Redlined Resumes: graphic and sharp

Our last Redlined Resume in this series comes from TM, who surely has come up with the most innovative resume format I've seen in a long time.  Borrowing some from a magazine layout, TM's resume sets off his/her skills from the rest of his/her background and experience so that potential firms can see at a super-quick glance if s/he has what they need.  The fonts read well, and including contact info at the top as well as the bottom makes sure that no one misses how to get in touch with TM.  Looking at TM's resume again since I first redlined it, I would recommend removing some of the "Graduate Studies" info under "Education", which would then allow TM the room to move "Involvement" to just above the "Skills" sidebar.  This would in turn give TM the room needed to get a little air into and tidy up his/her chunks on "Experience", which is by far the largest portion of his/her resume.

And holy mackerel at the experience.  Both architectural and construction experience are represented here, similar to SE's resume from a couple of weeks ago.  Some additional definition is required here as well: TM uses the "project manager" title in one of his/her job descriptions, so it's important to list what his/her actual jobs were in this role. Some elaboration on some jobs and tasks are needed, but there's also room to tidy up (such as where I marked out several words and replaced them with the words "Engaged in...").  Overall, TM has a great resume that really pops but also includes some great info.  TM, I'm impressed!

Redlined Resumes: more info, please

This week's Redlined Resume comes from SE, whose format I strangely like.  S/He starts with Experience, then goes to Education, which puts the emphasis on SE's experience and work ethic--a subtle but important angle.  However, I need more information as to what experiences and tasks were included in that work experience because the jobs and roles have been overly-bulleted.  When SE was a woodworker or fabricator, what did s/he make and do every day?  When SE was a shop manager or designer, what did s/he design or do typically as part of that role?  By defining those roles and tasks, SE can indicate to a potential firm all the many skills that s/he has and can contribute to a firm.

SE will have room on the resume to add those things once s/he deletes the list of attributes under "Areas of Competency".  As I've stated in a previous post, seeking out new challenges and a willingness to learn are a given for any intern and don't need to be stated in a resume.  (Hobbies at the bottom of the resume can also be deleted--we can talk about hobbies during the interview.) I would also find a different phrase than "hard work" to describe the physical building and labor that SE has done.  All of architecture is hard work, even if someone isn't swinging a hammer.

By removing some extraneous info and adding more explanation to his/her various job descriptions, SE can illustrate a great blend of design knowledge and technical experience that would be an asset to any architecture firm.  Right on, SE!

Redlined Resumes: international resume with a flair for the dramatic

This week's Redlined Resume comes from NS, who lives in Sri Lanka.  NS's resume is dramatic in a couple of senses of the word: s/he has experience both acting in and working on plays and for theater companies, and s/he has done a lot of politically-charged work with design.  Like many resumes I review, it could use a little more air, perhaps by removing the info about the senior thesis and by editing some of the nonprofit work descriptions.  (For example, I don't think it's as vital to discuss how the various workshops and volunteer efforts were funded as much as it's important to know how you used your design skills to help the underserved or underprivileged workshop participants.  Were you a mentor for their academic and social growth?  Did you help them express their anger and sadness through art and drawings and building models?  Those are all good descriptions of your efforts.)

NS's resume also suffers a bit from what CE's resume suffered from last week: a mild identity crisis.  When I read this, I can't decide if NS wants to work in theater or be an architect.  I realize this could be a partial curse of a crappy economy--if you can't be with the one you love (architecture), then love the one you're with (theater, landscape/gardening, retail management, etc.).  However, NS will either need to tailor to whom s/he sends his/he resume (firms that do lots of theater work or politically and socially-charged work), or s/he will need to edit his/her resume a bit more to show that s/he does want to do architecture rather than theater.  It may be that NS needs to include a small paragraph on his/her resume to explain how architecture, theater, and social movements all work together and inform design...or something.  (There's something good there, but I haven't had enough coffee yet to come up with a good summary.)

NS has pretty good descriptions of his/her job duties, though I would replace the word "liase" with "worked with" or something similar. ("Liase" might require someone to use a dictionary--you'd be surprised how often your vocabulary surpasses that of a 45-year-old hiring manager at a firm.)  There are a few terms in this resume that need to be defined (such as "BOQ"), but otherwise we get a good picture of NS's architectural experience.  With a little tweaking to make clear what NS's intentions are for a position at a firm, this resume is well done.  Hats off, NS!

Redlined Resumes: strength in need of definition

This week's Redlined Resume comes from CE, who has taken an unusual but welcome approach by making his/her resume into a landscape format document instead of portrait.  A very quick glance at his/her resume shows me that it's clean and mostly easy to read, but it could use a little air.  For example, putting a little more space between the two columns would help it read a bit better.  CE has what appears to be a lot of experience in architecture as well as landscape architecture and gardening.  The experience is good--s/he has been able to find work in a bad economy. A hiring manager needs some explanation here, though, if that manager is to call CE in for an interview.

Phrases and titles mean different things to different people.  CE uses the title "Project Manager" for one of his/her jobs, which to some firms would imply that s/he is actually a licensed architect and was in charge of everything from the drawings to the consultant coordination to the budget.  Without further explanation of what his/her duties were as "project manager", a potential firm might see CE as exaggerating his/her qualifications (unless s/he in fact did do all these things, in which case CE is completely telling the truth). Phrases like "urban grow site" can be meaningless to an architect, so again some very brief definitions might be of use here.

I have to admit though that I can't tell what kind of job CE is applying for with this resume.  Perhaps this is a resume that CE will use to amend slightly depending on if s/he applies to a landscape architecture firm or a building architecture firm; as it is, I can't tell which is his/her strength or which one s/he really wants to do.  If CE wants to demonstrate that s/he understands how buildings and site work together, then that needs to be said as part of his/her job duties at one or more of the positions held ("Led design direction to incorporate site and interior spaces in XYZ Project").

A few minor formatting issues include skills and address. I only caught the physical address in the lower right corner after staring at and marking up the resume for three or four minutes, which is longer than a firm manager might look at it, so I would make that bolder, larger, or located in two places (upper left and lower right).  Also, I would bullet the skills a little to make it easy to see what kind of skills CE has.  Using paragraphs to describe one's job duties is conversational and pleasant, but reading a list of software names is easier done in a bulleted or partially-bulleted format.

Overall, nicely done, CE--just needs some definition of what you're looking for, what your job duties entailed, and a little breathing room.  Good luck!

How Chris Rock can make your resume sharper

My sister and I were chatting recently when we both began quoting part of Chris Rock's standup act to each other and laughing our asses off in the process. My sister is an English professor who mostly teaches freshmen (1101 and 1102), and the start of every fall semester brings that moment when she dashes the hopes of the students who think they're just in 13th grade.  They assert that by meeting the criteria and basic requirements on the syllabus, they "deserve" an A.  My sister must then remind them that when you meet the minimum requirements, you get a C; you earn (not "deserve") an A when you do high-quality work.  We began relating this to a rather controversial bit that Chris Rock did back in the 1990s.  At one point in the bit, he describes how he hates it when men with children brag, "I take care of my kids!"  Rock counters: "You're supposed to take care of your kids!  Whaddya want, a cookie?!"  My sister feels like yelling something similar at the students that want credit for doing something they're supposed to do: "You're supposed to attend class every day and do all the homework!  You don't get a trophy for it!"


Sometimes I see intern resumes that list attributes that they believe would help a firm: Strong digital and hand-rendering skills, Experience with contracts and on-site CA, and so on.  Mixed in with these attributes are more personal ones: Attention to detail, Excellent communication and teamwork skills, Able to work alone or on a team, etc.  Here's the thing: after 4-6 years in college, an intern better be able to pay attention to detail, be organized and punctual, and work alone or with a group.  Well-meaning interns include these traits as a way to help firms see that they'll be a great fit and that they can be relied upon.  But these traits are givens in the work world: regardless of your profession, you have to have certain baseline traits to work, and listing them on your resume makes it look like you want credit for doing something that you're supposed to do already.


If you want to emphasize one of these traits, find a way to tie it back to a job or organization or activity.  For example, if you want to emphasize how organized you are, link it to your catering manager job where you juggled several events simultaneously.  If you want to emphasize your writing skills, link it to the time you spent editing the school's online or print journal or college newspaper.  Without explicit examples, it just looks like you're asking for an A for meeting the C requirements.

Redlined Resumes: the importance of narrative, and the importance of reflection

Today's Redlined Resume is a sharp one, and it has a lot of points to discuss (and for debate, I'm sure), so I've saved it for last in this string for RRs.  (I've received some more resumes to redline, but I'll comment on a few other topics before we go back to another string of these.)

RF's resume takes a unique approach--its narrative style makes it a cover letter and resume all in one.  I recommend a little editing here as well as bolding text that points out really important information.  Most people use bullet points in their resumes because that format quickly highlights the most important information for the reader.  When the resume takes a more narrative form, as RF's does, it can give the reader a better feel for the candidate's personality, but now the reader has to work a little harder to know what the facts are.  Putting specific pieces of text in bold type allows a reader to skim the resume as if it used bullet points, but also read it like a narrative.  RF's choice here is bit daring, and I really like it.

You'll notice at the bottom I've suggested to delete the mention of Dean's List, Eagle Scout, and the fraternity.  Now, if this fraternity is a type of co-ed honors society, I might leave it in and find a better way to describe it.  But if not, I would leave it out, no matter how much of a leader you might have been.  And here's where the importance of reflection on your resume comes in: when I have mere seconds to make a good impression, what about me on paper will tell my story and set me apart in a good way?  What matters most to those looking at my resume?

Here's what matters to an architect at a firm, in no particular order:

• honors and achievements earned during college (related to design)
• work experience during and after college
• architecture/firm-related work experience during and after college
• degree from an NAAB-accredited school
• LEED AP or other design-related achievements
• military or intensive volunteer service (e.g., Peace Corps)

Here's what doesn't matter to an architect at a firm, in no particular order:

• honors and achievements earned during high school
• work experience during high school
• whether or not your college or grad school was an elite design school*
• your hobbies and general interests

Here's what might matter to an architect at a firm and could work against you, in no particular order:

• what college you attended, and whether or not it was an elite design school*
• certain activities, including polarizing political/social groups or Greek societies

The hard truth is this: what might matter to you might not matter at all to a firm in terms of getting hired, and it could hurt your chances.  My albeit informal poll of my colleagues as well as my own experience revealed that architecture students usually had to pick between being in a Greek organization or being an architecture student.  Those who chose to remain in Greek organizations generally weren't very strong in the program because they had a very strong alternate force competing for their attention (i.e., the fraternity or sorority).  Firms may see this as not being as serious about architecture, just as your career is taking off and you're about to be asked to work late nights and weekends...the same late nights and weekends you might have refused to work as an architecture student.  


The other part of that hard truth is that not everyone knows how important your achievements are, and trying to explain how important they are could waste valuable resume space.  Until a reader commented here that being an Eagle Scout is a rare and important achievement, all I knew about it is that it's the highest you can go in Boy Scouts and not that many Boy Scouts do it...and that Boy Scouts is something that boys and teenage guys do in elementary school and junior high, and maybe high school.  But after you've spent five or six years in college, nothing you did in high school really matters anymore.  


I was a drummer in high school band, and my school was in the most musically-competitive district in my state.  I made State Honor Band three of my four high school years, which was no easy feat and would demonstrate to anyone in the know that I was physically very coordinated and could sight-read unfamiliar music very well, which meant I could adapt to unfamiliar situations quickly.  This is a skill I can now use as an architect...but including this on my first post-grad-school resume wouldn't have helped me, even if I had applied for a job in my home state.  It's likely that no one would have understood its importance in the way I did, and explaining it on a resume would have taken up space where I could have been touting more directly relevant experience, like the time I spent working in a hospital (which would tell a healthcare-design firm that I had direct experience with the kinds of buildings that I'd be designing with them).


In the years since I finished college, I spent some time doing improv and stand-up comedy.  I learned and practiced skills in those settings that are infinitely helpful when I deal with clients and consultants--I know how to read a crowd and say what needs to be said to get them on board with my ideas (or with the decisions that need to be made at that meeting). I know how to use inoffensive humor as a way to break the ice or break tension, I know how to stand in front of a semi-hostile group of people and present my case convincingly (and am not afraid to do so, such as in interviews when pursuing a project), and I understand the power of word choice in both spoken and written formats.   I think my on-stage comedy experience is incredibly important, but I know that no one else will likely see it that way.  Including "Member of Mixed Nuts Comedy Brigade in Littleton, CO 2001-2002" on my resume looks like fluff to any outsider, so I save it for an interview or even a deeper conversation after I've gotten to know my project team.


That's what I'm asking all of you to do when you include hobbies, interests, and achievements on your resumes.  Think about what's really going to be meaningful to the people who are flipping through dozens if not hundreds of resumes, and edit for focus and impact.

*You might occasionally meet someone who will only hire people from Ivy League colleges or refuse to hire people from certain other colleges, but for the most part a professional is a professional.  It's kind of a crapshoot sometimes, but the work world for architects is an interesting playing field.

Redlined Resumes: tell me more, tell me more

Today's Redlined Resume comes from YH, who brings us a little international experience with his/her resume.

 

YH's resume is clean and easy to read, a definite plus.  I'm loving the note at the bottom regarding a physical portfolio as well as a website address to view his/her portfolio online.  (It seems like this is becoming more commonplace--is it easy to do? Making your own website was still kinda tough when I got out of grad school back in 2000, before the iPod and the Roomba.)  YH uses fonts (bold, italic, all caps, etc.) to an advantage, as a way of organizing information on the resume.

What YH's resume is lacking is details.  What kind of tower did s/he coordinate the engineering systems on? What exactly did s/he do at his/her various jobs listed under "Additional Experience"?  What does s/he mean by "working within the fabric of the city"?  While it might seem that all these things would be obvious to a potential firm, that's not necessarily so.  Phrases like "working within the fabric of the city" might mean different things to an architect versus an urban planner versus a construction manager (if that's the kind of firm you happen to be applying at) versus a regular ol' HR director.  Yes, sometimes the person who looks at resumes--if it's a person at all--isn't an architect, and that person (or computer program) needs to see certain words to know if you have the skills and experiences to possibly do the job for which the firm is advertising.  YH needs to add a few more details so that it's clear what s/he can do for a firm, which will make the firm call YH in for an interview.

Comments? Questions?  Gripes? Want to submit a resume for Redlined Resumes?  Feel free to let me know in the comments or via email in the sidebar.  Thanks!

Redlined Resumes: room to breathe

First of all, thank you all so much for sending a new spate of resumes for redlining.  I'll be posting a few more over the next few weeks and then take another break to post on various work-related issues, but for now...on with the resumes.  As usual, the same rules apply: this is one architect's opinion, and you're free to agree or disagree, use or ignore any of the comments I make on any resume.

Today's resume is from KS, who has a lot of good info and content that's a little overwhelming due to the size of his/her text.  It's an honest mistake, so take heart and take note: while I warn against making a resume that looks muddy when printed or faxed as a black and white document, bear in mind that not everyone will print your resume out, at least the first time they see it.  Your font can be at a 10-point or 11-point most of the time (unless it's a font that tends to be really big or small).  Another distraction on KS's resume are the various horizontal and vertical lines.  I can tell that KS is trying to divide up certain types of information, but if a couple of these lines are deleted (or extended), it can make the resume a little more legible.

As for content, I'll give KS the same advice I give everyone: take out personal activities or interests, unless they directly relate to the kind of firm to which you're applying.  Further, KS's relevant activities (not life experiences) tell a firm indirectly what his/her interests are, and it does this in a way that makes his/her interests relevant to a firm.  KS uses sentences instead of bullet points to talk about his/her work experience, which is unusual but if well-written can work in your favor.  I've tweaked a few of KS's sentences, and I've clouded some items to ask what s/he means by the words.  For example, what does "working...with everyday challenges and  opportunities, accomplishing goals while working with a team" mean to KS?  This is where a firm will need more specific information about what these challenges and opportunities are, and goals were be accomplished, and what exactly does teamwork entail at this particular job.  There's a lot to be learned (and a lot of skills to be gained) from working retail, and I want to make sure KS conveys how much s/he knows from having done this job.  It's respectable work, especially in a bad economy when architecture jobs were hard to find, and KS should get credit where credit is due.

More Redlined Resumes to come, but please send more questions and resumes along, and feel free to ask questions in the comments or via email in the sidebar.  Thanks!

Redlined Resumes: straightforward, clear, and sharp

CT's resume, our submission for today, is just...well done.  It's clear and well constructed, not just in terms of the format but also the content.  As usual, I advise that CT remove the Eagle Scouts awards and the Interests section, but my remaining comments are just small tweaks on a good thing.

Double-click image to see enlarged image in separate browser or tab.

My one graphic concern is CT's use of the yellow slash at each section--this is a nice feature, but it might not show up if this is printed in black and white.  If CT is looking for a warmer color (that's not red, which everyone seems to use), then maybe a more orangey-yellow or rust-color might be appropriate.  That would more likely show up as some shade of grey instead of barely a smudge, which I suspect might happen with the yellow. CT can emphasize his* ability to speak various languages (which could be very helpful depending on where the firm works) and his ability to coordinate meal prep for a large number of people (catering is a tough job, and it requires mental and physical fortitude as well as the ability to organize and coordinate lots of people and activities).


CT has also managed to do something that's difficult for even 25-year veterans of architecture: he's summarized his jobs and tasks into three sentences, each starting with an active verb.  "Created construction documents..."  "Prepared exhibit materials..."  "Manage hundreds of orders..."  Architects are taught, whether by school or starchitects' books or both or neither, that we need to be verbose and use $20 words throughout our writing.  However, using fairly simple writing and well-edited sentences allow our readers to be entertained and informed without having to work so damn hard to understand what's being written, and that's what CT's resume ultimately does here.  Everything is explained in 1-3 sentences, some of which have concrete examples ("...projects up to 40,000 square feet").  CT, my hat's off to you!


*I generally keep these resume reviews gender neutral--however, the fact that CT was an Eagle Scout pretty clearly makes him a "he".


If you have a resume you'd like to have edited for Redlined Resumes, or if you have a question you'd like to ask or a topic you'd like to see discussed here, let me know in the coments or via email in the sidebar.  Thanks!

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

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!

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

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

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:

1. 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.)
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. 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.
5. 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?
6. ...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!

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

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.

How can I get a job with no experience?

Ahhhh, fall. A lovely time of year when football season starts, the weather gets cooler, and everyone's sending out their resumes after either taking a summer break or finishing up their degree during summer semester. A couple of months ago, I got a great question from Caitlin, and I'd like to a) apologize for taking so long to get to this, and b) answer it in some semi-coherent way (which is why it took me so long to get to the question).

Caitlin asked:

I have a bit of a personal dilemma involving my job search... I have no architectural experience!
It puts me at a huge disadvantage... I just graduated, no honors or awards to speak of, and a handful of odd-jobs (I only included a couple on my resume itself, I was laughed at by a job fair recruiter once for putting "bartender" on my resume). Any personal connections I've utilized have lead nowhere, which I feel is also a disadvantage.

Caitlin's ultimate question is how to respond to a potential interviewer regarding her lack of experience. That's a great question, and here's the short answer to it: honestly and eloquently.

It does depend on why you haven't gotten an architectural job during college. When I went job hunting (back in the halcyon days of 2000, when the economy was awesome and our money wasn't on fire), I didn't have any real working-at-an-architectural-firm experience. The closest I had was working for one summer in the design & construction department of a resort/nature preserve almost an hour form my hometown, and i worked a couple of summers and Christmases at a local hospital in the medical records department. If someone had asked me why I didn't have any actual firm experience, I would have answered them thus: I was told that all the nearby firms were of poor quality, and all the good firms (in Atlanta) were a 90-minute commute for me. And that was the truth--family friends who had met and worked with architects in our nearby area (within 45 minutes of my hometown) universally panned the local architects as hacks who didn't know how to put a house together, and no one would recommend working with any of the few that were nearby. The firms that might be worth working at, in Atlanta, were at least a 90-minute commute each way for me, living in rural Georgia as I did in college. Furthermore, trying to live in Atlanta or anywhere closer to Atlanta to shorten the drive would have been cost-prohibitive in the mid- to late-1990s. Therefore, I worked a job closer to home that would allow me to be challenged in an unusual way and still learn something. Given the fact that I was now interested in working on healthcare architecture, it would appear that my experience at the hospital might have weighed just as well in my favor as would have working in a firm.

So the truth generally works, as long as it's a reasonable truth. For example, if you just graduated or graduated in the past year, it might be reasonable to say that you haven't worked at a firm because no one has been hiring in the past 12-24 months in your area, so you worked wherever you could, be it bartending, waiting tables, mowing lawns, answering phones for a nonprofit, whatever. (And don't let anyone laugh at you for any job experience--work is work, and you learn something useful in every job that you can use in architecture.)

But let me step back and address Caitlin's bigger concern, that having no experience can hurt you. It really depends on the firm and the economic climate. For example, if you just graduated in the past couple of years, firms likely weren't hiring during the time in which a) you would know enough about architecture to be worth hiring and b) your work hours would count towards IDP. In that case, it's hard to hold your lack of architectural experience against you. Furthermore, there are firms that in whole or in part don't mind taking on interns that have no experience. One of the partners at the firm for which I work prefers taking on fairly inexperienced interns because they tend to have lots of enthusiasm and are willing to work like crazy (within some reason, of course) in order to learn about their profession, plus he and his managers don't have to untrain them of bad habits and practices that they might have picked up at a lesser firm. Also, interns with less experience are cheaper to hire, so it can be worth a firm's time to spend the time to train you because, depending on the project and its schedule, it may still be cheaper than hiring someone with five years' experience. So while not having a lot of experience can feel like a disadvantage, it can be an advantage at certain firms. Ultimately, in a down economy or during the long, slow recovery thereof, a lack of experience isn't exactly a deal breaker, again depending on the firm.

Lulu's Mailbag: What's in a name?

During my recent haphazard attempts to recuperate from a busy winter, spring, and summer, I got the following email from Julian:

My main question is what job title should recent graduates apply for. For example, what is the exact difference between an internship (non-summer) and a junior designer position?

Also, when firms list X amount of years of experience does this include summer internships? In my opinion, I believe summer internships really do not qualify as substantial work experience but then again I'm eager to hear your opinion.

There are two great questions in here, and I'm really glad Julian asked about the importance (or non-importance) of what your job position or experience is named. Let's address the first question about non-summer internship vs. junior designer. I suppose a firm might decide internally that there's a difference between the two, but it's unlikely. If a firm advertises for an "internship", that to me sounds like the position is for an unlicensed person and is available with a definite start and end date (6 months, 12 months, etc.). It would be worth applying for the position, and if you were to get an interview, I would definitely ask what this "internship" involves: is it a set amount of time for a specific project?

The word "junior" in "junior designer" implies (to me, anyway) that the position is for an unlicensed person with an architectural degree or experience. It's the word "designer" in the title that strikes me as interesting, though. Some firms don't like to use the word "intern" to describe an unlicensed person with an architecture degree who is actively working towards licensure. They will find other names for that position and that person, such as "coordinator" or "designer". On the one hand, using a name other than "intern" for that position feels like someone's blowing sunshine up my skirt. On the other hand, having lived through the Monica Lewinsky trials of 1999, being called an "intern" makes me feel like someone has other plans for my skirt, possibly involving more than sunshine. (Every few years, the AIA debates changing what we call "interns", and I really wish they would change the name. Every other profession uses the word "intern" to refer to someone working as a high school or partway-through-college employee who's working part time and just barely learning the ropes. The "interns" I know in architecture do a helluva lot more than that.)

Speaking of interns and summer/holiday internships, let's address the second half of Julian's email. Should you count your summer jobs in architecture as "experience"? My short answer is yes--you've seen a work environment and have been around architectish people while they were doing architecty things, which puts you ahead of where I was before June of 2000. The longer answer is this: whether you include your summer job at a firm in your experience is based on a) if you worked there after your junior year of undergrad and b) what you actually did there. Did you stamp big stacks of drawings, take drawings to the city, make copies of documents, and pick up bagels for the morning meeting? Then including this job as "architectural work experience" might be kind of a stretch. But what if you did redlines, took as-built measurements, walked a job site, and/or did a little product or code research? Then the job is worth mentioning, especially if you list with a couple of bullet points the kind of things you did during that time. The after-your-junior-year thing means that you had a couple of years in school to understand design issues and even take a couple of architectural history and means-and-methods classes. Having three years of design school under your belt before entering the workforce, even for only a couple of months at a time, implies (rightfully or not) that you kinda know something about the job before you start doing it for real.

Thanks again for the question, Julian. If any of you have a question or comment or would like to see something discussed here, let me know if the comments or email me at my email address in the sidebar.

A quick word on resumes (or, please don't try this at home)

I recently had lunch with an architect friend who brought me a handful of resumes to look at: the good, the bad, and the what-were-they-thinking. One resume she showed me that made me do a spit take, and while I didn't get a copy of it to post here for your viewing, I had to tell you what turned me off about it.

The candidate combined his cover letter and resume into one two-page document. The document had two columns, one narrow one that included basic info about where he worked and went to school, and another wider column describing his skills, talents/abilities, and qualities. I don't even know where to start on this, but I'll start here with my cardinal rule of intern resume writing:

If you are unlicensed, your resume should be no more than one page. Period.

And the corollary to that rule is this: if you decide to combine your cover letter and resume, it still should be only one page. Combining two documents into one is a risky move that could pay off, depending on what kind of firm (and person) receives and reviews your resume, but remember how different those two documents are: one is written in paragraph form and reads like a letter, while the other is written in bullet points and sentence fragments and meant to highlight skills into an easily-read and easily-comprehended form. This candidate's resume looked verbose and unwieldy and was frankly confusing. I was overwhelmed by all the text on the page that I stared at it for a good half-minute before I realized there was another column on the page which told me where he went to college.

I could forgive this, except that what also blew me away (and not in a good way) was that his entire resume/cover letter was written in third person. As in, "Mr. Smith spent a semester in France, where he worked extensively with restoring a medieval cathedral." Let me be very clear: your cover letter and resume are meant to be in first person. I know that after spending four to six years writing essays and research papers in third person, but resumes and cover letters are not research papers. They are meant to be coming from you, so when your cover letter and resume read like someone else wrote it, you can guarantee that you confuse your potential employer at best and annoy them at worst. The only people that use third-person when talking about themselves are sports figures like Rickey Henderson and Junior Seau (search for them on YouTube and you'll see what I mean), and they annoy even sports fans.

I can excuse the resume/cover letter combo as just a daring move, but the third-person writing point-of-view? Skip it.

How honest is your resume?

My husband sat in on an interview at his architecture firm recently, and he was blown away by the disparity between a candidate's resume and interview. In an effort to be succinct yet excellent-looking on paper, the candidate completely stretched the truth of his actual experience. The candidate's resume has a section titled "Areas of Expertise" in which he listed about a dozen different software types, including Revit. In the interview, my husband asked him "So, what do you know about Revit?" The candidate shrugs, laughs a little, and says, "Practically nothing. I know it has families, and it's different from CAD, but that's really it."

"Expertise" has a dictionary and a cultural meaning that implies you know a lot about something. When this candidate lists Revit under his "Areas of Expertise", then he is implying--nay, proclaiming that he's something of an expert at Revit. Then in the interview, he flatly admits that he's not really at all familiar with the software. While it's good that he admitted it, it's still dishonest to put out there that you are an "expert" at something that you're not good with at all. You're starting off on the wrong foot, and the interviewer no longer knows if they can trust anything else on the resume...or anything else that comes out of your mouth.

Likewise, I sometimes see interns put down that they were a "project manager" on a project. Let me say that no matter how much control you had over a project and how much of the work you did and coordinated on it, you're going to be hard-pressed to convince anyone that you were a "project manager". Maybe a "job captain", but not a project manager. First of all, project managers are almost invariably either a) licensed architects or b) at least 50 years old. While there are a few exceptions to these rules, architectural interviewers have a preconceived understanding and image of what a project manager is (namely, one or both of those two traits I just listed). Bear in mind that a project manager often handles the budget and fee on a project as well as the pay applications sometimes. If the project manager is the only licensed person on the project, s/he might be the one who signs RFIs, PRs, CCDs, etc. "Project manager" is a loaded phrase in architecture, fraught with meaning and responsibility. So when an intern uses "project manager" on his/her resume...it looks like a big fat lie.

So what if you did manage nearly all the aspect of a project? First off, find a different description of the role--job captain, project intern, project coordinator, etc. Second, get your own copy of the record drawings (or whatever the last version of the project was that you worked on) and bring it with you to the interview. That way, you can flip through the documents and literally show a potential employer what you can do and how awesome you are. A picture is worth a thousand words, right? So let your drawings do the talking for you--they'll say more than you can, and they're irrefutable.

Lulu's Mailbag: Why don't more resumes use images?

I have another resume to redline and post soon, but I wanted to post this excellent email from a reader. N. asks a good question about text-only versus graphics formats for resumes, and he and I had a good (email) conversation about the topic. (Again, the email discussion below has been edited for length and anonymity.)

The absolutely striking realization I’ve had is how many people applying for architecture jobs prepare their resume in a text-only format! We live and breathe in a Photoshop world, why are our resumes in DOS?

Very good question! Here's the thing: Using graphics and images in a resume is a double-edged sword. On the one hand, we work in an inherently visual profession, and it does seem absurd that a resume wouldn't include some images or at least a hint of the notion that the applicant can design. But on the other hand, having weeded through stacks of resumes myself, the graphics thing can get overused. It's often newer folks with less experience who are doctoring up their resumes and filling in all the blank space with images and fancy graphics because they have little to no relevant experience. When I did my first resume back in 2000, I did a text-only resume and a separate (but included) image sheet describing a few recent college projects I'd worked on, including my thesis project. It didn't cross my mind that I could combine the two, but at the time I also had enough generic work experience (including a stint at my local AIA chapter) to fill my resume. I've since learned my lesson; my more recent resume (which I have created just in case I were to get laid off) includes a few more images of my built work. If graphics get included on an intern's resume, they shouldn't be graphics for graphics' sake--they really need to tell a story and explain what kind of work you can do. It hints at the creative mind I might be hiring.

For now, text-only resumes aren't the kiss of death. People who made it their whole lives with text-only resumes are still the ones doing the hiring at a lot of firms, so they're not offended by text-only. But I think in the next few years, folks will have to start setting themselves apart more in a graphic way. The Photoshop generation (of which I'm at the very back edge, being 34 years old) will begin to do the hiring, and as the economy sloooooowly trickles back to a good place, then folks will have to set themselves apart even more.

N. responded with an excellent point that I'd like to share with the rest of you. Keep this in mind as you prepare your resumes this spring:

One thought on the hiring process in architecture firms: I've learned that architects who hire care a lot about design sensibility and people skills. Offices (and I) have seen lots of great renderings and "expert knowledge in xyz software" to only find out they added some photoshop trees in the foreground. Design sense and people relations become part of you and are difficult to teach; Software, anyone can learn. I've critiqued resume's and portfolios at (a local AIA chapter) and one question unanswered across the board is "how was the project better because of you?"

If you have any questions you'd like to ask, topics you'd like to see covered, or resumes you'd like to have reviewed and shared on the blog (with identifying details removed, of course), feel free to comment below or email me in the sidebar. Thanks!

Redlined Resumes: fun with formatting or, "please touch!"

Ah, yes, another resume! Same rules as last time: I've printed the resumes and hand-marked them in red. I've scanned all the documents in black and white for a two reasons: one, you can see my red marks better on a black-and-white page; and two, your beautiful color resume may end up getting printed by someone with a crappy, B&W-only printer (I know, you'd think everyone's caught up by now) or faxed (and fax machines generally only print in B&W--horrors!) I've marked out names and addresses as well as places you've worked, but I left schools in. To read the JPGs of the resumes, double-click on them and they'll open in a separate window at a larger size.

Today's resume come from C.K., who's graduating in June but has a job lined up right after graduation--rock on! That's very good news, especially in this economy. I presume that this resume got C.K. a job, so it's entirely possible that all my notes and comments are moot, but that's never stopped me from opening my mouth before.

C.K.'s resume is a pretty gutsy one--it's a double-sided all-color image, 6" x 10" in its folded form, and only for hard copy mailing. C.K. emailed me that his goal is to get in at a design firm, not just an architecture firm, so his goal is to use this as a type of teaser document. What I'm showing in the images here is the front and back of C.K.'s CV document. What I love about this is that it's got a lot of creativity in it, and if you're a design firm looking for someone who's got a little edge to them, then this will definitely catch their eye. I also love that the Point of Contact, shown on the inside/information side, is the first thing you see. It must be first or last and really set apart so that an interested party can see how to find you. Also, C.K.'s format doesn't make the reader work hard to understand what he's about--here's my schooling, my work experience, and my skills. Buh-BAM! The font is clear, and there's breathing room in between the different sections. In these sections, I've advised him to make his sentences a little shorter, such as under the "D____ Group" work experience. I also mention under the "Z____ Group" work experience that he consider his choice of words: did he compose or produce the schematic drawings? Compose sounds like he placed images on sheets or boards; produced sounds like he did the drawings and put them on sheets or boards. And like some of the other resumes we've covered here, I suggested that he mention whether he's familiar or proficient in the various software types that he's listed. I also suggest mentioning the total number of hours required for IDP when he talks about how far along he is--remember that many of the people doing the interviewing didn't have IDP and don't know a whole lot about it. Therefore, giving them the total ("I have 2800 out of 5600 hours completed") tells them how far along and how awesome you are.

I recommend eliminating the "Objective" and "Personal Interests" sections. You can discuss personal interests in the interview--let that be a delightful surprise that they get to discover when you walk through the door, otherwise you run the risk of sounding like an internet blind date. Also, bear in mind that C.K.'s resume clearly shows that he's still an intern and he's about to graduate or just graduated from college--his objective is ultimately to find a job that allows him to get his hours and take and pass the ARE. He can use the interview to find out more about the firm and see if it's a good fit for him (and he for them). If this were ten years ago when firms couldn't find enough interns to do the work and everyone was hiring like crazy, I might recommend keeping in something about looking for a design-focused firm. But right now, being too selective means that he could talk himself out of a pretty good job that could be a great learning experience as well. I also have to say that including the word "fun" in an Objective could be the kiss of death for a lot of firms--there is a generation bias against interns in some circles already, as some see interns as a bunch of darn kids who feel entitled and don't care and blah blah blah and get off my lawn! Hence, including the word "fun" (even if it's true and it should be a part of your work day) might knock you out of the running for a firm that may have been a great fit and actually would be fun to work in.

The other part that would concern me as a potential employer is the relevant experience part. I love the fact that this is included, as it's a good snapshot of all the other things C.K. can do. However, "Architectural Project Research" is a bit broad--did this involve product research? Code research and studies? Zoning board involvement? Defining this a little more gives me a good idea of what C.K. has been doing. Also, the part that says "Project Management Experience" throws up a flag--interns generally don't manage projects, and C.K.'s above-described activities at the two firms doesn't necessarily indicate project management tasks. Again, a further explanation of what he means is in order here ("Conducted user group/client meetings"? Coordinated with contractor and consultants on 50,000 sf project"?), lest someone think he's padding his resume.

In addition to the mailable resume, I would also encourage C.K. to produce a matching document that reads and prints well as an 8.5"x11" PDF in black & white and color. If a really good firm requires that he submit he resume electronically, his excellent graphic design skills will work in his favor, and he can blow a firm away in two formats--well done!

If you have an architectural/design profession resume that you'd like for me to review and post on the blog, or any question or topic you'd like to see covered here, feel free to mention it in the comments or email me at the address in the sidebar. Thanks!