So im curious if anyone has any good advice for my situation.
I have about 5 years experience, I am unlicensed but heading in that direction. I have worked for many well known firms across the country, but i have found myself at a small( 10-20 employees)firm in the North East.
The people are generally nice, the work atmosphere is pretty good, but my issue is the work load is non-existent. I have been here for almost a 6 months now and have only been fielding pick up jobs, and quick I forgot things at the last minute. The firm in general is slow, but when i was hired I was lead to believe things would really be going somewhere and I was going to be running projects and such. Of the projects i have been apart of I am usually left the last to know about meetings, changes or ideas.
I have written several emails to the various partners expressing my concerns with no replies, on a daily basis when a partner is in the office( which is rare) i ask if there is work to do...when im not given a quick 1 hour cad task the answer is generally a shrug.
so my question is this:
am I not being patient enough?
Am I over estimating my skills?
how long should I wait before looking for other serious work?
( The catch to finding another position is I am concerned it will reflect poorly on my resume that I have bounced around so much).
it sounds like why bother because they dont. if you have made a concerted effort to speak to them in person about it and they dont respond, it sounds as if there are either 1]really bad at managing people or 2] have had a big downswing in work load, cant deal with it and maybe really have to cut staff but cant. 3]maybe they dont think your ready yet.
have you tried to speak to the layer directly under the partners? i would guess these are the guys are probably slowing down your particpation in a real project. maybe the game plan was from the start to hire a pick up guy to clean up a bunch of projects then when and when the next big one come in well let him/her have it. are other people in the firm with similar experience / time in the firm still waiting to get something good.
working in 'many big firms...in 5 years' does sound like the same thing your facing now.....too much moving around. bigger firms with bigger projects require you to stay much longer to get a resonable meaningful experience. a year here and there in a big firm may only have gotten you past some basic mark ups. also in fairness your experience may not have anything to do with the work the firm is doing now.
talk to the people who are your piers and see if they think its poor management or what.
if you decide to leave, clearly your resume has to state this experience and as time goes on prehaps you drop it and change the time frames to not as specific times.
as an employer, time at a firm is a measurement of the experience gained there and job hopping can be a sign of maybe someone you dont want to deal with but also with the economy being guided by our fearless leader, 42, changing jobs because of downward economy is very understandable and really necessarily reflect the person caught in the middle.
My Positions as of late have been primarily because of the economy, I keep landing in situations where things are looking to pick up...then dont. or at least this is what i gather.
I have spoken to almost everyone at the firm about these issues and it is widely know they are bad management, although most of the older employees seem to shrug it off.
To re think my question: I guess its this, what the professional time span to give a new employer before taking off/looking else where
many employers put new employees on a 3 month trial, but i think from your side its more about your intitial expectations why you came there in the first place v. the realization 6 months into it....do you think there are people that you can learn from there and will support you for opportunities when they happen....is the work any good....the stuff they are doing today?....more than likely if they are bad employee manager, they treat the clients the same.
it sounds that you have already made your mind up in some ways but your just afraid to change jobs so soon again. if where you are, positions are few, you might ride it out a bit and maybe do things that you can be proud of like a competition, painting or whatever.....
but delaying it to 1 year is not going to make a big difference.
well, to be honest, it sounds like they're not very confident in your work. i'm not an architect, but in my field, if your co-workers are keeping you out of the loop and your bosses are not giving you any interesting work, it means that you're not considered a valuable asset to the company.
You say you have 5 years experience.
1. How many fims have you workrd for in those 5 years.
2. Did you run projects on your own at these other firms, or were you primarily woring under an others supervision?
look many firms have up and down times, worry yes, panic no, perhaps there are associates or PA's to ask what is on the burner. find things to do, create things to do....but most of all if they are paying you and checks haven't bounced do something. the first time a check bounces leave immediately, don't accept any excuses, none, nada, just don't. people in my office find themselves almost bragging that they have nothing to do and i resent it to high heaven.
Jun 22, 04 8:58 pm ·
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patience
So im curious if anyone has any good advice for my situation.
I have about 5 years experience, I am unlicensed but heading in that direction. I have worked for many well known firms across the country, but i have found myself at a small( 10-20 employees)firm in the North East.
The people are generally nice, the work atmosphere is pretty good, but my issue is the work load is non-existent. I have been here for almost a 6 months now and have only been fielding pick up jobs, and quick I forgot things at the last minute. The firm in general is slow, but when i was hired I was lead to believe things would really be going somewhere and I was going to be running projects and such. Of the projects i have been apart of I am usually left the last to know about meetings, changes or ideas.
I have written several emails to the various partners expressing my concerns with no replies, on a daily basis when a partner is in the office( which is rare) i ask if there is work to do...when im not given a quick 1 hour cad task the answer is generally a shrug.
so my question is this:
am I not being patient enough?
Am I over estimating my skills?
how long should I wait before looking for other serious work?
( The catch to finding another position is I am concerned it will reflect poorly on my resume that I have bounced around so much).
it sounds like why bother because they dont. if you have made a concerted effort to speak to them in person about it and they dont respond, it sounds as if there are either 1]really bad at managing people or 2] have had a big downswing in work load, cant deal with it and maybe really have to cut staff but cant. 3]maybe they dont think your ready yet.
have you tried to speak to the layer directly under the partners? i would guess these are the guys are probably slowing down your particpation in a real project. maybe the game plan was from the start to hire a pick up guy to clean up a bunch of projects then when and when the next big one come in well let him/her have it. are other people in the firm with similar experience / time in the firm still waiting to get something good.
working in 'many big firms...in 5 years' does sound like the same thing your facing now.....too much moving around. bigger firms with bigger projects require you to stay much longer to get a resonable meaningful experience. a year here and there in a big firm may only have gotten you past some basic mark ups. also in fairness your experience may not have anything to do with the work the firm is doing now.
talk to the people who are your piers and see if they think its poor management or what.
if you decide to leave, clearly your resume has to state this experience and as time goes on prehaps you drop it and change the time frames to not as specific times.
as an employer, time at a firm is a measurement of the experience gained there and job hopping can be a sign of maybe someone you dont want to deal with but also with the economy being guided by our fearless leader, 42, changing jobs because of downward economy is very understandable and really necessarily reflect the person caught in the middle.
Ted-
First thanks for your response.
a few clarifications from your post:
My Positions as of late have been primarily because of the economy, I keep landing in situations where things are looking to pick up...then dont. or at least this is what i gather.
I have spoken to almost everyone at the firm about these issues and it is widely know they are bad management, although most of the older employees seem to shrug it off.
To re think my question: I guess its this, what the professional time span to give a new employer before taking off/looking else where
you forgot to mention that you originally heard of this job from a friend.
many employers put new employees on a 3 month trial, but i think from your side its more about your intitial expectations why you came there in the first place v. the realization 6 months into it....do you think there are people that you can learn from there and will support you for opportunities when they happen....is the work any good....the stuff they are doing today?....more than likely if they are bad employee manager, they treat the clients the same.
it sounds that you have already made your mind up in some ways but your just afraid to change jobs so soon again. if where you are, positions are few, you might ride it out a bit and maybe do things that you can be proud of like a competition, painting or whatever.....
but delaying it to 1 year is not going to make a big difference.
well, to be honest, it sounds like they're not very confident in your work. i'm not an architect, but in my field, if your co-workers are keeping you out of the loop and your bosses are not giving you any interesting work, it means that you're not considered a valuable asset to the company.
You say you have 5 years experience.
1. How many fims have you workrd for in those 5 years.
2. Did you run projects on your own at these other firms, or were you primarily woring under an others supervision?
organic - "woring"? do you mean "working" or "whoring"?
right cracker
look many firms have up and down times, worry yes, panic no, perhaps there are associates or PA's to ask what is on the burner. find things to do, create things to do....but most of all if they are paying you and checks haven't bounced do something. the first time a check bounces leave immediately, don't accept any excuses, none, nada, just don't. people in my office find themselves almost bragging that they have nothing to do and i resent it to high heaven.
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