Goal: Land a paid internship in NYC for Summer 2011. (extremely hard but not impossible.)
21/female/1st attempt at pursuing an internship.
BA in Architecture from Clemson University (May 2011)
Accepted into the Parsons The New School for Design M.Arch I program. (Fall 2011)
Wait-listed for the GSAPP M.Arch I program. (until April 15th)
Still waiting reply from CCNY, Pratt, and NYIT.
Now I need advice on extracting the right things out of my academic portfolio to prepare the perfect teaser for firms! Most firms will only accept a document
Also would appreciate any advice on landing an internship in general. How to approach them? how to use contacts correctly? Cover letters? Resumes? Teaser portfolio? anything extra? THANKS IN ADVANCE!
i'm guessing that if being paid is a precondition, money is a factor.
you can get livable rooms for $800/month in brooklyn, $1200 in manhattan, of course there are exceptions if you have connections. most landlords require first + last + security deposit, i.e. 3 months rent up front.
budget for a stipend of about 1K/month... pretty standard from my experience.
start applying in March, that's when they start looking.
cold contact usually doesn't work, if you have contacts, get in touch with them now, and see if your professors can schmooze you into a meeting with successful alumni there.
the portfolio is for presenting your full body of work at the interview, you need work samples, 4-6 pages of high quality imagery, to secure the interview.
consider including in your cover the fact that you'll be attending grad school in the city this fall, this way they see you are motivated and won't be lingering around their offices begging for more work once your term is over.
Having worked in NYC for awhile here is my advice.
Shorten your portfolio to 6 or so pages. Only show your work and put the best stuff first.
Get rid or the quotes and the Architecture = stuff it makes it look too academic and it will turn off many people.
Put together a small portfolio book, do some research of who works a firms you like. Dress nice and show u at their offices. Be polite and ask if they are available and wait for them. Give them your small 3 page book.
Just be aware that NYC is very direct so you have about 30 seconds to sell yourself so prepare a paragrafh that highlights your skills.
Even if you were to land an interview, you’re competing with graduate students interviewing for the same position who are far qualified than you (at least that’s what the employers thinks – whether it’s true or not, that’s another matter). Especially since these kids are marketing their portfolios as a pop out book, bring in their ipads and demonstrating their animations off hand, creating websites that are graphically interactive with the users and displaying a high level of automation through scripting. Granted their work experience lacks the technicality of putting a working document together, employers will listen more to those that can swim to the moon with nothing but a coat hanger and a pair of gloves. The competition is fierce. It always has been. It always will be. and these are just internships. Imagine the real world jobs!
first things first: If you put something on issuu.com, I'd advise you to take off the personal information (like address etc).
Other than that: when I'm looking for an intern, I honestly don't care too much about too elaborate stances on what architecture should be or could be. I'd simply like to see a) do you have the skills we could use? (i.e. work well with photoshop/illustrator/autocad/any render skills etc) and b) do you have a feeling for design that fits well with the office?
In general, 6-10 pages is more than enough to see if there's a match - I don't need a full explanation of a project to get a grasp of your sense of design and control of software.
It has to do with management of expectactions, too. When you come in to an office as an intern, you won't be the main designer of a project, but you'll assist them. That means that you should be able to produce and communicate (both in word and drawing). That's all. A short portfolio is good for that: how well do you communicate who you are, what you can and can't do?
Unfortunately, I don't know anything about the state of things in NYC, though...
ADVICE: on Landing an internship!
Goal: Land a paid internship in NYC for Summer 2011. (extremely hard but not impossible.)
21/female/1st attempt at pursuing an internship.
BA in Architecture from Clemson University (May 2011)
Accepted into the Parsons The New School for Design M.Arch I program. (Fall 2011)
Wait-listed for the GSAPP M.Arch I program. (until April 15th)
Still waiting reply from CCNY, Pratt, and NYIT.
Academic Portfolio: (top 7 projects)
http://issuu.com/veronicaacosta/docs/portfolio
Academic Portfolio: (top 2 projects)
http://issuu.com/veronicaacosta/docs/short_portfolio
Now I need advice on extracting the right things out of my academic portfolio to prepare the perfect teaser for firms! Most firms will only accept a document
Also would appreciate any advice on landing an internship in general. How to approach them? how to use contacts correctly? Cover letters? Resumes? Teaser portfolio? anything extra? THANKS IN ADVANCE!
Your short portfolio has 40+ pages. Your long one has 80+.
An average employer (at least for an internship position) will want to see up to 6 pages.
Make a much, much shorter version that you can e-mail out. Edit edit edit.
Otherwise good luck!
i'm guessing that if being paid is a precondition, money is a factor.
you can get livable rooms for $800/month in brooklyn, $1200 in manhattan, of course there are exceptions if you have connections. most landlords require first + last + security deposit, i.e. 3 months rent up front.
budget for a stipend of about 1K/month... pretty standard from my experience.
start applying in March, that's when they start looking.
cold contact usually doesn't work, if you have contacts, get in touch with them now, and see if your professors can schmooze you into a meeting with successful alumni there.
the portfolio is for presenting your full body of work at the interview, you need work samples, 4-6 pages of high quality imagery, to secure the interview.
consider including in your cover the fact that you'll be attending grad school in the city this fall, this way they see you are motivated and won't be lingering around their offices begging for more work once your term is over.
hope this helps, good luck!
Having worked in NYC for awhile here is my advice.
Shorten your portfolio to 6 or so pages. Only show your work and put the best stuff first.
Get rid or the quotes and the Architecture = stuff it makes it look too academic and it will turn off many people.
Put together a small portfolio book, do some research of who works a firms you like. Dress nice and show u at their offices. Be polite and ask if they are available and wait for them. Give them your small 3 page book.
Just be aware that NYC is very direct so you have about 30 seconds to sell yourself so prepare a paragrafh that highlights your skills.
good luck and be aggressive!
here's the link to a much shorter work sample (5 pages). let me know what you think. thanks.
http://issuu.com/veronicaacosta/docs/best_work
Even if you were to land an interview, you’re competing with graduate students interviewing for the same position who are far qualified than you (at least that’s what the employers thinks – whether it’s true or not, that’s another matter). Especially since these kids are marketing their portfolios as a pop out book, bring in their ipads and demonstrating their animations off hand, creating websites that are graphically interactive with the users and displaying a high level of automation through scripting. Granted their work experience lacks the technicality of putting a working document together, employers will listen more to those that can swim to the moon with nothing but a coat hanger and a pair of gloves. The competition is fierce. It always has been. It always will be. and these are just internships. Imagine the real world jobs!
first things first: If you put something on issuu.com, I'd advise you to take off the personal information (like address etc).
Other than that: when I'm looking for an intern, I honestly don't care too much about too elaborate stances on what architecture should be or could be. I'd simply like to see a) do you have the skills we could use? (i.e. work well with photoshop/illustrator/autocad/any render skills etc) and b) do you have a feeling for design that fits well with the office?
In general, 6-10 pages is more than enough to see if there's a match - I don't need a full explanation of a project to get a grasp of your sense of design and control of software.
It has to do with management of expectactions, too. When you come in to an office as an intern, you won't be the main designer of a project, but you'll assist them. That means that you should be able to produce and communicate (both in word and drawing). That's all. A short portfolio is good for that: how well do you communicate who you are, what you can and can't do?
Unfortunately, I don't know anything about the state of things in NYC, though...
got my work up on a website. what do you guys think?
re: website.
The automatic image scrolling is beyond annoying. It's like my computer became remote controlled. Make it stop doing that. :)
rustystuds, i made it stop. how is it now?
Still doing it for some projects (and not others). It's nice to be able to look at some of the images for longer than 2 seconds.
Otherwise, the site looks OK. Simple. But in a good way.
Block this user
Are you sure you want to block this user and hide all related comments throughout the site?
Archinect
This is your first comment on Archinect. Your comment will be visible once approved.