Graduated (5 year undergrad) last May.
Had been officially 'searching' for a few months and applied at about 6 offices. Heard back from 3 of the 6 and was offered a job at two.

Deliberated for a few days and accepted an offer at what I hope will be a great office. Looking forward to the change of pace.

Its not all doom and gloom after all.

Wow awkeytect, that is some pretty good statistics. Where are you located that has that many offices hiring?

Meanwhile I graduated M.Arch Sept 2008, worked Jan-Jul 09 and have been out of work since. Over the course of this year I have easily sent over 200 applications and probably have gotten responses (most of them no) from about 30. I've had 5 or 6 phone interviews and traveled for 3 (not related to the phone interview), 2 of which were a complete waste of my time, 1 that wanted to hire but decided post-interview that didn't have the work to justify. I've had one local interview, about 2 months ago, that they are still "deciding" on, but I think they lost funding for the position (it was government) and they just don't want to own up to it. If nothing works out in the next few months, I'm seriously considering going back to school, even though my student loan debt already is tremendous, and either getting a degree in Engineering or becoming a Pharmacy Tech.

damn, awkey. how did you pull that off?

after getting the negatory from the one firm i really wanted to work for, 2 potentials w/ interviews coming up in the next few weeks.

and i can always do my own thing if the mrs. gets a better paying job than i could. hoo-ah. sugar mama.

i've heard from multiple sources switzerland and germany are hiring left and right these days.

Great story, Apu!

Im located in the midwest but have 0 ties and relocation was a non-issue.

Of the three responsive offices one was in Cal and the other two were in the North East.
Im not sure how I pulled it off. I was fortunate I suppose.
I like to think I have an above average portfolio + experiences unique for someone who has just graduated but then again everyone thinks that.

Right place right time.

Thanks Donna.

Pretty heavy stuff. Welcome back Apurimac. Been a while.

Got laid off in March. Since then I sent close to 100 resumes and I finally had to move out of country to find employment. Temporary alas. Since than my old firm called me back to work part time which I had to decline since I already foound another job, moved and subleted my apartment. I had one more interview in November which did not pan out and another inquiry which I am still tracking.

I am coming back in January for my old job, if it is still available, or anything else that is coming around the bend. My headhunter is promissing a better year so I am cautiously optimistic.

To the folks who have had some luck lately....

How aggressive where you/are you?

When I first got laid off from my first job out of college after only about a year, I was super aggressive-made a ton of 'cold' calls sent out a ton of 'cold' emails, I looked for jobs not just in my city but in several other major cities that I would consider living in, and was ready, willing and able to travel for interviews on short notice and willing to relocate to places where I had no ties on short notice. But, after almost a year completely unemployed and another eight months working pretty much full-time retail, I got a full plus overtime job in finance that pays only slightly less then I would make in arch and I just dont have the time to devote to job hunting. I mean, I hate my current job, and even if I liked it (which I really, really dont) it wouldnt be a good long term fit, because of total lack of opportunity for advancement or growth, But even doing the bare minimum there is a huge time and energy suck, and the only time I really can spend looking for work is after business hours and on weekends.

Recently, I've had a two firms who already had my resume from previous job searches contact me, which is awesome, But I'm just not sure how much, how often, what method to use to follow-up. Both firms have contacted right around Thanksgiving and both indicated that they may be contacting me after the first of the year for an interview and asked for updated contact info and resume, but since then I havent really heard anything from either firm. I'm not sure if I start trying to call them (early in the morning when my time would be limited) or continue to email them, or if I should try to offer up times when I could be available to meet and plan on taking time off from my current (terrible) job for interviews (one interview would require a day off because it is about a 3.5 hour drive, the other is in the same city but far enough away from my current job in the 'burbs that I would probably have to do at least a half day) Or wait and see if/when they contact me and call in sick that day to my current job.

I guess my over-all question is--how much is my enthusiasm for a possible new opportunity (and willingness to disregard my current job) hurt me in the interview process? If a firm asked me to interview tomorrow-I would make myself available, and if I was offered a job on the condition that I could start the next day, there would be no hesitation, But I do worry that this might come across the wrong way to some potential employers who would worry that I couldnt be reliable, Or worse, the fact that I have a full-time job (even one completely unrelated to arch) could automatically put me out of the running for an immediate-fill type of position.

This whole job-hunting thing was just so much easier when I was unemployed or at least had a flexible part-time schedule.

-jay

I still gave two weeks to the warehouse when I got my new job. In my scenario, the architect who hired me had alot of respect for the fact that even though I worked a shit job, I still gave notice. I know it's really, really hard to be loyal sometimes to these organizations when you know they'd kick your ass into the street without any kind of warning, but IMO, not being a dick about jumping jobs is always a plus. It really is a pain in the ass when someone just stops showing up to work one day; employers know this and respect people who give notice.

jay,
first what i would do is research that office, see where its projects are located, have they won any new jobs lately? or are they hiring you on in case an old job gets off of life support?

second, its a good thing to have a job right now no matter what it entails, if you decide to interview schedule a couple of days off for family time, or to take care of personal business, these are common and accepted reasons, to take time off.

third when you do go to the interview, ask a lot of specific questions, about the project you will be working on, is it a gmp? what is the scope of services, where is it located, what phase is it in, how many square feet, how many people are working on it now? who will u be working for? can they tell you something about that supervisor? just a few off the top of my head i can think of.

I don't know how old u are? but I didn't care less about politics until a a few months ago, keep up with the politics in your area, remember that recently the republicans and democrats worked out a deal? well it will have a huge impact on all of us, republicans got their tax breaks for the rich and they promise job growth so this will impact all of us architecture people, everything affects everything.

ps. apurimac, is right give 2 weeks notice, good advise, coming from a person that advocated killing off the poor in a different thread, though I think and hope you were joking Apurimac.

Thanks for the responses...

I guess I should have probably qualified the comment that I was could start immediately in that there is no such thing as two-weeks notice at my current job-its just not the culture of the office, when someone given notice they are basically told to finish out the day but not to bother with the two weeks. Their is no job specialization and we have temps start weekly and its easier and cheaper for them to just fill the slot. Plus the company is crazy-paranoid about security and competition, and I imagine that at least part of the reason they dont keep around is fear that people might take company info with them. The only person who I know of who actually gave any kind of advanced notice and continued to work was a girl who worked directly under the ceo and had absolutely zero client interaction and was leaving to go back to grad school in a completely different career field and actually gave about 4 months notice. And, according to people who have been there much longer then me, in the past, people have been canned because higher ups suspected them of job hunting (which granted hasnt actually happened since I've been there but I completely believe based on the seemingly minor infractions they have fired people over since I've been there).

I guess I'm just not sure how to convey this to a potential future employers, without sounding like I'm bad-mouthing my current employer, or without coming across as irresponsible and unreliable.


creativity expert-As far as researching the two offices-

The local office is a medium sized, mostly interior architecture focused office that I actually have a lot of experience with and have interviewed with and at one point I was even offered a job at the firm. At the time, I was still with my old firm and had just been offered a raise and been asked to stay on longer the my original one-year (between undergrad and grad school) plan. A few months later when I was laid-off I got in touch with them and while they hadnt actually laid people off they did decide not to replace the interns who had left for school and were no longer hiring entry-level positions, but I have kept in touch with them off and on since then.

The other office is a smaller, mostly international institutional and commercial, with a second even smaller office in a different city. They are just finishing up a couple of smaller projects, but according to the principle who was the one who actually called me they are expecting to be starting a couple of larger projects early in the spring. I randomly submitted my resume to their generic hr email over a year ago and never heard anything from them until they called me out of the blue recently and told me that they had specifically held on to my resume for all that time. It would require me to relocate, which I am completely open to.

At this point, I cant be sure that I will even land a real interview for either position, so I am trying to be careful not to burn any bridges at my current job since I may be stuck at it for awhile. But at the same time-its not the type of job where there would be any kinda logistic or moral dilemma in walking away from it on short notice and I wouldnt risk an opportunity to move back into architecture over any kinda 'loyalty' to my current company.

CE,

The DK song I linked to is satirical (as were all their songs). I don't know how new to the 'nect you are but Vado used to post satirical/sarcastic youtube links like that and i did it as a homage to him.

That and its a funny song.

apurimac,
you didn't strike me as an unreasonable person from your previous posts, glad to hear that you are not a psychotic postal architecture person.

For whatever it's worth to people in the Atlanta area - some colleagues working at Cooper Carry tell me they've been on a hiring spree recently. Maybe 20+ in the past few months. Hiring is across a wide swath of positions - my contact is entry level.

Bigger firms in town, in general, seem to be waking up slowly...

Greg, very good news about CC. I know a lot of people there in several of their offices and remember very vividly how badly they were contracting....