It is quite interesting to talk about our experiences outside the industry, how we solve our own problems- in the real world while looking for real jobs. A colleague told me that he went on working on a gasoline station, law firm and one time had a job painting walls.Me, I had to freelance. Some have established their own careers as featured here in the Out of the Box series. Another said he worked at the bar. Mostly with hopes culminating of landing a position in an architectural office someday.
Architecture was "odder" than the job I had before. I had a suit job in the finance department of a large company. It was SO boring, that I felt I was walking into a morgue on a daily basis. I think Henry Winkler and Michael Keaton had it better on "The Night Shift." So, I picked up more interesting work in architecture, as well as a drop in pay and a drop in professionalism. My soapbox, I know. C'est la vie.
Jobs before college included yard work, fast food, and warehouse work and jobs during college included working in a more menial capacity in the financial part of a few places, though the people were a hoot, and one job working outside as sort of a cabana boy at an expensive resort, though what happened to Matt Dillon in "Flamingo Kid" didn't happen to me. I would have actually preferred that job all through college but it didn't pay as much as the desk job. Moreover, I did not work during the last 2 years of undergrad, nor grad school.
My wife and I owned and operated a model aircraft manufacturing company for most of the 90's. It was a break in the architecture career, which I entered when I was 18, 'til I was 25, did the aircraft company, then back into AEC in 2000.
Our old company, DAW, lived on for a few more years under new ownership, then China took out a number of the small, cottage manufacturers. The brand is legendary in model aviation circles, though. That was a great business; People involved in model aviation are the salt of the Earth. It wasn't a bad living, but we do a lot better when I'm working my real profession. <g> I'm glad to be back in the construction industry, because I just have a lot of fun doing it. Creating big things is a rush.
I worked at a window factory, on the screen line mostly because I was too young to legally do the dangerous stuff with saws and glass. I loved, loved, loved that job. I love manual labor, I felt so good taking raw materials and turning it into something useful. I recruited my friend to work there with me and we carpooled in her jeep. I went back to college and she worked there for many years, it was the best job she'd ever had. My co-workers were mostly immigrants with beginning language skills but we all hung out together on break, sometimes after work too (my mother wouldn't have approved). It sure beat working at the mall or a restaurant, which would be torture for me. At 27, I supported myself playing poker for a few months while between architecture jobs. And no, I don't smoke, even after all that. I was a home health nurse for a family member for a week. I thought it was a volunteer position, then I got a nice check in the mail. Tough job, paid well. I worked for an engineer and contractor for 2 summers in college doing drafting and design and more. I loved that job and learned an unparalleled amount but ended up pissing off the owner and getting fired 1 week before I went back to school. He didn't care for architects, which wasn't why I got fired, but may have contributed. He wanted me to change my major to engineering and eventually take over his company. But my heart was set on architecture and that wasn't architecture. He had a huge influence on me and was a good role model regardless. Currently I am co-designing several learning programs for a literacy clinic and have taught to both adults and kids with learning disabilities.
I worked as a janitor at a administration building. I did meet a landscape architect there and quite a few others who were aware of me wanting to be come an architect and they were very helpful in answering questions and such. After that i worked as a CNA got a certificate and some other credentials and started working as an nursing assistant. While working as a nurse i never forgot about pursuing architecture as a career and one morning i put together a plan to follow my dream and quit my job and never looked back that was in 2009. Since then I have complete an A.S degree in architectural and building technology, I have a job as an architectural draftsman, and I make illustrations for the firm that i work for. I'm having some trouble registering for classes at Valencia for there architecture program though but things are going well.
wow, tint supported herself with poker, and non sequitur as a bad mother-fucking wizard. i would like to take a sabbatical and try both of those out for while. how does one follow those career paths?
i worked at a boy scout camp when i was too young to work anywhere else, then moved up to line cook at a pizza place (there have been a few over the years), clerk at a gas station, bank teller, draftsman for an asbestos/lead abatement company, graduate research assistant, intern, architect, etc.
During my first few years in Architecture school, I worked several summers and over holidays as a 'computer operator' at a large telecommunications company. This was long before the days of the PC. We tended large mainframe computers, putting up and taking down data tapes; loading and unloading the punch card machines and helping the programmers debug their code. Our main input / output device was an IBM Selectric Typewriter (see picture) hardwired into the mainframe.
The only real problem with this job was that they kept the computer room so cold it felt like a meat locker - took me months to thaw out after each gig.
My most unique pre-arch gig was cleaning lobster tanks at restaurants. There was a period of time where they combined the "crane" game and lobster tanks. You paid a dollar to operate the crane. If you caught a lobster, the restaurant would cook it for free. So, I drove around to three or four places every day, cleaning those things. Got old quick.
built caravans, or should i say, trailers. i worked for a guy who had a contract to build 80 trailers for holiday parks (they technically had wheels but you couldnt tow them anywhere). was great, learnt alot about building stud-frames and drinking.
I started officiating hockey up here in the great white north while in high school and took pretty well to it. All through architecture school (both undergrad and grad) I was able to get transfers between leagues while working my way up, to the point now that I am seeing many pre-NHLers on the ice before they make it to the big leagues. I love it, and its an awesome way to pick up beer/food money for the weekends. I actually paid my way all through university on my own between reffing in the winters and working decent jobs in the summer, finishing with no debt. Still keeping it up, although it looks like I've probably hit my plateau and won't be getting up much further in rankings. Dinger.
The best Bond villain (actually an assistant villain) was Germanic Irma Bunt, in OHMSS, employed by villain Blofeld, played by the late Telly Salavas. It was actress Ilse Steppat's first English-speaking role in a mainstream film but, sadly, she died right around the time of its release and at an early age. However, for decades, she has entertained the world posthumously as Irma Bunt.
Observant, a "On her Majesty's Secret Service" reference... interesting. I remember (pre-amazon) having a hard time sourcing a copy of the movie on DVD as it was not released together in North-America like all the others. It's available today for $5 in any wallmart movie bin but 10 years ago... my only option was to order a British copy and change my dvd player's settings to UK to watch it.
I swept the floor of an old cowboy pool hall every morning before I went to school.
I tended the counter of an old cowboy pool hall during the summer when I wasn't in school.
Stacked bales of Hay.
Drove a lot of tractors harrowing, raking, bailing
Road a lot of horses doing ranch work.
Docked Lambs (cutting off there tails and balls)
Branded a lot of cattle
Work in a camp as a counselor
Worked in a camp as a cook
Worked in a camp as a director
Worked as a laborer doing placing concrete, did some finishing, until I tangled with a concrete truck and lost.
Installed over head Garage Doors
Worked as and Aid in a School
Worked in a Factory where the made metal components for the War Machine, and also for Detroit.
Did Architectural Field Surveys for the establishment of a historic district
Moved Furniture
Worked as a day laborer.
Mowed lawns for the town parks department.
Shoveled Snow
Worked as a laborer for the Circus when they came to town.
Worked for the film industry doing set drawings.
Raised bum lambs ( bottle fed)
Sold garden produce door to door before farmer markets existed.
Sold house plants . Always just before Mother's Day.
Planted the garden, weeded the garden, harvested the garden.
Worked in a Sam's Club at night redoing the layout of a section of a store. Think I made fifteen cents and hour more than the other people I worked with, just because I could read plans.
Roofed a couple of houses, and pounded a lot of nails,
never killed anyone, so I don't qualify as an assassin.
what odd jobs did you have before architecture?;)
It is quite interesting to talk about our experiences outside the industry, how we solve our own problems- in the real world while looking for real jobs. A colleague told me that he went on working on a gasoline station, law firm and one time had a job painting walls.Me, I had to freelance. Some have established their own careers as featured here in the Out of the Box series. Another said he worked at the bar. Mostly with hopes culminating of landing a position in an architectural office someday.
Whats your story?
Architecture was "odder" than the job I had before. I had a suit job in the finance department of a large company. It was SO boring, that I felt I was walking into a morgue on a daily basis. I think Henry Winkler and Michael Keaton had it better on "The Night Shift." So, I picked up more interesting work in architecture, as well as a drop in pay and a drop in professionalism. My soapbox, I know. C'est la vie.
Jobs before college included yard work, fast food, and warehouse work and jobs during college included working in a more menial capacity in the financial part of a few places, though the people were a hoot, and one job working outside as sort of a cabana boy at an expensive resort, though what happened to Matt Dillon in "Flamingo Kid" didn't happen to me. I would have actually preferred that job all through college but it didn't pay as much as the desk job. Moreover, I did not work during the last 2 years of undergrad, nor grad school.
My wife and I owned and operated a model aircraft manufacturing company for most of the 90's. It was a break in the architecture career, which I entered when I was 18, 'til I was 25, did the aircraft company, then back into AEC in 2000.
Our old company, DAW, lived on for a few more years under new ownership, then China took out a number of the small, cottage manufacturers. The brand is legendary in model aviation circles, though. That was a great business; People involved in model aviation are the salt of the Earth. It wasn't a bad living, but we do a lot better when I'm working my real profession. <g> I'm glad to be back in the construction industry, because I just have a lot of fun doing it. Creating big things is a rush.
I worked at a window factory, on the screen line mostly because I was too young to legally do the dangerous stuff with saws and glass. I loved, loved, loved that job. I love manual labor, I felt so good taking raw materials and turning it into something useful. I recruited my friend to work there with me and we carpooled in her jeep. I went back to college and she worked there for many years, it was the best job she'd ever had. My co-workers were mostly immigrants with beginning language skills but we all hung out together on break, sometimes after work too (my mother wouldn't have approved). It sure beat working at the mall or a restaurant, which would be torture for me. At 27, I supported myself playing poker for a few months while between architecture jobs. And no, I don't smoke, even after all that. I was a home health nurse for a family member for a week. I thought it was a volunteer position, then I got a nice check in the mail. Tough job, paid well. I worked for an engineer and contractor for 2 summers in college doing drafting and design and more. I loved that job and learned an unparalleled amount but ended up pissing off the owner and getting fired 1 week before I went back to school. He didn't care for architects, which wasn't why I got fired, but may have contributed. He wanted me to change my major to engineering and eventually take over his company. But my heart was set on architecture and that wasn't architecture. He had a huge influence on me and was a good role model regardless. Currently I am co-designing several learning programs for a literacy clinic and have taught to both adults and kids with learning disabilities.
I worked as a janitor at a administration building. I did meet a landscape architect there and quite a few others who were aware of me wanting to be come an architect and they were very helpful in answering questions and such. After that i worked as a CNA got a certificate and some other credentials and started working as an nursing assistant. While working as a nurse i never forgot about pursuing architecture as a career and one morning i put together a plan to follow my dream and quit my job and never looked back that was in 2009. Since then I have complete an A.S degree in architectural and building technology, I have a job as an architectural draftsman, and I make illustrations for the firm that i work for. I'm having some trouble registering for classes at Valencia for there architecture program though but things are going well.
3D Maya artist at Rockstar Games
Custodian, dress-shoe and athletic gear salesman, fork-lift operator, bad mother-fucking wizard, mover and custom crate builder.
wow, tint supported herself with poker, and non sequitur as a bad mother-fucking wizard. i would like to take a sabbatical and try both of those out for while. how does one follow those career paths?
i worked at a boy scout camp when i was too young to work anywhere else, then moved up to line cook at a pizza place (there have been a few over the years), clerk at a gas station, bank teller, draftsman for an asbestos/lead abatement company, graduate research assistant, intern, architect, etc.
During my first few years in Architecture school, I worked several summers and over holidays as a 'computer operator' at a large telecommunications company. This was long before the days of the PC. We tended large mainframe computers, putting up and taking down data tapes; loading and unloading the punch card machines and helping the programmers debug their code. Our main input / output device was an IBM Selectric Typewriter (see picture) hardwired into the mainframe.
The only real problem with this job was that they kept the computer room so cold it felt like a meat locker - took me months to thaw out after each gig.
Forklift driver, candy shop clerk, bodybuilding writer, and for 10 years of my life, a body piercer / scarification artist at a tattoo shop.
My most unique pre-arch gig was cleaning lobster tanks at restaurants. There was a period of time where they combined the "crane" game and lobster tanks. You paid a dollar to operate the crane. If you caught a lobster, the restaurant would cook it for free. So, I drove around to three or four places every day, cleaning those things. Got old quick.
I'd say I learned about how to treat people more from all the other jobs...
State Fair booth for the turkey grower's assc - taught me that there are people who do care about how to grow and market our food.
Fast food - met a lot of people making a career at it, were good and loved their job. benefits weren't so bad.
Retail -clothing- (shudder, esp around the holidays) - back-to-school season was sad to see, though the holidays were even worse.
City engineering inspector/surveyor/draftsman - all about the bureaucracy and dealing with the loudest residents' complaints
IT/classroom equipment support (college), civil engineering/planning
Lumberyard - stacking lumber, operating a forklift and selling kitchen cabinets/doors/windows.
Stock boy @ department store
Lens tinter @ eyeglasses lab
Reservation agent @ travel company
Trainer @ health club
Waiter @ swanky restaurant
Butcher. knife skills come in handy sometimes
built caravans, or should i say, trailers. i worked for a guy who had a contract to build 80 trailers for holiday parks (they technically had wheels but you couldnt tow them anywhere). was great, learnt alot about building stud-frames and drinking.
In order...
Pre-Architecture School:
Landscaper
Doughnut Factory Worker
Ranch Hand on an Outback Cattle Station
Video Store Manager
Post-Architecture School (career diversions):
Futures & Options Trader
CEO of a Private Equity Fund
I started officiating hockey up here in the great white north while in high school and took pretty well to it. All through architecture school (both undergrad and grad) I was able to get transfers between leagues while working my way up, to the point now that I am seeing many pre-NHLers on the ice before they make it to the big leagues. I love it, and its an awesome way to pick up beer/food money for the weekends. I actually paid my way all through university on my own between reffing in the winters and working decent jobs in the summer, finishing with no debt. Still keeping it up, although it looks like I've probably hit my plateau and won't be getting up much further in rankings. Dinger.
H.S.
Movie Theater projection operator
UPS Warehouse
Summer Intern at the Sewage Treatment Plant doing locates and GPS mapping the system
College
Summer Construction Crew
Wood Shop Monitor
Laser Cutting Monitor
Post Grad School Recession
Managed in-hospital pharmacy store/dispensary for a year in 2009
Worked in a beer warehouse, 3rd shift. Liked it more than you would except.
Chocolate shop.
martial arts teacher
veterinary technician (probably only architect that's been bitten by a sloth and attacked by an owl on same day)
bank teller
landscaper
Chocolate shop.
And I was expecting sales rep at a swanky Bulgari watch store. As long as you could dig into the chocolate for free.
veterinary technician (probably only architect that's been bitten by a sloth and attacked by an owl on same day)
This DVM must have had exotic animals in his clientele, and not just Palm Springs poodles.
O come on. nobody was an assasin? Seriusly???
Ah, Oddjob. Classic Bond villain.
Ah, Oddjob. Classic Bond villain.
The best Bond villain (actually an assistant villain) was Germanic Irma Bunt, in OHMSS, employed by villain Blofeld, played by the late Telly Salavas. It was actress Ilse Steppat's first English-speaking role in a mainstream film but, sadly, she died right around the time of its release and at an early age. However, for decades, she has entertained the world posthumously as Irma Bunt.
http://static2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20130507232815/jamesbond/images/a/ad/Irma_Bunt_%28Ilse_Steppat%29_-_Profile.jpg
http://cdn3.whatculture.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/Irma-Bunt.jpg
The best of the series, and many 007 fans agree:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WYFCl9qJGSQ
Observant, a "On her Majesty's Secret Service" reference... interesting. I remember (pre-amazon) having a hard time sourcing a copy of the movie on DVD as it was not released together in North-America like all the others. It's available today for $5 in any wallmart movie bin but 10 years ago... my only option was to order a British copy and change my dvd player's settings to UK to watch it.
If I told you what I did I'd have to kill you immediately.
Nobody was an assassin?
I personally bumped off several hundred bottles of wine and bourbon during my restaurant days. Does that count? (Maybe the death of my liver?)
I shined shoes in a barber shop.
I swept the floor of an old cowboy pool hall every morning before I went to school.
I tended the counter of an old cowboy pool hall during the summer when I wasn't in school.
Stacked bales of Hay.
Drove a lot of tractors harrowing, raking, bailing
Road a lot of horses doing ranch work.
Docked Lambs (cutting off there tails and balls)
Branded a lot of cattle
Work in a camp as a counselor
Worked in a camp as a cook
Worked in a camp as a director
Worked as a laborer doing placing concrete, did some finishing, until I tangled with a concrete truck and lost.
Installed over head Garage Doors
Worked as and Aid in a School
Worked in a Factory where the made metal components for the War Machine, and also for Detroit.
Did Architectural Field Surveys for the establishment of a historic district
Moved Furniture
Worked as a day laborer.
Mowed lawns for the town parks department.
Shoveled Snow
Worked as a laborer for the Circus when they came to town.
Worked for the film industry doing set drawings.
Raised bum lambs ( bottle fed)
Sold garden produce door to door before farmer markets existed.
Sold house plants . Always just before Mother's Day.
Planted the garden, weeded the garden, harvested the garden.
Worked in a Sam's Club at night redoing the layout of a section of a store. Think I made fifteen cents and hour more than the other people I worked with, just because I could read plans.
Roofed a couple of houses, and pounded a lot of nails,
never killed anyone, so I don't qualify as an assassin.
Dishwasher
Teaching Tennis Pro
Carpenter's Apprentice
Carpenter
Gardener
I worked 4 years at McDonald's prior to getting into Architecture.
I learned a lot about life working there.
Landscaper...painter...carpenter....plastics factory....Target....auction house...grocery store
customer service rep at a bank
wooden truss manufactuer
chemical dependency technician
roofer
general construction
test subject for experimental drugs!
mail clerk
apartment cleaner
machine operator
janitor
warehouse laborer
estimator
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