remember, just because we're all old and cranky doesn't mean we might not be interested in doing a cool competition with you--your enthusiasm gets us excited!)

Got a question for Lulu or a topic you'd like to see discussed here? Tell me in the comments or via email in the sidebar, and thanks again for all your support and comments!

Lulu's Mailbag: How to toot my own horn on a competition design?

2010-11-22T07:08:00.000-07:00

More Lulu's Mailbag again! I really appreciate folks sending me questions, by the way--it makes for a more interesting blog. I can tell you what I think is interesting, but I'd rather hear your questions. Today's question is from J, a return reader/Mailbag Writer, who says:

I graduated in December 2009 from IIT and one of my last Studio's I worked on was a Design/Build studio(spring 2008, summer 2008). Designing during the spring semester a small field chapel in Germany and building the design over the summer. The project went extremely well, an amazing time, an incredible experience professionally and definitely the high point of my B. Arch. Two years have passed and we've received some great attention. [links to various websites and magazine publications here] The Chicago AIA Chapter gave us a Distinguished building - Honor award [for this project].

I'm wondering how to call attention the project, outside of everything I can present in my portfolio. Do I mention the project being published in a book? I know the internet article is only of little importance, as anyone can publish something on the Internet, I'm just wondering if there is a way to mention the book gracefully. Outside of just calling out the Award on my resume is their a better way?

Wow! This is great news indeed, and I don't know why you wouldn't walk into an interview with this news on a t-shirt that you not only wear but also shoot into the potential office with a t-shirt cannon. Okay, I'm kidding (kind of), but I think you can make this more apparent in your cover letter as well as your resume. If you have a section on your resume called "Honors and Awards" or "Competitions", you can describe the project briefly and then list the Chicago award and then say "Featured in Awesome Architecture 2010 (Little, Brown Publishers, 2010)". You should use that section of your resume to describe all the places that the project has been featured as well as any and all awards it has received. Further, you can mention the award and publication in your cover letter or introductory email to a potential firm: "I would be excited to bring my design skills to your firm; my senior studio design team's work received the Chicago AIA's Distinguished Building Honor Award for 2010 and was featured in a recent architectural publication." Furthermore, you can use this project as a way to discuss your usefulness as an architect trying to detail something--after all, having actually had to build something you drew, you have a unique perspective on design and construction. Be sure that you describe the "I built it too!" part on your resume. Do you have any pictures of you and your group actually working on it? Arrange those on a page in your resume, or even better you could provide a link to a blog or website that shows everyone the project. The website might be dedicated to your work alone, or it might be dedicated to the project alone (sketches, final boards, in process construction photos, final product, list of and links to awards).

And speaking of online presence, I'd still mention the internet article about the project. Yes, any fruitcake can publish something online (I'm "Exhibit A"), but it might be on a website with which a firm is familiar, and they might go, "Oh, cool! I saw that building! That was this guy? Get him in here!" It also might excite a not-so-into-design firm: "Neat! This guy's a good designer; maybe he can help us class up our strip malls!" However, bear in mind that if you send your resume to a firm that's more about production than awesome design, your honors may not have as much impact. That's okay--keep tooting your own horn, and don't sweat it.

If you have a topic you'd like to see discussed here, or a burning question about the architectural profession, feel free to ask me in the comments or drop me a line via email in the sidebar. Thanks, and have a great Thanksgiving!