Perhaps it would be better to discuss our "most memorable" experiences as interns. I can recall many instances that were both good and bad (but mostly good) at the same time:
1. 1998 - the woman in accounting who looked and acted JUST like Newman from Seinfeld. Curly hair and everything.
2. 2003 - the opportunity to work on a project with Robert Venturi.
3. 1998 - making on-foot deliveries to downtown Milwaukee destinations.
4. 2000 - receiving my first box of business cards.
5. 2000-2001 - coordinating box lunch presentations (lunch 'n learns)
6. 1997 - 2004 - referring to myself as the "Eternal Intern"
7. 1999 - witnessing my mentor argue with a sub-contractor about stair treads as she pulled out the spec to show that stair-treads were included.
8. 1998 - accidentally ordering $10,000 in postage via phone instead of $1,000
9. 2002 - designing league banners for a new nautitorium
10. 1999 - updating the company's contact database with hundreds of entries, contact by contact. They even gave me a headset.
Hrmm...it appears as though my most memorable experiences were unrelated to architecture, even though I worked at architecture (or architecture-related) firms for my entire internship... I would not have done it any other way, though.
I have been working on lots of smaller projects... but seeing one go from nothing to being designed and built in four months. granted its only a 3 level T.I., but its still satisfying to know that after only being at the office 7 months that I am already working on shit that is getting built.
my first mistake three months into my first architectural job was forgetting to draw two damn lines to indicate a tub access through a wall...and the plumbers and electricians routed their gas & water pipes & romex where the hole was suppose to be...i remember my boss going into my office after just visiting the jobsite, unrolling the plans (and he knew exactly which sheet to flip to)..."hey, you didn't show the access here and the plumber put all their pipes there"...something casual like that but stern. my fuckin' heart started racing and the only way to slow down the heart rate/bpm's was to own up to the mistake...
the happy ending was that it could have been costly by having the plumber and electricians move their pipes...but since the whirlpool tub was so luxuriously wide we were abele to move the access to the next bay...
my best memories are being office pricness at my first job, the elderly engineer boss taking me out for pie and ice cream, calling me "granddaughter", he even told me I was his best friend and we just used to drive around and look at stuff, buildings, storm sewer inlets, etc. He got all teary eyed once and told me he regretted smoking for many years and was afraid he let his family down. I told me we all make mistakes and we must be forgiven. Surprisingly, he fired me a few months later in a senile fit surrounding that fact that I wasn't allowed to have any scent on me at all because he was hyper sensitive to smell and I wasn't supposed to even wash my hair in the morning, but I did that day and came in with my hair wet. He told me to pack my stuff up and go home. I did. I went back to school 1 week later so not exactly the end of the world. We made up in the end and he helped me get my next job. Funny, the guy's actual grandson worked there too and got fired for turning in false time sheets. At the same place, a distant cousin also worked there who HATED me. I told my dad, "This guy just hates me and I don't know why", dad filled me in: Our great-grandfathers were cousins, his was the drunk, ours was the one who inherited the shoe store business way back in the old west days (no longer standing). At the same place, my best friend's dad, also my next door neighbor, was the head contractor who always had an extra minute to show me something, everlasting patience he had. Also at the same place was my brother's college roomate. There were only like 10 people there total. Ah, small midwestern cities. top THAT!
My Jobs pretty good. I'm not doing exciting design or architecture, just funeral homes, and maybe one house. But there is No stress, and I've only worked late three times the entire 2 years I've been here. And we get off at 2 on Fridays! So the work sucks, but its a good environment.
i would like to say that i prefer awesome design even if that meant no life outside of the office... but after a stressful week, I am starting to change my mind
-having a hall monitor telling to get back to class during a high school site visit.
-the boss rolling into the office at 3am on rollerblades
-rebuilding a model that got damaged in transit the day before a meeting.
-trying to get two large model boxes into the GSA office in D.C. three months after 9/11. for a while i thought i was going to have a full cavity search.
-the multiple times i submitted weekly time sheets with 100+ hours and being on salary.
no, tzenyujuei. don't do it.
i succumbed to the corporate easiness for a few months. it was the worst job i have ever had. complete lack of seriousness in the work, and fairly inefficient office - people talked way too much, goofing off. there is a time and place for that, but on an hourly basis it just wasn't appropriate. in fact, twas a joke.
i'll take a difficult and serious job doing architecture over anything else, even if it means i'm working 60+ hour weeks.
arriving back at the office late at night after a public presentation, in the boss's jeep cherokee, and unloading the presentation boards, material samples, easles, etc....and noticing that a few boards seem to be missing, even though i know they were packed.
next morning, searched all around for them, couldn't find them. told my boss about it. "oh yeah - sometimes the tailgate opens when the jeep hits a bump. maybe they fell out?"
well i figured it'd be one helluva long shot to back track our route into hollywood from santa monica and hope to find undamaged boards laying in the street.
fast forward a few months - i'm in a store on 3rd street in la, and notice a couple of the 'lost' boards strategically placed in the space for 'design effect."
figured they had a nice home so what the heck.....
i worked at a firm in shanghai fresh out of college. my chinese boss loved to show me off as the firm's token american designer.
every thursday, my job was to help do the marketing for our firm with my chinese boss. i would show up at these meetings and listen to men speak mandarin while i would sit at the table, smile and nod occasionally, and doodle in my sketchbook and pretend like i was taking notes. then the prospective clients would take us out to eat where they would essentially pour alchohol down my throat cheering "gan bei" over and over.
dear god, i would get so drunk because my boss made it very clear day one that it was very rude if i turned down their alcohol.
I WOULD GET SOOOOO DRUNK.
for the first few weeks, i would try to go to the office after the lunch meetings, but it was apparent that my cad skills were absolutely shot. one time i even feel asleep at my desk. after about two months, my boss apologized for making me go through this every thursday and, as a compromise, i was allowed to take thursday afternoons off.
I worked on a site model for six weeks for a competition. My job was to make 7 buildings to represent the buildings surrounding the site. They were basically box buildings with a few windows. I had to remodel them 4 times because they were never quite square enough. I developed OCD because of this.
Went to work for a professor of mine my senior year. Good guy but forgets everything and has no buisness skills. This was good because he was so disorganized I got A LOT of design responsiblity and incredible amounts of experience.
Worst part is I don't get paid regularly. Kinda pathethic but the longest he went without paying me was 2-1/2 months. It also took him a year to get me medical insurance.
But I'm a firm believer that if you follow your passion the money will follow. So...
I took the a job with him upon graduating 2 years ago. Some days good and some days bad. On the plus side he did write me an incredible letter of recommendation for grad school. So no complaints.
best/worse internship experiance
I am just curious to see what people have to say about firms out there.
i worked at one office where I spelled experience wrong..they shot me
[X]-peer :RE: nce
new firm name
Perhaps it would be better to discuss our "most memorable" experiences as interns. I can recall many instances that were both good and bad (but mostly good) at the same time:
1. 1998 - the woman in accounting who looked and acted JUST like Newman from Seinfeld. Curly hair and everything.
2. 2003 - the opportunity to work on a project with Robert Venturi.
3. 1998 - making on-foot deliveries to downtown Milwaukee destinations.
4. 2000 - receiving my first box of business cards.
5. 2000-2001 - coordinating box lunch presentations (lunch 'n learns)
6. 1997 - 2004 - referring to myself as the "Eternal Intern"
7. 1999 - witnessing my mentor argue with a sub-contractor about stair treads as she pulled out the spec to show that stair-treads were included.
8. 1998 - accidentally ordering $10,000 in postage via phone instead of $1,000
9. 2002 - designing league banners for a new nautitorium
10. 1999 - updating the company's contact database with hundreds of entries, contact by contact. They even gave me a headset.
Hrmm...it appears as though my most memorable experiences were unrelated to architecture, even though I worked at architecture (or architecture-related) firms for my entire internship... I would not have done it any other way, though.
I have been working on lots of smaller projects... but seeing one go from nothing to being designed and built in four months. granted its only a 3 level T.I., but its still satisfying to know that after only being at the office 7 months that I am already working on shit that is getting built.
DCA pulled out the diary labeled "internship"...
my first mistake three months into my first architectural job was forgetting to draw two damn lines to indicate a tub access through a wall...and the plumbers and electricians routed their gas & water pipes & romex where the hole was suppose to be...i remember my boss going into my office after just visiting the jobsite, unrolling the plans (and he knew exactly which sheet to flip to)..."hey, you didn't show the access here and the plumber put all their pipes there"...something casual like that but stern. my fuckin' heart started racing and the only way to slow down the heart rate/bpm's was to own up to the mistake...
the happy ending was that it could have been costly by having the plumber and electricians move their pipes...but since the whirlpool tub was so luxuriously wide we were abele to move the access to the next bay...
ah... spelling smelling... its the idea that counts right? ;)
my best memories are being office pricness at my first job, the elderly engineer boss taking me out for pie and ice cream, calling me "granddaughter", he even told me I was his best friend and we just used to drive around and look at stuff, buildings, storm sewer inlets, etc. He got all teary eyed once and told me he regretted smoking for many years and was afraid he let his family down. I told me we all make mistakes and we must be forgiven. Surprisingly, he fired me a few months later in a senile fit surrounding that fact that I wasn't allowed to have any scent on me at all because he was hyper sensitive to smell and I wasn't supposed to even wash my hair in the morning, but I did that day and came in with my hair wet. He told me to pack my stuff up and go home. I did. I went back to school 1 week later so not exactly the end of the world. We made up in the end and he helped me get my next job. Funny, the guy's actual grandson worked there too and got fired for turning in false time sheets. At the same place, a distant cousin also worked there who HATED me. I told my dad, "This guy just hates me and I don't know why", dad filled me in: Our great-grandfathers were cousins, his was the drunk, ours was the one who inherited the shoe store business way back in the old west days (no longer standing). At the same place, my best friend's dad, also my next door neighbor, was the head contractor who always had an extra minute to show me something, everlasting patience he had. Also at the same place was my brother's college roomate. There were only like 10 people there total. Ah, small midwestern cities. top THAT!
I just reread my post, I think that's why I moved...
My Jobs pretty good. I'm not doing exciting design or architecture, just funeral homes, and maybe one house. But there is No stress, and I've only worked late three times the entire 2 years I've been here. And we get off at 2 on Fridays! So the work sucks, but its a good environment.
i would like to say that i prefer awesome design even if that meant no life outside of the office... but after a stressful week, I am starting to change my mind
-having a hall monitor telling to get back to class during a high school site visit.
-the boss rolling into the office at 3am on rollerblades
-rebuilding a model that got damaged in transit the day before a meeting.
-trying to get two large model boxes into the GSA office in D.C. three months after 9/11. for a while i thought i was going to have a full cavity search.
-the multiple times i submitted weekly time sheets with 100+ hours and being on salary.
no, tzenyujuei. don't do it.
i succumbed to the corporate easiness for a few months. it was the worst job i have ever had. complete lack of seriousness in the work, and fairly inefficient office - people talked way too much, goofing off. there is a time and place for that, but on an hourly basis it just wasn't appropriate. in fact, twas a joke.
i'll take a difficult and serious job doing architecture over anything else, even if it means i'm working 60+ hour weeks.
arriving back at the office late at night after a public presentation, in the boss's jeep cherokee, and unloading the presentation boards, material samples, easles, etc....and noticing that a few boards seem to be missing, even though i know they were packed.
next morning, searched all around for them, couldn't find them. told my boss about it. "oh yeah - sometimes the tailgate opens when the jeep hits a bump. maybe they fell out?"
well i figured it'd be one helluva long shot to back track our route into hollywood from santa monica and hope to find undamaged boards laying in the street.
fast forward a few months - i'm in a store on 3rd street in la, and notice a couple of the 'lost' boards strategically placed in the space for 'design effect."
figured they had a nice home so what the heck.....
i worked at a firm in shanghai fresh out of college. my chinese boss loved to show me off as the firm's token american designer.
every thursday, my job was to help do the marketing for our firm with my chinese boss. i would show up at these meetings and listen to men speak mandarin while i would sit at the table, smile and nod occasionally, and doodle in my sketchbook and pretend like i was taking notes. then the prospective clients would take us out to eat where they would essentially pour alchohol down my throat cheering "gan bei" over and over.
dear god, i would get so drunk because my boss made it very clear day one that it was very rude if i turned down their alcohol.
I WOULD GET SOOOOO DRUNK.
for the first few weeks, i would try to go to the office after the lunch meetings, but it was apparent that my cad skills were absolutely shot. one time i even feel asleep at my desk. after about two months, my boss apologized for making me go through this every thursday and, as a compromise, i was allowed to take thursday afternoons off.
i second the elvischyld story. that was great. i wonder if US firms would ever want Asians for the same reason?
the absolute best job i have ever had was playing Jason at the Haunted Mansion in Long Branch, NJ...without a doubt better than anything i have done.
one of my closest friends in a-school was from long branch.
I worked on a site model for six weeks for a competition. My job was to make 7 buildings to represent the buildings surrounding the site. They were basically box buildings with a few windows. I had to remodel them 4 times because they were never quite square enough. I developed OCD because of this.
best/worst...
Went to work for a professor of mine my senior year. Good guy but forgets everything and has no buisness skills. This was good because he was so disorganized I got A LOT of design responsiblity and incredible amounts of experience.
Worst part is I don't get paid regularly. Kinda pathethic but the longest he went without paying me was 2-1/2 months. It also took him a year to get me medical insurance.
But I'm a firm believer that if you follow your passion the money will follow. So...
I took the a job with him upon graduating 2 years ago. Some days good and some days bad. On the plus side he did write me an incredible letter of recommendation for grad school. So no complaints.
i had always wanted to work for my profs.... havn't convinced any of them to hire me yet...
Working for your profs has always sounded too weird for me ....like the disorder where kidnap victims fall in love with their kidnapper.
I don't love him....um just like him a lot.
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