I would be very surprised if you got more IDP categories filled in a large firm than in a small firm. Having worked at both, I can tell you that the range of responsibilities you are exposed to in a small firm is much, much wider than those in a large firm... especially where you are already feeling "anonymous." If you are anonymous, who is going to know what you need to learn, and make sure you get that part of your experience?

let me clarify about the idp issue - the smaller firm told me that a lot of what i would be doing is 3-d modeling / renderings / presentation work. the larger firm told me that they would make an effort to help me fullfill the full range of idp requirements, by exposing me to all aspects of the projects i encounter. whether this would really happen - i have my doubts...

I reiterate what I said.

In a small firm, you quickly become a jack of all trades. Whatever they said you'll be doing mostly, in my experience (if you want to) you can easily make yourself indispensable, and if you're willing to put in the hours you can learn whatever you want. You have much more individual attention and people caring about what you're learning.

well, that's good to know. as of now, i've only worked at one firm (the larger), so the dynamics of a small firm are pretty unfamiliar to me.

i agree with myriam. i havent worked coorporate, at least not architecture, but i have worked boutique. i got my hands into everything. i designed, did cds, boards for competitions, models, looked up codes for buildings that i helped design, spoke with engineers, blah blah...
though the money is good in the coorporate world, most of the time there is a lot more potential to learn in a boutique.

perhaps then, my real question is earn or learn?
(with the understanding that i plan on grad school 2-3 years from now)

yeah well, only you can answer that one buddy.

Hello, paging classic life questions...

"should i marry this girl?"
"should i have a kid?"
"do i need to earn money right now?"

only YOU know what your priorities are.

smoking crack helps you lose weight but smokin weed gets you to eat more....... this or that

i don't think its always an earn or learn dilemma.

i think it really depends on the firm. i've heard different things about different offices, and i guess it depends who you work with...

small offices can also be stifling... nowhere to move, pigeon holed in one thing if those people working above you are all very experienced jacks of all trades... there may be no possible avenues for lateral movement in a small firm with a few people and few projects... you can be stuck... the only place to move is out the door...

larger corporate firms, some do very interesting work... and the workplace can be more flexible, you may have opportunities to work on a wide variety of stuff, and meet tons of new people all the time, i would think it would be easier to get your idp hours in a large firm (i guess it depends on the firm)... but i wouldn't avoid large corporate thinking that the bigger paycheck always come at a price... what if the corporate office does better work, is more fun, gives you more opportunity, is more innovative, and also pays better and gives you better benefits?

firm culture is the thing to compare i think

thanks for the different perspective bRink.

I agree, it depends on the corporate firm, some are very good about getting their interns IPD, others aren't. You might ask if they have an IDP program set-up where you pick a mentor and they have someone keeping track of all the intern's IDP situations. The one advantage of being at a large firm is that often if you need to get hours in a different category you can find a project in the office that is in that phase, if the firm is good about IDP they should let you change projects with some advance notice. I'll admit that I have only worked corporate so my perspective on this is limited, just wanted to say that there are firms out there that are good about IDP, I think this is growing because firms realize a solid IDP program is a good way to attract employees.