Why do architects in LA have this attached to a large amount of the job openings? More than any other city. Do they do this so they won't feel bad when they fire you? Any thoughts.
- LA is one of those cities where everybody and their grandmother sends resumes when they get out of school regardless of how serious they are about really moving there. Firms don’t want to waste their time interviewing and making offers to people who aren’t serious, don’t have the means, or don’t know what they’re getting themselves into.
- When architecture firms hire the need is usually pretty immediate and, especially if you’re entry level, they don’t want to spend weeks or months waiting for you to get into town and be ready to start.
- Bringing a new person aboard requires a huge expenditure of non-billable time to get that person up to speed. Firms don’t want to risk investing all that in a new hire just to see him/her walk away 2 months later. The person who has no roots to the area is a much greater “flight risk†than someone tied to the area in ways beyond just having a job.
- Especially at the entry level a lot of firms are just looking for people to do production and little or nothing more. Why would they want to waste their time and money “importing†someone when the guy who lives 2 blocks away is ready and willing to start Monday morning?
- Arch. firms generally don’t offer relocation expenses and this is a good way to avoid even being asked the question.
Some LA firms also have an unspoken or explicit requirement you live within a 30-40 minute drive of their office. This because a 40+ minute commute in LA is so stressful that most resonable people will not do it longer than a year (for example, trading a 45-minute one-way commute for a 15-minute one equals 20 hours a month back to your life - there is a lot you can do with those 20 hours other than sit in gridlock). Why hire someone when you expect they will quit within 18 months?
Because they CAN. With USC, UCLA, SCI-Arc, and Woodbury in the city, and lots of CalPoly SLO students who live here when not in school, and many of those people choosing to stay here after they finish school, this market has plenty to choose from without bothering with people who are in complicated living situations.
sense of place and attachment to place is important in architecture, especially when most architecture firms work locally. if i were an architect in LA, i would make damn sure that my hires were actually wanting to stick around for a while. LA and NY get a lot of people who think the idea of living and working in the big city are great until they realize that the girlfriend they followed to the big city really kinda didn't want them around anyway.
there are too many people in SoCal already. there are laws in LA county preventing firms from hiring people from out of state, just to keep the population under control.
because when we post a job we routinely get a large volume of responses from india, the former soviet union, the phillippines, etc. which are clearly generic responses shot out to every single listing. it's already enough trouble sorting through the generic responses that are local without having to deal with the out of state (or country) ones.
treekiller has access to some interesting information about "county laws" that I clearly don't have.
Must be current LA resident
Why do architects in LA have this attached to a large amount of the job openings? More than any other city. Do they do this so they won't feel bad when they fire you? Any thoughts.
Several thoughts:
- LA is one of those cities where everybody and their grandmother sends resumes when they get out of school regardless of how serious they are about really moving there. Firms don’t want to waste their time interviewing and making offers to people who aren’t serious, don’t have the means, or don’t know what they’re getting themselves into.
- When architecture firms hire the need is usually pretty immediate and, especially if you’re entry level, they don’t want to spend weeks or months waiting for you to get into town and be ready to start.
- Bringing a new person aboard requires a huge expenditure of non-billable time to get that person up to speed. Firms don’t want to risk investing all that in a new hire just to see him/her walk away 2 months later. The person who has no roots to the area is a much greater “flight risk†than someone tied to the area in ways beyond just having a job.
- Especially at the entry level a lot of firms are just looking for people to do production and little or nothing more. Why would they want to waste their time and money “importing†someone when the guy who lives 2 blocks away is ready and willing to start Monday morning?
- Arch. firms generally don’t offer relocation expenses and this is a good way to avoid even being asked the question.
Some LA firms also have an unspoken or explicit requirement you live within a 30-40 minute drive of their office. This because a 40+ minute commute in LA is so stressful that most resonable people will not do it longer than a year (for example, trading a 45-minute one-way commute for a 15-minute one equals 20 hours a month back to your life - there is a lot you can do with those 20 hours other than sit in gridlock). Why hire someone when you expect they will quit within 18 months?
Because they CAN. With USC, UCLA, SCI-Arc, and Woodbury in the city, and lots of CalPoly SLO students who live here when not in school, and many of those people choosing to stay here after they finish school, this market has plenty to choose from without bothering with people who are in complicated living situations.
sense of place and attachment to place is important in architecture, especially when most architecture firms work locally. if i were an architect in LA, i would make damn sure that my hires were actually wanting to stick around for a while. LA and NY get a lot of people who think the idea of living and working in the big city are great until they realize that the girlfriend they followed to the big city really kinda didn't want them around anyway.
and then it's back to dallas.
there are too many people in SoCal already. there are laws in LA county preventing firms from hiring people from out of state, just to keep the population under control.
because when we post a job we routinely get a large volume of responses from india, the former soviet union, the phillippines, etc. which are clearly generic responses shot out to every single listing. it's already enough trouble sorting through the generic responses that are local without having to deal with the out of state (or country) ones.
treekiller has access to some interesting information about "county laws" that I clearly don't have.
generic responses = generic applicants
if you can't make a call to find out who "dear human resources director" is, then don't bother
;-)
because who wants to work with an out-of-towner???
Yeah, especially an Oregonian, fuck that!!
Block this user
Are you sure you want to block this user and hide all related comments throughout the site?
Archinect
This is your first comment on Archinect. Your comment will be visible once approved.