Further thoughts on recent posts: getting licensed and having a life

As I head out of a big deadline into a week-long business trip, I've been mulling over comments and emails I've received regarding two recent posts. The first was the post about possibly being penalized for having a life outside of work and not always putting work first.  Comments and emails I've received seemed to push back on unreasonable bosses and firms, but they also seemed to advocate for a sensible balance of life and work.  Will a few extra hours here and there leave your children and spouse in an angst-filled place for which they'll need years of therapy in the future? Probably not.  Will missing big events (little league games, ballet recitals, birthday parties) affect them deeply and rob you of valuable time with your family?  Probably so.  Again, it's about balance.  Being able to pitch in when needed at the last minute is a sign you can be counted on, but when your job seems to be more about being a firefighter (that is, you're having to pitch in at the last minute several times a month), then it's time to draw the line.

I'd like to hear from more people about whether or not to get licensed.  So far I've heard from someone who had a decent list of reasons not to get licensed and from someone who sounds like they're really burned out from too many years and too many bad projects.  Are there any interns out there who have several years' experience but decided not to get licensed, or can share why they haven't yet gotten licensed?

Will having a life hold me back?

I was talking with an intern recently who is married with two small children. She overheard her boss mention that she (the boss) might send the intern on an overnight trip to meet with some clients because another architect couldn't attend. The intern mentioned it to her husband that night, and he was uncomfortable with her being gone overnight.  For her and her spouse, family is important, and neither she nor her husband liked the idea of her being away overnight for work.  Her work schedule with her firm is oriented around her family life as it is; she works through lunch so she can leave early to pick up her kids from day care, and she rarely if ever works overtime. The intern expressed her concerns to me regarding her future career path, and even her job security: "If I make family a priority, is that going to hurt me at work?"

We can quibble the idea of a spouse quashing our ability to travel for work, but that's not the point of the question.  We all have something (or somethings) that we like outside of work. Maybe it's family, maybe it's a hobby, maybe it's a second job that allows you to flex a different kind of creativity, maybe it's volunteer work, or maybe it's a combination of these or others. Any human being cannot only work at their job/profession; it makes them incomplete as people and more prone to burnout. Yet as my colleagues and I have gone further into architecture and up the ladder at my firm, I see common threads in promotion, raises, and job description changes.  Advancement in all its many faces:

•  ...comes to those who do the work required with exceptional quality. People can be taught how to use software or how to look up something in the 2009 IBC or where the insulation goes in a brick wall section, but people can't always be taught how to care.  Exceptional quality in your work has to do with caring, knowing why something is the way it is, or knowing all the possible exceptions or issues or concerns with a piece of code, or checking your work for thoroughness and even spelling/punctuation errors.
• ...comes to those who take the time necessary to do that work.  Sometimes--not all the time, but sometimes--that takes more than 40 hours in a week. It doesn't necessarily go to the person who's always in the office, 50+ hours a week, but I've never seen it go to the person who's right in at 8 and right out at 5, regardless of what the project requires at that moment.
• ...comes to those who act and speak/write with respect, clarity, professionalism, and integrity. All the good design skill or technical competency in the world cannot be overcome by someone who lays out of work when there's a deadline or writes snarky emails to design team members or ignores clients.

If you work at a firm that doesn't allow for a life outside of work, I would personally beware.  I've also said here before that there are two un-ideal situations at work: never working overtime and always working overtime. Never working overtime means I can't count on you when there's a sudden emergency or deadline, which happens on even the best-managed projects. Always working overtime means you're overwhelmed or haven't been trained properly, or you're employed at one of those workhouse-type firms. But these may come off as platitudes for the intern I described at the beginning of this post.  What are her options professionally if she's highly competent, but 40 hours a week is all she can do?

My answer is that she has plenty of options if she chooses carefully.  If she works on a lot of local projects (to which she can travel to and from in the same day), there's no reason she can't manage those projects, especially after she's licensed. If she also sticks with smaller projects and project types, there may be less of a chance of having insane deadlines and tons of work to do on them (which would require a lot of that evening and weekend work time).  But here's the other unfortunate truth: interns are the people that work nights and weekends, because they're taking direction from architects.  Getting licensed will help open the doors she needs to be able to leave at 5 because someone else is doing the drawing.  Another option that will help her advancement is being willing to work at home a bit on weeknights, maybe after the kids have gone to bed.  Having a laptop (or an iPad, as I do) allows project architects and project managers to answer questions and keep people moving without having to be in the building ten hours a day.

But there will be limitations. One of the reasons I was given a major promotion last year is that I am (and have been) willing to take on big, tough complicated projects with intense deadlines.  I'm willing and able to travel to remote areas on multiple puddle-jumper planes to meet with clients for four days at a time.  I've been willing to do what the project required, regardless of the size or scope of the project.  It's that last part that makes me more flexible and allows my firm some breathing room when doing staffing, and that flexibility make their lives easier...and I've been rewarded for that.  And while I don't have children, I do work with men and women who have children and have also been willing to travel and work long hours when it was needed, and they were promoted accordingly.  

The bottom line: choosing family unilaterally over work/career will not completely limit your professional growth, but there will be some missed opportunities.  And choosing work unilaterally over a personal life and family will make you boring, bitter, and burned out. And these truths hold regardless of your profession.

What to do when you're in over your head...in a meeting

Inevitably, one of the following situations will happen to you, and it will happen to you more than once as in intern:

1. You're sitting in a meeting next to your manager/boss with clients, consultants, or contractors, or;
2. You have to attend a client/contractor/consultant meeting alone in place of your manager boss

...and in either situation, the conversation and questions are over your head. You have little to no idea what everyone is talking about. VAV boxes, vent pipes, overflow drains, head-in connections, washer/decontaminators, red lines, prep line, vault, penthouse, dock leveler, blah blah blah blah. These words are so new to you that they're practically meaningless, or (just as bad) you only have a scant idea of what these words and concepts are.  You remember talking about VAV boxes in undergrad...and you think you've heard your boss talk about the vault before, maybe last week, but...you have no clear understanding of what's going on.  And you're fearful that if you ask right now in this moment, you'll look like an idiot.

What do you do? 

Depending on the type of meeting, there's a lot you can do. The first and best option no matter what is to pay attention, take notes, and listen. Look at people when they talk, write down a note about what they say (even if you don't understand the concept, write down the words), and nod appropriately.  Early in my career, I found myself in these meetings, confused as hell and bored as anything.  To combat the urge to fall asleep (which is what I feel like doing when I'm bored and overwhelmed), I began taking almost word-for-word notes in meetings.  Fast-forward 11 or so years later, and even now my colleagues and design team members want copies of my notes, and they trust my notes more than anyone else's because I write like a court reporter. My notes have saved my firm a few times because I had every detail of a conversation written in my notes, not just the resulting decision.

If the meeting is just you (and maybe your boss) and a few consultants, you have more room to reveal some ignorance: "Okay, so your concern is VAV box locations.  Give me an example of/show me on this ceiling plan where having a VAV box located would be problematic."  This allows the other person to really be listened to, and it allows you to learn. If you are pressed to make a decision thatyou feel you don't have the knowledge or authority to make, however, don't let anyone push you into a corner.  Your best response is, "I'd like to get back to the office and check the code/walk my boss through this/see if I can make this work in the floor plan, and I'll get back with you by end of day today/noon tomorrow/next week."

Being bored or confused in a meeting feels pretty sucky and it's inevitable, but showing that you're bored, lost, or disinterested is a big mistake. Resist the urge to do any of the following:

• Look/stare at the floor
• Doze off
• Constantly check your phone/text
• Fiddle with and pay attention to something else (a string on your coat, your pen, a piece of hair)
• Just sit there, not taking notes or acting like you're listening/paying attention

People who are involved in the project and have some stake in it are the ones that attend the meeting and pay attention, even if they don't say much. Acting disengaged in the meeting tells the other parties that you don't have any stake in the project, so you're not that inportant, and any emails or requests you send can be ignored.

Career forks in the road: get licensed now or get the M.Arch?

I recently got a question from J, who started out in one state with a 4-year pre-professional degree in architecture and then moved to another state to work due to family obligations. J is about to finish the ARE and get licensed, even without his B.Arch or M.Arch.  His questions were good ones: does getting my license this way mean I have an asterisk by my license number, and will it hurt me if I move to another state?

The short answers are no and maybe.  While some states are beginning to close the loopholes on not gaining experience through IDP/NCARB and not getting a B.Arch or M.Arch, not all have done so.  This link to NCARB's Registration Board License Requirements describes by state and jurisdiction what is required for initial license as well as reciprocity in that state.  It's a good reference for both your present situation (should I go back to grad school now or just get going with my hours and ARE?) as well as your future.  If you get licensed without the professional degree and then decide to move out of that state, you'll need to check if you can get reciprocal registration in your new state.  This might not be a big problem if you work for another firm, as they have partners/owners that stamp and sign the drawings. However, if you start your own firm and want to pursue work in a state that won't offer you reciprocity, you'll need to partner with another firm that is licensed in that state in order to do the work--and there goes a chunk of your profits.

There's no right or wrong way to go about this. It's just about knowing the benefits and costs of each method.

Lulu's Mailbag: burned out and micro-managed

The lament in R's email is probably familiar to some of you.  Oh, how I wish it wasn't:

I feel like my work life has completely consumed my personal life.  I have been working for a large firm (500 + employees) for over two years and workload is unrelenting, unappreciated, and micro managed.  My work load has average 70+ hours, consisting of a  6 or 7 day work week over the course of two years.  My skill set varies from advanced computational design, rendering, and being able to complete several project types of construction documents with minimal oversight.   I've graduated in the past five years and completed several parts of the ARE, but my work load prohibits me from being able to successfully study to gain my professional license.

It's not the unrelenting hours and unappreciated part that upsets me, but being micro managed to the point that I feel completely incompetent in the most menial tasks.  My senior designer is one of those "personalities" that can not consider something complete until his fingerprint has been cemented in every facet of the design.    It  has gotten to the point that normal dialog becomes combative just on the premise of winning the argument, not about right or wrong or even design.  I feel completely helpless and taken advantage of in my current situation.  Is their a way to address this without being too aggressive?  Or is time just to cut and run?

Your question deserves multiple posts, R., but for now my super-short answer to you is to either ask to work for someone else in your company (since it's so large), and if that fails or doesn't seem to be an option, it's time to look elsewhere.  Super-high workload + micromanaging = burnout.  No proper, sane company of ANY KIND, architectural or otherwise, can refute that essential truth of humankind.  The unrelenting hours and lack of appreciation should upset you, though.  If someone has been able to keep you busy for 60 hours a week for 2 years straight, then they had the workload to hire another person.  If they didn't have the cash to hire another person with that kind of workload, then they're shitty businesspeople, and they deserve to lose talent.


As for the micromanaging, there are certain things you can do to try to stem the flow that behavior, but it sounds like you might not care to have that dialogue any more, and with good reason. The reason you feel taken advantage of is because YOU ARE BEING TAKEN ADVANTAGE OF.  You have no personal life and no way to finish taking the ARE because you spend all your time working. If you like the company otherwise, I would recommend going to HR or whoever is in charge of making the teams and asking to be put on a different teams (and explain why in a professional manner).  If you've tried this with no avail or you're just done, then polish up your resume and start looking.


I would like to address your concerns in some future posts in more depth, but for now, please take care of yourself and keep me posted on how things progress.


All the best,
Lulu

You are not John Cena.

Architecture offices are busy places, between project meetings, deadlines, in-house reviews and critiques, and various conference calls and overhead paging from the receptionist.  Bosses are in and out of the office, running to interviews and meetings and site visits.  As the economy slowly improves and work starts coming in, staff in a firm are moving faster, and managers are barking orders and then running out the door to go get or hold onto a project.  If you're an intern staying back in the office and doing the work, it can feel like everyone's forgotten about you.  People just yell at you, throw some redlines and a research task in your direction, then head into yet another conference call or meeting.  No one even sees you because they're so busy.  So if the boss is gone all morning and then off to another meeting and then out of town for two days for a project interview, who's gonna care if you take an extra long lunch, or do some online shopping and fantasy baseball updates all afternoon, or even leave early?  I mean, no one can see you, right?


Folks, I'm here to tell you as a former intern and a present-day project architect: you are not John Cena.  I can see you.


I know you're out at a long lunch, because I call you four times between 2pm and 2:30pm to have you look up something for me in the IBC, and you don't pick up the phone.  I didn't leave a message because my request was urgent and immediate, so you don't have a record of the missed connection, but I do.  It's in my memory.


I know you're fiddling around on the internet without ever having to call IT, because when I come out of my meetings, I see you Ctrl+W nearly every time.  If you were working on work stuff, you wouldn't be minimizing your entire screen several times a day every day.


I know you're texting constantly, because my colleagues tell me about it.  I lament that you hadn't finished a task yet, and one or more of my fellow project architects say, "yeah, because s/he was texting all day like a twelve-year-old in line at a Jonas Brothers concert."


This isn't about needing to leave early or come in late because you have a life outside of work.  This isn't about needing to deal with something during work hours either.  We know these things happen, and the infrequent need to deal with something is okay.  This isn't about the day you have now and again when you just aren't at your best and are feeling scattered or goofy--we're all human and have those days occasionally.  


This is about a constant pattern of wasting time and taking advantage of a firm. This is about abusing the trust your supervisors and coworkers have in you.  By leaving the office and leaving you to self-monitor your behavior, your managers and firm are saying that they believe you have the ability to focus and to get work done. They believe that you'll be available if a call should come in from the field asking you to save the day with some research or information on which your boss cannot readily get his/her hands.  When you cannot self-monitor day in and day out, you waste time and resources.  You also waste goodwill--like it or not, fair or not, you give interns a bad name by betraying this basic trust in one's coworkers.


Maybe you're feeling burned out.  You're tired of working on this project/that task/so hard for so long with little to no acknowledgement.  It's been a long haul, this recession, and interns take the brunt of it.  Maybe you have lots of responsibility and no authority, and that will burn out the best of us.  Maybe you're dealing with the loss of a parent or sibling or dear loved one, and it's left you unable to really focus on anything anymore.  Instead of floundering and goofing around, tell someone about it.  Your personal problems are no one's business until they disrupt business, and then they're everybody's business.  If your daily flakiness at work is a recent development, then let someone know so a solution can be found--different assignments, decreased hours, change of manager, whatever.


But don't for a moment think that you can flake out multiple times a day, every day of the week, and keep your manager's confidence in your ability to get things done.  S/he will see your lack of focus through your lack of results.  His/her colleagues will tell what they've seen when s/he isn't around.  It's said that character is what a person does when there's no one watching.  But at a firm, you might be surprised how often someone is watching. 

What to do with that pesky tax refund

Many if not all of you reading this received tax refunds this year.  This is the case for most architectural interns--filling out a fairly simple tax refund and maybe only deducting for your student loan interest puts you in the running for a decent refund and the ensuing feeling of "yeah, I hit the jackpot, yo!" when you get that refund check in your hand.  It's tempting to go out and spend it, though some of the more disciplined among you might decide to pay down (or pay off) some credit card debt with it.  But I have a third option to suggest: invest it in a Roth IRA.


In an article in the Wall Street Journal section of the Sunday 4/29/12 Denver Post, readers were reminded that some recent reports from the entities in charge of Medicare and Social Security funds state that these funds are currently slated to run dry in 2033 (barring any action between now and then to stem this tide).  This  means that anyone who is under the age of 41 right now in 2012 should expect to only receive 70% to 75% of what he or she is "supposed to" receive.  While this sounds like it's a million miles away and may very well be a Doomsday prediction, it's a vital reminder that there's never a bad time to start planning for retirement.  Time is on your side when it comes to retirement planning--even a few bucks socked away when you're 25 and then left alone will make a huge difference in 30 years when you suddenly need it. (Here's a good chart that breaks down how time is on your side when it comes to investing.)


A Roth IRA is easy enough to set up at a bank, credit union, or online investment entity, like TD Ameritrade, E-Trade, Charles Schwab, etc.  Look for one that has minimal to no fees (i.e., they won't charge you management fees as long as you only make three transactions on the account per month, etc.)  You can only put up to $5,000 into it each year, and it's after-tax income (unlike your 401(k), which is pretax income and can also help you at tax time by lowering your taxable income), but when you take out the Roth IRA money in 30+ years, the government can't tax it.  Boo-yah.  Now that's hitting the jackpot.  

Lulu's Mailbag: Where do you draw the line with time spent at work? Part 1 of 2

Now that the economy is kinda-sorta coming back, it seems like I'm getting more questions about workload and time spent in the office. I recently received the following question from T. (edited here for length and clarity, as we emailed back and forth a couple of times):

I generally work 7:30 to 5:30 and half day Fridays, which is our office policy.  My time before and after work  is typically booked...usually we have an obligation of some sort to get to...gym, dinner, event, etc.   So I find it hard to stay even 1 minute past 5:30 and it's tough for me to get in anytime before 7:30.  It's not that I’m unwilling, it's that my personal time is important to me and I keep a clear distinction between that and work time....

Our firm isn't super busy right now, but we're all willing to put in extra time at a deadline, and I know I’ve shown (when our [name of big huge project] was active) that I didn’t complain about doing it.  It's understandable and it's perfectly okay on occasion to do that.  I bust my butt when I’m here, I typically work through lunches, so I’m not a slacker. 

My frustration comes from the random tasks that seems to come at the end of a day or ones that are gonna take longer but still need to be done in a week.  They come last minute, so there's no time to prepare for them.  So there's no time to cancel outside of work obligations.  So seeing as my wife/friends are more important than any job I’ll ever have, I choose them.  I get done what I can and I leave.  That’s where I think the unfair labeling occurs.

What I gotta ask is where do you draw the line between flat out saying "nope, I gotta go I’m sorry this can’t get done but I can’t put my life on hold, you had me here for 45 hours – I can’t give you anymore" before it starts to sound like you just don’t want to “help” out.  How can you let your employer know that you’re not able to stay late/come in early – because I’m not willing to put other aspects of my life in jeopardy to do so?

That, my friend, is the $64 million question, even for licensed architects with years of experience.  Where and how do we draw the line with our firms when it comes to our time?  And when we decide to draw that line, how do we say it?


I've said here before that neither extreme is a good idea--always working overtime or never working overtime.  (I've also discussed the importance of being willing and able to lean into the strike zone now and then, because it's going to be necessary.)  Work-life balance in architecture, as in many professions, isn't so much a balance as an ebb and flow.  There will be times when work takes all your energy, and there will be times when your life takes all your energy.  Let the pendulum swing--it will come back to the other side.  And when things aren't crazy-busy, do take the time you need to have a life.  You'll need that rest and life for when the pendulum swings back towards OMFGWEHAVESOMUCHTODOANDNOTIMEAUUUGH!!1!!!


T's question is a big one because it points to not an intern problem but a management problem. If a project architect or manager consistently works on something all day and finally gives it to you just at the end of the workday, the time management problem is theirs, not yours.  However, because rank sometimes hath privilege, their problem becomes yours.  Sometimes the architect hasn't gotten this thing done because his/her attention has been pulled in so many directions that day that s/he never had more than five minutes to think about it at a time until 4:50pm.  (This, by the way, has been the story of my life recently, so I can empathize.)  Sometimes the architect has bad time management skills.  Sometimes s/he forgets.  Sometimes s/he has unrealistic expectations.  Sometimes s/he isn't clear about when this needs to be done.  Sometimes the intern has to manage up--that is, have the conversation with the manager to figure out workload and schedules because the manager is too frustrated/overwhelmed/disorganized to even know that the conversation needs to happen.


Fixing this problem starts with a respectful conversation about expectations, typically during a non-hectic moment:


Intern:         Hey [manager's name], I wanted to discuss some scheduling and workload stuff with you for a second.  Is this a good time?
Manager:   Yeah, sure.
Intern:         Cool.  So, I know sometimes you have stuff for me to do, but you're not ready to give it to me until the end of the day. How much of those kinds of tasks can wait til the next morning?
Manager:  Some can, some can't I guess.
Intern:        Fair enough. Can you let me know what's urgent when you give it to me so I don't assume that everything is urgent?


Another tactic that can help this scenario is checking in with a chronic hand-over-at-the-last-minute boss is checking in with them a few hours before the end of the day.  Let's say you generally leave around 5 or 5:30.  Go to your boss if they're in the office (or call them if they're not) and ask if they have anything going on that you should be working on or know about by the end of the day, and how urgent is it.  This is especially helpful if you know they're working on something to give you.  Depending on their answer, you can remind them of your schedule:


Intern:         Hi [manager's name].  So, it's 3 o'clock, and I wanted to see if you had those redlines ready for me to work on.
Manager:  Um...
Intern:         I only ask because I have to leave right at 5 today, so if you need it today I'll need to get your redlines by, say, 3:30?


I realize that some of this talk might seem or feel kind of bold.  But remember: You're a grown-up too, just like the managers, and adults speak to other adults with clarity and respect. You're asking for clarification and checking in with your bosses for two reasons: one, because you want to do a good job and make them and the company look good; and two, because you want to protect your life from a constant onslaught of other people's schedules and/or poor time management skills.  While you won't always be able to fend that off, you can draw the line more clearly with your managers.  You're well within your rights to do so.


Next week: Part 2, or what to say when someone tries to call you out on defending your time.  If you have topics you'd like to see covered here or questions you'd like to ask, feel free to leave them in the comments or drop me a line via email in the sidebar.

More on getting licensed (or not)

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.

Licensing requirements changing for Colorado: what about your state?

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)

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.

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

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.

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

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

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 1: dressing the part

(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!

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

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!

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

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.

Saving for a rainy day, part 2 of 2

If you have a job right now or have managed to get a job this year, first let me say WOOHOO!!! Things are very slowly turning around economy-wise in my area, and hopefully they are doing the same in yours. I'm always heartened when I hear of someone getting a job these days or when I see job postings on job boards, whether it's the AIA or someone else's listings. If you've managed to score or keep a job as an intern, it's probably a relief to you to finally have some cash coming in so you can move out of your parents' house, or get a better apartment, pay off some credit card bills and student loans, and maybe finally splurge on that new iPhone you've been craving since you got out of college last year and couldn't have because you could barely afford to put gas in the car. And good on you--enjoy that financial relief (and new iPhone), but spare a moment's thought for your future, both short-term and long-term.

Over the past two years, my office cut my (and all my remaining coworkers') hours and pay by 10%, and we lost some other benefits as well (though our healthcare coverage remained, the costs went up). Making ends meet was a struggle, but my husband and I got through in pretty good shape and with fewer bouts of insomnia than many others in this economy. When the economy first started sliding big-time in early September of 2008 and the first round of layoffs hit my office, the hubby and I immediately cut back on our 401(k) contributions for several months so that we could stockpile easily-accessible cash into online savings accounts (which tend to have better interest rates than bricks-and-mortar banks). After we stockpiled between us six months' worth of mortgage payments on our condo, we went back to our normal levels of 401(k) contributions. At the same time, we figured out ways to cut our expenses and decided to forego a few of our usual trips and splurges. Now on the seemingly-other side of the Great Recession, we find ourselves with a nice chunk of savings to build on or use, but had one of us been laid off, we could have paid the mortgage for six months without ever having to use our unemployment to do so.

When I first began my architectural career in 2000, it used to annoy me to no end to have someone tell me to put money into my 401(k) and to chuck a little of my meager paycheck each month into an emergency savings account. Hell, I wasn't making that much in the first place, and now you want me to not have access to even more of it?! But thinking through the rainy-day point of view began to make more sense. First of all, saving for retirement was really easy for three reasons:

a) they take the money out of my paycheck before it ever gets to me, so it's not like I ever had it to miss in the first place;

b) my company matches up to a certain percent, so even if the market is crap, I put in that percentage that they match and doubled my money (and everything I put in over that matching percentage helps too, because;

c) the younger you are when you start to save for retirement, the better off you are because overall, time is on your side (investments with Bernie Madoff notwithstanding).

But saving for the short term, the rainy-day/emergency fund, is a really good idea for those just starting out. It is precisely because you don't have a lot of extra cash lying around that makes the emergency fund so important. A couple of years ago, I sprained my ankle really badly and had to go to the emergency room. Even though I had good health insurance that paid for everything I had done that day, there was still a $100 copay to get in the door of the ED. That's a big chunk of cash to drop, especially if you're just starting out and aren't making a lot. Having a little saved up can make surprise expenses--car repair, emergency room visit, trip home for a funeral, vet bill for a pet--easier to swallow.

So how much to save? I've seen different estimates on this, depending on the financial guru. The supposed "rule" is that you should have three to six months' worth of living expenses saved, but depending on your situation you could get by with more or less. I'd say aim for one month's worth of expenses saved up and go from there. And if you're paying off student loans and credit cards while all this is going on? Just get into the habit--even putting aside $20 per paycheck can help. Think about it: if you get paid every two weeks, you can save up $100--my emergency room copay--in two and a half months. That might seem like a long time, but it's a longer time if you have to put yet another surprise expense on a credit card and then pay it off at 19%.

Saving for a rainy day, part 1 of 2

During this most recent summer, I consulted on a reality construction TV show for a production company. I was excited to get the chance to work on a TV show, and I really enjoyed learning how those reality construction & remodeling shows go together. I have to say that the extra cash I earned from it was nice, too; they gave me two checks for my work, totaling a little under a grand. During a time when my entire office's pay had been cut, a little extra in the pocket sure helped. It was even invigorating, until I looked a little closer at the check.

The receipt-accounting-stub-thingy attached to the check showed that it was straight pay--no taxes or anything had been withheld. Hmm...suddenly things got sticky. If you earn money during the year, you have to claim it. And if you earn money and claim it, you'll have to pay taxes on it, especially if it wasn't taxed before. What this meant for me is that even if I wanted (or needed) to spend that money somewhere, I'm still going to have to account for having to pay taxes on it at some point in the spring of 2011. So even if I need to use that money now or in the near future, I need to set aside at least a third (probably more like 40%) in case I have to pay taxes on it. The same thing occurred to me (well, it occurred to my husband first) when I recently returned from a speaking engagement. I had been given a handsome check to cover my travel expenses and my speaker's fee, and as I looked at the check I realized the same thing had happened here--there was no sign that the non-profit had withheld any taxes on my pay. I realized that, at least for now, I was going to have to set aside my actual speaker's fee for now in case I was going to owe major taxes on this.

It would be tempting not to claim any of this income. However, each of these companies and organizations that has cut me a check and paid me for my efforts is going to claim that expense on their taxes in the spring of 2011, and that money is going to have to turn up somewhere else. While I didn't fill out a W2 for the speaking engagement, I did fill out one for the TV production company, so I'm definitely going to show up on their books. They may very well mention my social security number in their taxes, so what happens when I act like I never received anything from them? Quite possibly an audit of my and my husband's taxes, that's what. And before anyone tries to get political here, let me say that I've never seen any difference in this situation regardless of what political party is in the White House or is in charge of the national or state Congress--taxes on this kind of income is 30% to 40%, give or take a few.

I mention this on Intern 101 because I imagine that some of you have taken on extra or side jobs in order to make ends meet in this economy, much as I have. Depending on how that income was given to you, it will behoove you to consider the tax consequences of that income. Putting aside at least 30% of that windfall for a while does two things for you: one, it allows you to build up a little interest on it, depending on the kind of account you save it in; and two, it allows you not to be blindsided by the Tax Man come April.