I have an interview coming up next week. My portfolio has a combination of professional and academic work (I'm a year and half out of school) and I want to bring a full CD set of one of those professional projects. My question is -- would it be considered cumbersome to bring in a full sized set (in this case, 30X42) to an interview? Or is a half-sized set more appropriate? I want to bring it in for reference in case the interviewer wants to see any additional drawings that are not in my portfolio. This might be and probably is a dumb question, but this is the first interview I have had with professional work to show.
If you're going to do this, bring half-size at most. 11x17 would be even better. You're unlikely to spend more than a minute or two on these (if that long), and the clumsy cost of bringing huge sheets is too high, in my opinion.
If I were an employer and I saw a candidate a year and a half out of school bringing a full 11x17 CD set, I would not hire him. Here is why:
An inter a year and a half out of school has not worked on the entire CD set. All the CD set does is it gives the impression that the inetern architect knows more than he really does. This is misleading.
Only brings sheets kr details you have designed or contributed to. If you were 3-4 years out of school and became a project architect for a job and you worked in a project from schematic desig thriugh cd's and you have coordinated the full set, the that would make mkre sense...
While Mr. Bulgar is being a bit heavy handed, he does have a point -- prospective employers really want to see work that you've personally created, or work that reflects a meaningful contribution by you. Most interviewers generally are very sensitive to exaggeration of experience and it can be hard to pull the wool over their eyes.
If you're planning to bring a large quantity of CD sheets and you've only worked on a limited number of those sheets, then there's a good chance you're wasting both your time and that of the person conducting the interview. I recommend that you bring only sheets that demonstrate work that you've actually accomplished -- and, be prepared to explain (in detail) the extent of your contribution.
Or, if you want to bring the whole set to provide context (and to make a positive comparison of your sheets to the others produced by your office) at least take the time before the interview to mark specific sheets (say, by placing a big red sticky-dot below the sheet number) so the person interviewing you can easily identify those sheets that reflect a lot of your own work.
Oh, and only bring half-sized sheets -- large rolls of full-sized CDs can be difficult to manage during an interview.
I did about 50% of the set, but of course was mentored/monitored very heavily by a Project Architect. It was for a commercial client for whom we do a lot of work for -- so there are many typical sheets and construction details. Obviously, these are not things I would take credit for.
In any case, I do think the point about the impression it might give is a good one, and I hadn't thought about it before. I think I might keep an 11X17 set in my bag with pages I have worked on marked, and only bring it out if necessary.
As a potential employer of you I would VERY MUCH want to see a complete CD set even if you didn't produce 100% of it. I would look at it to tell me if the office you have been working at previously works at a level that I would want you to be working at at my office. If it is a crappy set I would be concerned that you have been taught bad habits. If it is a high quality CD set I would feel more confident in hiring you because I would see that you have been training to produce quality work.
Of course honesty is always good. Your idea of flagging the sheets that you have contributed the most to is a good idea.
Definitely bring a half-sized set of drawings. Whether or not it is a complete set or not is up to you. But definitely, as others have pointed out, do not give the impression that you are responsible for things you did not have responsibility for. For most of my interviews I would bring in a set containing enough drawings to show what the project is, and what I was responsible for.
Also, be prepared to critique the set. While you don't want to give the impression you are not proud of the work you've done previously, you should have an idea of things that worked well and things that didn't in your drawings. I'm not talking about taking 5 minutes to go through page by page. Maybe it is pointing out a few things like text that isn't quite legible because a dimension is trying to occupy the same space on the page. Maybe it is pointing out that you really needed an detail of a particular flashing. The point is that no set is perfect, and an employer will want to see that you are willing to look critically at your work and discover ways it can be better.
One interviewer I had a couple of years ago was very impressed when I pointed out a detail and said that it caused some issues during construction because of such-and-such reason. He prompted me with what I would do differently and I was able to clearly explain, and even sketch out a potential alternative right there on the sheet. Later, after I had turned down his offer, he explained that our conversation about that one detail was one of the reasons he wanted me to work for him.
Jan 17, 15 3:16 pm ·
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Bringing CD Sets to Interviews
I have an interview coming up next week. My portfolio has a combination of professional and academic work (I'm a year and half out of school) and I want to bring a full CD set of one of those professional projects. My question is -- would it be considered cumbersome to bring in a full sized set (in this case, 30X42) to an interview? Or is a half-sized set more appropriate? I want to bring it in for reference in case the interviewer wants to see any additional drawings that are not in my portfolio. This might be and probably is a dumb question, but this is the first interview I have had with professional work to show.
If you're going to do this, bring half-size at most. 11x17 would be even better. You're unlikely to spend more than a minute or two on these (if that long), and the clumsy cost of bringing huge sheets is too high, in my opinion.
If I were an employer and I saw a candidate a year and a half out of school bringing a full 11x17 CD set, I would not hire him. Here is why:
An inter a year and a half out of school has not worked on the entire CD set. All the CD set does is it gives the impression that the inetern architect knows more than he really does. This is misleading.
Only brings sheets kr details you have designed or contributed to. If you were 3-4 years out of school and became a project architect for a job and you worked in a project from schematic desig thriugh cd's and you have coordinated the full set, the that would make mkre sense...
While Mr. Bulgar is being a bit heavy handed, he does have a point -- prospective employers really want to see work that you've personally created, or work that reflects a meaningful contribution by you. Most interviewers generally are very sensitive to exaggeration of experience and it can be hard to pull the wool over their eyes.
If you're planning to bring a large quantity of CD sheets and you've only worked on a limited number of those sheets, then there's a good chance you're wasting both your time and that of the person conducting the interview. I recommend that you bring only sheets that demonstrate work that you've actually accomplished -- and, be prepared to explain (in detail) the extent of your contribution.
Or, if you want to bring the whole set to provide context (and to make a positive comparison of your sheets to the others produced by your office) at least take the time before the interview to mark specific sheets (say, by placing a big red sticky-dot below the sheet number) so the person interviewing you can easily identify those sheets that reflect a lot of your own work.
Oh, and only bring half-sized sheets -- large rolls of full-sized CDs can be difficult to manage during an interview.
Good luck.
I did about 50% of the set, but of course was mentored/monitored very heavily by a Project Architect. It was for a commercial client for whom we do a lot of work for -- so there are many typical sheets and construction details. Obviously, these are not things I would take credit for.
In any case, I do think the point about the impression it might give is a good one, and I hadn't thought about it before. I think I might keep an 11X17 set in my bag with pages I have worked on marked, and only bring it out if necessary.
As a potential employer of you I would VERY MUCH want to see a complete CD set even if you didn't produce 100% of it. I would look at it to tell me if the office you have been working at previously works at a level that I would want you to be working at at my office. If it is a crappy set I would be concerned that you have been taught bad habits. If it is a high quality CD set I would feel more confident in hiring you because I would see that you have been training to produce quality work.
Of course honesty is always good. Your idea of flagging the sheets that you have contributed the most to is a good idea.
Definitely bring a half-sized set of drawings. Whether or not it is a complete set or not is up to you. But definitely, as others have pointed out, do not give the impression that you are responsible for things you did not have responsibility for. For most of my interviews I would bring in a set containing enough drawings to show what the project is, and what I was responsible for.
Also, be prepared to critique the set. While you don't want to give the impression you are not proud of the work you've done previously, you should have an idea of things that worked well and things that didn't in your drawings. I'm not talking about taking 5 minutes to go through page by page. Maybe it is pointing out a few things like text that isn't quite legible because a dimension is trying to occupy the same space on the page. Maybe it is pointing out that you really needed an detail of a particular flashing. The point is that no set is perfect, and an employer will want to see that you are willing to look critically at your work and discover ways it can be better.
One interviewer I had a couple of years ago was very impressed when I pointed out a detail and said that it caused some issues during construction because of such-and-such reason. He prompted me with what I would do differently and I was able to clearly explain, and even sketch out a potential alternative right there on the sheet. Later, after I had turned down his offer, he explained that our conversation about that one detail was one of the reasons he wanted me to work for him.
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