#352 - ADVICE FOR ARCHITECTURE GRADUATES - Preparing for the Profession
SUMMARY
This week David and Marina of FAME Architecture & Design provide advice for architecture graduates entering the profession. The two cover the differences between school and practice, what students can expect, lacking technical knowledge as a graduate, what students can do to prepare for working in an office, what offices look for in recent graduates, and more. Enjoy!
TIMESTAMPS
“It's a healthy feeling to be nervous about entering the profession. The classmates who don't seem scared, they probably are. Because it is scary, but it's also super exciting. You should mentally celebrate the milestone of graduating, but now it's time to get to the next point. You're not the first person going through it. You're not the last one going through it. There's something very comfortable about being in a place for a long time, being familiar with everything… and school eventually becomes a very comfortable environment after you get familiar with it. Stepping into the profession... You have to be comfortable not being comfortable. I think being scared comes from the feeling of failing, being rejected at job interviews, not finding an office, and having to apply to a bunch of places. I also you shouldn't put too much pressure on that first step and first job fresh out of school because it’s not like you have to commit to it for the rest of your life.” (02:40)
“The transition from being a student to practicing is a really big one. That's a fact. There's no way that I could say it's not that. Your graduating classmates who have this heir about them of being very confident, very professional… they’ve landed a job at SOM in San Francisco or OMA New York, you think, "Oh my gosh. They've had it figured out. Wow. Look at them. What am I gonna do?" I wouldn't worry about them because 1. They haven't figured it out and 2. Architecture is a long game. It really does not matter what all of the fresh graduates do between years one and two when they start practicing and what offices they work at. To put it in perspective, if you're a fifth-year student listening to this, think back to when you were a first-year architecture student compared to where you are now. Did your skillset in first year really matter? No, it made no difference. Only when you get to year five, is when you really see what a person is really like in the academic setting. The same thing applies to the professional setting, but even in the longer term. So for the first few years, do your best, have fun, work at good places, try and get paid, and be in a city you like. That's the best you can do.” (14:50)
"In school, your value system prioritizes the fancy design offices that have big names. But once you start practicing and you work for about five years, you realize, "Eh, that's not really all there is to it." There are other things that come into play such as what is it actually like to work there. Forget the designs they produce, the buildings they produce, or the name of the office. What is it actually like to work there? [When I graduated] I do remember having the sensation of, "This person I knew in school wasn't great, but they're working at this big-name office and I'm jealous." But then I realized, they're being underpaid, they're doing nothing but blue foam models, etc. So then I wondered, "Well, I don't really know who's the winner here because they have the big office name on their resume, but they're not gaining anything else." And other times I've worked at offices, which on the outside might have appeared more desirable, yet this other person I knew was working at a no-name office, making way more money than I was, and had more responsibility and authorship over the work. Who's the winner? It's to say that the framework of thinking that you have as a fifth-year student is going to be different when you are as a full-fledged practicing professional adult.” (20:25)
