It would make my life alot easier and make you more likely to get an interview if you:
1. Put your name on every page of your portfolio. I get 50 emails a day from job seekers and print out (BW) the best ones for an Associate Architect to review. If he likes one he will ask me to forward the original portfolio. If you do not have your name on every page there is a huge chance your work will not get stapled to your resume.
2. Don't use some ultra cool/unusual layout with panoramic vistas or other strange sizes. These print out tiny on 8.5 x 11 pages and lose all impact.
3. I specifically ask for PDF or Jpgs, if you send another format it probably won't work. If you make me visit your website or download something there is a big chance it won't work or won't print well. Send 2 pdfs along with the link to your site.
4. There comes a point when a portfolio is just too big. Some people send over 50 pages. This is boring and dilutes your best work. We are not reviewing your thesis, we want to see a selection of amazing work. This can usually be accomplished in under a dozen pages and often in under 5. Bring your whole giant portfolio to the interview but don't email it to me.
5. Don't try to personalize your cover letter but forget to change the name of the firm you sent it to before. You are better off not personalizing the letter at all.
6. Use spell check. The Associate won't even see your portfolio if it doesn't get past me.
This advice is rudimentary, but many obviously smart candidates do not present themselves in the smartest way.
Marketing architecture is still vastly an 8.5 x 11 world. RFPs and RFQs and award submissions are often required in this size, if your work only looks great as an 80 inch panoramic you are in trouble. Bring something in an unusual size to your interview but the pdfs just look like gimics to me. Its hard to view on the computer screen and even harder to print. I am not saying only use 8.5 x 11 but makes sure it looks good on a computer screen and a standard size print - portrait or landscape.
I'm with ces on this - the first rule of business is to respect your customers and cater to their needs. If you're looking for work, treat your prospective employer as a customer.
Make it easy for them to view your credentials and handle your materials. I've said it here before - candidates aren't the center of our universe. If you make it hard for us to review your stuff, we're likely to ignore you altogether.
Does this bother anyone else that the first person to see your resume, and who decides if you make the "first cut", is someone withdrawn from the architecture field.
It scares me that things like unpersonalised cover letters and where your name is at the top of your resume might keep you from getting an interview.
I am not saying that "ces" does not have architectural experience. I am just speaking from experience. I feel like some offices I have worked in have let some very talented people slip away because they don't even get an interview.
Every single tip on the above checklist doesn't have anything to do with you being a valuable addition to an office.
"I feel like some offices I have worked in have let some very talented people slip away because they don't even get an interview."
Bluesman - another way of looking at this would be "I feel like many qualified candidates have let some very interesting jobs slip away because their submittals were so complicated they don't even get an interview."
Firms worth working at just don't have the time to wade through byzantine submittals, searching for gems of a candidate's brilliance.
There's no point fighting this - if you want the job, keep it simple. What's the point of shooting yourself in the foot?
"My material looks best rendered as interpretive dance."
Yeah, my material conveys pretty well that way too. But I like to call the firm first and make sure that their conference room can accommodate my dance. When it's too small, and when dancing in the parking lot or on the roof is seasonally inappropriate, then I usually perform a dramatic monologue of my portfolio. If I sense that the interviewer's interest is flagging I break out the puppets.
"and if I have to follow the letter size, I lost my chance to present my talent on size personalization...."
Since size personalization is such a critical, highly sought skill in architecture firms, and competition is so fierce what with all the grads coming out of school these days with co-op experience in that area, I make a point of bringing up my undergrad independent study of (and subsequent independent publishing of my four-part treatise on) Personlization of Size in Post Super-Size Culture.
Also reformatting my resume onto a series of nesting russian dolls immediately resulted in more interviews, and using Zazzle.com to put my resume on postage stamps resulted in a 13.2% increase in response rate.
I've got to say that "talent on size personalization" sounds like a crock of bull. Anybody can make something differently sized, and it's how you work within the layout space that shows any talent or lack thereof. I know that I generally advocate against 8.5x11 because it's such an inelegant proportion, but when it has a purpose it has a purpose, and choosing to use something else isn't "talent", it's just a choice.
And Xing, for a resume 1 page is the generally accepted length. Once you are old and have decades of experience under your belt you can expand, but the exercise of editing yourself down to one page is a telling one.
My job postings are simple, straight forward, and specific. If you can't follow instructions perhaps you are not the best candidate for our office.
Many of the resumes/portfolios I pass along have some of the problems I mentioned and I think it's a shame.
I want you to be creative and passionate, which you can be without misspelling your own name or giving me files that cause my computer to crash.
Clients are a hell of alot more demanding than the first level of HR. I would say kick ass renderings and signs that you will work well with clients are among the top most important things we look for.
I went to art school and have worked in Marketing/Management in A&E for 10 years. But yes many HR people you need to filter through do not have a creative background.
you know, the tricky thing is the letter size would not allow you put more information on each sheet. And for one dam-good project presentation, you have to expand them into 5-7 sheets. as most firms want to see at least five best jobs of your portfolio, that is too much.
I am not saying the 8.5x11 is too small, but consider the wide 17" monitor is so popular in most offices because it is getting cheaper, perhaps it is not a bad idea to layout it by the size like 11"x17" size? to fully used the screen space and fit it. that could be more information on each sheet, and less sheet amount you would end up.
and rationalist, appreciate for the resume suggestion. I would talk to my resume see how many sheet he wants to be regarding to my "old" age....
I thought everyone by now would have a high resolution 17" monitor, and while some do, they don't know how to set the screen resolution that high, effectively down at a lower resolution with a bigger screen. I set my online portfolio up for something comparably scaled to 11x17. Now look up at the top of your browser, see all those extra tool bars - they take up screen space and crowd out the 11x17 aspect ratio. When I watched every one of the interviewers view my portfolio in a browser they went to the first page and didn't scroll down to hit the next page button. It looked ok on my browser and screen resolution but when they viewed it in 1024x760 resolution with all their browser tool bars, they never even turned the page! Now I scaled it down to 800x600 dpi which is sad but it will print on an 8.5x11 (landscape or portrait) and view on any screen.
"I thought everyone by now would have a high resolution 17" monitor."
More often true in the studio than in the administrative offices where your resume starts. Hell, even Principals in many firms don't have the good hardware - that goes to the fancy graphics lovers. The people who screen resumes mostly use computers to view text and numbers and surf the web. That doesn't warrant large, high-rez monitors in most cases. Keep that in mind when you send stuff electronically.
The only way you can be sure your stuff will appear as you intend is to send printed paper.
Remember - while first appearances are important, when job hunting first appearances only need to get you past the gatekeeper. what you want is an interview - you can wow them with high-rez images and dense content then. Prior to that, dense content and large image files only harm your chances.
Remember - while first appearances are important, when job hunting first appearances only need to get you past the gatekeeper. what you want is an interview - you can wow them with high-rez images and dense content then. Prior to that, dense content and large image files only harm your chances.
90% agree, but when condering foreignal job hunting, we still need a bunch of good representation sheets, detailed and nice.
no disrespect.... but i had a few "issues" with 2 hr people at 1 firm in detroit that really dropped the ball........
went through the process....had the interviews...... filled out the applications/etc...... was told i would receive a letter..... waited....called them a few times to check in........ found out from a friend in the firm that the job was "cancelled" or some b.s. like that..... but the thing that got me was that the 2 hr folks there had no balls to call me to tell me that the position was gone...yeah right...... from emails to phone calls to 3 people and still no response......... that's not good for PR work if you ask me......
good design is good design whether intended for the hr person, the principal, or just your everyday fancy graphics lover. the reason why 8.5 x 11 works is not necessarily because of how it is viewed on screen, but because most resumes and work samples will be printed on 8.5 x 11 by the hr person. let's say you think you have a great presentation on 11 x 17 landscape. if you are lucky, the hr person will rotate the pdf to landscape, but still print it on 8.5 x 11. if you are unlucky, the hr person will print on 8.5 x 11 portrait, i.e. your beautiful 11 x 17 layout will be a tiny horizontal band centered in the middle of the page. all of which is to say that this is not about limiting creativity, but understanding how information is received.
jafidler is correct that your material has a good chance of being in printed form by the time it makes it to the person/people who actually do the hiring. In fact it's likely to be in printed and photocopied form by then.
Most firms I know that are larger than 5 or 6 people have somebody (usually an office manager, other secretarial person, or mid-level intern/designer) whose role it is to do initial screening of applicants and then distribute resumes and other materials of the suitable candidates to the principals or managers or whoever it is who does actual interviewing and hiring. This is often done by printing and xeroxing resumes (sometimes without any portfolio parts or cover letters other attachments that might have been submitted by the applicant) and distributing to in-boxes. This is one of the reasons that I strongly advise leaving all photos, thumbnail drawings, etc. off the resume itself - because if it can't stand up to third generation photocopying then it may do more harm than good.) It's also not a good idea to use colored text (or white text on a colored background) because when printed and photocopied it may not be dark enough.
Also: even if the firm distributes your material by email to the higher-ups who do the hiring, or if the principals themselves receive and review all digital submittals, they're still usually going to print out your resume to have in front of them when they sit down with you at an interview, or to review right before it. I've had a few interviews with candidates who have been a little flustered to discover that their resume that I have in my hands has printed out all mis-formatted and weird because I didn't necessarily use the paper layout, printing methodology, software, etc. that they might have intended.
Also, this idea that you should be sending the firm five good projects before you even have an interview seems like huge overkill for most firms. Five good projects would be a decent sized portfoio to present in an interview. It might even be too much (often interviewers will ask you to talk about just your one or two best or favorite projects). But five projects sent as teasers with your resume is too many unless the firm specifically asked for that many. Two or three good images - from just one to three good projects - are plenty.
In grad school we had this pro-practice class in which an HR worker from a large firm came and gave us this same general advice. I followed all of this advice and got a lot of solid offers.
Not sure about putting your name on every page of the actual physical portfolio but definitely on the PDF work samples document.
and make sure your reference will give you a good reference! I once called someone who said:
"I can't believe he gave you my name as a reference!! We got rid of him because we thought he was stealing from us!"
And just last week, someone used me as a reference without asking first. It was a guy who was here for two weeks from a temp agency, and we asked the agency to take him back because we thought he had some kind of a drug problem- he spent way too much time in the parking lot and in the bathroom, and was jittery, could not concentrate on his work.
Yikes, way NOT to get the job.
And if you worked somewhere and you do NOT use them as a reference, chances are the HR person will call that firm and ask about you. So don't lie about why you left. If you say you were laid off, and I call and they say they let you go because you missed too many days, then even if I felt I could work around that, I can't work with a liar.
Other pet peeves: you leave me a voice mail, and do not leave your phone number so I can call back. Do you expect me to dig out your resume from the pile of a hundred and find your number?
Last week I had a woman come in for an interview. 12 years of experience as a draftsperson who worked her way up. She brought in glossy photos of 2 projects, not drawings, nothing else. On the other hand, I have had young interns out of school for a couple of years bring in their sketches of Florence, school projects, high school sculpture projects, and not one sample of anything they did during their work experience. Employers generally want to see both- what you can do of a technical nature as well as your design skills.
Oh, and then there was the interior designer recent school grad who brought in a set of construction documents she did as a student, complete with all the redmarks of the errors marked up by her professor. Couldn't she have fixed them and reprinted?
yeah i never understood young architects thinking they are above conforming to simple application requirements
every single student who graduates has a ton of work that he/she thinks is awesome and the best ever and "needs" to be seen on 10 different sheets, all perfectly square
why should a firm have to sort through all of these
if you think you are too good to actually take the time to condense your work into something that can be read in 2 minutes by someone who is busy with other work, then you should not be surprised if you dont get called in for an interview
at the interview, bring in your full scale model of whatever brilliance you have done, but the resume and sample work should be quick and to the point
you arent coming in to run the firm or be the head designer your first day, lets not act like your school projects are the greatest pieces of architecture never built
it shows disrespect to a firm if you do not follow their simple application guidelines
I mean there are a few firms out there who are willing to subscribe to the "I'm too cool for school" attitude but in a vast majority of them, it would never fly.
For example, I remember when interviewing I took the HR person's advice to always overdress -- wearing a suit and tie and all that and sure enough most of the actual offices had no strict dress code -- some people were wearing jeans tee shirts on a weekday.
But just like all case it's the first impression that makes the biggest impact.
I think what happens sometimes is that fresh grads go on an interview or two with that resume with the designy layout that they agonized over for weeks, and the portfolio that's short on experience but long on graphic design/layout effort - and they get compliments like "very nice portfolio" and "this is one of the better resumes we've seen lately" - and they take this to heart. And then they go home and tell their friends and their favorite online forums that potential employers really value unique page sizes, etc.
But listen up new grads: interviewers say those things to almost every person they interview. It doesn't mean they all get the job. In fact it doesn't mean much of anything. Those are interview niceties, that's all.
And then the new grads get hired, and the boss puts them on some graphic designy project, like laying out boards for competitions and AIA awards - and tells the new grad it's because they have so much brilliant graphic/layout ability. And the new grad believes that. The reality is they get assigned to those things because their hourly rate is lowest, so it costs the firm the least to put them on the non-billable tasks - and anyway they don't have enough experience to detail a stair. But the employer knows he'll get better cooperation if he says "I'm giving you this task because you're great at layout" than if he says "I'm giving you this because you cost the least, and anyway you don't know how to do anything else."
It's a lot like when a contractor tells an architect "this is the nicest set of construction drawings I've ever seen", and maybe even tells him some horror stories about his competitors. Lots of young architects believe this the first few times they're told it. Then eventually they realize that most builders tell most architects "this is the best set of construction drawings ever" most of the time. In fact they may even be telling your competitors horror stories about you...
So listen up new grads: put the resume on white 8 1/2" x 11" paper, one page, black text, list your education, experience, skills, and how to contact you. Trust me, you'll still be told "this is one of the better resumes we've seen lately" - and this time it will actually be true.
Aug 6, 08 3:53 pm ·
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Tips for Job Seekers from an HR Person
I handle HR for a NY architecture firm.
It would make my life alot easier and make you more likely to get an interview if you:
1. Put your name on every page of your portfolio. I get 50 emails a day from job seekers and print out (BW) the best ones for an Associate Architect to review. If he likes one he will ask me to forward the original portfolio. If you do not have your name on every page there is a huge chance your work will not get stapled to your resume.
2. Don't use some ultra cool/unusual layout with panoramic vistas or other strange sizes. These print out tiny on 8.5 x 11 pages and lose all impact.
3. I specifically ask for PDF or Jpgs, if you send another format it probably won't work. If you make me visit your website or download something there is a big chance it won't work or won't print well. Send 2 pdfs along with the link to your site.
4. There comes a point when a portfolio is just too big. Some people send over 50 pages. This is boring and dilutes your best work. We are not reviewing your thesis, we want to see a selection of amazing work. This can usually be accomplished in under a dozen pages and often in under 5. Bring your whole giant portfolio to the interview but don't email it to me.
5. Don't try to personalize your cover letter but forget to change the name of the firm you sent it to before. You are better off not personalizing the letter at all.
6. Use spell check. The Associate won't even see your portfolio if it doesn't get past me.
Great advice. People are forever posting here, wondering how best to get to first base on the job search. Here's how.
Thank you for posting.
oh come on, that's rudimentary and has been covered over and over...
don't tell me how to get the interview, tell me how to get the job, otherwise yer just wasting everyone's time.
put my name on each sheet? sort of silly thing.
and if I have to follow the letter size, I lost my chance to present my talent on size personalization....
and how many sheets proper for a resume? sounds they only care about the 1st sheet and ignore the rest..
this is great advice for first time job seekers. they don't teach these 'common sense' tips in grad school. So thank you CES.
This advice is rudimentary, but many obviously smart candidates do not present themselves in the smartest way.
Marketing architecture is still vastly an 8.5 x 11 world. RFPs and RFQs and award submissions are often required in this size, if your work only looks great as an 80 inch panoramic you are in trouble. Bring something in an unusual size to your interview but the pdfs just look like gimics to me. Its hard to view on the computer screen and even harder to print. I am not saying only use 8.5 x 11 but makes sure it looks good on a computer screen and a standard size print - portrait or landscape.
I'm with ces on this - the first rule of business is to respect your customers and cater to their needs. If you're looking for work, treat your prospective employer as a customer.
Make it easy for them to view your credentials and handle your materials. I've said it here before - candidates aren't the center of our universe. If you make it hard for us to review your stuff, we're likely to ignore you altogether.
Does this bother anyone else that the first person to see your resume, and who decides if you make the "first cut", is someone withdrawn from the architecture field.
It scares me that things like unpersonalised cover letters and where your name is at the top of your resume might keep you from getting an interview.
I am not saying that "ces" does not have architectural experience. I am just speaking from experience. I feel like some offices I have worked in have let some very talented people slip away because they don't even get an interview.
Every single tip on the above checklist doesn't have anything to do with you being a valuable addition to an office.
just my oppinion
Bluesman - another way of looking at this would be "I feel like many qualified candidates have let some very interesting jobs slip away because their submittals were so complicated they don't even get an interview."
Firms worth working at just don't have the time to wade through byzantine submittals, searching for gems of a candidate's brilliance.
There's no point fighting this - if you want the job, keep it simple. What's the point of shooting yourself in the foot?
I agree. Seems very backwards. Display your work in it's natural/best medium.
ps. I agree'd with bluesman
"My material looks best rendered as interpretive dance."
Yeah, my material conveys pretty well that way too. But I like to call the firm first and make sure that their conference room can accommodate my dance. When it's too small, and when dancing in the parking lot or on the roof is seasonally inappropriate, then I usually perform a dramatic monologue of my portfolio. If I sense that the interviewer's interest is flagging I break out the puppets.
"and if I have to follow the letter size, I lost my chance to present my talent on size personalization...."
Since size personalization is such a critical, highly sought skill in architecture firms, and competition is so fierce what with all the grads coming out of school these days with co-op experience in that area, I make a point of bringing up my undergrad independent study of (and subsequent independent publishing of my four-part treatise on) Personlization of Size in Post Super-Size Culture.
Also reformatting my resume onto a series of nesting russian dolls immediately resulted in more interviews, and using Zazzle.com to put my resume on postage stamps resulted in a 13.2% increase in response rate.
Darwin was right - there's some dudes here definitely headed for extinction.
I've got to say that "talent on size personalization" sounds like a crock of bull. Anybody can make something differently sized, and it's how you work within the layout space that shows any talent or lack thereof. I know that I generally advocate against 8.5x11 because it's such an inelegant proportion, but when it has a purpose it has a purpose, and choosing to use something else isn't "talent", it's just a choice.
And Xing, for a resume 1 page is the generally accepted length. Once you are old and have decades of experience under your belt you can expand, but the exercise of editing yourself down to one page is a telling one.
Conformity is that jailer of freedom and the enemy of growth
My job postings are simple, straight forward, and specific. If you can't follow instructions perhaps you are not the best candidate for our office.
Many of the resumes/portfolios I pass along have some of the problems I mentioned and I think it's a shame.
I want you to be creative and passionate, which you can be without misspelling your own name or giving me files that cause my computer to crash.
Clients are a hell of alot more demanding than the first level of HR. I would say kick ass renderings and signs that you will work well with clients are among the top most important things we look for.
I went to art school and have worked in Marketing/Management in A&E for 10 years. But yes many HR people you need to filter through do not have a creative background.
Good luck with your searches!
The resistance to following a few simple instructions here is on the hilarious side.
"What? Force my brilliant creativity onto paper so that some Tool can judge me? Never! I SPIT on your rules and your offer of income!"
"Oh, and would you like fries with that?"
- what a crock.
If you don't need or want a job, put your resume and portfolio together any way you want...we really don't give a damn.
But this is just a job application, folks. ces is offering simple advice on how to help the employer give your application a fair evaluation.
Save the fireworks for the interview and the job once you've been hired.
you know, the tricky thing is the letter size would not allow you put more information on each sheet. And for one dam-good project presentation, you have to expand them into 5-7 sheets. as most firms want to see at least five best jobs of your portfolio, that is too much.
I am not saying the 8.5x11 is too small, but consider the wide 17" monitor is so popular in most offices because it is getting cheaper, perhaps it is not a bad idea to layout it by the size like 11"x17" size? to fully used the screen space and fit it. that could be more information on each sheet, and less sheet amount you would end up.
and rationalist, appreciate for the resume suggestion. I would talk to my resume see how many sheet he wants to be regarding to my "old" age....
I thought everyone by now would have a high resolution 17" monitor, and while some do, they don't know how to set the screen resolution that high, effectively down at a lower resolution with a bigger screen. I set my online portfolio up for something comparably scaled to 11x17. Now look up at the top of your browser, see all those extra tool bars - they take up screen space and crowd out the 11x17 aspect ratio. When I watched every one of the interviewers view my portfolio in a browser they went to the first page and didn't scroll down to hit the next page button. It looked ok on my browser and screen resolution but when they viewed it in 1024x760 resolution with all their browser tool bars, they never even turned the page! Now I scaled it down to 800x600 dpi which is sad but it will print on an 8.5x11 (landscape or portrait) and view on any screen.
atom,
did you put twice information on the 11x17 compare to the letter size? I would like to see a layout sample if possible.
More often true in the studio than in the administrative offices where your resume starts. Hell, even Principals in many firms don't have the good hardware - that goes to the fancy graphics lovers. The people who screen resumes mostly use computers to view text and numbers and surf the web. That doesn't warrant large, high-rez monitors in most cases. Keep that in mind when you send stuff electronically.
The only way you can be sure your stuff will appear as you intend is to send printed paper.
Remember - while first appearances are important, when job hunting first appearances only need to get you past the gatekeeper. what you want is an interview - you can wow them with high-rez images and dense content then. Prior to that, dense content and large image files only harm your chances.
Remember - while first appearances are important, when job hunting first appearances only need to get you past the gatekeeper. what you want is an interview - you can wow them with high-rez images and dense content then. Prior to that, dense content and large image files only harm your chances.
90% agree, but when condering foreignal job hunting, we still need a bunch of good representation sheets, detailed and nice.
hr=checklist people
no disrespect.... but i had a few "issues" with 2 hr people at 1 firm in detroit that really dropped the ball........
went through the process....had the interviews...... filled out the applications/etc...... was told i would receive a letter..... waited....called them a few times to check in........ found out from a friend in the firm that the job was "cancelled" or some b.s. like that..... but the thing that got me was that the 2 hr folks there had no balls to call me to tell me that the position was gone...yeah right...... from emails to phone calls to 3 people and still no response......... that's not good for PR work if you ask me......
are you republican, jabber?
good design is good design whether intended for the hr person, the principal, or just your everyday fancy graphics lover. the reason why 8.5 x 11 works is not necessarily because of how it is viewed on screen, but because most resumes and work samples will be printed on 8.5 x 11 by the hr person. let's say you think you have a great presentation on 11 x 17 landscape. if you are lucky, the hr person will rotate the pdf to landscape, but still print it on 8.5 x 11. if you are unlucky, the hr person will print on 8.5 x 11 portrait, i.e. your beautiful 11 x 17 layout will be a tiny horizontal band centered in the middle of the page. all of which is to say that this is not about limiting creativity, but understanding how information is received.
all of this is making me needlessly over anxious about my job search next year
blackharp - Obama all the way, baby. what the hell does that have to do with this thread?
jafidler is correct that your material has a good chance of being in printed form by the time it makes it to the person/people who actually do the hiring. In fact it's likely to be in printed and photocopied form by then.
Most firms I know that are larger than 5 or 6 people have somebody (usually an office manager, other secretarial person, or mid-level intern/designer) whose role it is to do initial screening of applicants and then distribute resumes and other materials of the suitable candidates to the principals or managers or whoever it is who does actual interviewing and hiring. This is often done by printing and xeroxing resumes (sometimes without any portfolio parts or cover letters other attachments that might have been submitted by the applicant) and distributing to in-boxes. This is one of the reasons that I strongly advise leaving all photos, thumbnail drawings, etc. off the resume itself - because if it can't stand up to third generation photocopying then it may do more harm than good.) It's also not a good idea to use colored text (or white text on a colored background) because when printed and photocopied it may not be dark enough.
Also: even if the firm distributes your material by email to the higher-ups who do the hiring, or if the principals themselves receive and review all digital submittals, they're still usually going to print out your resume to have in front of them when they sit down with you at an interview, or to review right before it. I've had a few interviews with candidates who have been a little flustered to discover that their resume that I have in my hands has printed out all mis-formatted and weird because I didn't necessarily use the paper layout, printing methodology, software, etc. that they might have intended.
Also, this idea that you should be sending the firm five good projects before you even have an interview seems like huge overkill for most firms. Five good projects would be a decent sized portfoio to present in an interview. It might even be too much (often interviewers will ask you to talk about just your one or two best or favorite projects). But five projects sent as teasers with your resume is too many unless the firm specifically asked for that many. Two or three good images - from just one to three good projects - are plenty.
Bloopox - great posr.
Find a contact if possible within the office and don't send your stuff to h.r.
8.5x11" is fine,
but A4 is much more elegant
we need to adopt that fast
just like the meter
if you're gonna say 'references available upon request'
and i request them
and you give me two
make sure that you've given me references who will
call me back.
I think this is all great advice.
In grad school we had this pro-practice class in which an HR worker from a large firm came and gave us this same general advice. I followed all of this advice and got a lot of solid offers.
Not sure about putting your name on every page of the actual physical portfolio but definitely on the PDF work samples document.
and make sure your reference will give you a good reference! I once called someone who said:
"I can't believe he gave you my name as a reference!! We got rid of him because we thought he was stealing from us!"
And just last week, someone used me as a reference without asking first. It was a guy who was here for two weeks from a temp agency, and we asked the agency to take him back because we thought he had some kind of a drug problem- he spent way too much time in the parking lot and in the bathroom, and was jittery, could not concentrate on his work.
Yikes, way NOT to get the job.
And if you worked somewhere and you do NOT use them as a reference, chances are the HR person will call that firm and ask about you. So don't lie about why you left. If you say you were laid off, and I call and they say they let you go because you missed too many days, then even if I felt I could work around that, I can't work with a liar.
Other pet peeves: you leave me a voice mail, and do not leave your phone number so I can call back. Do you expect me to dig out your resume from the pile of a hundred and find your number?
Last week I had a woman come in for an interview. 12 years of experience as a draftsperson who worked her way up. She brought in glossy photos of 2 projects, not drawings, nothing else. On the other hand, I have had young interns out of school for a couple of years bring in their sketches of Florence, school projects, high school sculpture projects, and not one sample of anything they did during their work experience. Employers generally want to see both- what you can do of a technical nature as well as your design skills.
Oh, and then there was the interior designer recent school grad who brought in a set of construction documents she did as a student, complete with all the redmarks of the errors marked up by her professor. Couldn't she have fixed them and reprinted?
An underlying theme here, especially useful for students or others relatively new to the field:
Architectural practice is a business. You may not have heard this in school.
Design and creativity are very important, to be sure, but firms have to consider practicalities, too--especially when trying to fill new positions.
Disagree, roll your eyes, whatever. But these posts offer good general advice on getting closer to being hired.
yeah i never understood young architects thinking they are above conforming to simple application requirements
every single student who graduates has a ton of work that he/she thinks is awesome and the best ever and "needs" to be seen on 10 different sheets, all perfectly square
why should a firm have to sort through all of these
if you think you are too good to actually take the time to condense your work into something that can be read in 2 minutes by someone who is busy with other work, then you should not be surprised if you dont get called in for an interview
at the interview, bring in your full scale model of whatever brilliance you have done, but the resume and sample work should be quick and to the point
you arent coming in to run the firm or be the head designer your first day, lets not act like your school projects are the greatest pieces of architecture never built
it shows disrespect to a firm if you do not follow their simple application guidelines
I mean there are a few firms out there who are willing to subscribe to the "I'm too cool for school" attitude but in a vast majority of them, it would never fly.
For example, I remember when interviewing I took the HR person's advice to always overdress -- wearing a suit and tie and all that and sure enough most of the actual offices had no strict dress code -- some people were wearing jeans tee shirts on a weekday.
But just like all case it's the first impression that makes the biggest impact.
I think what happens sometimes is that fresh grads go on an interview or two with that resume with the designy layout that they agonized over for weeks, and the portfolio that's short on experience but long on graphic design/layout effort - and they get compliments like "very nice portfolio" and "this is one of the better resumes we've seen lately" - and they take this to heart. And then they go home and tell their friends and their favorite online forums that potential employers really value unique page sizes, etc.
But listen up new grads: interviewers say those things to almost every person they interview. It doesn't mean they all get the job. In fact it doesn't mean much of anything. Those are interview niceties, that's all.
And then the new grads get hired, and the boss puts them on some graphic designy project, like laying out boards for competitions and AIA awards - and tells the new grad it's because they have so much brilliant graphic/layout ability. And the new grad believes that. The reality is they get assigned to those things because their hourly rate is lowest, so it costs the firm the least to put them on the non-billable tasks - and anyway they don't have enough experience to detail a stair. But the employer knows he'll get better cooperation if he says "I'm giving you this task because you're great at layout" than if he says "I'm giving you this because you cost the least, and anyway you don't know how to do anything else."
It's a lot like when a contractor tells an architect "this is the nicest set of construction drawings I've ever seen", and maybe even tells him some horror stories about his competitors. Lots of young architects believe this the first few times they're told it. Then eventually they realize that most builders tell most architects "this is the best set of construction drawings ever" most of the time. In fact they may even be telling your competitors horror stories about you...
So listen up new grads: put the resume on white 8 1/2" x 11" paper, one page, black text, list your education, experience, skills, and how to contact you. Trust me, you'll still be told "this is one of the better resumes we've seen lately" - and this time it will actually be true.
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