digger, don't get too upset. You sounded like a decent employer and I salute you. You are a good man and same as other very rare, few good human being in this profession. My post wasn't intend to attack you.

So let's move on and back to my question.

Actually, I am more interested in checking their fancy published homes than their cars :) Most of the owners tend to drive old vintage European cars anyway :)

I remember one time there was a big slash (6+ workers) in an office on one Friday and the owner held a big office party to celebrate his newly built home the next Friday. Amazing!

I guess slashing few guys at his office would help him to compensate his over-budget fancy indoor swimming pool :0 or to acquire more fancy wines to store at his architecturally-designed cellar.

Again digger, I salute you.

I am concerned that many people myself included will have a hard time dusting off their tools and getting back to work, I recently landed a freelance job doing a small renovation in a church that will enable me to finish my IDP hours but man I forgot so many of the little tricks in Cad and Revit.

I also look at the huge list of skills needed to even qualify for jobs online and it is a little disheartening, how can I “legitimately” acquire and learn all this software?

It might get to the point where we will see ads like:

Wanted talented team player for “entry level position” who knows CAD, Revit, Vectorworks, Google SketchUp, Maya, Rhinoceros, 3D studio max, Form Z, Micro station, hand Drafting and Sketching, Adobe Premier, Adobe aftereffects, QuickBooks, Master speck, LEED AP in 3 categories, Extensive experience in energy modeling, with Train Trace or other software, fluent in Arabic, Chinese and French. Minimum 8 years experience. No phone calls, no reply’s will be given don’t apply if you do not have the minimum qualifications.


It is a little distressing to see this, I took a gamble and focused my time and money on learning Revit, and I am not sure how I can afford the time and money to go after other software right now.

What is the verdict of the list, what is the top 5 must have software skills?

Also are you folks taking the ARE, I noticed online at NCARB that there is a significant spike in ARE test taking since the recession especially if you combine the numbers from 3.5 and 4.0 versions of the test. At $210 per section it is getting expensive to be an unemployed architect.

PJN26 your job ad there is really not that far off. You also need to add something like:

XYZ Architects is a design-based residential architecture firm located in Smalltown, Iowa specializing in modern ranch house additions. Candidate must be able to demonstrate a minimum of 8 construction document sets of modern ranch house additions (not new construction) in the Smalltown, Iowa area. Please note that ONLY residential experience will qualify and experience outside of Iowa will not be recognized.

PJN, I've seen ads like these but those kinds of firms are not to be taken seriously as they are npt even signficant players in architecture in the first place. You wouldn['t want to work for assholes like that anyway.

Might be old news but I just heard that the DLR Group "acquiring" of KKE meant there were approx 50 redundancies in the Minneapolis area alone, including 2 of the most senior spec writers in the state.

http://www.architectmagazine.com/mergers-and-acquisitions/dlr-group-acquires-kke-architects.aspx

Fresh layoffs (Friday last week).

http://www.bdonline.co.uk/news/uk/make-sheds-14-of-staff-in-an-afternoon/5008414.article

Make sheds 14% of staff in an afternoon

Practice is the second victim of scrapped Saudi scheme

Make has made 14% of its staff redundant following the drastic scaling back of the $4 billion King Abdullah Sports City project in Saudi Arabia.

Make’s founder, Ken Shuttleworth, confirmed that 17 people had lost their jobs and blamed the loss of “a major project in the Middle East”.

It follows the news that Arup and Arup Associates, which were also heavily involved in the scheme, had put 600 staff on notice.

Make’s headcount fell from 122 to 105 at a stroke last Friday (October 29). Most of the staff – all from the London head office – are believed to have left immediately.

I heard that Arup was laying off in Europe and simultaneously hiring in Asia. Guess one can follow the jobs, depending on personal circumstance.

Meanwhile Aedas is planning to expand its London office from about 80 people to between 250 to 350 people over the next four years.

@med. Yep, I had read that.

http://www.building.co.uk/news/finance/global-shake-up-puts-london-at-head-of-aedas-expansion/5007776.article

The guy says that: “We have recognised that London has to become the focus for our international activities. There’s no reason why we can’t have 300-500 people in London from the 80 there now.”

Not very clear to me this "there is no reason". However:

"Roberts, said that London should become a new base for much of the firm’s international work and said he expected a further 15 architects to join in the next year."

15 new architects! That's far from 220-420 (even if this is 3-5 years).

Something to take into consideration about any corporation or consultant is that they want to show how financially healthy they are, so telling that they are gonna hire "hundreds of architects" is a good statement in this economy.

That reminds me, for instance, the Big 4 (Deloitte, KMPG, Ernst Young)... I had friends in some of them, and you can read news like "Deloitte is going to hire 1,000 new graduates this year" while, for instance, the same company has fired 3,000 mid/senior people.

After Make and RMJM (apparently 80 people left in the last weeks), the UK market is moving (for bad). KPF sheds 1/3 of their London workforce (45 people).

http://www.bdonline.co.uk/news/uk/kpf-to-lose-a-third-of-london-staff/5008964.article

Kohn Pederson Fox is preparing to make around 45 redundancies at its London office.

The New York-based practice, which ranked as the 63rd largest in the world in BD’s 2010 World Architecture Top 100 survey, currently employs 150 people in London.

A spokeswoman for KPF said: “In response to the economic downturn, we are reviewing business efficiencies globally and are considering what is required by the current market to ensure the practice is best positioned to work through the recession. Based on this we have begun a consultation process with our staff in London. KPF continues to be a global business leader and we are hopeful that the European economy will improve shortly.”

The practice is currently in consultation with the staff concerned.

None of the company’s other offices, which include outposts in Shanghai and Hong Kong, are affected.

With the New Year approaching I would like to ask what do you see changing or staying the same?
The economy for design professionals is still not anywhere near strong enough to employ most of the graduates and perpetually unemployed. My personal economic crisis started in late spring of 2008 this spring I’m still looking for full time work but I have taught a class at the local university as an adjunct, and I have a “charitable” freelance job for a church at the low hourly rate of $10. IDP is moving along as I am able to regularly visit some construction sites to earn those site observation credits. But landing a job much less an interview this spring would be nice. I did sense some momentum going into this fall and I hope it can continue into 2011.
Let me know how the New Year is looking for you.