And now, to purge the burnout

I must start by thanking everyone who continues to come here week after week and read whatever I've written (or in the last few weeks, not written). I truly appreciate the questions and thoughts I receive. I must confess though that in the press of the last few months, I've found myself increasingly burned out. One of my friends who went to grad school to be a therapist called my recent state "central nervous system fatigue or overload". It's a condition he sees in elite athletes and bodybuilders; the patient works out so much and doesn't allow time to recover, and consequently they exhaust easily in terms of physical and mental performance. The same can happen when you work week after week and month after month at 50 or so hours a week. I have interns in my office right now who are younger than me but experiencing this as well. 

What it takes to exhaust you is based on the individual. I can do more than some people my age (37) and less than others. I could do more when I was 30 than I can now. However, the most important two things to remember about fatigue at work are these:

1. Know your limits and the signs of your fatigue. Don't let people put more on you than you can get done in the time allotted, especially if the piling-on is a continuous affair (I.e., it goes on for more than a month). Also, know when the workload and pressure is getting to you: do you get snippy? Have frequent nightmares or sleep poorly in general? Lose or gain a lot of weight?
2. Tell someone that this is happening and take steps to get rest as soon as you can. Your manager can't help you unless s/he knows you're drowning in work or stress. They may be able to get you help or help you prioritize what needs to be done when so that you don't feel overwhelmed. Furthermore, give yourself the physical and mental breaks you need as soon as you can get them. I didn't follow that advice, and by the end of my deadlines, I was shouting the f-word at my boss. Not something I recommend,

I'll do my best to keep posting advice, thoughts, and questions for y'all as I'm able this summer, but I do need some rest. I don't want to just slap any old bunch of writing up here in the name of posting every week. I want to do well thought out and researched posts for y'all, and that takes energy. And I do hope all of you have some fun trips or breaks planned for the summer!

Lulu's Mailbag: How do I include actual projects in my resume?

Most of the questions I get regarding resumes involves folks coming out of school or with little professional experience. However, J. asks a good question:

[I]f you have any suggestions about how to include intern-level professional work in a portfolio, I would appreciate any tips. [The work] I've done at [this] internship is portfolio-worthy but I do not yet know how to incorporate it alongside my previous academic work.


Including information about work you've done in a firm is one of the top things, if not the most important thing behind your contact info, to include on a resume. A few general tips:

• When you add a real-life project with a firm to your portfolio, drop a school/academic project.  The more actual/built work you have on your resume and portfolio helps you make a better case for someone to hire you.  If you've been working for a couple of years and all that time was spent on the same project due to its size, you may even want to drop off two projects.
• Include the built work on both your resume and portfolio. You can highlight one or more projects on your resume when you mention where you've been working. On the resume, provide name and location of project as well as general information (2,300-sf bank, 40-bed hospital, etc.) and then describe your role on the project team. On the portfolio, you can go into more detail about the project (2,300-sf bank in the heart of historic downtown Austin, TX with a focus on achieving LEED Platinum, etc.)
• Be cautious of using images and pictures. Images of built and rendered projects that were created or paid for by your firm belong to your firm. Putting them on your resume can be and portfolio can be a violation of intellectual property.  If you cannot or are uncomfortable asking for permission to use these images, your safest bet is to take pictures of the building yourself or include web links to online images of the work (either on your firm's website or in an online newspaper or magazine article).

Making the most of your yearly performance and pay review

I've written previously about what a performance review should be like here, but the topic of reviews is worth some elaboration.  There are two primary things to remember about a performance review: one, it should be a conversation between you and the managers/colleagues/people reviewing you; and two, its focus should be on the three Ps: performance, plans, and pay.

• Performance: What is your job description, and how well are you carrying out the tasks outlined in that job description?  What have you enjoyed doing in the past year?  What did you learn to do better?  What did you struggle with?  What do you need more practice doing?  What were processes, etc. that worked for you this year, and what didn't?
• Plans: Are you pursuing IDP and/or licensure?  How far along are you?  What hours are you still lacking to finish IDP?  If you're taking tests, how far along are you?  Are you planning to acquire any other accreditations (e.g. LEED AP, EDAC, etc.)?
• Pay: What increase in pay if any are you receiving?  Upon what criteria is that raise (or lack thereof) based?

That last point is one that I want to hammer home, but with a caveat.  If you want to ask for a certain level of raise, that's fine.  But you have to be prepared in multiple ways.  First, review the AIA's job descriptions and figure out which one you most closely resemble (Intern 2, Unlicensed Architect I, etc.).  Then research what people at your perceived level and in your type/size of firm in your geographical area typically earn.  (Supposedly, there are copies of the 2011 AIA Compensation Report floating around on the internet.  I wouldn't know--I paid for mine.)  Then, play a little devil's advocate with yourself--what might be the counterarguments against you getting the raise or income that you believe you've earned?  Figure out a professional response to those arguments.

I know interns talk to each other about what they make, and good on them for not keeping secrets about that. Having said that, I'm cautious of walking into a review and saying, "Well, I do the same stuff that So-and-So does, and I know she makes 10% more than I do."  You may very well hear what it is that So-and-So does a whole lot better than you, and it might not be something you want to hear. If you're willing to hear the truth and learn from it, then fire away.  (It's more acceptable to say that you're aware that some of your colleagues with very similar job descriptions and experience levels make x% more than you.)  

The main piece of advice I can give in a review is to remain professional and grateful.  Avoid defensiveness--if given an inaccurate or exaggerated criticism, respectfully disagree and ask for specifics.  If your raise isn't what you were hoping, say thank you very much and then follow it with, "It's not quite what I was hoping for--I'd like to think about that a bit and get back to you."  Your ability to be professional and have tact and diplomacy in a tense situation can be the thing that sets you apart from your colleagues, and a review is as good a time to show your skills as any.

Redlined Resumes: more info, please

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

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

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

Redlined Resumes: international resume with a flair for the dramatic

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

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

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

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

Navigating the Tweetaverse

I was asked in a comment from last week's post if I have a Twitter account, and the answer is yes. (I'm @Arch_Intern101 for what it's worth.)  I'm not the most productive Tweeter/Twitterer--I mostly retweet a tweet or article I find interesting. I find that most of my random thoughts require more than 140 characters to impart the full force of my fury.  I also don't want any of my tweets biting me later.


I have an intern who started a side business with a buddy (one that did not compete with our firm in any way), and he was having a hard time getting it off the ground even though this project and side business was his passion.  One day, he tweeted something like "how do you keep going when your dream keeps dying slowly?"


His tweet popped up in his LinkedIn profile, and that popped up in a weekly "here's what your LinkedIn contacts have been doing lately" email in my inbox.  I knew he'd been working on some boring stuff lately (shops and CDs, definitely not the stuff of architectural dreams), so I went to him to ask if everything was going okay, and was he worried about his job or career at our office?  The intern blushed crimson--he didn't realize that linking his Twitter account to his LinkedIn account--which he was using to get his side venture of the ground--was being seen by his non-side-venture coworkers...and bosses.


The internet is so vast and anonymous that it's easy to forget that it is indeed a public venture.  Once you attach your name to something, whether it's Facebook, Twitter, or anything else, it can be traced back to you and can be used for or against you.  Whenever you post something on an electronic platform, make sure you're okay with one of your bosses ever finding that post/tweet/status update and reading it aloud at the next office meeting.

Lulu's Mailbag: How can I work when other people's schedules affect mine?

I'm kinda behind on the Mailbag and I have some Redlined Resumes in the works, so I beg your forgiveness--I'll be traveling a lot for work in May, so my posting will be hit and miss.  i did want to give some attention to a long-overdue response to D., whose question piggybacks nicely onto T's dilemma that I posted about for the past two weeks (note: edited for clarity and length, as D and I emailed back and forth a bit on his question):

I work in a 3-person satellite office for a very large firm.  The firm's business hours are 8:30AM -5:30PM with lunch from 12:00PM -1:00PM, Monday through Friday.  I have worked in this office for 5 1/2 years. 

Neither my boss nor my co-worker adhere to the firm's business hours...it is a total gamble each day as to when they will arrive at the office, and when they will leave.  [Because they] intermix work with their personal business while at the office, [they] show up around 10:00 AM, spend several hours doing personal/non project-related stuff throughout the day, and work until 8:00 or 9:00 PM...     

I have more of a "get in early, get it done, leave on time" attitude towards the office. Therefore, I schedule my time accordingly and discipline myself to stick to that schedule in order to accomplish everything I want to get done.  When we have more work or a project deadline, I adjust my schedule accordingly to accommodate a few additional hours at the office.  Any personal stuff gets done at home in the evening, or on weekends. It is worth noting that everyone in our office gets everything done, and we never miss deadlines. 

I realize that everyone is different... [but] my colleagues' non-structured attitude towards time at the office often affects my ability to be efficient. I often find myself spending more time at the office than necessary because "I am needed as a member of the project team".  I have already finished everything I needed to get done that day, but they are running behind because they came in late or worked on something else for a period of time.  I am not compensated for this additional time I spend at the office (the firm abolished overtime compensation when the recession began).  

I find this very frustrating and disrespectful to my schedule.  What would be the proper way to address this? I have not directly discussed this issue with my boss.  I have thought about framing the issue in terms of how our team can work more efficiently, but I struggle with how to tie this discussion back to some of the specific behavioral patterns without sounding accusatory.

As an added note, I do know that I am not the only person in our company that is affected by the lack of structure in our satellite office.  I occasionally get calls from my boss's supervisor in our main office, asking why he isn't at his desk, or we receive general emails from the main office underscoring the importance of the relationship between working hours and project budgets. 

Wow, that is a good question.  What you're asking on the surface here is how to address the lack of connection between your schedule and your coworkers' schedules, but what you're really asking here, D., is how to manage up.  You will manage up for as long as you're not licensed and even for most of the time that you're licensed as well.  As long as you have a boss, you will have a need to manage up--to make sure that everything above you is going well so that it doesn't dribble onto your head.  As long as your colleagues aren't sociopaths, this is a fairly painless process.  Annoying, but mostly harmless.  You're also dealing with some of the issues that T was dealing with regarding hours worked; you don't mind pitching in when things are tough, the chips are down, and there's a looming deadline, but it's another thing altogether when you continually have to work late because someone else has been disorganized with their time.


Your heart and brain are in the right place when you assert that you want to frame the issue in terms of working efficiently.  That really is the right place to start when you talk with your boss and coworker about this.  Remember than whenever you ask for change, do so in the service of a job or in the service of a relationship--that's the key.  The other important part of asking for change is to take ownership of what you want while framing it as a benefit to both parties.  What do you want out of this?  Bear in mind that you, too, could start coming in at 10am and leaving at 7pm, but if you're more productive in the morning, then that needs to be part of the conversation.  You, too, could start doing your personal business during the day intermittently, but if you find that not being interrupted with non-work stuff makes you more productive and allows you to get things accomplished, then that also needs to be part of the conversation.


See if you can get them both in the same place and time, uninterrupted (usually this is accomplished with lunch), and talk about how everyone's schedules are working--how do your colleagues like to work?  You can contribute (or counter with) your own point of view, which is that it works best for you to work like x but not so much like y.  Is your boss aware that higher-ups have asked where he is?  If not, this should be shared with him in private: say "Eddie from the main office asked me this morning where you were and i didn't know, and he was pretty pissed.  How should I handle it when I get those calls?"  If your boss wants you to lie and you're not comfortable with that, then say so: "Mike, I'm really not comfortable with that.  If I don't know where you are, then I don't know where you are.  I know you have things to attend to in the morning, but it leaves me in a position where I'm either throwing you under the bus to Eddie or I'm lying to Eddie, and neither of those is acceptable to me in a good team environment like ours."


See what happened there?  You paid Mike (the name I'm giving your boss) a compliment about your office's environment (hopefully it was honest), and you're showing him the consequences of his behavior--it puts you in an awkward situation.  That's how you frame your discussion about time with your colleagues: "When you guys come in late and don't have something ready for me until 6pm, I get frustrated because I'm here early when I'm most productive and have to stay late time and again and work when I'm fried.  Can we work something out that allows us to keep our schedules but also keeps the workload clear for everyone?"  


Remember that even after you work something out, you may need to remind them of the agreement: "Chuckie, it's 3 o'clock, and I do have to leave right at 5 today.  Did you have that plan ready for me?  If not, I can definitely start on it tomorrow right at 8, or even at 7:30 if you need it sooner."


Have courage, D.  With a couple of good discussions, you might be able to find some relief in here.

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

Last week, I answered T.'s email about drawing the line at work with having to stay late every afternoon because a manager hands you something at the last minute.  There's more to flesh out with his question, though, regarding how and when to draw that line.  


Where that line lives may be different for everyone--interns who have lots of family, spiritual, and extracurricular obligations may have less disposable time then interns who mainly go to the gym and then watch Hoarders on TLC while eating dinner.  (By the way, if you need motivation to clean your apartment, watch one of those extreme hoarding shows--you'll be emptying the trash and Swiffing during every commercial break before it's over.  Plus, seeing how nasty the houses are will help curb your appetite and help you lose weight.  It's a two-for-one deal...but I digress.)  If you're really busy outside of work, you may need to figure out how to schedule your overtime better, which means you'll need to be even more proactive with your manager(s) regarding asking when things are due and do they have something coming up.  I must caution you all against being too busy outside of work, however, because sudden deadlines and emergencies are going to happen, and you will need to stay late or come in early sometimes to help with them.  Careful planning and good communication with your boss can eliminate some if not many of these emergencies, but not all of them.


Some if not most bosses will be accepting of your limits, readily or grudgingly.  If they're grudgingly accepting, resist the urge to succumb to the guilt.  Some bosses (and some coworkers) will try to push on your boundaries--maybe they think it's crap that an intern dare "talk back" and say they're not willing to stay late every single day and time someone "needs" them to stay, or maybe they're mad with themselves for not setting that boundary for themselves long ago.  Here's the bottom line to remember when someone tries to push your boundary:


Is the work getting done on time and with quality?


It's a yes or no question.  If the answer is no, then you need to work with your boss to get things right so that you can do the work well and on time.  But if the answer is yes, then no apology or long, drawn-out explanation is needed.  This is a concept introduced by Cali Ressler and Jody Thompson of the electronics retail giant Best Buy.  Ressler and Thompson created the ROWE, or Results-Only Work Environment.  Instead of being obsessed with time, they reasoned, why aren't we focusing on results?  If you're getting the task assigned done on time and with a high level of quality, who cares if you did it late last night or first thing this morning?  If it's good and done, then it's good...and done.


I could do two or three posts alone on how Ressler and Thompson's work would be best used in architecture (and where I take issue with their assertions--I don't fully accept their whole premise, but most of it feels solid to me).  For now, though, I'll pass on their approach to dealing with people who take shots at you.  When someone begins to hassle you about "oh, I guess now it's time for you to leave, huh?" or "oh, nice of you to show up", you simply and calmly ask them:


"What do you need?"


This questions stops the heckling and focuses on the result.  What do you need, and when do you need it by is what matters.  If the response is, "I need to to do these redlines for a meeting tomorrow, and I have to leave at 7am to get to that meeting", then you know that they either need your help right now or if you really really can't help them, you may be able to help them find someone who can.  If the response is, "I have some redlines that need to be done by end of day tomorrow," then you can glance at them and assess if you can handle them in a timely manner the next morning. And if the response is just more heckling, then you can repeat the question:


"Homer/Marge, did you need something?  If so, let me know.  I'm willing to work with you to get something done.  What's up?"


When this is done repeatedly and as calmly as possible, you show the heckler that you're not rising to the bait. The point of your "what do you need?" question is to find out if the emergency is real or in your boss' head.  Now, if this is a boss heckling you, it can be hard to hold the line and stay calm, but it's necessary.  You may decide to talk with them later about it:


"Homer/Marge, when you were saying all that stuff earlier about me leaving right at 5, was there something you needed?  I'm glad to help get things done, and I can do a better job of helping you when we plan a little ahead of time.  Can you help me with that?  Can we talk about this a little?"


Sometimes in order to get what you need at work, you have to manage up and take control of the situation.  You have to help your boss--or company--help you, and part of that involves showing or explaining to them how helping you helps the company and project.  When you can make that case, and when you stick to your guns, you can ultimately make everyone's lives easier: people are more organized and well-rested and the quality of work is higher.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


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


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


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


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

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

On the other side of burnout

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


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


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


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

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.

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

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

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

 

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

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




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


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


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


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

Lulu's Mailbag: Racism in architecture?

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


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




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


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


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


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


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


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


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

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

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


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




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


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


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


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

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

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

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

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


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

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

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


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

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

(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!

Interns and Architects: the Mentorship Survey 2011

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


Here's the link to the survey for interns.


Here's the link for the survey for architects.


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

More thoughts on gender and the architectural profession

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

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

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

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

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

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