I graduated university last spring w/ a B. Arch, and upon returning home to the Boston area, showered my cover letters, resumes, and work samples over the many firms located in and around the city. I finished w/ a solid gpa, high studio marks, portfolio awards, and summer construction experience. There seemed to be few opportunities for interviews, and when I received them, I was evaluated primarily for my cad skills, which were somewhat limited (and professionally-untested) as I didn't have any firm experience using the program.
No dice.
I was contacted by a modular housing firm and started there as a drafter/designer, (a little reluctantly) back in the fall. The work is fast-paced, very technical, and more than a touch mind-numbing. Though it can be enjoyable, there is not an opportunity for progress on the IDP. So, I scour websites such as the BSA's classifieds, craigslist and even archinect looking for entry-level positions, and they are pretty damn rare, and cold-contacting firms usually results in demands for someone with greater experience.
What I'm asking I suppose, is if there is anyone with experience working in Boston that might know some particular information about the job scene in Boston--is it really as stagnant as it appears, or is someone relatively fresh out of school truly useless?
And in general, aside from gleaning as much knowledge and experience from my present office, if anyone has advice/insight/ridicule/cliches they'd like to proffer about what I could be doing now to improve my marketability or professional direction, I'd much appreciate it.
what i've found is that the scene in Boston is best parsed with the help of someone who knows it intimately.
something i took advantage of two years ago was the BSA's mentor program. it hooks you up with an established professional in the field that, often times, is able to help you figure out the employment scene in the area. my mentor was a principal at a large well-established firm in the city, and while i didn't ultimately find my new job through that connection, the conversations we had helped guide my job search more efficiently.
to note, i work in cambridge and i'll be leaving my position in a few months to start grad school in the fall. which means we'll be hiring the "new me." if you want, email me with your resume and some realistic information about your experience (cad and the like) and i can take a look and see if they might be interested in you.
1. if you don't already know it...learn autocad. it'll increase your
marketability two-fold..
2. forget about your gpa/ high studio marks..noone cares. if you're
talented it'll show in your portfolio. your gpa matters until graduation
and from then on (in architecture) is about as meaningless as your
high school gpa.
3. i found the market to be rough in boston coming out of school..
it took about three solid months of looking...and i finally got
something through a friend...i worked every possible contact i
could as hard as i could..until i finally got a job...getting your second
job and so on seems to be pretty easy...although now that i have
about 10 years of experience i find the scales going in the other
direction.
i'd start with the large firms...payette, add inc, gensler? places
that can use an intern more often than not...they're not the best
places to work..but you'll learn enough to get your second job.
architecture is all about cad/modelling skills (hand and 3d) for
you at the moment. the better your computer skills the more
likely someone will hire you.
anyway there are a lot of firms in boston...i used to go to the
BSA and look through their firm books jotting down names
numbers...staff size etc...and i'd call...but the bottom line is i
didn't get a job until i had a solid contact with a lead.
Thanks to you both for the insight: as limiting as my job might seem, it is almost exclusively cad, and and my ability w/it has increased exponentially since starting there. So that's a platform, I suppose. Thanks again.
Boston is a very tough market. With so many young professionals coming out of the many programs in the area (MIT, Harvard, Wentworth, BAC, RISD (not too far away) (and sorry if I missed any others)), the firms in Boston have lots of applications for any open positions.
From what I have heard, several smaller firms out in the suburbs are quite busy and having a hard time finding staff. But the work may not be as interesting as some of the downtown firms.
I agree with larslarson to at least get some technical experience first. Another large firm that will help with IDP and some of the basics you need is Elkus-Manfredi. I left at the end of March and as far as I know, we were understaffed with tons of projects filing in.
thanks, fend...i actually interviewed w/ a VP there last june...i suppose there's been enough distance to give em an another shout. they seemed like a good place to work, and a great building to work in.
I would suggest looking into cities that do not have an overabundance of architecture schools/grads. In the meantime, if you really want to get an inside track, look into joining the csi, go to their meetings take the tests make some connections. that would look very good on a resume. unless of course all you care about is drawing blobs and such...
Hello everyone, I work at Margolis + Fishman Architects and Planners in Cambridge. I am going back to grad school, and because of this we will have a position avalible in late July. Here is the info:
Architectural Designer/ Architect
Margolis+Fishman has a position available for project manager/designer with 2-5 years experience. Applicant
should be proficient in AutoCAD 2000 and higher. The position entails all phases of design and construction. The
office specializes in residential, commercial, and laboratory work. Projects range in size from residential
renovations to 100,000+ s.f. commercial projects. Please mail, fax or email resume and cover letter to: John
Garcia, Margolis+Fishman Architects, 955 Massachusetts Ave. Cambridge, MA 02139, fax:(617) 547-2501, jgarcia@margolisandfishman.com
Contact:
just curious.. i'm a student in boston and i'm doing my second summer internship, but i'm wondering exactly how important knowing autocad is. i'm very proficient in vectorworks, pretty good with archicad, and good with adobe and all that, but i've probably worked in autocad for a total of ten hours in my life. is this totally gonna screw me over in the end and where can i learn autocad? i've got it on my school-issued laptop through the incredibly slow virtual pc
I've been working in architecture for more than 15 years and have yet to work in an AutoCAD-using firm. I took it in college (it must have been release 10 or something like that) but haven't used it since. But here's the thing: firms that do use AutoCAD tend to assume that there are plenty of qualified people out there who know it, so they don't usually want to even consider hiring people who don't know it - except sometimes for senior architect or management positions. Firms that use anything else (whether vectorworks, microstation, archicad, turbocad, whatever) are much more likely to assume that they'll have to train someone, so they're just looking for skills with ANY cad software, not specifically the one they use.
These days I have enough professional experience that firms don't really seem to be primarily concerned about my CAD knowledge anymore. But in my intern years I had occasional interviews in which CAD-managers-with-attitudes were present and let me know that they did not agree with my assurance that I could refresh my rusty AutoCAD skills and that they shouldn't let that be a major factor against me.
So: I think you can survive without it but it may ease things in your early years if you learn it.
i have had sort of the opposite experience as bloopox.
the first firm i worked for used powercad and microstation..
the last five firms i worked for all use autocad. the first
firm using autocad actually did pay for training...and by
the first two days or so i basically had autocad down.
in the past seven years i've learned a lot of tricks/quirks
and such..but if you know any cad you should be able
to pick up autocad...it's fairly intuitive.
long and short..i'd learn it..there are alot of places that
teach it...but you could probably just teach yourself.
Jun 29, 06 1:18 pm ·
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Boston Job Scene?
I graduated university last spring w/ a B. Arch, and upon returning home to the Boston area, showered my cover letters, resumes, and work samples over the many firms located in and around the city. I finished w/ a solid gpa, high studio marks, portfolio awards, and summer construction experience. There seemed to be few opportunities for interviews, and when I received them, I was evaluated primarily for my cad skills, which were somewhat limited (and professionally-untested) as I didn't have any firm experience using the program.
No dice.
I was contacted by a modular housing firm and started there as a drafter/designer, (a little reluctantly) back in the fall. The work is fast-paced, very technical, and more than a touch mind-numbing. Though it can be enjoyable, there is not an opportunity for progress on the IDP. So, I scour websites such as the BSA's classifieds, craigslist and even archinect looking for entry-level positions, and they are pretty damn rare, and cold-contacting firms usually results in demands for someone with greater experience.
What I'm asking I suppose, is if there is anyone with experience working in Boston that might know some particular information about the job scene in Boston--is it really as stagnant as it appears, or is someone relatively fresh out of school truly useless?
And in general, aside from gleaning as much knowledge and experience from my present office, if anyone has advice/insight/ridicule/cliches they'd like to proffer about what I could be doing now to improve my marketability or professional direction, I'd much appreciate it.
what i've found is that the scene in Boston is best parsed with the help of someone who knows it intimately.
something i took advantage of two years ago was the BSA's mentor program. it hooks you up with an established professional in the field that, often times, is able to help you figure out the employment scene in the area. my mentor was a principal at a large well-established firm in the city, and while i didn't ultimately find my new job through that connection, the conversations we had helped guide my job search more efficiently.
to note, i work in cambridge and i'll be leaving my position in a few months to start grad school in the fall. which means we'll be hiring the "new me." if you want, email me with your resume and some realistic information about your experience (cad and the like) and i can take a look and see if they might be interested in you.
1. if you don't already know it...learn autocad. it'll increase your
marketability two-fold..
2. forget about your gpa/ high studio marks..noone cares. if you're
talented it'll show in your portfolio. your gpa matters until graduation
and from then on (in architecture) is about as meaningless as your
high school gpa.
3. i found the market to be rough in boston coming out of school..
it took about three solid months of looking...and i finally got
something through a friend...i worked every possible contact i
could as hard as i could..until i finally got a job...getting your second
job and so on seems to be pretty easy...although now that i have
about 10 years of experience i find the scales going in the other
direction.
i'd start with the large firms...payette, add inc, gensler? places
that can use an intern more often than not...they're not the best
places to work..but you'll learn enough to get your second job.
architecture is all about cad/modelling skills (hand and 3d) for
you at the moment. the better your computer skills the more
likely someone will hire you.
anyway there are a lot of firms in boston...i used to go to the
BSA and look through their firm books jotting down names
numbers...staff size etc...and i'd call...but the bottom line is i
didn't get a job until i had a solid contact with a lead.
Thanks to you both for the insight: as limiting as my job might seem, it is almost exclusively cad, and and my ability w/it has increased exponentially since starting there. So that's a platform, I suppose. Thanks again.
Boston is a very tough market. With so many young professionals coming out of the many programs in the area (MIT, Harvard, Wentworth, BAC, RISD (not too far away) (and sorry if I missed any others)), the firms in Boston have lots of applications for any open positions.
From what I have heard, several smaller firms out in the suburbs are quite busy and having a hard time finding staff. But the work may not be as interesting as some of the downtown firms.
I agree with larslarson to at least get some technical experience first. Another large firm that will help with IDP and some of the basics you need is Elkus-Manfredi. I left at the end of March and as far as I know, we were understaffed with tons of projects filing in.
thanks, fend...i actually interviewed w/ a VP there last june...i suppose there's been enough distance to give em an another shout. they seemed like a good place to work, and a great building to work in.
thanks again...
I would suggest looking into cities that do not have an overabundance of architecture schools/grads. In the meantime, if you really want to get an inside track, look into joining the csi, go to their meetings take the tests make some connections. that would look very good on a resume. unless of course all you care about is drawing blobs and such...
Vado,
Thanks, and though this may reveal my true identity as a veritable idiot, what is csi? I'm intruiged and would like to find out more.
And as a side note, blobs make me rage.
cosmoe got it...
Hello everyone, I work at Margolis + Fishman Architects and Planners in Cambridge. I am going back to grad school, and because of this we will have a position avalible in late July. Here is the info:
Architectural Designer/ Architect
Margolis+Fishman has a position available for project manager/designer with 2-5 years experience. Applicant
should be proficient in AutoCAD 2000 and higher. The position entails all phases of design and construction. The
office specializes in residential, commercial, and laboratory work. Projects range in size from residential
renovations to 100,000+ s.f. commercial projects. Please mail, fax or email resume and cover letter to: John
Garcia, Margolis+Fishman Architects, 955 Massachusetts Ave. Cambridge, MA 02139, fax:(617) 547-2501,
jgarcia@margolisandfishman.com
Contact:
jgarcia@margolisandfishman.com
http://margolisandfishman.com
just curious.. i'm a student in boston and i'm doing my second summer internship, but i'm wondering exactly how important knowing autocad is. i'm very proficient in vectorworks, pretty good with archicad, and good with adobe and all that, but i've probably worked in autocad for a total of ten hours in my life. is this totally gonna screw me over in the end and where can i learn autocad? i've got it on my school-issued laptop through the incredibly slow virtual pc
I've been working in architecture for more than 15 years and have yet to work in an AutoCAD-using firm. I took it in college (it must have been release 10 or something like that) but haven't used it since. But here's the thing: firms that do use AutoCAD tend to assume that there are plenty of qualified people out there who know it, so they don't usually want to even consider hiring people who don't know it - except sometimes for senior architect or management positions. Firms that use anything else (whether vectorworks, microstation, archicad, turbocad, whatever) are much more likely to assume that they'll have to train someone, so they're just looking for skills with ANY cad software, not specifically the one they use.
These days I have enough professional experience that firms don't really seem to be primarily concerned about my CAD knowledge anymore. But in my intern years I had occasional interviews in which CAD-managers-with-attitudes were present and let me know that they did not agree with my assurance that I could refresh my rusty AutoCAD skills and that they shouldn't let that be a major factor against me.
So: I think you can survive without it but it may ease things in your early years if you learn it.
i have had sort of the opposite experience as bloopox.
the first firm i worked for used powercad and microstation..
the last five firms i worked for all use autocad. the first
firm using autocad actually did pay for training...and by
the first two days or so i basically had autocad down.
in the past seven years i've learned a lot of tricks/quirks
and such..but if you know any cad you should be able
to pick up autocad...it's fairly intuitive.
long and short..i'd learn it..there are alot of places that
teach it...but you could probably just teach yourself.
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