A UK design firm is in hot water after posting an ad for an unpaid Part II architecture graduate

2022-02-27T13:04:00-05:00

The job ad, posted by design company Zulufish, sought Part 1 and 2 architecture graduates ‘or equivalent’ to work full-time for up to four months without salary. The post was highlighted on social media by Future Architects Front (FAF), a campaign group seeking to end exploitation in architecture, which described it as showing ‘comical levels of exploitation’.

The firm later withdrew the posting after a current of social media backlash brought on by the organization in spite of its having received a “sickening”-ly high level of responses from applicants. The advertisement called for a full-time schedule in a placement that provided only £75 per week in travel expenses and other reimbursements.

Unpaid internships lasting more than four weeks are illegal but remain fairly commonplace around the country in spite of overwhelming public support for recent legislative efforts taken up by Parliament members.

FAF’s Charlie Edmonds criticized RIBA, which then shot back on the group's Twitter thread, for “doing nothing proactive” to address the “grey areas” of employment, adding that “demonstrates one of the many ways that employers can exploit architectural workers, particularly recent graduates desperate for their first professional opportunity.’

More Than 'Insensitive': The architecture community responds to the Indianapolis Museum of Art at Newfields' job post

2021-02-18T17:40:00-05:00

On February 13, 2021, the Indianapolis Museum of Art at Newfields posted a job listing searching for a new director. While their goal was to find potential applicants for hire, what resulted was another glimpse of marginalization within the hiring process. What made this job description so volatile was their search for an individual who would help maintain "the Museum's traditional, core, white audience." I first learned of this news while scrolling through my Twitter feed and seeing a tweet made by long-time Archinector and Archinect Sessions podcast co-host Donna Sink.

Donna provided a screenshot of the listing and followed up with an updated image of the job post with "corrections" made by the museum a few hours after her tweet was posted. Sure, edits were made, but the damage was already done. Seeing a job description like this was disappointing and stomach-turning, to say the least, but does it shock me? Not entirely.

9am Saturday 13 February 2021 Newfields is still actively s...

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A UK design firm is in hot water after posting an ad for an unpaid Part II architecture graduate

More Than 'Insensitive': The architecture community responds to the Indianapolis Museum of Art at Newfields' job post