Fear holding you hostage?

My husband lost his job as an intern last year and, and as part of a huge layoff at a large firm, I lost my job mid-project as an intern in January.  An emotional wreck and unsure what to do, I swallowed my pride and went to go see a career counselor; a bit of a stretch for me.  I’ve known I wanted to be an architect since I was in 10th grade.  I finished school in the top 3% of my class and I landed a job right out of school that included traveling and construction administration — I thought I was living the dream! This was just a little setback right? Wrong. After months of fearing being laid off, and watching friends struggle to find work after being laid off, I was burned out.  I began to question whether or not I wanted to be an architect if this lifestyle (no pay raise for 4 years while health insurance costs tripled, working extra hours to pick up for friends who were laid off…) was what the “real world” was. Going to see the counselor was the best thing I could have done. After hours of aptitude tests, values tests, and talking about my life plans, we boiled it down to two things I want to share.

1) Don’t stick to “THE PLAN” for your life so steadfastly that you miss….life. My counselor pointed out that I’d set this goal of being ‘a licensed architect in large firm with job that included lots of travel, and huge clients’ when I started college — I was 19 and unmarried at that time. She pointed out that it is okay for your goals, priorities, and values to change. It’s okay that I wasn’t happy in that same role as a nearly-licensed, married, 27 year old.  It’s important to set goals, but also important to re-evaluate them from time to time.  Ask yourself ‘is this particular job aligning with my values and my priorities?’ If I’d asked myself that before the ‘holy cow, I’m going to lose my job unless I just work harder and harder and harder’ phase of my career, the answer would have been ‘NO’.  Instead, the counselor and I talked about how a smaller firm, more open to family values, with smaller projects and less travel (turns out my husband missed me when I was gone!) might fit my needs better.

2) BE BOLD.  If staying in your current environment (whether a department, or a workplace entirely) isn’t aligning with your values and goals, it’s time for a change. Stand up for what’s important to you, and be willing to make changes to achieve a measure of happiness. Staying in a drafting position you are terrified of losing because it’s paying the bills may be a bad idea. As a creative soul, I firmly believe that your work needs to fulfill you and your dream needs to be bigger than your current job. What do you really want out of your career? Hospitals in Haiti? Equestrian facilities in Kentucky? A family? Bigger projects or smaller projects?  Evaluate your dreams and make your plan to get there by BEING BOLD. Yes, we have to put in our ‘hours in the trenches’, but I also believe that the universe helps those that help themselves. Be the change you want to see in your own life.  You may lose a job, but you must be driven by your dream to get back up.  Don’t let that paycheck hold your dreams hostage. If you’re unhappy with a job but still in love with architecture, it’s probably time to admit that you haven’t found your home within the industry. If you’re not inspired by where you’re at or headed next, how can you inspire clients with your work?

I can only say that after a few sessions with someone who asked me questions like ‘what do you want to get out of life?’, and ‘is your current situation getting you there?’ (and listened to my answers), it was what I needed. I am now happily employed at a small firm with more flexible hours, a family friendly environment, and smaller projects. I am getting to do front end design for the first time in my career, and it has made a huge difference in the satisfaction I feel in my career. Sure, I still do the pages of toilet details, but now I feel like it’s my choice, because it’s getting me where I want to go. I want others in my shoes to take stock of what they’re doing, and why they’re doing it. I hope that these nuggets of advice change your outlook and careers as much as they’ve changed mine.

 

This post is written by guest writer Megan Molin.  She is the Associate Director for the AIA Colorado North chapter and lives in Fort Collins with her husband, cat, and two horses. She is an avid equestrian, home cook, writer, and photographer and works at Aller-Lingle-Massey.  Her inspiration? The Cathedral of Christ the light, by Crag Hartman, and anything by Shigeru Ban. And good toilet details.

LIFE work

A lot has been written about the challenges of striking that appropriate WORK life balance. Architecture as a profession has a particular reputation for elevating the WORK portion of that equation, and as emerging professionals we are expected to join in with the established guard. Sacrifices for deadlines, both immediate and eminent, are expected, not asked for. Salaries that are based on a minimum of 50 hours a week, with up to 80 during crunch times? Why not, that’s basically what we did for our studios, and for free!

Being the optimist I am, however, this blog post is not about that. This one is about striking the appropriate LIFE work balance. A simple inverse I know, but one with serious ramifications. I’m sure we all know at least two or three practitioners who have a story of sacrifice, either of personal relationships or personal health. Heart attacks at young ages, missing life’s milestones for deadlines. Why, as a profession, do we do this to ourselves?

But things are not always as they seem, and stereotypes are often made to be broken.

While it is true that being an emerging professional today brings with it a record low economy and high levels of competition for employment/work, we are also facing a shifting of the guards. I’m going to go ahead and put forth the notion that the entire culture of architecture as a profession is changing, and for the better.

There seems to be a more cognizant recognition of the importance of spending time away from work. Flexible hours, gym memberships, bike share programs, these are all things that are no longer only heard of in fields like high tech. Architecture is as creative a profession as any other, thriving on the input of its practitioners, and for those practitioners to thrive they need to be performing at their best.

Architecture is a mentally demanding field. It is said that the only true asset of an architecture firm  lies in the collective knowledge of its people. So doesn’t it make sense then to pay particular attention to the maintenance of that asset? To the health of ourselves, our employees, and our co-workers?

I think the established guard is starting to get it, and things are starting to change for the better.

Now I’m not saying that every position is the same, and some firms are going to be slower to adapt than others. I’m also not saying there isn’t a very definite need for design professionals to sit down together around a table and hash out project specifics and alternatives, but in this day and age is anyone really needing to be stuck in an office/cubicle, chained to a desk for 16 hours a day? And the sad fact is that there will always be those crunch times when an 80 hour week is required, but those should be few and far between.

In full disclosure, I am writing all of this with a 14 week old in the next room, so maybe it’s just my own personal sense of priorities shifting. What do you think?

It’s Time to Move On.

Today is my last blog post for the AIA Colorado EP blog. I am stepping down from my leadership and writer position in order to ensure the quality of contributions to it. This blog will continue progressing forward and connecting with Emerging Professionals across the country, maybe even in other countries too!

When I created this blog, I had plenty of time on my hands. I was unemployed and single. Now almost two years later, I’m fully employed as an architect and mere weeks away from being married. Change has happened so much for me in recent years that I’ve come to respect it as a part of life. Ugh…and that mature thought makes me feel old sometimes. But now Change is here because I find myself spread too thin between multiple commitments, and as a person committed to quality, I’d rather step down and give someone else the opportunity to lead, than to have the blog suffer due to a decline in my energies to it.

What I will miss the most is the blog team. None of us knew each other before the blog and now they are some of my closest friends. I will definitely not miss getting up at 5am to finish blog writing before my 8am post, while getting ready for work no less! Aside from the early mornings, I enjoyed writing about topics that were constantly brought up in my conversations with other Emerging Professionals. My favorite posts were:  Take it or Leave it- The Patch Job (It was my very first post and still one of my favorites.), Working the Market– Dating and Job Searching (My ‘Carrie Bradshaw’ moment.), and Surviving the Rollercoaster (Reflective on how to be there for someone who just got laid off)

I am so very proud of how this blog has grown in less than two years. In that time we’ve written 160 posts and had over 22, 000 hits. Our writers work has been featured in CRIT, the quarterly publication of the AIAS and shared on the AIAS enewsletter. Our Twitter followers and email subscribers grow each week. We’ve integrated guest writer spots into the schedule bringing more diversity to the EP blog’s voice. Other good things are in store for the blog  which will role out in the upcoming months. Stay tuned!

I leave knowing the blog is excellent hands and will continue doing what I intended for it to do – be a voice for the Emerging Professionals.

Bests,

Megan Kullerd, AIA

A push towards refocusing…

A week and a half ago, I suffered a back injury. I don’t want get too detailed because it will make me feel older than I already do, but in short, I was restricted to a wheelchair for a day. To make matters a bit more complicated, I was in a strange city staring down air travel to get back toDenver. I was in a tight spot. It was in those couple of hours that I got a brief glimpse into an aspect of architecture and design that is often overlooked; accessibility.

It might be because I am in school and removed from some of the rigors of practice, but for me, accessibility is a basic understanding of ANSI A117.1 applied to a few aspects of a building; bathrooms, automatic door operators, elevators, etc. In a studio environment, I am typically not designing specifically for accessibility, but merely accommodating the law.   To be honest, this requirement is an application that I more than occasionally chafe at. For example, a recent studio project included a good amount of grade change along the length of the building.  For the particular scheme I developed, stairs were by far the simplest solution to deal with the grade. However, it was an exhibition space that needed to be accessible and I needed to adjust. To me, the most telling thing about this predicament was that the need to include an accessible access was something that I was bothered by, whereas I had no problem accepting and dealing with myriad other restrictions on the building; basic details including minimum insulation values for walls or minimum window opening area to meet natural ventilation requirements. Elements of the building that had arguably just as big an impact on the design were dealt with and incorporated whereas the inclusion of ramps seemed to stick out above the rest.

After just the briefest of stays in a wheelchair, I am re-evaluating my attitude toward accessibility and gaining some insight into the value and importance of design professionals. Before this experience I knew the importance of accessibility only as reflected by regulations mandating accessibility, but I have come to realize it is much more than that. It is about providing equal access to our buildings to everyone. It is a question put to designers of how all members of the community get from here to there. It is our responsibility to answer this question with vigor and creativity, not as an afterthought to design.

It is here that our role as designers is evident; where it is shown to be both required and needed. We are responsible for designing accessible spaces. We need to know the codes but more importantly, we must actively strive to understand the experience of those with limited mobility and seek to create equal access to the built environment for the disabled. The guidelines provided by the codes are just that; guidelines. In the same sense that architects seek to go beyond the minimum energy efficiency requirements outlined by the various codes, we should seek to go beyond these minimum requirements for accessibility. By designing accessible spaces, we are fulfilling our professional responsibility and showing our worth.

A Professional Pep Talk

It’s easy for interns to get into a professional rut – by that I mean, being stuck doing the same thing day after day, week after week, year after year without gaining any new experiences or professional advancement. Over time the repetitive work becomes mundane, you become restless, bored and perhaps professionally frustrated and in the end it’s your overall professional career that takes the hit. I’ve seen this happen to colleagues of mine at every firm I have worked for – once an intern gets pigeonholed into a specific piece of a project for a significant amount of time it’s hard for them to expand beyond that point.

Though I believe it’s important to learn architecture from start to finish, end to end, and that there are specific components to architecture that take more time to learn than others, I don’t believe it’s doing anyone a favor by pigeonholing our young professionals and limiting their career growth. In my opinion, having 3+ years of construction drawing experience and no pre-design experience isn’t a well-balanced internship.

The reality, however, is that most of you in this situation are allowing yourself to be pigeonholed.  Rather than taking a stand for your careers you are allowing others to make professional decisions for you. I say that in no disrespect to the supervisors or managers in the offices, but it’s not up to them to give you the career that you want. It is up to you to take a stand for the career you deserve.

So, if you find yourself in a pigeonhole today I encourage you to start asking yourself questions…Are you happy with the work you are doing? Are you learning something new about architecture in your current position? Are you being mentored? Is the work you’re doing today going to help advance your career? Where do you see your career in five years and what should you be doing today that will help you get there?  What changes need to be made in order for you to gain the experiences you want/need?

Once you have answered those questions, and have a clear idea of what type of architectural career you want to have, my advice to you is to speak up – yell, stomp your feet and throw a four-year-old temper tantrum if you have to. Of course I’m only joking about throwing a temper tantrum, acting professional is very important in this situation. My point is that sometimes it’s going to take more than a casual conversation to be heard.  As an intern it’s so important to gain a well-rounded experience and take the opportunities that will allow you to succeed in your career. Be patient but also don’t be afraid to ask for the things that will help you succeed in the future.  If the person you are asking doesn’t listen then find someone who will.  You’re career, your success, and your future all lie in your hands.  Stop standing around waiting for someone to hand you your dreams, get up out of your cubical and figure out how you are going to have the career you’ve always dreamed of.

Are you hiring?

My fellow writers and I got together the other day for our monthly meeting. During the course of the conversation, Kevin mentioned he had only a single studio presentation left to complete. As I considered the calendar date, it was clear that another group of students would soon be entering the job market. It’s funny, but once you find yourself outside of academia, milestones like a semester’s end just don’t cross your mind. It’s been four years since I graduated from U of M, and this conversation has me reflecting on what most students go through during their last few semesters of study, trying to land a job.

As with many of the schools we attended, The University of Michigan does many things very well. However, I found one of the services U of M provides for its’ students invaluable. One of its’ greater strengths is what it offers in the way of job placement assistance. My school keeps a close eye on its’ alumni (trust me, they know where I live and they know where I work). With the university’s emphasis and reliance on alumni financial support, their compiled list of alumni and their employment specifics is unparalleled in the higher education arena. With this information, getting your foot in the door for a summer internship or full time employment post graduation is certainly helped by being able to contact someone “on the ground.” In fact, the architecture school has a person on staff whose sole responsibility is to assist students in internship placements and permanent employment. I didn’t realize how lucky I was to have had this assistance until I began to understand that most students who graduate are entering the job market without any help at all.

In the four years I have been working, I am afraid that little has changed in the employment arena. While it is becoming more evident that the market continues a very slow turnaround, jobs for recent graduates are still few and far between and those that are available are being pursued by practitioners with vastly more experience. Professionally speaking, I feel we have a responsibility to do what we can to find opportunities for these new graduates. It is important to find a way to keep these individuals involved in the profession; we can’t afford to lose upwards of 5 years worth of fresh talent as these people enter other lines of work out of discouragement.

This problem must be tackled on two fronts. To the students, I cannot stress enough the importance of developing a network. Talk to anyone who will listen and get to know what you can about what firms are currently working on. If you are fortunate enough to land yourself an interview (or even a casual meeting) with a firm and they aren’t looking to hire you today, keep in touch with those people with whom you met and continue to follow up. Most people will appreciate your persistence, and if you can keep your name in their minds, it is likely they will remember you when it is time to hire.

While the students have great responsibility here, those of us that are more or less established in the profession have some work to do as well. Do what you can to get new graduates in front of the decision makers at your respective firms and use your contacts to find other opportunities that students may not be aware of. More than likely, many of these students are relying on our help for placement services. We need do what we can to help them get a toe hold in the profession. If you don’t have a place for an intern in your firm, pick up the phone, send out a Tweet or otherwise act on their behalf. We have a responsibility to make the concerted effort to keep these people in the profession. We need to assist them just long enough for the coming momentum of the market to take them along with it. If we continue to lose these graduates to other professions, there might not be anyone there to give us resume when we need them.

Architecting our education: Skills and scalpels

“Trade schools teach Revit. Architecture schools teach architecture.”

One of the biggest polarizers in my 3+ years of grad school has been one simple little word: Revit. I have heard varied opinions ranging the full spectrum, from this single piece of software being architecture’s future to being its death. Many of the program’s detractors, however, still admit that Revit experience is all but required to land an internship anymore.

Despite this, I have heard the above quoted sentiment a few too many times from professionals across the discipline – often from visiting jurors as they spurn wall-mounted drawings so clearly derived from Revit. I initially loved the thought; my school offers Revit as an elective at several levels, but some of us pursued other academic paths of greater interest to us. Why spend so much money to learn a single program, when I can take courses dedicated to higher-level thought and discourse in architecture and urbanity?

The trade school sentiments validated my course choices.

More recently, though, as the real world looms ever nearer, I question that opinion… If Revit is the single most sought after skill from new graduates, what have I done by not learning it? Should I dedicate my summer off to it? If our field considers its use so vital that we can’t get jobs without knowing it (as we’re so consistently told now), why is Revit merely an elective? Should its instruction be mandatory?

My most exhaustive studio was not Comp, but the studio preceding it. The instructor that my classmates and I balloted for had a rough program and sequence of assignments in mind, as did the other instructors, but he had one more piece to his agenda: everyone in his studio would learn Rhino, V-ray, and the basics of digital fabrication.

His studio became an integrative experience, the kind of immersive learning experience increasingly seen in other fields like language, music, and computer science that I hinted at several weeks ago. My favorite studio project coincided with, and actually arose from, the acquisition of a new and very useful technical skill. I wasn’t required to ‘waste’ an elective to get it.

Revit isn’t even really the major point… Most of us probably fall somewhere in the middle of the spectrum, thinking the program to be a useful tool but not the only or the ultimate one.

Instead, what are the most absolute vital skills that architecture’s emerging professionals should possess, and how might our schools better encourage the development of those skills? (After all, we all want jobs to pay off our school loans and support our heightened caffeine addictions.)

If any of those vital skills are technical in nature, why would it be beneath a school of architecture to mandate them, relegating them instead to trade schools for their instruction?

If other disciplines echoed the thought, we might hear: “Trade schools teach scalpels. Medical schools teach medicine.” How might our surgeons compare if their schools had believed this, had expected surgeons to learn how to cut only in their spare time or by elective choice?

Practical skills should never be learned in isolation from the higher-level concepts that drive their use. Doing so deprives them of their purpose, value, and limitations. Likewise, teaching concepts without applicable skills ensures that those concepts will never be applied.

I heard a saying once… “To practice without theory is to set sail upon uncharted seas. To theorize without practice is to not set sail at all.”