Since 1988, LA-based Neil M. Denari Architects has fused the realms of architecture, design, urbanism, and technology into all of their projects. As NMDA’s reach extends far beyond Los Angeles, their growth demands an increase in hiring — and that includes recruiting the right people for their firm.
So what does NMDA look for in their most promising job candidates? How can candidates prepare if they land an interview? In Archinect's latest “How To Get A Job At ____”, we got in touch with Senior Project Manager Lillian Zeinalzadegan and Office Manager Matthew Millikin, who shared the do's and don'ts of applying to the practice.
What positions are constantly in-demand at your firm?
Like many offices in a robust economy, boosted by lots of new work in Los Angeles and Vancouver, we are expanding the team gradually, but with urgency nonetheless, and are currently looking for both entry-level and (primarily) intermediate level positions.
When meeting with a candidate, what are some ways that they can make a positive first impression during the interview?
Come in prepared and on time – two pretty obvious requests. Also, it may help to try to see the interview from our viewpoint; we WANT to like you and we want YOU to be the answer to all of our needs, so if you can express confidence and humility in the same breath, that’ll go a long to establishing the positive tone of the interview.
What do you want to learn most about the candidate during the interview?
I think the thing we most need to understand is whether or not the applicant has the set of skills we are looking for and if their personality will mesh with our work culture. Sometimes we can figure out just from a portfolio if they’ve got the skills (sometimes not) but we can never judge the personality and ethic until we meet them.
What is the most common mistake that candidates make when applying to your firm?
We put a few requests in our ads that are there to challenge the applicant and to, quite frankly, weed out “copy and paste” applicants. A surprisingly high number of applicants don’t follow those instructions, so they don’t make it to the interview stage. Once you get to the interview stage, one of the more common mistakes is having no answer of any kind to our question: “so why are you interested in NMDA?” A blank stare will usually mean we are just one of many offices to gain employment.
We are sensitive to the pragmatics of an applicant’s job search, but we are impressed, if rarely so, when an applicant has taken a bit of time to research the work of the office, perhaps read some of Neil’s texts, watched some parts of his lectures online, or even visited a project. While it is very much an employee’s (rather than an employer’s) market today, we still like to think that applicants are here because they have an affinity for what our design ethos is and how we pursue architecture. More often, those are the applicants we select.
What makes a strong CV/portfolio?
First – please triple check for spelling or grammatical errors. You have all the time in the world to get your cover letter, CV, and portfolio up to snuff. If you can’t get the details right on those, then what’s it going to be like when deadlines are fast approaching? We very much appreciate a cover letter that is well written and considers NMDA as a particular office.
First – please triple check for spelling or grammatical errors...If you can’t get the details right on those, then what’s it going to be like when deadlines are fast approaching?
We know that applicants cast a wide net, and we are one office among many that people consider. While telling us about your skill set is of primary importance, a bit about how the work that we do would benefit from your collaboration would also resonate. We think doing this for every office a person would apply to is important.
How important is an applicant's educational background?
We place no preference at all on where anyone has attended school, yet apart from any issues of perception of quality or status of an institution, we do pay close attention, especially in the entry applicant where student work forms most of the portfolio, to the rigor with which they approached their work.
What kind of training do new hires undergo when they first start?
Generally, regardless of what level a new hire may be, we work closely with them to understand our design and production protocols, which are meticulous and detail oriented, whether it is in the process and rules that we apply to making rendered images or how we use production software platforms to deliver technical information. Today, while everyone is familiar with industry standard software, it is really working to absorb our particular culture — which emanates from Neil’s very high standards.
Do you have an internship program? If so, briefly describe.
We generally select two or three interns for summer work and from time to time employ one or two for longer periods of time when a break in school studies will allow.
What are three words that your employees might use to describe your firm?
Fast-paced, stimulating, humane.
What additional social activities do you do as an office?
NMDA participates in the annual Architectural League Bowling Tournament, has its own annual Chili Cook-off, Friday’s at Five that include some sort of fun game/competition, and are part of a growing W Adams / Crenshaw District group of architects who also convene from time to time.
If a candidate had the choice between you and another firm, what argument would you use to win them over?
There are so many great architects in Los Angeles, all of whom have their unique qualities and cultures. I would just argue that our work and Neil’s long history as a teacher and practitioner provides a context to treat the activities of our profession as something like a school or a laboratory. Neil’s thought is that ‘we are always students.’ We are not artists, just architects thinking about how technical and conceptual worlds can come together seamlessly.
How do you see your firm growing in the next five years?
Among other private commissions, we are currently working with some of the most sophisticated and ambitious developers on the West Coast, so we are enjoying the effort to build cities and help effect positive change through design. If all goes well, we should realize quite a lot of work at vastly different scales. We anticipate that our office will continue to expand to carry out this program.
Interested in joining Neil M. Denari Architects? Check out their Archinect profile to see if they have any current listings. To see more active listings from hundreds of firms, browse Archinect's Job Board.
5 Comments
I quickly went through this twice, WHATS THE QUESTION? Snappy headlines are key to journalism, they hardly need relate to the article, but when it's so specific, IT SHOULD.
Haven't chimed in on the profession since it bailed on me and I gave up banging my head against the wall (Full disclosure, 47 yrs, even surviving the great recession w under 18 mo on UE line, ain't bad for this gig)
I suspect the question was "why do you want to work for us" Yeah, toughie, as 99.9% 1-Need to pay the rent, no matter how laudable their "real" goals are 2-There's likely to be work ie creditable projects to enhance portfolio, without your own creditable projects, you go no where, no matter what you might have done 3-Keep employed cause even if you don't need to work gaps are career killers unless you can spin looking for the perfect stepping stone which brings up what the "right" answer is..... and it's spin, whatever the most sociopathic fast talking sales person can spin.... I say sociopathic, as they are REALLY good at getting people to believe whatever they are saying, even outright lies. It's true. Facial cues, body language, pheromones, psychic, who knows. These are often the type A's who push themselves to the front of everything, cause, that's their skill. A good skill too. It's the skill needed to meet and greet, impress, land jobs, keep clients hanging on even when no thrilled with the million speed bumps on the way to fulfilling their needs and dreams, and even keep the drones, ie, intermediates, churning out the endless endlessly complicated inter related in depth work needed to accommodate the every changing product from napkin design changes to code changes to materials substitutions which brings it back to the article.... the firm says as all do intermediates needed, you bet, need above all to slave and save us on the detail, the rote, the repetitive, the code - now an every changing target, the field checking, the research, the double checking, the comparing, what I call the TECHNICAL work, that is 90% of what makes the eventual buildout out work, keep lawsuits at bay, not blow the budget, make clients happy, not alienate every builder in the market... doing what architects MOSTLY NEED TO DO, and most importantly squelching their dreams for your dreams.... and just about the exact opposite of the sycophantic even ego stroking response you're looking for with the "why do you want to work here" question so many dread - BECAUSE IT'S HYPOCRACY AT IT'S WORST - and the TRUE response "because I want to BE AN ARCHITECT, a real one, Building BUILDINGS THAT WORK, and that'll be way more interesting with the projects you do than most" won't land them the job, though it should, and you should be desperately trying to figure out how then to keep that Architect happy doing just that for you forever.
Which brings up the group pic. So typical of a profession that only "needs intermediates", is deeply cyclical and incapable of maintaining staff who actually need money to live, either not being born into it, willing to milk family or significant other of the moment for it, want to have a life, a family, have to find ways to get money, and do, stripping the profession of the most important diversity needed and speeding its slide down the slippery slope of irrelevancy, of pure design, with everything else done by specialists primarily concerned with profitability and creating a legal env. requiring their services, suppliers interested in selling product, contractors and their spin offs - the dozen flavors of construction managers concerned with getting rich, Rich, RICHER.
As to it being an employee centric market. Tough, what did the profession do to keep the tens, hundreds of thousands it lost permanently during the great recession around? What did YOUR office do? Desperately workout ways that staffers could remain in profession and you could survive, or just cut costs and let the future take care of itself. In all the industry "press" in the near decade of the great recession I can't recall any article, continuing ed course, management seminar... on it. A non trivial problem, you bet, but, one that NEEDED to be solved, having already gutted the profession bit by bit, recession by recession, and being ignored, will FOREVER diminish the profession. Oh, and all you intermediates, be aware, the problem, not being solved, will be yours as you gain experience, become more than intermediates, and the inevitable up cycle ends, and you are the costs to be cut........ (and yes, there is a way, a way any business can use, but that our profession is uniquely suited to use, that would have saved a dozen times over the decades the steady eroding of the profession, humanely self limiting floods of young grads wasting millions on useless degrees when dumped into busted markets
Long, yeah well no one pays me for these pearls, and yeah, pearls. Get in a huff, but, way more truth than any will admit in public in this.
"the TRUE response "because I want to BE AN ARCHITECT, a real one, Building BUILDINGS THAT WORK, and that'll be way more interesting with the projects you do than most"
I wouldn't touch this firm with a ten foot pole, unless you like their work.
Remember kids, sprinkle lots of capital letters in your writing to come across as credible. Also, there's no word limit on the internet so feel free write to your heart's content.
^ Sage advice. And don't forget the all-purpose exclamation point! Or two!!
Architecture. Thee epitomy of hipocrisy. Architecture firms drain the energy and inspiration of too many. Most are a revolving door who keep posting for more Intermediate architects endlessly, seeking new graduates to suck dry then spit them out. I still recall Neil Denari staying mum in 2003 while teaching at UCLA when other professors like Mark Mack were denouncing the Bush Administration's invasion of Iraq. Perhaps it was because he was a fellow Texan? Too many architects feel that they must tow the line of their consumerists market-driven Capitalists clients who too often are racist developers like Donald Trump. who too often are only concerned with square footage and getting their construction permit so that they can turn around and sell their cheaply built yet expensive properties. I did enjoy the Professors at UCLA though. I found all of them to be very professional and knowledgeable, most especially Mr. Neil Denari.
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