Do you enjoy your work? Once a friend asked me: What would be your least favorite job? I responded that it would be a job where I sat in front of a computer all day in an office. She said: "Isn't that what you do?"
Background: I am in year 2 of my "3" year internship and find that at least 50% of my days working at this office of 10 people is extremely boring- even though the principal has given me advanced responsibilities and let me manage several projects. Am I alone in this? Is professional practice fulfilling for you?
sometimes yes, sometimes no. it all depends on a number of factors:
mood of my boss, mood of my wife, the train ride to work, wether or not the client flakes out, or maybe the project itself. when it is good though, it makes all the lulls worth it.
compared to where i come from it would be absolutely silly to bemoan my position.
i don't sit behind the computer all day long, though there were years when i did, so i can relate. those were good days however. the work was interesting/challenging, the pay good, and the hours awful. but spending that much time with people for more n 3 years and you make some pretty good friends, which has gotta be a positive. yes, the job was rewarding.
i don't know, architecture has gotta be a job with more opportunities in a year than most people get in a lifetime.
are the unrewarding architecture gigs with lousy firms, or is this really a systemic issue in north america?
God I hope the pope shits in the woods!
I fail (from a business standpoint) on a daily basis - just to prove to myself how much I enjoy my work.
That pope better be shitting in those goddamn woods by GOD! Golly Gees - Gosh!
3 months ain't bad. one of our site architects spent almost 3 YEARS on site, doing the same project everyday. Now that is a hard-ass job. def not for me...
having done this for a while -- and having done some other jobs related to architecture for a while also -- I can't imagine spending my time in any other field
ralphy, You have a well defined and well thought out query-message for which you used a great forum to share that message with thousands across the world !
if you aint enjoying it then you better start thinking of how to change it for the best. i have worked in 6 offices and it really has been only the last 3 that i could say i really enjoy. the early jobs definitely taught me something, even if it was just that i had to get the hell outta those situations.
i have also worked in offices where nearly everybody is complaining about their jobs, too any hours, not enough money,blah, blah, this gets pretty annoying eventually. i know it isnt always easy to move on, but boy does it feel good when you end up doing what you had hoped for whilst studying at architecture school.
somnetimes yes
sometimes not. it's saturady and i'm working, so not today.
it could be more challenging and more interesting than it is now. but overall it's creative just about enough to keep me going.
"i have also worked in offices where nearly everybody is complaining about their jobs, too any hours, not enough money,blah, blah, this gets pretty annoying eventually. i know it isnt always easy to move on, but boy does it feel good when you end up doing what you had hoped for whilst studying at architecture school."
oyeah, plenty of people complaining. gotta start trying to work out how to get that job you dreamt about in uni...
not only do i really not enjoy my job, i realized yesterday at 5 that i really don't want to spend an extra minute with most of the people there. no goin' out for beers after work, etc.
i'd look for something else, but i think it actually gives me the best growth potential of any office in the city.
I enjoy the work itself. And I guess I'm decent at it; I ran into a brand new client dining with a former client at a restaurant a few days ago and the former pointed to the new and told me "He's been saying really good things about you!"
What I don't enjoy: trying to run an office. Particularly, the computer side of things, which is a sucking black hole of finances and understanding for me. Also, taxes and an unresponsive accountant make me want to scream. And covering my own health insurance alternately has me laying awake worrying at night or actively crying in frustration. Trying to be polite about brushing off vendors soliciting me to use their product and simultaneously not getting good service from the vendors I do want to work with is exhausting. Sometimes I want to just be a corporate cog for the rest of my career. Sigh.
Not a Good Idea Liberty, or Great Architecture Will Not Happen! Some how it takes all of those other Crazy Things in our lives to make Architects rise to the occasion.
wow. blast from '05...I'm glad someone resurrected it...
OldFogey, that post was made while I was at my previous job (a year ago...)..however, I'm doing everything I can to enjoy and postively exploit my [current] cog-dom.
I've been at my current place of employment for 9 months now.
my initial sentiment (from my 9-05 post) still rings true for me: all things considered, life is grand...
I expect this would be the case regardless of where I was employed.
as far as the rest of what I felt about my previous job, well:
I do enjoy the atmosphere here,
(although I wouldn't describe it as "laid back.")...
The pay leaves a little to be desired...
I want more responsibility. I've made that clear to my supervisors.
Being under-utilized is frustrating. I can contribute far more than I'm being given the opportunity to....
I would rather have more responsibility than more money.
while my day to day experiences with professional practice are not always fulfilling, Architecture, in one form or another, fulfills me daily.
Coden't agree more. Even thougth what we make in our office isn't....grand per say; I do learn a lot every day. And I guess I do like it considering I workred today and will do a little work tomorow...
for me? - actually work related - designing the ground outside the entrance to our current project. Paving patterns, bollards, lighting, subtle ground plane manipulation...good times.
i hate my fucking job. I've been working at a construction firm for almost 4 months now and I turned down two other pretty decent jobs to take this one and it's completely fucked up. I'm an assistant project manager and I have an office on-site where basically all I do now is looking for catering jobs because I'm so desperate that the service industry is starting to look really good. I'm on the brink of walking out in the middle of a client, architect and subcontractor meeting and just saying fuck no to all of them becuase I hate what I'm doing so much. And believe me they're not all bad people. Only the architect (sorry guys) is annoying, but more importantly, the project manager/general manager of the company is a ROYAL ASSHOLE, deceitful, despicable human being. i wanted this job becuase I knew i would learn so much and have such as advantage over inexperienced entrylevel architects but GOD DAMN do I hate my job. I didn't feel like this at first, it developed slowly over time and now it's constantly on my mind.
my question after this diatribe is if i get a catering or bartending job and then want to apply again for a design job after 6 months (before grad school) do you think people will not want to hire me? if so, what can I do part-time that will make me an interesting applicant even if I'm not working the 9-5?
Project 1: Budget cut by half after 100% CD's (that's an exaggeration, but whatever). Building looks like ass now, really depressing to work on. Was supposed to have CD's wrapped up in 5 weeks last winter, we are in the 10th month. Design fee was blown a long time ago, working for free already and not even into CA.
Project 2: Huge project, demanding client, very intense schedule. It's the project that no one wants to work on in the office, so I get it. Barely enough time to work on technical requirments so the aesthetics are seriously lacking. It is an ethical and social nightmare, given the site, program, and budget. I just can't feel good about it. When coworkers need to make fun of a project, they kindly bring up this one.
Projects 3&4: I am a drafting service for a "cartoon architect" who draws pretty picutres that don't make any sense. Same building on two sites on opposite ends of the country, the sites of which I will never see past Google Earth. It is a gay neo-mediterranean house with a rotunda and stucco diamond motifs. Took low fees in order to get more work from same client. Fee is long gone, future work seems to be a wash.
Project 5: Actually going pretty good. Interesting design, client listens to me, good contractor, within budget, making money for us.
pomoinmono- competitions, personal artwork. Tell them you needed to take time to figure some things out, but that you realised you couldn't live without design (hence the competitions and your interview with them).
I realized last night that it was archinect that persuaded me to venture into another field. Not that you guys told me to, but that I realized that other people were actually happy doing architecture, and that my not being happy was a problem that could be dealt with. I guess before, I thought that everyone was this way.
rationalist, I too need archinect to help me understand if I really like architecture or not. We have so many parallels it's scary. I even now have a student intern that does the fun design work while I "figure out the technical stuff." When I talked to the boss about it, he said I was the only one who could do the technical stuff, so miss intern gets to design the elevations... Also, she won't take any of my suggestions, if I told her 2+2=4, she would say, No it doesn't. So I have to constantly engage other people in the office to settle our disagreements which is so childish. I think I am starting to get first hand what you have been going thru.
Anyways, what is your new field? Are you transitioning?
yeah i have...i enjoy it...i like watching the drawing go from thin and light construction lines all over the paper to recognizable walls and such...editing the drawing is a bit of a challenge but gratifying when successful
Strawbeary- yeah, I'm taking night courses in graphic design while building up a portfolio to try and get into grad school. The office doesn't know this, of course. But in addition to the input I got here, one day I realized that not only am I not happy in my job, but I don't really want my boss's job, either. So that pretty much sealed it for me that this is not the way I want to be going.
Project numero uno... my house, fun, challenging, on budget. I 'm the contractor and have great trades.
Project 2,3,4,.... townhouse projects for same client, good friend and likes interesting design work but budget based... that's fine because he doesn't mind looking at exposed Parallam beams and OSB.
Project 5,6,7,8,... High End custom homes good clients, friendly, well financed, on interesting sites. good detail and exception builders.
Project 9,10 Daycare facilities for two different communities, budget challenged, on infill sites, mostly a struggle to make everything work and be a delightful place to have children.
Project 11,12,13.. Large scale planning projects, well financed client with good taste and somebody who takes negoitiation to a new level, smartest fellow I've ever met, and flies so far below the radar that he's nearly non-existent.( that's smart)
thanks for the advice. I too am thinking of going into graphic design. my boyfriend is a designer and I'm starting to think that bartending and doing freelance work, while we start our own firm is the key to unlock my happiness ........... for life.
Sep 26, 06 3:06 pm ·
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Do you enjoy your work?
Do you enjoy your work? Once a friend asked me: What would be your least favorite job? I responded that it would be a job where I sat in front of a computer all day in an office. She said: "Isn't that what you do?"
Background: I am in year 2 of my "3" year internship and find that at least 50% of my days working at this office of 10 people is extremely boring- even though the principal has given me advanced responsibilities and let me manage several projects. Am I alone in this? Is professional practice fulfilling for you?
that's architecture. to answer your question, no, it's not fulfilling.
yes
i sit behind a computer 100% of the day (although, despite my number of posts, i'm not bored).
but when my father was 27 he was the assistant manager of a bowling alley.
and when my mother was 27 she was a bookkeeper at a molded-plastics plant.
and here i am: a college degree, a license and a sweet aeron for my expanding backside.
so life's not so bad.
sometimes yes, sometimes no. it all depends on a number of factors:
mood of my boss, mood of my wife, the train ride to work, wether or not the client flakes out, or maybe the project itself. when it is good though, it makes all the lulls worth it.
does the pope shit in the woods?
gotta agree with ochana.
compared to where i come from it would be absolutely silly to bemoan my position.
i don't sit behind the computer all day long, though there were years when i did, so i can relate. those were good days however. the work was interesting/challenging, the pay good, and the hours awful. but spending that much time with people for more n 3 years and you make some pretty good friends, which has gotta be a positive. yes, the job was rewarding.
i don't know, architecture has gotta be a job with more opportunities in a year than most people get in a lifetime.
are the unrewarding architecture gigs with lousy firms, or is this really a systemic issue in north america?
NO
Yeah, I pretty much love my work. I'm new at it, so my fresh blood is still running hot.
And I thought I was the only one who used the pope in the woods analogy:
Yes, I love my work....when I get paid for it. Otherwise, I just like it.
God I hope the pope shits in the woods!
I fail (from a business standpoint) on a daily basis - just to prove to myself how much I enjoy my work.
That pope better be shitting in those goddamn woods by GOD! Golly Gees - Gosh!
the pope has a very special lavender-scented latrine in the woods behind st peters. very holy.
i sit behind a computer both at work and at home. i am tied to responding to emails and staring at half-empty word documents all day. but i enjoy it.
i'm with jump and ochona...all things considered, life is grand...
nevertheless, this week could have been better, but usually, ya, I enjoy it:
laid back
pays well
plenty of responsibility
every so often it even makes me proud. gotta watch out for that...
It's OK if from time to time something changes.
But for me working on the same project every day for 3 monts...
Thanks God I leave work tomorrow for a undefined time like 3-6 monts.
3 months ain't bad. one of our site architects spent almost 3 YEARS on site, doing the same project everyday. Now that is a hard-ass job. def not for me...
3 months is a nice short project, no?
having done this for a while -- and having done some other jobs related to architecture for a while also -- I can't imagine spending my time in any other field
i can't wait to sit in an architecture office and do cad all day!
"Enjoy" is such a strong word...
Early days yet, mind...
ralphy, You have a well defined and well thought out query-message for which you used a great forum to share that message with thousands across the world !
hmmm....now for the answer !
if you aint enjoying it then you better start thinking of how to change it for the best. i have worked in 6 offices and it really has been only the last 3 that i could say i really enjoy. the early jobs definitely taught me something, even if it was just that i had to get the hell outta those situations.
i have also worked in offices where nearly everybody is complaining about their jobs, too any hours, not enough money,blah, blah, this gets pretty annoying eventually. i know it isnt always easy to move on, but boy does it feel good when you end up doing what you had hoped for whilst studying at architecture school.
somnetimes yes
sometimes not. it's saturady and i'm working, so not today.
it could be more challenging and more interesting than it is now. but overall it's creative just about enough to keep me going.
"i have also worked in offices where nearly everybody is complaining about their jobs, too any hours, not enough money,blah, blah, this gets pretty annoying eventually. i know it isnt always easy to move on, but boy does it feel good when you end up doing what you had hoped for whilst studying at architecture school."
oyeah, plenty of people complaining. gotta start trying to work out how to get that job you dreamt about in uni...
not only do i really not enjoy my job, i realized yesterday at 5 that i really don't want to spend an extra minute with most of the people there. no goin' out for beers after work, etc.
i'd look for something else, but i think it actually gives me the best growth potential of any office in the city.
I enjoy the work itself. And I guess I'm decent at it; I ran into a brand new client dining with a former client at a restaurant a few days ago and the former pointed to the new and told me "He's been saying really good things about you!"
What I don't enjoy: trying to run an office. Particularly, the computer side of things, which is a sucking black hole of finances and understanding for me. Also, taxes and an unresponsive accountant make me want to scream. And covering my own health insurance alternately has me laying awake worrying at night or actively crying in frustration. Trying to be polite about brushing off vendors soliciting me to use their product and simultaneously not getting good service from the vendors I do want to work with is exhausting. Sometimes I want to just be a corporate cog for the rest of my career. Sigh.
Not a Good Idea Liberty, or Great Architecture Will Not Happen! Some how it takes all of those other Crazy Things in our lives to make Architects rise to the occasion.
Whenever i feel sad and blue about this noble profession, i remember to do one little thing. and i feel good again.
1% is absolutely amazing, 99% is crap.
i work for the 1% moments. they're usually worth
wading through the crap for.
wow. blast from '05...I'm glad someone resurrected it...
OldFogey, that post was made while I was at my previous job (a year ago...)..however, I'm doing everything I can to enjoy and postively exploit my [current] cog-dom.
I've been at my current place of employment for 9 months now.
my initial sentiment (from my 9-05 post) still rings true for me:
all things considered, life is grand...
I expect this would be the case regardless of where I was employed.
as far as the rest of what I felt about my previous job, well:
I do enjoy the atmosphere here,
(although I wouldn't describe it as "laid back.")...
The pay leaves a little to be desired...
I want more responsibility. I've made that clear to my supervisors.
Being under-utilized is frustrating. I can contribute far more than I'm being given the opportunity to....
I would rather have more responsibility than more money.
and to answer to initial post:
while my day to day experiences with professional practice are not always fulfilling, Architecture, in one form or another, fulfills me daily.
Coden't agree more. Even thougth what we make in our office isn't....grand per say; I do learn a lot every day. And I guess I do like it considering I workred today and will do a little work tomorow...
(Thougth what I really like is overtime pay :D).
so what's fulfilling today?
for me? - actually work related - designing the ground outside the entrance to our current project. Paving patterns, bollards, lighting, subtle ground plane manipulation...good times.
I'm not so new at it... my blood's no longer running hot.
Thinking about going to Italy for 1/2 a year.
i hate my fucking job. I've been working at a construction firm for almost 4 months now and I turned down two other pretty decent jobs to take this one and it's completely fucked up. I'm an assistant project manager and I have an office on-site where basically all I do now is looking for catering jobs because I'm so desperate that the service industry is starting to look really good. I'm on the brink of walking out in the middle of a client, architect and subcontractor meeting and just saying fuck no to all of them becuase I hate what I'm doing so much. And believe me they're not all bad people. Only the architect (sorry guys) is annoying, but more importantly, the project manager/general manager of the company is a ROYAL ASSHOLE, deceitful, despicable human being. i wanted this job becuase I knew i would learn so much and have such as advantage over inexperienced entrylevel architects but GOD DAMN do I hate my job. I didn't feel like this at first, it developed slowly over time and now it's constantly on my mind.
my question after this diatribe is if i get a catering or bartending job and then want to apply again for a design job after 6 months (before grad school) do you think people will not want to hire me? if so, what can I do part-time that will make me an interesting applicant even if I'm not working the 9-5?
Project 1: Budget cut by half after 100% CD's (that's an exaggeration, but whatever). Building looks like ass now, really depressing to work on. Was supposed to have CD's wrapped up in 5 weeks last winter, we are in the 10th month. Design fee was blown a long time ago, working for free already and not even into CA.
Project 2: Huge project, demanding client, very intense schedule. It's the project that no one wants to work on in the office, so I get it. Barely enough time to work on technical requirments so the aesthetics are seriously lacking. It is an ethical and social nightmare, given the site, program, and budget. I just can't feel good about it. When coworkers need to make fun of a project, they kindly bring up this one.
Projects 3&4: I am a drafting service for a "cartoon architect" who draws pretty picutres that don't make any sense. Same building on two sites on opposite ends of the country, the sites of which I will never see past Google Earth. It is a gay neo-mediterranean house with a rotunda and stucco diamond motifs. Took low fees in order to get more work from same client. Fee is long gone, future work seems to be a wash.
Project 5: Actually going pretty good. Interesting design, client listens to me, good contractor, within budget, making money for us.
1 out of 5 isn't bad.
pomoinmono- competitions, personal artwork. Tell them you needed to take time to figure some things out, but that you realised you couldn't live without design (hence the competitions and your interview with them).
I realized last night that it was archinect that persuaded me to venture into another field. Not that you guys told me to, but that I realized that other people were actually happy doing architecture, and that my not being happy was a problem that could be dealt with. I guess before, I thought that everyone was this way.
i hate drafting with the computer...
but dammson, did you ever draft by hand? that also sucks.
i loved drafting by hand. loved.
i spent most of my time scratching lines out.
rationalist, I too need archinect to help me understand if I really like architecture or not. We have so many parallels it's scary. I even now have a student intern that does the fun design work while I "figure out the technical stuff." When I talked to the boss about it, he said I was the only one who could do the technical stuff, so miss intern gets to design the elevations... Also, she won't take any of my suggestions, if I told her 2+2=4, she would say, No it doesn't. So I have to constantly engage other people in the office to settle our disagreements which is so childish. I think I am starting to get first hand what you have been going thru.
Anyways, what is your new field? Are you transitioning?
I loved drafting by hand! I'd go back in a heartbeat. So much more intuitive.
yeah i have...i enjoy it...i like watching the drawing go from thin and light construction lines all over the paper to recognizable walls and such...editing the drawing is a bit of a challenge but gratifying when successful
Strawbeary- yeah, I'm taking night courses in graphic design while building up a portfolio to try and get into grad school. The office doesn't know this, of course. But in addition to the input I got here, one day I realized that not only am I not happy in my job, but I don't really want my boss's job, either. So that pretty much sealed it for me that this is not the way I want to be going.
yes, I don't want my boss's job either.
Project numero uno... my house, fun, challenging, on budget. I 'm the contractor and have great trades.
Project 2,3,4,.... townhouse projects for same client, good friend and likes interesting design work but budget based... that's fine because he doesn't mind looking at exposed Parallam beams and OSB.
Project 5,6,7,8,... High End custom homes good clients, friendly, well financed, on interesting sites. good detail and exception builders.
Project 9,10 Daycare facilities for two different communities, budget challenged, on infill sites, mostly a struggle to make everything work and be a delightful place to have children.
Project 11,12,13.. Large scale planning projects, well financed client with good taste and somebody who takes negoitiation to a new level, smartest fellow I've ever met, and flies so far below the radar that he's nearly non-existent.( that's smart)
drafting by hand fun. but erasing was better! loved those electric erasers
then there were those scumbags...
and running blueprints! the smell of ammonia still brings back pleasant memories of my clueless youth.
first there were pen plotters,
then the pencil plotters started taking over,
along came the primative ink jet and electrostatic machines the size of small cars-
and our drafting boards were replaced by shiny little mice that have become persistiant pains in our carpal tunnels!
at least we don't get sore backs from leaning too far over the boards
rationalist,
thanks for the advice. I too am thinking of going into graphic design. my boyfriend is a designer and I'm starting to think that bartending and doing freelance work, while we start our own firm is the key to unlock my happiness ........... for life.
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