Archinect - News

Get the inside scoop on how to get hired by these 13 currently-hiring architecture firms

2021-07-22T16:53:00-04:00

Each week our editorial team curates a selection of featured jobs from the Archinect Job Board. Not only do we amplify firms and their open employment opportunities but help prospective job seekers learn what positions are available. Comparing the job market between Summer 2020 and Summer 2021 may not be easily summarized in just a few lines. However, the team at Archinect continues to observe employment and professional practice trends to provide resources for the community. This past week the Architecture Billings Index (ABI) for June projected increasing demand for design services. Paired with a report from the Associated Builders and Contractors' (ABC) chief economist who shared the construction industry is rebounding despite issues with materials and skilled labor. As the

As developments in the industry continue to appear, firms seek architects, technologists, and design professionals as they prepare for Q4 and 2022. Learn about your future employer with 13 interviews conducte...

On your cover letter, sell yourself without "selling" yourself

2021-02-25T13:18:00-05:00

The cover letter is a component to a strong application package, but applicants can often shoot themselves in the foot. A common mistake tends to occur when candidates try to follow good advice in the wrong way. One such piece of advice is that we should do all we can to "sell ourselves." However, many misconstrue this practical point and end up sounding a little too arrogant or sometimes even naive.

Selling yourself by not selling yourself

The best way to sell yourself is by highlighting favorable aspects of your character through your resume, portfolio, and cover letter. You don't want to try and do this by telling a prospective employer how great you think you are. Some common statements that go along this line look like this:

"I know I will be the perfect fit for this organization..."
"I am the best in my field at..."
"This organization needs my help..."
"When I begin working for you, I will..."

We could go on, but the tone here comes off overly confident and arrogant, and honestly...

When job hunting, less is more

2021-02-19T12:11:00-05:00

You scour the internet, looking for an employment opportunity that best fits your qualifications, and you think, reasonably enough: "the more resumes I send out, the better." And then you have another thought, also seemingly reasonable: "the faster I submit, the better." This two-fold conclusion — volume coupled with expediency — is flawed, and will likely leave you perplexed over your empty inbox and stunted progress.

Previously on Archinect: Resume tip: Tailor to the job

Turn the tables

When you spend a lot of time working on a resume (and cover letter), showing it to colleagues, revising and reworking, it can seem that you have now acquired a kind of golden ticket that can be sent to as many people as possible. Surely, someone will see how excellent this is, one may assume.

But, usually, that "someone" immediately recognizes that they're looking at an applicant who has not thought about the specific opportunity in question. People looking for a good job always say that they don'...

Landing a job when you have a pandemic-induced work gap

2021-02-03T13:17:00-05:00

COVID-19 forced many companies, including architecture firms, to lay off staff, resulting in several professionals out of the workforce with few prospects. But, as job opportunities increase and more people receive vaccinations, reentry into the workforce could become a greater reality for some job seekers. But, how does one address an employment gap incurred as a result of the pandemic?

Previously on Archinect: Tools of the Job Hunt: Understanding the Employer

Realize that potential employers are likely to understand

Career Coach Heath Krasna, in a recent article on The Muse, writes, "As a career coach and outplacement consultant with 22 years’ experience, I know the situation was similar during the recession of 2008 and that employers were more understanding of people who had been laid off then too."

The added worry and stress of what a potential employer might think about a gap in one's resume will only take away from the focus needed to compose a stellar portfolio, write a gre...

What should you put at the top of your resume?

2020-12-11T17:11:00-05:00

It can be easy to adhere to a templated idea of how your resume should be organized. Typically, people put their experience near the top, then education, then awards and extracurriculars, and towards the bottom it becomes a free for all. But, does experience always need to be first? How should that decision be made?

Previously on Archinect: When to omit a job from your resume

As with all of the other aspects of your application package, you should always look to tell a prospective employer a (true) story about yourself that directly responds to the opportunity you are pursuing.

Previously on Archinect: Resume tip: Tailor to the job

Think about someone with little to no experience, but who has a lot of relevant volunteer work. There might be a scenario where that volunteer work is placed at the forefront. Or perhaps you have some work experience, but you've just completed a graduate degree, something an employer has said is particularly important to them. You might put your education ...

Ask yourself this important question when searching for a job

2020-11-19T11:56:00-05:00

Merely wanting a job isn't a good enough reason to pursue an employer. Many young job seekers approach their job search with this in mind — to get a job somewhere — anywhere. But, one should be more intentional when it comes to one's future. It's normal to get caught up creating your portfolio, resume, and cover letters, doing your best to line up interviews hoping that someone will say yes. But, often, that normality can distract from a larger, more important consideration.

"What are my broader goals for this employer?"

When searching for an employer, we must all ask ourselves our broader goals for this prospective employer. Sure, just wanting to work for them could be the goal, but that gets old fairly quickly. What's the larger plan? To get more experience in construction administration because your previous firm had you trapped in the early design phases? That's getting better. Perhaps, you've been working for a few years in healthcare design, and you've discovered you want to w...

How to use reading to find mentorship when you have no job

2020-09-30T13:21:00-04:00

Working in an organization with more experienced architects is crucial to one's professional development. But, in this current job market, amid the pandemic, it has been difficult for many to land a promising appointment. And while the searching continues, professional growth can feel stunted. Without a mentor to teach, where does one turn for guidance? How can the jobless candidate continue on a path of growth despite this misfortunate dilemma?

There are many ways to tackle downtime during this season. Reading biographies is one way to learn a lifetime worth of lessons. In this way, your mentors become endless and fully accessible. Obviously, this doesn't replace the one on one interaction with an actual human being. As an aspiring architect, there is much to be embraced from the biographies of creative individuals, their mistakes and failures, how they overcame them, and how you can take those lessons and apply them to your journey. Here are three recommendation that I think will...

3 ways to master downtime in a slow job market

2020-09-23T11:53:00-04:00

Disgruntled and disillusioned, the job seeker tackling opportunities in a slow job market can understandably grow more and more despondent. It's even worse when you know you're a great candidate — perhaps you were even let go from a job where your employer valued you as such. The discouragement in seasons like these can become debilitating. What does one do after they've sent countless thoughtful and tailored job applications to firms only to receive rejection or no response at all?

The diligent candidate can only continue down their same path of perseverance — continue to seek out available opportunities — that's part of it. The other is, and perhaps more subtly, to master your downtime. It's tempting to think we have nothing to do if we aren't working, but is that really true?

Previously on Archinect: Turning obstacles into opportunities in architectural practice

Here are three ways some professionals are mastering their downtime during this pandemic:

Content creation

Creative prof...

When applying to jobs, think less of yourself and more of the employer

2020-09-02T14:47:00-04:00

Over time architects develop a distinct ability to solve their client's "problem" in a manner that encompasses their personal touch and creative aptitude. There is a realization that the project is about someone else, but the vehicle and means to realize that project is grounded in the designer. Once the result is realized, there is an inadvertent and unavoidable fingerprint of the creator on the final product, and the dial of success lies greatly in the architect's solving of the design problem at hand.

Previously on Archinect: The Importance of Building Professional Relationships in Architecture

When it comes to applying to a job, this same thinking should be adopted. The application is less about you and more about how you can solve a problem for your future employer. This is a matter of perspective that can crucially change how you think about composing your application package. In one sense — the more common approach — applicants make their job search too personal. They want to...

In your search for a job, don't "just be yourself"

2020-08-26T12:45:00-04:00

A common piece of advice given to those setting out on a job search is to "just be yourself." It sounds nice and sweet and it's usually intended to ease the nerves of the inquirer, but when it comes to the actual application and interview process, this advice could lead many promising candidates down a disappointing path. Admittedly, this is kind of a semantical thing that depends on context. If I say "be yourself" to a seasoned professional the implication is different than if I said the same thing to a new graduate. Here the focus is on the negative potential of such advise.

In a Harvard Business Review essay, contributing editor Amy Gallo quotes career strategist and author John Lees, writing, "Lees calls the 'be yourself' advice 'demonstrably untrue.' He says, 'It's a trained improvised performance where you're trying to present the best version of you.'"

Previously on Archinect: When it comes to the job hunt, perseverance is key

An application process is a time to present your b...

When it comes to the job hunt, perseverance is key

2020-08-20T11:30:00-04:00

Sometimes the search for a job can be discouraging. You spend hours on your portfolio, work on tailoring your resume and cover letter to each position, and you might even get called in for a few interviews. But after all of the hard work, there's no call back. You take some additional steps and follow up with your prospective employer, but still, you're met with indecision or rejection. What do you do when you've done all you can do?

Previously on Archinect: Einstein, Rejection, and Crafting a Future. Image: Einstein in 1947. Photograph by Orren Jack Turner.

Revisiting the rejected genius

A while back, here on Archinect, I wrote a piece about Albert Einstein his excruciating two-year job search that was filled with numerous rejection letters. He diligently applied to countless jobs, but received no offers. His response to the misfortune was to keep on working on his skills. There was nothing and no one that could tell him he wouldn't make something of himself. He went from a nobody ...

Tackling the remote job interview in an age of virtual communication

2020-07-29T10:00:00-04:00

Firms are still hiring, which means people are still interviewing. But what has the remote job interview process been like for professionals? How does a remote interview differ from an in-person interview? And what implications do job seekers and firms feel this new way of conducting the hiring process brings to the profession? We reached out and asked the Archinect community to weigh in on some of these questions and have also discovered some interesting insights from experts.

Virtual interaction calls for new skills

Perhaps one of the more obvious changes in our remote work era is the nature of virtual interaction with people. Devoid of the nonverbal subtleties of in-person communication, exchanging over a computer screen can offer a broad range of experiences that are favored by some and resented by others. robhaw, a member of the Archinect community, has had a few remote interviews that, due to their virtual nature, have taken some time to adapt to, robhaw writes:

I've had a fe...

6 important tips on following up after a job interview

2019-09-11T13:30:00-04:00

You've just walked out of a job interview and you're feeling pretty good about how things went. You prepared beforehand, researched the firm, had solid answers to their questions, and even posed some good questions of your own. As you drive off you take a deep sigh of relief, you've done all you can, now it's just a waiting game.

One might think this is true, but a crucial step still remains—the follow-up. Following through with a thank you email after an interview is a powerful display of professionalism, gratitude, and class. But, how should one go about crafting this message to a prospective employer?

Here are some things to consider:

Send the initial thank you promptly - It's a good idea to send your initial thank you email on the same day of the interview or the following morning.
Keep it brief - Chances are the people who interviewed you are very busy. If you send over a long email, the likelihood of it being read is a lot lower. Keep your message brief and to the point.
Be spe...

Are We Bad At Choosing the Right Job?

2019-08-22T20:07:00-04:00

The job hunt can be a grueling process to undertake. How do we select the right firm? It's a tough thing to try and quantify. Do we go off of culture, or focus more on money? Perhaps, there is a balance between the two. Professor of business psychology, Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic, suggests that there are specific factors that tend to play into our job selection, which he believe naturally leans toward selecting the wrong jobs:

Money talks. "As meta-analytic studies show, there is almost zero correlation between pay and job satisfaction. For example, lawyers earning $160,000 per year are as satisfied with their jobs as nurses making $35,000 per year. However, although money doesn’t satisfy, it still motivates," writes Chamorro-Prezumic. In short, we may be letting money dictate our career decisions to heavily
We tend to tolerate bad jobs. "You can put people in meaningless roles and under bad managers, and they will still be reluctant to try something else," says the professor. We tend t...

Answering "So, tell me about yourself" in an interview

2019-08-12T19:00:00-04:00

Nailing the “Tell me about yourself” question starts with realizing that your interviewer already knows your job history thanks to your resume. Performing a monologue based on your LinkedIn page is pointless, yet job applicants do it all the time. Remember that interviews are more about making strong matches than proving qualifications. If you weren’t qualified, you wouldn’t be in the room.

We've all had this question in our job hunt. And it can sometimes be a perplexing one to answer. Presentation coach, Joel Schwartzberg, identifies this feeling in a recent article. "Receiving such an open invitation invites more perils than opportunities because you’re given no framework for your response—just a blank, clue-free canvas. Your mind may have myriad internal considerations," he writes. Things like, "should I tell my life story? Should I run through my job history? Should I share my hobbies and favorite movies? Or, should I talk about my last job or boss?"

It can be tough, but Schwartzberg recommends that we "be more than our bio," that the essence of answering this question lies in aligning ourselves with the needs of the employer. That we should research the company beforehand and have a good understanding of what they're looking for. "Pick a story from your professional life that illustrates you filling that particular need in another job, preferably one in which the ...