have you ever caught anybody during an interview who plaguarised another student's or architect's work before, passing the stuff of as his/her when it wasn't? what did you do then?
or... have you ever hired anybody whose portfolio was made up of top quality work, yet when he/she started working, the standards between the portfolio and work produced were very much misaligned? what did you do then? or what would you do?
I've seen fellow classmates portfolios that do not accurately represent a certain individuals talents or lack there of. The most common instance I have seen is not pointing out group projects. If group projects are used in your portfolio I suggest at the very minimum listing the names of contributors, and possibly stating your specific contributions.
Maybe I'm just naive, but I find it hard to imagine that someone would actually place another architect's work in his or her own portfolio. Besides the fact that the talent is not there, three is obviously a lack of self respect and or character. It should also be noted that there is a major difference between copying an architect’s style or even certain construction details vs presenting work that has no relationship to the interviewee. In case of the later I would defiantly consider this type of dishonesty the same as lying on a resume. I think intentional misrepresentation should be grounds for termination.
If you want to lie, misrepresent, and fake talent, there are plenty of other professions that will pay you a lot more to do it. If you are in architecture (as most people say) not for the money, but for the satisfaction of seeing your ideas turned into reality, why would you pose other's ideas as your own.
It would be extremely difficult to "catch" someone at this. Unless I interviewed two people within a short period of time who both had the same project in their portfolio - without acknowledgment that it is a group effort - there would be no way to know.
I always ask interviewees whether any of the work in their portfolio was a group project. This is as much to start discussion about the person's experiences and attitudes in working with others as to clarify their portfolio. Frankly it is a point to the negative side if the interviewee does NOT have any group projects in his portfolio.
I think this plagiarism issue would generally not come up except with students and new grads - because once you have a year or two of experience you tend to eliminate much or all student work from your portfolio and include mainly projects on which you've worked in firms. Naturally you're going to be asked what your involvement was in those projects, and unless you were working for a firm doing extremely small projects you'll probably be talking about which aspects you designed, produced, managed, etc.
At this point most of the work in the portfolio will be documents and photos from built projects and other work from firms. Most firms check at least some references and it's pretty easy to verify an applicant's involvement in various projects if there is any question.
It's possible to hire people who don't "live up to" their portfolios - but this is MUCH more common with more experienced people - because you may be hiring for a particular role in mind (like project manager) and the applicant may overstate his experience or just be a bad fit for your firm. There are bound to be occasional situations where you hire people who don't work out the way you thought they would.
With students or recent grads it is not likely a portfolio is going to be hugely misleading in the sense that it would matter much in a hiring situation. This seems much more like an issue that would affect academic standing, competition for awards, and such. First, when you're hiring a student or fresh grad you're usually interested in the person having certain basic skills - but you're assuming that you're going to have to teach A LOT - even if you're hiring the top-ranked class genius. Skills/craft can be assesssed pretty well unless maybe ALL the work in the portfolio is not the student's. Talking to the applicant about some of their projects will usually be a fairly good indication of their involvement, thought process in the work, design philosophy (if any), etc.
Four or five years ago I was surfing around and came across the on-line portfolio of a student at OSU and was horrified with what I saw. It was the design of my portfolio website with his name on it and projects placed within it.
He ripped off my layouts, colors, graphics and copy all the way down to the formatting of my resume page. I had a credits page thanking professors that were influential to my development. He took my copy word for word and substituted his professor’s names in.
He had ripped off my portfolio website so literally to the point that the masthead graphics I designed used my projects in the background – he used them as his own with my projects still in the background graphics!
I was so lit up by this I still remember jumping up and down in my apartment yelling. I did eventually calm down and draft out a letter to the dean of the school of architecture and all the professor’s who he had named on his credits page outlining the blatant plagiarizing of my work. I waited a day or so before sending the letter off which gave me the ability to refine a few more drafts (and take most of the reactionary statements out…).
A day or so later I received email from his dean and a few teachers and his portfolio was redesigned. The funny thing is in addition to perusing a BArch he was minoring in graphic design…
subtle plagarism in your portfolio
to bosses and interviewers out there,
have you ever caught anybody during an interview who plaguarised another student's or architect's work before, passing the stuff of as his/her when it wasn't? what did you do then?
or... have you ever hired anybody whose portfolio was made up of top quality work, yet when he/she started working, the standards between the portfolio and work produced were very much misaligned? what did you do then? or what would you do?
I've seen fellow classmates portfolios that do not accurately represent a certain individuals talents or lack there of. The most common instance I have seen is not pointing out group projects. If group projects are used in your portfolio I suggest at the very minimum listing the names of contributors, and possibly stating your specific contributions.
Maybe I'm just naive, but I find it hard to imagine that someone would actually place another architect's work in his or her own portfolio. Besides the fact that the talent is not there, three is obviously a lack of self respect and or character. It should also be noted that there is a major difference between copying an architect’s style or even certain construction details vs presenting work that has no relationship to the interviewee. In case of the later I would defiantly consider this type of dishonesty the same as lying on a resume. I think intentional misrepresentation should be grounds for termination.
If you want to lie, misrepresent, and fake talent, there are plenty of other professions that will pay you a lot more to do it. If you are in architecture (as most people say) not for the money, but for the satisfaction of seeing your ideas turned into reality, why would you pose other's ideas as your own.
subtle plagarism, is there such a thing?
that is like saying I am sorta pregnant or I only kinda killed that dog I ran over with my T-ruck......
It would be extremely difficult to "catch" someone at this. Unless I interviewed two people within a short period of time who both had the same project in their portfolio - without acknowledgment that it is a group effort - there would be no way to know.
I always ask interviewees whether any of the work in their portfolio was a group project. This is as much to start discussion about the person's experiences and attitudes in working with others as to clarify their portfolio. Frankly it is a point to the negative side if the interviewee does NOT have any group projects in his portfolio.
I think this plagiarism issue would generally not come up except with students and new grads - because once you have a year or two of experience you tend to eliminate much or all student work from your portfolio and include mainly projects on which you've worked in firms. Naturally you're going to be asked what your involvement was in those projects, and unless you were working for a firm doing extremely small projects you'll probably be talking about which aspects you designed, produced, managed, etc.
At this point most of the work in the portfolio will be documents and photos from built projects and other work from firms. Most firms check at least some references and it's pretty easy to verify an applicant's involvement in various projects if there is any question.
It's possible to hire people who don't "live up to" their portfolios - but this is MUCH more common with more experienced people - because you may be hiring for a particular role in mind (like project manager) and the applicant may overstate his experience or just be a bad fit for your firm. There are bound to be occasional situations where you hire people who don't work out the way you thought they would.
With students or recent grads it is not likely a portfolio is going to be hugely misleading in the sense that it would matter much in a hiring situation. This seems much more like an issue that would affect academic standing, competition for awards, and such. First, when you're hiring a student or fresh grad you're usually interested in the person having certain basic skills - but you're assuming that you're going to have to teach A LOT - even if you're hiring the top-ranked class genius. Skills/craft can be assesssed pretty well unless maybe ALL the work in the portfolio is not the student's. Talking to the applicant about some of their projects will usually be a fairly good indication of their involvement, thought process in the work, design philosophy (if any), etc.
Four or five years ago I was surfing around and came across the on-line portfolio of a student at OSU and was horrified with what I saw. It was the design of my portfolio website with his name on it and projects placed within it.
He ripped off my layouts, colors, graphics and copy all the way down to the formatting of my resume page. I had a credits page thanking professors that were influential to my development. He took my copy word for word and substituted his professor’s names in.
He had ripped off my portfolio website so literally to the point that the masthead graphics I designed used my projects in the background – he used them as his own with my projects still in the background graphics!
I was so lit up by this I still remember jumping up and down in my apartment yelling. I did eventually calm down and draft out a letter to the dean of the school of architecture and all the professor’s who he had named on his credits page outlining the blatant plagiarizing of my work. I waited a day or so before sending the letter off which gave me the ability to refine a few more drafts (and take most of the reactionary statements out…).
A day or so later I received email from his dean and a few teachers and his portfolio was redesigned. The funny thing is in addition to perusing a BArch he was minoring in graphic design…
Shalak,
That is it (link down at the bottom to "Archive Portfolio Site"). I can't believe I did that back in 1995... man I'm getting old.
I like your current projects on your page Dave. Can't wait to be out of school and working on stuff like that myself.
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