So long story short I Graduated in London in 2020 during lockdown. I delt with lockdown quite poorly with my mental health and working from home. I ended up with a worse grade then I was hoping aiming for. I then made the most of the on off lockdown getting help and sorting out my mental health. Now trying to get an Architectural Assist part 1 Role but feel woefully underprepared and under equipped for the position. My Uni didn’t want to teach Revit so I am now trying to teach my self but aside from that I’m well versed with Auto cad and a bit with rhino as far as draw programs go. I was hoping that I could get some advice either with getting a position, resources I can use, programs I should learn or CV and portfolio advice as I’m trying to touch them up now.
Hi Dylan. I'm not an architect so I can't offer you any career advice. Just wanted you to know I read your post. I'm sorry to hear that the pandemic lockdown was hard on your mental health. You're not the only one. And, I too have felt under equipped in my career at times. Hope you've been able to sharpen you skills these last few months and found the right architecture position for you (or maybe something even better opened up?). I'm rooting for you!
As far as your CV goes, I hate to say "google it", but you really will find good tips and tricks on writing those for various stages of career on websites dedicated to this kind of stuff. You are trying to get an entry level position, so I wouldn't worry too much about having a "hiatus" especially if you are teaching yourself useful things during said gap. All you want the CV to do is get you a phone call, keep that in mind.
For portfolio, keep it simple (you aren't doing a design review); a handful of full page size high quality images with a title of what it is will be more than enough (building name, type, size etc.). At entry level your prospective employer will probably just look at it for about 5 seconds and think "cool story, bro, you'll be drawing bathrooms and making door schedules".
If you are really having trouble, do some straight construction related work and pad up your CV with that. See if there's a volunteer program you can do some general labor on a construction site.....or better yet find paid labor. Stuff like that helps at entry level.
If you get ignored or rejected, don't stop searching, you'll eventually find something. Don't be too picky, work is work and you'll find your place WITHIN the turmoil of it, not looking at it from the outside and finding some "ideal" position to get hired for. Everyone on here has some interesting story about their journey through architecture from staying in a single firm from day one and eventually owning it to throwing architecture back down the abyss where it came from and starting a bakery or something. You just started. Swing some haymakers at it and try not to get knocked out.
I had a hiatus between graduating and now and feel under equipped starting as a Part 1 Architectural Assistant.
So long story short I Graduated in London in 2020 during lockdown. I delt with lockdown quite poorly with my mental health and working from home. I ended up with a worse grade then I was hoping aiming for. I then made the most of the on off lockdown getting help and sorting out my mental health. Now trying to get an Architectural Assist part 1 Role but feel woefully underprepared and under equipped for the position. My Uni didn’t want to teach Revit so I am now trying to teach my self but aside from that I’m well versed with Auto cad and a bit with rhino as far as draw programs go. I was hoping that I could get some advice either with getting a position, resources I can use, programs I should learn or CV and portfolio advice as I’m trying to touch them up now.
Thank you for your time.
Hi Dylan. I'm not an architect so I can't offer you any career advice. Just wanted you to know I read your post. I'm sorry to hear that the pandemic lockdown was hard on your mental health. You're not the only one. And, I too have felt under equipped in my career at times. Hope you've been able to sharpen you skills these last few months and found the right architecture position for you (or maybe something even better opened up?). I'm rooting for you!
As far as your CV goes, I hate to say "google it", but you really will find good tips and tricks on writing those for various stages of career on websites dedicated to this kind of stuff. You are trying to get an entry level position, so I wouldn't worry too much about having a "hiatus" especially if you are teaching yourself useful things during said gap. All you want the CV to do is get you a phone call, keep that in mind.
For portfolio, keep it simple (you aren't doing a design review); a handful of full page size high quality images with a title of what it is will be more than enough (building name, type, size etc.). At entry level your prospective employer will probably just look at it for about 5 seconds and think "cool story, bro, you'll be drawing bathrooms and making door schedules".
If you are really having trouble, do some straight construction related work and pad up your CV with that. See if there's a volunteer program you can do some general labor on a construction site.....or better yet find paid labor. Stuff like that helps at entry level.
If you get ignored or rejected, don't stop searching, you'll eventually find something. Don't be too picky, work is work and you'll find your place WITHIN the turmoil of it, not looking at it from the outside and finding some "ideal" position to get hired for. Everyone on here has some interesting story about their journey through architecture from staying in a single firm from day one and eventually owning it to throwing architecture back down the abyss where it came from and starting a bakery or something. You just started. Swing some haymakers at it and try not to get knocked out.
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