any good stories of getting booted off of a job and landing a better one?
or did getting laid-off end your career in complete abject failure?
or have you ever delivered the news to somebody and have a good story to tell...
My first experience of this sort was back in '95 working for a starchitect in their model shop. My fancy undergrad degree from Knowleton (I was full of decon BS back in my youth) didn't gibe very well with crafting monopoly sized houses out of basswood. So five weeks into that experience, the office that will be nameless in this thread, had one of their periodic purges and let 7 of my compadre's and moi go. so no job, and the architect economy sucked. that began my film career. Maybe this was for the best.
i thought this was going to be about duct-taping down the spray button of a can of axe body spray, throwing it into someone's room while they're in it, and holding the door closed
The summer after my third year of school, I had a hard time finding work. I interviewed with one firm that said they really wanted me, but were waiting on a contract to come through, yada yada yada.... I took another job because I got tired of waiting on them. The other job paid shit for crap work, so when these guys called up with much higher pay and sparkly shiny high-end work midway through the next semester, I took the job in a heartbeat. One of my only questions before I accepted was "Will this position be full-time over next summer?" I didn't want to job hop tooooo much, and was afraid that three jobs in one year would look pretty bad. They said "yeah, of course!" so I took it.
Welll.... it turned out that it was a crappy job, so I started looking for something new in March, but wasn't having any luck, so I figured I had to stay anyway. The first week of my fulltime status hits, and my boss comes over and is like, "Hey, lets go out for coffee."
I don't drink coffee. He knows this. As he drinks coffee and I sit there uncomfortably, he explains that they aren't sure whether they have the workload to support me being fulltime for the summer, he'll have to talk about it with the other partner, and even if they do have the workload, they don't have the money so I'd have to take a serious paycut. He asks if I can handle this, and I say I need to think about it. We agree to talk the following Friday after we've both figured out what we need, and head back to the office. Shortly afterwards, he leaves for a meeting. I am immediately on the phone, have a temp job lined up for the next two weeks while I wait to hear from interviews I've gone on. I tell him as soon as he gets back, and greatly enjoy the stunned look on his face. Two days into my temp job, I've got a permanent job lined up.
Tk – I have a million stories…all experiences were positive and I've always landed a better position…yeah, it can be stressful when it happens but in the long run it usually makes you a stronger person.
I was booted from a cocktail server job. How bad do you have to be to be fired from a cocktail server job? Tee hee. I was told I couldn't stir the cocktail sauce to their satisfaction (long and funny story) - Ok, this was years ago while in college, but I left the job and received a management position at another company.
I was laid-off from the management position only to be hired back by the same company as a GM a few months later.
I was booted from the GM position – company clients heard about my situation and hired me as their consultant.
Consultant work fizzled (economic downturn- not much work) so I was laid-off – left, learned how to fly and obtained pilots license:)
I was also in a starchitect's model shop, slaving away as everyone should at least once in their life. I busted my ass for eight months, some weeks over 100 hours gettin' paid for 40. And when the boss had a moment to redeem all those cursed late nights, by just mentioning some of us shop guys when he giving a public lecture at his exhibition opening, chocker full of big badass models, he had only one person to thank, a dude that had nothing to do with the models.
I took a week vacation. Apparently there was a huge meeting during that vacation. I came back. I had a discussion with a middle dude who really runs the show, and I told him "Ya know, there is more to life than architecture"
A couple days later, I was laid off. I was pissed. For about a day. Then I went out and got a better paying job (there wasn't much worse I could do anyway) and eventually took off for a year in New Zealand, where there is A LOT more life than architecture.
i was asked by a foreign boss to do something that was really ridiculous and a bit demeaning. i handed him my keys and immediately got a job working in an irish pub. best 6 weeks of my life.
When my husband was forced out of his teaching job at a University he called the local hot rod shop that had done some emergency repair work on his Ranchero a few months previous. Was offered a job there that afternoon, it ended up being his absolute dream job.
Sadly I made him leave that job to come with me to the Midwest. But through contacts he made at the hot rod shop he now has an opportunity with a racing company that I'm not quite at liberty to divulge, yet.
As a youngster, I had a job assembling bikes at a sporting goods store. It came to an abrupt end when a customer took a bike (that I had assembled) for a test ride and did an end-o when the handlebars came loose.
I was working as a cashier at a big department store that ended up going out of business. We got word that we were all being canned about two months before the scheduled closing. My department manager (who was a really cool dude) just stopped showing up and we never heard from him again.
While finishing up my undergrad took a full-time job at an arch firm doing tenant development. I HATED IT. But the money was good. After getting cussed out by my boss for the second time I figured screw it I'm quiting. About an hour before I went upstairs to give my notice, the fool calls me upstairs and fires me. I had planned on having a very poor summer but ended up collecting unemployement and having a great summer.
i was fired from a work study job at indiana university fine arts library after showing up hung over and throwing up in the elevator on some books that were to be reshelved.
when i was in school i was interning for a small firm that had an office near where i grew up and one in downtown chitown... i had just gotten an apt. in bridgeport, and then the office decided it couldn't afford to keep the chicago office opened. and there was no way in hell i was going to go back and live with my parents... and mid semester, so it was difficult for me to muscle together a portfolio... i was at work on my last day till 9pm packing them into a moving truck. at the end of the night i got a handshake and a thank you... eh well, i got a decent job a couple months later and i'm still here... (not sure if that's good or bad.)
Is it me, or is vado the biggest slacker on the planet? He's got more posts on archinect, than anyone in the world. I hope his time here isnt getting charged to the client..............jk.
yÅm - i was in a fraternity in college and we used to get these free sample cans of Axe body spray...a 2'cubic box full of them about 200 or so...anyway we would terrorize the campus w/ these things - duct-taping down the nozzle and tossing it into the room like granade and hold down the door...toss them at the window into a crowd of kids going to the cafe...oh good times...
-anyway i think i suppose to talk about so crazy story...i walked out of my job that i held for a year. the day after i grad from college i walked into work expecting to start working 40+ hrs a week for the rest of the summer and start thinking about my future at this firm...maybe not, but i walk into work and imediatly i am called into the confrence room and it was explained to me that i would only be able to work 8 hrs a week for the rest of the summer untill work picked up again...they even selected a day for me that i would work...and even told me what time i would be taking lunch that day i worked...so i said ok and went back to my desk did a lil bit of work till lunch - went to lunch and never looked back- immediatly went to a friend of mines, solar installation company and got a job running a crew of about 2 or 3 installing panels on small homes making almost double of what i was making in the office
more recently i started a job at an arch. office - when i started i noticed that everyone this was everyone elses first day as well...except the architect - after getting to know some of the people in the office i realized they had no idea of how to use ACAD - they knew microstation and vectorcad or some shit like that - they graduated from UCLA and UC Berkeley - fuckin A man! - anyway i start to find out that i know more cad than the architect...keeps getting bettter and better. at this point i am running two projects, managing all the CAD problems, teaching the hole office CAD, and trying to keep my sainity while the architect is god knows where...but definatly not in the office...i think she spent about 8 hrs in the office a day w/ 3-4 nebies running her office...i started looking for another job...found one...gave my 2 weeks...and the architect offerd me $2500 bonus and a raise to $55,000 a year if i would stay ... it may sound crazy but i didnt care - i had to get the fuk out. and i was only making 50,000 at the new job i took. But i love my new job ...so glad i did this
i lost a job by accident. i had taken a leave of absence after 9 yrs of working there. had worked it out in advance with the partners and with the understanding that i could/would come back at a certain date.
but then sometime during the period i was out, the office thought that maybe i had changed my mind and they hired someone to fill my place. when i called to talk to them about starting back to work at the originally-stated time, they were shocked and said that they no longer had a job for me.
i've always suspected that i was actually fired/laid off, just in a very passive/aggressive way, but people in the office (still friends) say they have never understood this to be the case. i guess i'll never know.
guess you shoulda got that in writing. seems as though that's
something you could sue for if you were so inclined...at least
so you could've gotten unemployment.
the only time i've ever gotten laid off i had a job within a half
hour... i called a firm i'd interviewed with already and accepted a
job. ever since then i've quit before it got to the point where i
could/should be fired/laid off. it was a good lesson to learn..
never stay at a job if it's making you unhappy or you're stalled.
when i was a soph. in highschool i worked for a fancy country club in my home town of olathe, ks... it was a fantastic job and i loved it... pay was bad but i got as much free golf as i wanted. i worked hard and often...
The pro who normally hired the cart kids was always angry at me; held me in contempt because his boss had hired me and perhaps he was jealous of my relationship with his boss, or perhaps he was just an ass hole controll freak.
Anyway, after almost 1 1/2 years of working their part time during the year and full time during the summer, i show up 45 min late for my shift through little fault of my own... no harm done, i had been delayed when i had to drop my mom off at work and the other guy working had handled it in my absense... wasnt busy, everything was fine... or so i thought.
I come in 2 days later on my next shift and the pro pulls me aside... not in his office, or to a corner... just to the side of the desk in the pro shop and begins questioning me.
"LLETDOWNL, where were you yesterday?" he says loudly, a few members turned to watch me be scolded
"You were almost an hour late for your shift while jason was frantically covering for your irresponsibility"
me: "my mom needed a ride to work because her car is having trou..."
pro: "Our members demand responsible employees, and being hours late for a shift is unacceptable... "
and then, SMILING, he says
"Im afraid you are no longer needed here, thank you for coming in on time today"
Lesson learned: somehow, it's more acceptable to be 10 minutes late every single day, than to be normally punctual but 45 minutes late once in a year and a half...
Jeez, lletdownl, that's an awful story. And yeah - what kind of prick dresses down a 15 year old in public like that? Talk about insecurities - what a little prick!
got a letter from the state 'asking' me to drop by the friendly unemployment office for an assessment next week. included was a questionnaire to help on my job search by identifying strengths and weaknesses. So far the biggest obstacle to finding a new job is the city I'm in- there is no work for a green designer around here.
I'm starting to spread my net much wider and will now be submitting my resume to boston, new york, los angeles and san fran- since that's where all the jobs seem to be that need my skilz.
Hey, if you have any suggestions on firms that are under the radar on being green, but really are- please let me know!!!
1st year in college (freshman year of 5-year BArch), I attended several fraternity rush parties. Lots of fun, but I never joined a fraternity. At one house though, met a guy, talked about being in architecture school and found out that this guy's uncle was the managing partner in a well-respected local architecture firm. The guy asks me if I would like to do some Saturday work at the firm during the semester...without pay, of course. Well hell, I was all wide-eyed and said "sure." He arranges for me to go to the firm the next Saturday. I show up as agreed. This is literally the first time I ever set foot in an architecture office. I meet the partner and we have a pleasant chat. He then assigns an underling to show me how to run prints (yes, the old diazo machine with amonia bottles pumps and rubber hoses - this was many years ago). He runs a few prints to show me how its done. Okay, easy enough. He leaves and I start running several sets of prints from a huge pile of mylar originals (drawings of an historic opera house renovation). I run prints for quite awhile and then I get light-headed from the amonia. I don't quit, however. All of a sudden the amonia smell is truly overpowering and the machince shuts down in mid-print. I go get the underling for help. He comes in and spends 15 minutes or so cursing under his breath and trying to figure out how to get the machine working again. Raw amonia is actually running out of the machine and pooling on the floor. He fails. The partner comes in and I am sent home, never to be called again.
To this day I do not believe I had anything to do with the machine breaking down. I think I was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. But, my first architecture job ended about 3 hours after it started. Upon graduation five years later, I was still afraid to even apply for a job at that office.
This is a bit off topic.. but what the hell. The following is related to bad work environment behavior.
During a job interview for a teaching job at a prestigious arc school, the head of the college had his feet up on his desk (pointed directly at my face) for the entire interview. Would this be a macho show of power, or simply clueless behavior?
you're supposed to bitch-slap his shoes off the desk so you can look him in the eye, thus preserving your dominance over his petty ego and securing a job at said uni.
Geez killer, didn't you just move to MN, and already giving up? I commend you on your committment to green design, but more expected you to be the type that would go into a firm and steer it in that direction. I think even in places like Boston, NYC, LA the vast majority of firms wouldn't be considered "green."
I've always worked in corporate offices that did what the client wanted over pushing any kind of personal agenda. Still, not one employer of mine, past or present, doesn't have at least a couple LEED projects under their belt. Your mantra is coming to fruition...even here in flyover country. Just be patient.
aqua, he tried steering, only when steering the firm, the new leadership opened the door and showed him the exit. assholish behavior at that, would never go there, and would suggest people stay away from there.
I accused a client of possibly being a terrorist or knowing about a terrorist plot in front of my boss; didnt go over well since they were both Italian. Amazingly this was b4 911 so I couldnt use that as an excuse. Needless to say, end of job.
if I can't even get my foot in the door, then I have no chance at getting near the steering wheel... the pickings in this part of the world are very slim - do I want to do healthcare (and you know how green that is) or do I want to do suburban sprawl? if you check the jobs page - there are NO recent listings for this part of the world - the local AIA has a few cad monkey postings each week, and the local ASLA has less then one listing per month - last one was for a student gis operator and I interviewed at the one other place...
while in beantown, one firm has 3 openings that I qualify and am interested in, there are 5 NYC openings, and a dozen in CA? so if we're planning on getting out of dodge as soon as mrs. tk finishes her fellowship - why not start getting out sooner?
ok, there are few local architecture jobs (though I'd rather be doing landscape or planning) that intrigue me but I'm not an RA yet
just landed an interview tomorrow thanks to my headhunter!!!! thank you c!
this is a firm that hasn't been advertising and not on my sustainability radar, but still it's a design/planning opportunity
the place is not green per say, but since all the work is in asia, there is a big attempt to not go the US route of over lighting, over cooling, and being just too darn big. the biggest problem of tK working for this design firm (no dd or cd in the house) is that my quest for registration gets placed on hold. Won't earn any of the IDP credits needed or get the required year working under a LA.
i'd get to work on some strange and huge projects (tallest building in the world type projects) on the other side of the planet with an international cast of colleagues. this firm says that they need to double or triple in size over the next year to keep up with demand for their services.
I mentioned my desire to design eco-cities, and their eyes lit up.
if an offer is made, this will be a hard decision, though not because I have other options.
I'm glad it went well, and it definitely sounds interesting, and like a place where eco-cities might be able to happen. Or at least eco-villages. Did you ask them whether in their doubling or tripling of staff there might be an LA brought on board?
r- that's a great question that I didn't ask, but did think of. They have a unique corporate structure with about 3 dozen firms around the world being part of their 'consortium' and there are a couple landscape firms as members. didn't ask how they divide up profits or if the consortium is just a fancy way of aligning up consultants. If they do grow, then they will need to add a few more senior managers, so there is great growth potential there compared to the typical stagnant mid-west firms that i've also interviewed at recently.
Lots of questions still to be asked... I'll wait till they make an offer.
Hey Beta, you wanna jump ship? oh, maybe I should wait till I get a desk and then can get a referral bonus.
Jun 15, 07 3:12 pm ·
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axed!
any good stories of getting booted off of a job and landing a better one?
or did getting laid-off end your career in complete abject failure?
or have you ever delivered the news to somebody and have a good story to tell...
My first experience of this sort was back in '95 working for a starchitect in their model shop. My fancy undergrad degree from Knowleton (I was full of decon BS back in my youth) didn't gibe very well with crafting monopoly sized houses out of basswood. So five weeks into that experience, the office that will be nameless in this thread, had one of their periodic purges and let 7 of my compadre's and moi go. so no job, and the architect economy sucked. that began my film career. Maybe this was for the best.
treekiller,
did you have a belt sander???
i thought this was going to be about duct-taping down the spray button of a can of axe body spray, throwing it into someone's room while they're in it, and holding the door closed
i got fired from a volunteer postition in indonesia, politics man!
The summer after my third year of school, I had a hard time finding work. I interviewed with one firm that said they really wanted me, but were waiting on a contract to come through, yada yada yada.... I took another job because I got tired of waiting on them. The other job paid shit for crap work, so when these guys called up with much higher pay and sparkly shiny high-end work midway through the next semester, I took the job in a heartbeat. One of my only questions before I accepted was "Will this position be full-time over next summer?" I didn't want to job hop tooooo much, and was afraid that three jobs in one year would look pretty bad. They said "yeah, of course!" so I took it.
Welll.... it turned out that it was a crappy job, so I started looking for something new in March, but wasn't having any luck, so I figured I had to stay anyway. The first week of my fulltime status hits, and my boss comes over and is like, "Hey, lets go out for coffee."
I don't drink coffee. He knows this. As he drinks coffee and I sit there uncomfortably, he explains that they aren't sure whether they have the workload to support me being fulltime for the summer, he'll have to talk about it with the other partner, and even if they do have the workload, they don't have the money so I'd have to take a serious paycut. He asks if I can handle this, and I say I need to think about it. We agree to talk the following Friday after we've both figured out what we need, and head back to the office. Shortly afterwards, he leaves for a meeting. I am immediately on the phone, have a temp job lined up for the next two weeks while I wait to hear from interviews I've gone on. I tell him as soon as he gets back, and greatly enjoy the stunned look on his face. Two days into my temp job, I've got a permanent job lined up.
Tk – I have a million stories…all experiences were positive and I've always landed a better position…yeah, it can be stressful when it happens but in the long run it usually makes you a stronger person.
I was booted from a cocktail server job. How bad do you have to be to be fired from a cocktail server job? Tee hee. I was told I couldn't stir the cocktail sauce to their satisfaction (long and funny story) - Ok, this was years ago while in college, but I left the job and received a management position at another company.
I was laid-off from the management position only to be hired back by the same company as a GM a few months later.
I was booted from the GM position – company clients heard about my situation and hired me as their consultant.
Consultant work fizzled (economic downturn- not much work) so I was laid-off – left, learned how to fly and obtained pilots license:)
It's all good…
I was also in a starchitect's model shop, slaving away as everyone should at least once in their life. I busted my ass for eight months, some weeks over 100 hours gettin' paid for 40. And when the boss had a moment to redeem all those cursed late nights, by just mentioning some of us shop guys when he giving a public lecture at his exhibition opening, chocker full of big badass models, he had only one person to thank, a dude that had nothing to do with the models.
I took a week vacation. Apparently there was a huge meeting during that vacation. I came back. I had a discussion with a middle dude who really runs the show, and I told him "Ya know, there is more to life than architecture"
A couple days later, I was laid off. I was pissed. For about a day. Then I went out and got a better paying job (there wasn't much worse I could do anyway) and eventually took off for a year in New Zealand, where there is A LOT more life than architecture.
i was asked by a foreign boss to do something that was really ridiculous and a bit demeaning. i handed him my keys and immediately got a job working in an irish pub. best 6 weeks of my life.
When my husband was forced out of his teaching job at a University he called the local hot rod shop that had done some emergency repair work on his Ranchero a few months previous. Was offered a job there that afternoon, it ended up being his absolute dream job.
Sadly I made him leave that job to come with me to the Midwest. But through contacts he made at the hot rod shop he now has an opportunity with a racing company that I'm not quite at liberty to divulge, yet.
As a youngster, I had a job assembling bikes at a sporting goods store. It came to an abrupt end when a customer took a bike (that I had assembled) for a test ride and did an end-o when the handlebars came loose.
Fired on the spot, in front of the customer.
lb
I have a desire to build me a hotrod...tumbles gets to ride shotgun
I was working as a cashier at a big department store that ended up going out of business. We got word that we were all being canned about two months before the scheduled closing. My department manager (who was a really cool dude) just stopped showing up and we never heard from him again.
While finishing up my undergrad took a full-time job at an arch firm doing tenant development. I HATED IT. But the money was good. After getting cussed out by my boss for the second time I figured screw it I'm quiting. About an hour before I went upstairs to give my notice, the fool calls me upstairs and fires me. I had planned on having a very poor summer but ended up collecting unemployement and having a great summer.
i was fired from a work study job at indiana university fine arts library after showing up hung over and throwing up in the elevator on some books that were to be reshelved.
tumbles
Im gonna kick your ass
no...
if in fact you are Vado, then you will probably kick my ass...
when i was in school i was interning for a small firm that had an office near where i grew up and one in downtown chitown... i had just gotten an apt. in bridgeport, and then the office decided it couldn't afford to keep the chicago office opened. and there was no way in hell i was going to go back and live with my parents... and mid semester, so it was difficult for me to muscle together a portfolio... i was at work on my last day till 9pm packing them into a moving truck. at the end of the night i got a handshake and a thank you... eh well, i got a decent job a couple months later and i'm still here... (not sure if that's good or bad.)
Is it me, or is vado the biggest slacker on the planet? He's got more posts on archinect, than anyone in the world. I hope his time here isnt getting charged to the client..............jk.
it's just you.
yÅm - i was in a fraternity in college and we used to get these free sample cans of Axe body spray...a 2'cubic box full of them about 200 or so...anyway we would terrorize the campus w/ these things - duct-taping down the nozzle and tossing it into the room like granade and hold down the door...toss them at the window into a crowd of kids going to the cafe...oh good times...
-anyway i think i suppose to talk about so crazy story...i walked out of my job that i held for a year. the day after i grad from college i walked into work expecting to start working 40+ hrs a week for the rest of the summer and start thinking about my future at this firm...maybe not, but i walk into work and imediatly i am called into the confrence room and it was explained to me that i would only be able to work 8 hrs a week for the rest of the summer untill work picked up again...they even selected a day for me that i would work...and even told me what time i would be taking lunch that day i worked...so i said ok and went back to my desk did a lil bit of work till lunch - went to lunch and never looked back- immediatly went to a friend of mines, solar installation company and got a job running a crew of about 2 or 3 installing panels on small homes making almost double of what i was making in the office
more recently i started a job at an arch. office - when i started i noticed that everyone this was everyone elses first day as well...except the architect - after getting to know some of the people in the office i realized they had no idea of how to use ACAD - they knew microstation and vectorcad or some shit like that - they graduated from UCLA and UC Berkeley - fuckin A man! - anyway i start to find out that i know more cad than the architect...keeps getting bettter and better. at this point i am running two projects, managing all the CAD problems, teaching the hole office CAD, and trying to keep my sainity while the architect is god knows where...but definatly not in the office...i think she spent about 8 hrs in the office a day w/ 3-4 nebies running her office...i started looking for another job...found one...gave my 2 weeks...and the architect offerd me $2500 bonus and a raise to $55,000 a year if i would stay ... it may sound crazy but i didnt care - i had to get the fuk out. and i was only making 50,000 at the new job i took. But i love my new job ...so glad i did this
i meant she spent 8 hrs a WEEK in the office
i lost a job by accident. i had taken a leave of absence after 9 yrs of working there. had worked it out in advance with the partners and with the understanding that i could/would come back at a certain date.
but then sometime during the period i was out, the office thought that maybe i had changed my mind and they hired someone to fill my place. when i called to talk to them about starting back to work at the originally-stated time, they were shocked and said that they no longer had a job for me.
i've always suspected that i was actually fired/laid off, just in a very passive/aggressive way, but people in the office (still friends) say they have never understood this to be the case. i guess i'll never know.
guess you shoulda got that in writing. seems as though that's
something you could sue for if you were so inclined...at least
so you could've gotten unemployment.
the only time i've ever gotten laid off i had a job within a half
hour... i called a firm i'd interviewed with already and accepted a
job. ever since then i've quit before it got to the point where i
could/should be fired/laid off. it was a good lesson to learn..
never stay at a job if it's making you unhappy or you're stalled.
An upper decker got traced back to me, say la vee.
when i was a soph. in highschool i worked for a fancy country club in my home town of olathe, ks... it was a fantastic job and i loved it... pay was bad but i got as much free golf as i wanted. i worked hard and often...
The pro who normally hired the cart kids was always angry at me; held me in contempt because his boss had hired me and perhaps he was jealous of my relationship with his boss, or perhaps he was just an ass hole controll freak.
Anyway, after almost 1 1/2 years of working their part time during the year and full time during the summer, i show up 45 min late for my shift through little fault of my own... no harm done, i had been delayed when i had to drop my mom off at work and the other guy working had handled it in my absense... wasnt busy, everything was fine... or so i thought.
I come in 2 days later on my next shift and the pro pulls me aside... not in his office, or to a corner... just to the side of the desk in the pro shop and begins questioning me.
"LLETDOWNL, where were you yesterday?" he says loudly, a few members turned to watch me be scolded
"You were almost an hour late for your shift while jason was frantically covering for your irresponsibility"
me: "my mom needed a ride to work because her car is having trou..."
pro: "Our members demand responsible employees, and being hours late for a shift is unacceptable... "
and then, SMILING, he says
"Im afraid you are no longer needed here, thank you for coming in on time today"
i was 15... what an ass that guy was...
Lesson learned: somehow, it's more acceptable to be 10 minutes late every single day, than to be normally punctual but 45 minutes late once in a year and a half...
haha yeah... he was just looking for a reason to fire me...
and it worked out, i got a job at a toyota dealership making 12$ an hour...
at 16 i was earning only a few dollars an hour less than i do now with a b.arch at a reputible firm... what a world eh?
Jeez, lletdownl, that's an awful story. And yeah - what kind of prick dresses down a 15 year old in public like that? Talk about insecurities - what a little prick!
an update on my unemployment:
got a letter from the state 'asking' me to drop by the friendly unemployment office for an assessment next week. included was a questionnaire to help on my job search by identifying strengths and weaknesses. So far the biggest obstacle to finding a new job is the city I'm in- there is no work for a green designer around here.
I'm starting to spread my net much wider and will now be submitting my resume to boston, new york, los angeles and san fran- since that's where all the jobs seem to be that need my skilz.
Hey, if you have any suggestions on firms that are under the radar on being green, but really are- please let me know!!!
1st year in college (freshman year of 5-year BArch), I attended several fraternity rush parties. Lots of fun, but I never joined a fraternity. At one house though, met a guy, talked about being in architecture school and found out that this guy's uncle was the managing partner in a well-respected local architecture firm. The guy asks me if I would like to do some Saturday work at the firm during the semester...without pay, of course. Well hell, I was all wide-eyed and said "sure." He arranges for me to go to the firm the next Saturday. I show up as agreed. This is literally the first time I ever set foot in an architecture office. I meet the partner and we have a pleasant chat. He then assigns an underling to show me how to run prints (yes, the old diazo machine with amonia bottles pumps and rubber hoses - this was many years ago). He runs a few prints to show me how its done. Okay, easy enough. He leaves and I start running several sets of prints from a huge pile of mylar originals (drawings of an historic opera house renovation). I run prints for quite awhile and then I get light-headed from the amonia. I don't quit, however. All of a sudden the amonia smell is truly overpowering and the machince shuts down in mid-print. I go get the underling for help. He comes in and spends 15 minutes or so cursing under his breath and trying to figure out how to get the machine working again. Raw amonia is actually running out of the machine and pooling on the floor. He fails. The partner comes in and I am sent home, never to be called again.
To this day I do not believe I had anything to do with the machine breaking down. I think I was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. But, my first architecture job ended about 3 hours after it started. Upon graduation five years later, I was still afraid to even apply for a job at that office.
"....Don't stop believing! Hold on to that feeeelingggga!!!!"
This is a bit off topic.. but what the hell. The following is related to bad work environment behavior.
During a job interview for a teaching job at a prestigious arc school, the head of the college had his feet up on his desk (pointed directly at my face) for the entire interview. Would this be a macho show of power, or simply clueless behavior?
how about asshole behavior, uh yeah, i mean macho behavior....it must have been Sci-Arc, right?
No Moss it was not. But it's gratifying to hear that I wasn't being overly sensitive.
sarah, it's a test of character.
you're supposed to bitch-slap his shoes off the desk so you can look him in the eye, thus preserving your dominance over his petty ego and securing a job at said uni.
Geez killer, didn't you just move to MN, and already giving up? I commend you on your committment to green design, but more expected you to be the type that would go into a firm and steer it in that direction. I think even in places like Boston, NYC, LA the vast majority of firms wouldn't be considered "green."
I've always worked in corporate offices that did what the client wanted over pushing any kind of personal agenda. Still, not one employer of mine, past or present, doesn't have at least a couple LEED projects under their belt. Your mantra is coming to fruition...even here in flyover country. Just be patient.
aqua, he tried steering, only when steering the firm, the new leadership opened the door and showed him the exit. assholish behavior at that, would never go there, and would suggest people stay away from there.
I accused a client of possibly being a terrorist or knowing about a terrorist plot in front of my boss; didnt go over well since they were both Italian. Amazingly this was b4 911 so I couldnt use that as an excuse. Needless to say, end of job.
Aqua-
if I can't even get my foot in the door, then I have no chance at getting near the steering wheel... the pickings in this part of the world are very slim - do I want to do healthcare (and you know how green that is) or do I want to do suburban sprawl? if you check the jobs page - there are NO recent listings for this part of the world - the local AIA has a few cad monkey postings each week, and the local ASLA has less then one listing per month - last one was for a student gis operator and I interviewed at the one other place...
while in beantown, one firm has 3 openings that I qualify and am interested in, there are 5 NYC openings, and a dozen in CA? so if we're planning on getting out of dodge as soon as mrs. tk finishes her fellowship - why not start getting out sooner?
ok, there are few local architecture jobs (though I'd rather be doing landscape or planning) that intrigue me but I'm not an RA yet
just landed an interview tomorrow thanks to my headhunter!!!! thank you c!
this is a firm that hasn't been advertising and not on my sustainability radar, but still it's a design/planning opportunity
the interview was interesting, interesting.
the place is not green per say, but since all the work is in asia, there is a big attempt to not go the US route of over lighting, over cooling, and being just too darn big. the biggest problem of tK working for this design firm (no dd or cd in the house) is that my quest for registration gets placed on hold. Won't earn any of the IDP credits needed or get the required year working under a LA.
i'd get to work on some strange and huge projects (tallest building in the world type projects) on the other side of the planet with an international cast of colleagues. this firm says that they need to double or triple in size over the next year to keep up with demand for their services.
I mentioned my desire to design eco-cities, and their eyes lit up.
if an offer is made, this will be a hard decision, though not because I have other options.
I'm glad it went well, and it definitely sounds interesting, and like a place where eco-cities might be able to happen. Or at least eco-villages. Did you ask them whether in their doubling or tripling of staff there might be an LA brought on board?
r- that's a great question that I didn't ask, but did think of. They have a unique corporate structure with about 3 dozen firms around the world being part of their 'consortium' and there are a couple landscape firms as members. didn't ask how they divide up profits or if the consortium is just a fancy way of aligning up consultants. If they do grow, then they will need to add a few more senior managers, so there is great growth potential there compared to the typical stagnant mid-west firms that i've also interviewed at recently.
Lots of questions still to be asked... I'll wait till they make an offer.
Hey Beta, you wanna jump ship? oh, maybe I should wait till I get a desk and then can get a referral bonus.
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