Sorry to go on a tangent, I'm wondering how many years experience those getting laid off have. I have <1 year professional experience...been looking since graduation in may.
I was laid off so many months ago I am embarrassed to admit it...I was looking, have basically stopped and am now looking outside the profession for a while and realizing that I was basically uninterested in what was out there. *No one* in NYC is hiring-everyone is frozen and I don't know when it will thaw. I have a little freelance thing out of town that might help for a while. But I think it might be time for a lot of us to be extra creative and make our own work. There was something like only 3 building permits issued in Manhattan in recent months. And I think a lot of the firms that are working overseas are just finishing up work that was already going-not anything new. Sorry for the bad news.
well, if you've read any of the other job/layoff threads from recent months, you'll see that, indeed, the climate sucks right now. pretty much everyone is in a 'hold onto what you can' mode, layoffs are indeed happening all over, and we're nowhere near bottom yet.
my hope is that things calm down a bit with the elections having been settled, but unless the congress wants to shovel money into the states and cities to keep capital infrastructure projects going, the next 9-12 months will be brutal.
to get a job right now, you'll need to be networking like crazy and just end up at the right place at the right time.
one last note - our liability insurer sent around a note to their clients last week warning of the 'perils' of who gets laid off in times like these. basically, they were warning about how you lay off older staff, since they are the most protected by law and most trigger happy to sue. basically, they were warning firms that, if you let senior people go to cut overhead, make sure you document the plan and document why you let certain people go. all that to say, it's not going to make life easier for the younger set...
i have 6 yrs. experience and was laid off at the beginning of september along with the rest of my office. It was a small office, there was 7 of us including the boss' daughter who were let go. I'm in CT and so far no one is really hiring and the ones that may be are waiting til after New Year to make any hard decisions.
I do not think they review your resume anymore since too many of them. the way to take a job is to get referred by your firends who is still working there when there is a place empty.
sb said,
typically, when they need people, they would pick up the phone, dial some of their buddies like: hey, we need one fit in, do you know anybody?
deal, good.
done
and i guess that is the reason why we never get positive replies as much as we sent out.
"i am a victim of the recent layoffs in architecture.
my fear is that if i leave architecture it will be very difficult to come back.
thoughts?"
I actually don't think that will be that big of a problem because when they start hiring again, they will know that the economy went into the toilet and that it was hard to find anything for a while. But you need to work on gaining new skills in the interim-learn new programs, get LEED certified on your own, do volunteer work or some little freelance stuff for little money, do an independent project, etc. Don't just sit and wait for this to end.
And I actually think this recession has been going on a lot longer than the media is letting on-which IMHO means it will end sooner.
one thing to consider (for those of you who are out of work right now):
several firms we know in town are very interested in getting people on loan (from us or whoever) because they do have some temporary upticks in work. so, if you are willing to pitch yourself as a contract only worker and know that you'll only be going to a firm for short term, you might be able to find something that way. especially if you know revit or archicad.
odb - this recession will last closer to 2-3 years in total. we're at the end of year one, at best. getting the gears moving again isn't going to be easy.
for example, one of the reports here in georgia over the weekend is that the university system, as well as the city of atlanta, is having an impossible time finding buyers for their construction bonds in this environment (the rate differentials just don't work). if they can't sell the bonds, there will be very, very little capital improvement projects in the pipeline for next year. basically, everyone would be on a pay-as-you-go method, which isn't going to happen when revenues are down in general and you need to hold any reserves you have for operational costs. i'm sure you can guess what that means for the arch/const. industries - basically, that is one of the very few, stable pipelines of work for most architects. shut that off and where do we go?
i should add - georgia won't be alone in this respect. my guess is that most states are going to have a hard time selling any municipal grade bonds in this environment. not from a confidence issue, but from a rate of return issue. if that really is the case, those governmental projects will dry up, at least in the short run, as quickly as anything else.
huh. we've been hearing otherwise, laru. because bonds - while not high return - are more stable/dependable, people pulling money out of more risky investments are now more interested in bonds.
I recently had to take a position that is somewhat outside of architecture because my two prospects in architecture firms did not work out while I was abroad for three months. I feel like a sell-out and my morale is at an all time low. Everyone keeps telling me "hey, you should be glad you even have a job right now" and that depresses me even more. I feel like I've let down all the architectural professors and architects that have helped me on my way so far.
But there is some hope. I truly felt my passion for architecture. I was willing to take a huge pay cut and a less stable position to work in architecture.
Fortunately I was able to keep my job although the outlook for my company isn't too good at the moment, but some friends of mine have recently lost their jobs - 2 of them due to the financial crisis. So far they haven't found anything new, but I am confident that it won't take long until they get decent work again.
Xing - a while back I needed some temporary writing help on a competition (we're talking only 2 days of work here) - I posted an ad (because my friends didn't know anyone) and received 250 responses within 2 days. If someone didn't get back to you it's probably because they just received hundreds of responses and are overwhelmed.
Everybody's a bit nervous at my firm right now... We've had a few layoffs already, and we're told there are more to come.
If I end up losing my job and can't find something in NYC right away, I'll most likely end up having to leave the city, as unemployment benefits wouldn't even begin to pay my rent and other living expenses. They'd go pretty far in someplace like Cincinnati, though. I just hope I'd get enough of a severance to actually make the move, as I'm already living paycheck-to-paycheck and have no savings.
I am not so sure about overseas being any better.
For example this NYT article about the financial crisis in Iceland mentioned that something like link
75 % of private sector architects in Iceland have been laid off in the last few weeks.
"I am not so sure about overseas being any better."
Iceland is a special case though. Mainly due to the complete and utter breakdown of their economy. It makes the current state of the economy here in the US seem like boom time.
when china is putting together a $600 billion economic stimulus package, you know times are tough everywhere. overseas markets are reeling just as badly as the u.s. market.
spain has been dealing with economic woes for a while now, even before the world market nosedive. isn't germany introducing a stimulus package as well?
I'm in the process of leaving my current multi-family/mix use firm for another firm in the same city. They do a lot of higher education, research, institutional, and public projects. I've gotten mixed reactions from this move but I'm excited. It's far better pay, they have projects that I'm more interested in, and the firm seems to be in very good fiscal shape.
I'm not sure if this new firm is hiring more help but it seems like their international and government work is keeping them rather busy.
Another friend of mine in Baltimore got laid off after only 5 months on the job. He just got a new job working in a mid size firm in his home state. He seemed to have gotten something lined up pretty quickly.
I think firms doing a variety of institutional and commercial work aren't doing too badly...diversity of projects seems to be a good thing in these times. My firm concentrates on high end residential, and it's looking ugly here.
if i saw your competition ads, i perhaps would send you my application. i think we both know, in this finicial crisis period, every posted ads, whatever it is, they are hot.
I quit my job in Japan at the end of June and came back to the States at the end of July. I've been searching for work since August. Had a few very good interviews. Then the economy tanked. Looking somewhat out of the field for now. Considered looking outside of the country but with so many people world wide looking, I'm sure architects in London, Spain, Germany, etc can all find plenty of qualified people without the need to wait for relocation and visas. Plus, it's REALLY expensive to move to another country. Living in suburban America makes it hard to get temp work or beat out people already living in NYC, Boston, etc. Heard my ex-office in Japan is mostly doing competitions, not a lot of new work coming in. I think Japanese offices (of all types and industries) hold on to people til the bitter end, but the situation isn't good their either.
climate here in germany is still quite good. most companies are hiring instead of firing.
my company has huge new projects and are constantly hiring new people - a lot of my friends are looking for a new job even now - and even though a lot of people are saying it is a bad time. it hasn´t affected us (yet?)
there isn´t. some of my colleagues say that they think it might go down from here for about a year or two, but i no nobody who has been laid off because of bad economy or lack of funding of new/old projects. i know some companies who, in fact, stopped HIRING or replacing people who resigned - but no firing.
my friends in norway told me they are slightly more panicky, but not too much.
things in london seem okay, from what my friends are telling me there.
socialism must be nice when they don't let the bottom fall out. but in some way it seems imaginary and when true catastrophe happens you may not know it till the last minute and then it may be too late for the bureaucrats behind the sceans who may have hid the knowledge to do anything about it less move over.
Socialism has its downsides...in a more social government, when things go wrong everyone blames the government for not fixing it sooner, and then the population tends to play the victim. But then, getting unemployment benefits while sitting around drinking beer does have its attraction...
I think we need to be proactive in this environment, we need to keep trying and fighting!
I'm interested in what kind of long-term impact this will have down the line in our field. Does that mean a lot more will go into other fields (like me) and not come back (hopefully not me)? Will this impact how we design - more conservative? Or is it just some temporary hiccup.
good god i hope not. how can we be more conservative than we already are...esp compared with the rest of the world? brick veneer should be criminalized.
i don't think it's necessarily as small as a hiccup but it certainly is cyclical. recently i've been noticing that the labor field is pretty flooded with architects, esp those with less experience. i don't know why or if this accurate...but i definitely graduated with a bunch of people who should have never been awarded a degree.
more conservationist and proactive on environmental impact maybe but defiantly not conservative, if we don't try new brave things our decline will only be that much faster
Maybe it is time for a Profession Name Change Since the Computer people have successfully taken over the Name ARCHITECT! They seem to be the only ones hiring Architects these days.
I've mentioned this story before but this one time I was at this lame party. There an assload of pseudo-intellectual people there and one person emerged and was going around telling people he was an architect. For a second I actually DID think he was an architect -- only you know one of those dark frame glasses, and all black wearing kind (not that there's anything wrong with that). Eventually I got the talking to this douchbag, and he gave me a card and sure enough it had his name and underneath his title: "Architect." Tell me that isn't illegal???
But eventually, he said he was a "systems architect" or some shit like that. Basically, he was programmer.
Hey Archmed i saw in another post that u mentioned you may know of some firms in dc which are looking. Do you still know of any? If you could email me I'd appreciate it..
job climate
hi everyone
i was wondering who is in the same boat as me at the moment? i have recently been laid off. specifically in nyc.
i was wondering if anyone has been in this position and has found success in landing on something new and if yes, how long did it take you?
thanks so much.
I am ..its been 2 weeks and Ive had no luck yet
Sorry to go on a tangent, I'm wondering how many years experience those getting laid off have. I have <1 year professional experience...been looking since graduation in may.
i have 5 yrs exp and i have also been looking since graduation...although not really actively looking until july
WOW ..you guys have been looking for a while ..I hope I dont end up like that.
I have 1 yr exp. b4 graduation and a little less than 2 yrs exp. after graduation.
There was just no work in our office and 6 of us were cut.
4 of us were at about the same exp level and 2 of us had 5+ yrs.
1.5 years experience, graduated in may and been looking actively since july...
turned down prof's offer to work for him in ny in july and now sorely regretting it. although maybe i would've been laid off by now, for all i know..
the climate at my job is cold and rainy
hey mdler, i f*ckin warned ya!
I was laid off so many months ago I am embarrassed to admit it...I was looking, have basically stopped and am now looking outside the profession for a while and realizing that I was basically uninterested in what was out there. *No one* in NYC is hiring-everyone is frozen and I don't know when it will thaw. I have a little freelance thing out of town that might help for a while. But I think it might be time for a lot of us to be extra creative and make our own work. There was something like only 3 building permits issued in Manhattan in recent months. And I think a lot of the firms that are working overseas are just finishing up work that was already going-not anything new. Sorry for the bad news.
well, if you've read any of the other job/layoff threads from recent months, you'll see that, indeed, the climate sucks right now. pretty much everyone is in a 'hold onto what you can' mode, layoffs are indeed happening all over, and we're nowhere near bottom yet.
my hope is that things calm down a bit with the elections having been settled, but unless the congress wants to shovel money into the states and cities to keep capital infrastructure projects going, the next 9-12 months will be brutal.
to get a job right now, you'll need to be networking like crazy and just end up at the right place at the right time.
one last note - our liability insurer sent around a note to their clients last week warning of the 'perils' of who gets laid off in times like these. basically, they were warning about how you lay off older staff, since they are the most protected by law and most trigger happy to sue. basically, they were warning firms that, if you let senior people go to cut overhead, make sure you document the plan and document why you let certain people go. all that to say, it's not going to make life easier for the younger set...
i am a victim of the recent layoffs in architecture.
my fear is that if i leave architecture it will be very difficult to come back.
thoughts?
i have 6 yrs. experience and was laid off at the beginning of september along with the rest of my office. It was a small office, there was 7 of us including the boss' daughter who were let go. I'm in CT and so far no one is really hiring and the ones that may be are waiting til after New Year to make any hard decisions.
I do not think they review your resume anymore since too many of them. the way to take a job is to get referred by your firends who is still working there when there is a place empty.
sb said,
typically, when they need people, they would pick up the phone, dial some of their buddies like: hey, we need one fit in, do you know anybody?
deal, good.
done
and i guess that is the reason why we never get positive replies as much as we sent out.
"i am a victim of the recent layoffs in architecture.
my fear is that if i leave architecture it will be very difficult to come back.
thoughts?"
I actually don't think that will be that big of a problem because when they start hiring again, they will know that the economy went into the toilet and that it was hard to find anything for a while. But you need to work on gaining new skills in the interim-learn new programs, get LEED certified on your own, do volunteer work or some little freelance stuff for little money, do an independent project, etc. Don't just sit and wait for this to end.
And I actually think this recession has been going on a lot longer than the media is letting on-which IMHO means it will end sooner.
one thing to consider (for those of you who are out of work right now):
several firms we know in town are very interested in getting people on loan (from us or whoever) because they do have some temporary upticks in work. so, if you are willing to pitch yourself as a contract only worker and know that you'll only be going to a firm for short term, you might be able to find something that way. especially if you know revit or archicad.
odb - this recession will last closer to 2-3 years in total. we're at the end of year one, at best. getting the gears moving again isn't going to be easy.
for example, one of the reports here in georgia over the weekend is that the university system, as well as the city of atlanta, is having an impossible time finding buyers for their construction bonds in this environment (the rate differentials just don't work). if they can't sell the bonds, there will be very, very little capital improvement projects in the pipeline for next year. basically, everyone would be on a pay-as-you-go method, which isn't going to happen when revenues are down in general and you need to hold any reserves you have for operational costs. i'm sure you can guess what that means for the arch/const. industries - basically, that is one of the very few, stable pipelines of work for most architects. shut that off and where do we go?
i should add - georgia won't be alone in this respect. my guess is that most states are going to have a hard time selling any municipal grade bonds in this environment. not from a confidence issue, but from a rate of return issue. if that really is the case, those governmental projects will dry up, at least in the short run, as quickly as anything else.
huh. we've been hearing otherwise, laru. because bonds - while not high return - are more stable/dependable, people pulling money out of more risky investments are now more interested in bonds.
i'm guessing there's some of both.
Sigh....
I recently had to take a position that is somewhat outside of architecture because my two prospects in architecture firms did not work out while I was abroad for three months. I feel like a sell-out and my morale is at an all time low. Everyone keeps telling me "hey, you should be glad you even have a job right now" and that depresses me even more. I feel like I've let down all the architectural professors and architects that have helped me on my way so far.
But there is some hope. I truly felt my passion for architecture. I was willing to take a huge pay cut and a less stable position to work in architecture.
Fortunately I was able to keep my job although the outlook for my company isn't too good at the moment, but some friends of mine have recently lost their jobs - 2 of them due to the financial crisis. So far they haven't found anything new, but I am confident that it won't take long until they get decent work again.
Xing - a while back I needed some temporary writing help on a competition (we're talking only 2 days of work here) - I posted an ad (because my friends didn't know anyone) and received 250 responses within 2 days. If someone didn't get back to you it's probably because they just received hundreds of responses and are overwhelmed.
Sorry to hear about you misfortunate’s, have you guys tried the overseas for better prospective?
Everybody's a bit nervous at my firm right now... We've had a few layoffs already, and we're told there are more to come.
If I end up losing my job and can't find something in NYC right away, I'll most likely end up having to leave the city, as unemployment benefits wouldn't even begin to pay my rent and other living expenses. They'd go pretty far in someplace like Cincinnati, though. I just hope I'd get enough of a severance to actually make the move, as I'm already living paycheck-to-paycheck and have no savings.
Scary times...
I am not so sure about overseas being any better.
For example this NYT article about the financial crisis in Iceland mentioned that something like link
75 % of private sector architects in Iceland have been laid off in the last few weeks.
"I am not so sure about overseas being any better."
Iceland is a special case though. Mainly due to the complete and utter breakdown of their economy. It makes the current state of the economy here in the US seem like boom time.
when china is putting together a $600 billion economic stimulus package, you know times are tough everywhere. overseas markets are reeling just as badly as the u.s. market.
I've been applying since August for jobs in London. Still no offers.
spain has been dealing with economic woes for a while now, even before the world market nosedive. isn't germany introducing a stimulus package as well?
I'm in the process of leaving my current multi-family/mix use firm for another firm in the same city. They do a lot of higher education, research, institutional, and public projects. I've gotten mixed reactions from this move but I'm excited. It's far better pay, they have projects that I'm more interested in, and the firm seems to be in very good fiscal shape.
I'm not sure if this new firm is hiring more help but it seems like their international and government work is keeping them rather busy.
Another friend of mine in Baltimore got laid off after only 5 months on the job. He just got a new job working in a mid size firm in his home state. He seemed to have gotten something lined up pretty quickly.
I think firms doing a variety of institutional and commercial work aren't doing too badly...diversity of projects seems to be a good thing in these times. My firm concentrates on high end residential, and it's looking ugly here.
my office kind of smells like gin today...i'm not sure if that has anything to do with the climate though
i think china would continue another round of great leap forward in next 10 years in terms of architecture business.
anybody consider going there? give them a call.
toasteroven-
if i saw your competition ads, i perhaps would send you my application. i think we both know, in this finicial crisis period, every posted ads, whatever it is, they are hot.
I quit my job in Japan at the end of June and came back to the States at the end of July. I've been searching for work since August. Had a few very good interviews. Then the economy tanked. Looking somewhat out of the field for now. Considered looking outside of the country but with so many people world wide looking, I'm sure architects in London, Spain, Germany, etc can all find plenty of qualified people without the need to wait for relocation and visas. Plus, it's REALLY expensive to move to another country. Living in suburban America makes it hard to get temp work or beat out people already living in NYC, Boston, etc. Heard my ex-office in Japan is mostly doing competitions, not a lot of new work coming in. I think Japanese offices (of all types and industries) hold on to people til the bitter end, but the situation isn't good their either.
collective bonzi mentality i like it.
climate here in germany is still quite good. most companies are hiring instead of firing.
my company has huge new projects and are constantly hiring new people - a lot of my friends are looking for a new job even now - and even though a lot of people are saying it is a bad time. it hasn´t affected us (yet?)
i would like to hear more about the job climate in europe. to me, there doesn't seem to be nearly as much panic.
there isn´t. some of my colleagues say that they think it might go down from here for about a year or two, but i no nobody who has been laid off because of bad economy or lack of funding of new/old projects. i know some companies who, in fact, stopped HIRING or replacing people who resigned - but no firing.
my friends in norway told me they are slightly more panicky, but not too much.
things in london seem okay, from what my friends are telling me there.
(i meant i KNOW nobody who has been laid off)
socialism must be nice when they don't let the bottom fall out. but in some way it seems imaginary and when true catastrophe happens you may not know it till the last minute and then it may be too late for the bureaucrats behind the sceans who may have hid the knowledge to do anything about it less move over.
Socialism has its downsides...in a more social government, when things go wrong everyone blames the government for not fixing it sooner, and then the population tends to play the victim. But then, getting unemployment benefits while sitting around drinking beer does have its attraction...
I think we need to be proactive in this environment, we need to keep trying and fighting!
Man I really don't envy President Obama's job....
Responsibly ending two dreadfully run wars, fixing an economy in disaster, getting people back to work..... I mean it's a daunting task.
I'm interested in what kind of long-term impact this will have down the line in our field. Does that mean a lot more will go into other fields (like me) and not come back (hopefully not me)? Will this impact how we design - more conservative? Or is it just some temporary hiccup.
good god i hope not. how can we be more conservative than we already are...esp compared with the rest of the world? brick veneer should be criminalized.
i don't think it's necessarily as small as a hiccup but it certainly is cyclical. recently i've been noticing that the labor field is pretty flooded with architects, esp those with less experience. i don't know why or if this accurate...but i definitely graduated with a bunch of people who should have never been awarded a degree.
more conservationist and proactive on environmental impact maybe but defiantly not conservative, if we don't try new brave things our decline will only be that much faster
Maybe it is time for a Profession Name Change Since the Computer people have successfully taken over the Name ARCHITECT! They seem to be the only ones hiring Architects these days.
Snook, really....
People around here really don't seem to care about that.
it is a pain if your looking thru want adds!
Network Architect...
Solutions Architect...
Software Architect...
chief Architect...
I've mentioned this story before but this one time I was at this lame party. There an assload of pseudo-intellectual people there and one person emerged and was going around telling people he was an architect. For a second I actually DID think he was an architect -- only you know one of those dark frame glasses, and all black wearing kind (not that there's anything wrong with that). Eventually I got the talking to this douchbag, and he gave me a card and sure enough it had his name and underneath his title: "Architect." Tell me that isn't illegal???
But eventually, he said he was a "systems architect" or some shit like that. Basically, he was programmer.
Hey Archmed i saw in another post that u mentioned you may know of some firms in dc which are looking. Do you still know of any? If you could email me I'd appreciate it..
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