A note about external links from Intern 101

I recently had a request for the link to the 2011 AIA Compensation Report be reconnected/updated.  This was a link provided by a commenter, not by me, so I really can't fix it.  When readers and commenters send me external links, I check them at the time of posting to make sure they work, but I must rely on whoever posted the link to maintain it. (In the meantime, those looking for the report are probably better off looking for the 2012 version. It'll be more relevant to your present situation.)

I do appreciate outside links sent to me by readers.  When you find something funny, interesting, or helpful, I check the link out for myself before posting it (or not). Feel free to send along those items, but please note that I can't maintain links that are posted in the blog--I can only change where a piece of hyperlinked text goes.  If you find a non-functioning link on the sidebar of this blog, do let me know. (And if you have a corrected link, it's very much appreciated.)

Tis the season for random postings and craptastic apologies

So, I'm a flake.  Not a snowflake, but a flake-flake. A holy-shit-I-haven't-checked-my-hotmail-account-in-a-month flake.  Some of you have emailed me some resumes to redline and some really good work and career questions, and Someone Who Likes to Blog But Is A Dumbass And Got Busy With Work Deadlines and Holidays has been incredibly remiss in reponding.  Ergo, I'm a flake.

So, I beg your forgiveness with these mostly lighthearted websites/links/stuff to usher in this most festive of months.


If you decide to go to your office party, remember not to act a fool.

If you decide to go to your office party and don't know what to wear, go here.

The fact that I like my profession doesn't make this comic unfunny--it makes it better.

And speaking of comics, if you haven't yet discovered the excellence that is The Oatmeal, go now or never darken my blog again.

In case you need to kill some time between 4:45 and 5:00, here are some pictures of very  bad decisions made in CA.

A note to my loyal and inspiring readers

Folks, I've received a lot of email recently from you, and the messages simultaneously dishearten and inspire me.  So many of the emails include tales of workplaces and bosses that range from schmucky to horrible to downright abusive and hostile (so much that a few of you might have some legal recourse, if you were so inclined).  I read at least once a week about someone working tons of thankless overtime or being shouted at in meetings due to minor infractions, and it makes me weep that my profession dares to behave this way, as if somehow passing the ARE entitles one to acting like a jackass and treating others like dirt.

But I'm also inspired that in each of these emails is the same grain of hope: "It can't be like this always, right?"  "I know it gets better, so what should I do?"  "How can I solve this problem with my boss/client/coworker?"  Each email contains a sense of positive reality--knowing that the situation in which the writer finds him/herself isn't "just the way things are" and knowing that it's supposed to be better.  The fact that time and again this hope and knowledge reveals itself tells me that the architectural workplace is undergoing a slow sea change.

Now and again I read some headline that's meant to alarm me: "Millennials will take over the workplace by [insert year here]!!!1!!"  My first thought is no, they're not going to "take over", it's just that they will be the majority of the workforce but not necessarily in charge.  And then my second thought is good--I'd like to see the workplace get taken over by a group of people who work hard but also have a realistic sense of work/life boundaries and insist on being treated like human beings.  My hope is that enough of you do recognize that humane treatment of employees and coworkers and good pay is a right, not a perk...and you'll flock to the firms that support these initiatives and desert those that don't. 

But in the meantime, the questions and situations still come.  The resumes ripe for redlining are sitting on my desk, waiting to be looked over and eager for some face time with a red pen.  And in my day-to-day life, my dream project--a rural greenfield hospital with a medical office building--has just kicked off with a vengeance and a fast schedule.  Furthermore, some recent changes in my health have me realizing that I need to incorporate a little more down time into a schedule that is fast getting more and more packed.

So I beg your patience in addressing the questions and resumes that are coming in.  Every email I get is read and considered, and I don't want to fire off a half-wit, half-ass response on this blog when I'm being asked some pretty important and serious questions. If you have emailed me a question or situation, feel free to email and remind me, or even add more details, or update me on how things are going. 

Many, many thanks again to everyone who has read, commented, or submitted a question or resume to Intern 101.  I appreciate your patience and involvement.  I'm not going anywhere; it's just taking me longer to get back to everyone.

To comment or not to comment?

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!

Burnout: the unspoken bane of emerging professionals

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.

Technical difficulties and economic abilities

My apologies for not posting more, folks--if it hasn't been my internet or Blogger itself, it's been my laptop. Today is the first time I've been able to get on here decently, and I don't even have part 2 of my last post together. Some professional I am, huh?

However, I do want to get a quick pulse out there. It appears that the economic tides are sloooowly turning here in Colorado, and I'm seeing work come back slowly and in small doses. What is the design and construction climate like for all of you, wherever you are? Tell me via email and the comments, and thanks for your patience!

And now for my next trick...

Forgive the absence of posts--it's been a pretty busy week.

I have several projects at work that have all gotten really active at the same time (and all their deadlines are next week), plus I've been getting ready for a couple of presentations regarding the work I do here at Intern 101. I recently had someone ask me about good sources for written communication advice. I've found the best communication skills in "Civilized Assertiveness For Women" by Judith McClure, PhD. Technically, it's aimed at women but the skills are equally usable by and with both genders. If you're looking for written communication in general, I'll have to look a little more and poll my college professor friends about some sources. In the meantime, I'm getting started on turning this blog into a book with a fair amount of practical advice, especially on communication.

I'm going to go collapse for a moment, but I'll post when I can over the next week as I slough off each of my deadlines. I've had several good questions recently that deserve some reflection and response. As always, though, keep the questions and comments coming, either through the post comments or through my email in the sidebar. Thanks!

A year of Intern 101

Well, hot dog!

It just occurred to me that I've been running this blog for a year now! (Well, a year ago tomorrow, really.) It all started with this post, which I wrote initially as a semi-lark because I was so furious at what this economy was doing to intern architects and just needed to vent. I realized as I was writing it that I wanted to do something more. I wanted to help the future of my profession in some way because I feared that all the really good sharp talent was going to leave. And I couldn't let that happen without some kind of fight.

A grad school friend was visiting me this weekend, and we had several good conversations/debates/discussions about what makes a good architect, what kind of interns are firms looking for, and so on. He made the point that my redlining of resumes may mean that I'm applying my very-practical viewpoint (gained from working at a more production-oriented firm) to resumes that aren't meant to ever go to firms like mine. Through my super-practical filter, I might be inadvertently squelching some good thinking and creativity when it comes to someone's resume. I countered that by having a resume be too specific or too artsy or too straight-ahead in a bad economy, an intern might talk someone out of hiring them, when the experience of working for that firm might be good for both intern and firm. Ultimately, though, I'd like to think that my readers are sharp enough to know if a redline I've made is simply not going to work for them. After all, what I'm providing is advice, not Gospel.

And I provide that advice because it feels like for at least some of you, there's no one else available to provide this info. When I started this blog and told a colleague about it at dinner one evening, he practically blew the paper napkin off the table when he sniffed in disdain: "You're babying these interns, Lu--they need to suck it up and ask someone at their office, not come whining to you, and you're gonna keep that from happening." I didn't counter his argument, as he was making this proclamation after a few margaritas, and I know better than to argue with drunk architects. But my counterargument, had he been sober enough to hear it, would be this: in order for interns to ask questions, people have to be available to ask. And just being at the same office as people with knowledge isn't enough--those fellow experienced architects must be physically or technologically available, and they must also be verbally, emotionally, and mentally available. I once worked for an architect who was always busy, and while she was very helpful and knowledgeable, it took me a long time to figure that out. Every time I would ask her, "do you have a moment for a question?" her immediate response was "No." She meant it as a form of commiseration--oh, we're all so busy!--but I took it as her way of blowing me off.

So, as I thank you all for checking in and commenting, I'd like to start this new year of Intern 101 with a couple of questions for you:

• how did you find this blog?
• who do you ask for professional advice?

Thanks again for visiting, and remember that this site works (if it works at all) based on your questions and comments, so keep 'em coming!

All the very best,

Lulu

Do you get to go to meetings?

Before I get too far into my next post, I should ask: how many of you now or in the recent past get to/got to go to meetings? Did you go to meetings with the clients? The engineers? The contractors? Anyone? Ever? It's usually been my experience that interns rarely if ever get to go to meetings for the projects on which they work, and while I understand the reasoning behind not sending you, I don't always agree with that reasoning.

Sound off in the comments or even in an email in the sidebar and share your experiences with project meetings (or your lack of experience thereof). Thanks!

What's useful to you? An Intern 101 poll

I have lots of stuff I'm glad to comment and expound upon here, but I'd like to hear from you, the readers.  What do you want to know?  What do your friends working in offices talk about?  What are your concerns, worries, observations?  I can talk for days and weeks about topics, but it's only useful if it helps you.  Feel free to email me directly or post a comment here.  And please don't feel like whatever you're thinking is a dumb question--there are very few dumb questions when it comes to the architectural workplace, especially when you're jumping into it for the first time.

Back in a moment...

I'm in the process of preparing for and traveling to a guest lecture gig across the country, so AI101 is going to be quiet for a few days. In the meantime, the AIA is conducting a poll on renaming the title of "Intern" in architecture. If you think being called an "intern" after 4+ years of schooling is insulting and inaccurate, then go-go-go to the link I've provided and let your voice be heard.

Tell me in the comments as well: what would you rather be called than "intern"?

Saving us from ourselves: a clarification, an explanation, and an observation

I got another email from an NCARB representative this week that shed some light on IDP, NCARB, and the infernal late application fee:

For further clarification, you can only pursue an NCARB certificate after you have received your initial license and if you meet the requirements of certification; http://www.ncarb.org/certification/uscertification.html.  If you keep your record active between IDP/ARE and initial licensure and then pursue NCARB certification, the application fee is waived ($675) and you’ll receive ½ price renewals for the first three years (the current annual renewal for certification is $190).

 

The “late application” fee is actually intended to reduce retroactive reporting for the IDP and to encourage timely reporting of experience.  This fee is being eliminated on July 1^st of this year as the new six month rule will require regular reporting.  Thanks!

This explanation for the late application fee makes sense to me only if interns actually check the schedule of fees on NCARB's website.  Many of them probably don't, and they pay for it.  So what's the problem with retroactively reporting a few years' worth of hours?  The NCARB rep explains:

Once the six month rule is in place, no retroactive reporting beyond the 6 month rule windows will be allowed.  We have done our best to broadcast these changes over the past 15 months.  We fully believe that timely report will benefit the intern, the supervisor, and will ensure that NCARB Records runs smoothly.  A common complaint that we receive involves frustrated interns that cannot get past employers to verify their work because the supervisors simply don’t remember what work was accomplished and hesitate to provide a blanket sign-off.  The timely reporting should enhance the experience and actually reduce issues and delays associated with the process… but interns will be responsible to get these reports in within the appropriate reporting windows (within two months of the end date of the reporting period).

Ah, that's why.  It's partially a problem of NCARB being able to get an intern's record complied and approved in a timely manner once they receive a huge pile of an intern's hours, and it's also that they're having to save interns from themselves.  I have also seen interns scrambling time and again to get former employers to approve hours and sign off on their records when the intern finally opens their NCARB record after working for four years and being gone from that employer for three of them.  NCARB's Six Month rule, which requires that an intern report their hours of experience every six months through the online recordkeeping system (e-EVR), will prevent these sorts of delays.

What's notable here is that NCARB's three most recent changes are designed ultimately to stop interns from procrastinating.  The Five-Year rule, instituted in the last couple of years, mandates that from the date of an intern's first test, s/he only has five years to finish passing the tests.  When the Five-Year rule was passed, there were nine tests in the ARE.  Starting in 2007 (I think, but maybe it was early 2008), there are only seven tests in the latest version of the ARE, known as ARE 4.0.  This means that now you have five years to pass seven tests, not nine.  Added to all this is the Six-Month rule, which kicks in for all interns not yet taking the ARE as of July 1 of this year.  All these changes require that an intern open their record with NCARB in a timely fashion (if they do indeed plan to go through NCARB and IDP), report their hours on a regular basis, and then finish taking their tests in an expedient manner once they've started.

Some clarification and a thank you

I recently received an unprompted email from someone who works at NCARB, who had the following clarification:

Only the individual states (member boards) are members of NCARB (The National Council of Architectural Registration Boards); other individuals are record holders or is some cases certificate holders.

So what this means is that when you see NCARB after an architect's name, that means that they have a record with NCARB, which means that if a client does work in more than one state or in a state different from the one in which the architect lives, it won't be that hard for the architect to be or get licensed in the client's state.

I also would like to say thank you to the NCARB person for emailing me.  I want to emphasize to my readers that I intend to provide my observations as I see fit on this blog, but I hope that I can do so without bashing people or institutions.  Likewise, I appreciate comments and emails from readers that are clear but civil.

Okay, nice open letter, but what's the point?

As an architectural intern, I constantly sought good leadership, mentorship, and professional advice.  The results of my efforts were hit and miss--the boss I thought would be easygoing and solid turned out to be an egomaniacal jerk with rage issues, and the anal-retentive stick-in-the-mud turned out to be a pretty good mentor and boss.  After I gained my license in the summer of 2006, six years after I'd gotten a job with my shiny M.Arch degree and nothing else, I realized that the mentorship I sought was not only still missing to a great degree in my workplace, but what little had been there seemed to have receded with the volume of work and busyness of the design staff.  Had we all really gotten too busy to mentor and advise the future of our profession?  I decided it was time to lead the charge (in my office, anyway) on this mentorship.  I found that many interns were coming out of college, even grad school, with very little job and career advice.  Someone needed to fill the gaps for the next generation.  Someone needed to provide the advice they lacked and to help them not make the same mistakes that I made.  I decided that, in my office, that someone was me.

So I started a seminar series called "Intern 101" for everyone with three years' experience or less.  I held forth in the first couple of seminars on job advice: what is okay to complain to your boss about, what not to wear at work, how to handle dating in the office, and so on.  (Disclosure: I met my husband at the office on my first day of work nine years ago; we are both architects, and we're still together after all these years.  Yes, it's a sickness, but I take it one day at a time.)  After I got a couple of higher-ups in the office interested and involved, I got a partner here and there to speak to the interns over a lunch period in our largest conference room about marketing, getting business, how to run a firm, etc.  We were going beyond job advice and getting into career advice as well as pulling back the curtain on this profession in a way that no one-day-a-week professional practice course in college could do.

Then, the bottom dropped out in 2008.  Folks were let go in small waves at first, and I sought to allay the fears of the interns, none of whom had ever seen really bad economic times.  And I tried to ease their anxieties, but sadly, I had never seen an economy this brutal either.  (More disclosure: technically, I had seen an economy this bad, but it was the early 1980s when I was 5 or 6, so I think I get a mulligan on that one.)  Suddenly, my fellow employees were being laid off in droves, the desks emptying around me, the parking lot clearing, and the office getting quieter.  We were left with about half the interns we'd had at the start of 2008.  More than ever, it seemed that the future of our profession needed some advice, some input, some reassurance, or at least some idea that if they were let go anytime past August that it had nothing to do with them. But as things got worse, the upper management at my office got quieter, harder to find during business hours.  

What I saw at my office, a midsized architecture firm here in Colorado, was not an isolated incident.  I believe that when times get tough, it's a good time to invest in and involve your interns in what's going on.  I also believe that when times are prosperous, it's a good time tin invest in and involve your interns in what's going on.  Every day, every project is a chance to mentor, to teach, to coach.  And I hear from interns and architects all over the country that this mentorship is not happening.  Hence, I've started this blog to take my Intern 101 program nationwide.  

I have several goals for this blog:

• To serve as a clearinghouse for information on getting IDP hours, taking the ARE, and getting licensed.
• To provide job and career advice for young professionals in the architecture/design profession (including those about to join the profession out of college as well as those who have been in the profession for a few years).
• To explain how the architectural/design workplace works.
• To listen to interns and help them in any way I can.

Any questions?  Any comments?  Anything you'd like for me to discuss?  Let me know in the comments or email me at lulubrownarchitect@hotmail.com.  What will make this blog worthwhile is your comments, contributions, questions, and observations.  Sharing is caring, my people.

(Yet more disclosure: Lulu Brown is a pseudonym to discourage stalkers, outers, and other negative distractions. I am indeed a licensed architect in Colorado working at a midsized firm (usually described as 80-150 employees), but that's about as precise as I'm going to get for now.)