The employment opportunities for Architect's and allied professionals is looking good in the US. The luxury of choices between offers is back.
The question to the forum is where to go with your career?
What is more stable, a large specialty firm, a huge international firm in multiple markets and building types, a small generalist firm or very small upstarting boutique firms?
Is it wise to choose stability or to choose a chance at gaining experience in a specialized field such as healthcare?
I am glad that choices are available but will this be the resurgence of firm hopping like we saw in 2006? is moving around from offer to offer a wise move or should you try going the distance and stay on for 12-18 month stints.
Are folks equally experiencing this good fortune or is this the privilege of a strata of people with a select level of skills and experience?
Stability and the architectural profession do not belong in the same sentence. Job hopping, real estate crashes and layoffs are a fact of life in this business, and probably always will be. The next economic blow-up is just around the corner. My own advice to young architects would be to either 1) make the educational and experiential moves to get out, or 2) pursue choices that will make you unique and valuable to a firm or able to carve out a self-employment niche for yourself. But, forget stability. Anyone looking for security better join the post office.
All four firm types have something to offer you, not necessarily money. List your priorities and your limits before you get offers. Judge them against your thoughts while somewhat rational
Look at how the firm you are thinking of going to handled the last layoffs. Did they give notice, severance, stay in touch with the people they had to let go, and offer them their jobs back when things picked back up? If they did not do these things, why not? Are they looking for experienced people they can make work 60 hours a week and pay for 40? Does the pay reflect the cost-of-living in the locale? What is their turnover? If it is high, why is it high? Is it a boutique firm building high-end vacation houses in exotic places? Sounds like fun but people don't really need high-end vacation houses in exotic places when the economy goes south. Starchtects or not the slimeball outfits know who they are and with a little digging you can find out too. Avoid them.
^to an extent, most places appreciate 2~3yr minimum stints; too many in short period of time is a red flag.
-find the job that satisfies yourself in terms of work type and work hours, be broad enough in your experience to be able to be useful to someone during lean times (and be very good at particular tasks - revit, rendering, ca, permitting, marketing).
it's a good opportunity to get a nice bump in responsibility and pay, but it's always good to think ahead to a potential drop off and plan accordingly.
Jul 6, 15 9:34 am ·
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Now that we have choices
The employment opportunities for Architect's and allied professionals is looking good in the US. The luxury of choices between offers is back.
The question to the forum is where to go with your career?
What is more stable, a large specialty firm, a huge international firm in multiple markets and building types, a small generalist firm or very small upstarting boutique firms?
Is it wise to choose stability or to choose a chance at gaining experience in a specialized field such as healthcare?
I am glad that choices are available but will this be the resurgence of firm hopping like we saw in 2006? is moving around from offer to offer a wise move or should you try going the distance and stay on for 12-18 month stints.
Are folks equally experiencing this good fortune or is this the privilege of a strata of people with a select level of skills and experience?
Over and OUT
Peter Normand
Stability and the architectural profession do not belong in the same sentence. Job hopping, real estate crashes and layoffs are a fact of life in this business, and probably always will be. The next economic blow-up is just around the corner. My own advice to young architects would be to either 1) make the educational and experiential moves to get out, or 2) pursue choices that will make you unique and valuable to a firm or able to carve out a self-employment niche for yourself. But, forget stability. Anyone looking for security better join the post office.
All four firm types have something to offer you, not necessarily money. List your priorities and your limits before you get offers. Judge them against your thoughts while somewhat rational
Look at how the firm you are thinking of going to handled the last layoffs. Did they give notice, severance, stay in touch with the people they had to let go, and offer them their jobs back when things picked back up? If they did not do these things, why not? Are they looking for experienced people they can make work 60 hours a week and pay for 40? Does the pay reflect the cost-of-living in the locale? What is their turnover? If it is high, why is it high? Is it a boutique firm building high-end vacation houses in exotic places? Sounds like fun but people don't really need high-end vacation houses in exotic places when the economy goes south. Starchtects or not the slimeball outfits know who they are and with a little digging you can find out too. Avoid them.
just like free agency in baseball, switching firms is good for all employees. I encourage everyone to move around often
^to an extent, most places appreciate 2~3yr minimum stints; too many in short period of time is a red flag.
-find the job that satisfies yourself in terms of work type and work hours, be broad enough in your experience to be able to be useful to someone during lean times (and be very good at particular tasks - revit, rendering, ca, permitting, marketing).
it's a good opportunity to get a nice bump in responsibility and pay, but it's always good to think ahead to a potential drop off and plan accordingly.
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