s.selophane, I said that it was bad but not as bad as some of the other markets. You're right I know people who have been out of work in the DC area for quite sometime.
Keep in mind many of the major coprorate firms that have DC offices are here mainly because of contracts and dealings withe the various government agencies. My office has done reasonable well in this downturn because of those continued contracts however our other offices in other cities have been hurting badly because they are involved in other markets affected by the recession.
I've worked in several corporate firms in DC and one of my previous firms was hit hard mosly because a lot of the mix-use, multi-family, and retail projects went belly up.
no joke, maybe instead of the rude 'shut up' you meant: tell me more.
he hidden truth behind a last-minute provision of the Homeland Security Act.
one day after the super-secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court’s decision to expand the Justice Department’s power of surveillance over U.S. citizens, Republican lawmakers squeezed the controversial bill through the Senate with a last-minute promise to moderates that it would later be gutted of “special interest” provisions, one of which shields pharmaceutical companies from liability in vaccine-related injury suits. As it stands, the American public will now be subject to forced immunization, under the penalty of fine and imprisonment, without the potential of legal recourse against the companies that manufacture them.
The F.D.A. team’s conclusions were frightening. Vaccines added [from 1995 – 1999] had tripled the dose of mercury that infants got in their first few months of life. As many as 30 million American children may have been exposed to mercury in excess of Environmental Protection Agency guidelines — levels of mercury that, in theory, could have killed enough brain cells to scramble thinking or hex behavior.
“It’s outrageous to think that injecting a child with all that toxicity is an acceptable risk,” said Bernard Rimland, director of the Autism Research Institute in San Diego. “It’s also outrageous that despite such compelling evidence of harm, the medical community would subject children to it.”
And so it is under this climate of intense scrutiny and potentially devastating class action litigation that the Senate passed the Homeland Security bill, with its future and retroactive liability protection for the vaccine-manufacturing pharmaceutical sector. Just at a time when mainstream news publications have finally begun to publicly air and corroborate long-standing accusations of a major cover-up by pharmaceutical companies of their guilt in producing mercury-poisoned vaccines to a generation of child immunization patients, many of whom have developed autism and other forms of neural damage as a result. And it may not end there. In a radio interview broadcast after the Senate vote, Dr. Len Horowitz, one of the leading voices for increased public scrutiny of the pharmaceutical sector, warned:
“This legislation not only impacts the victims of mercury poisoning, but equally guarantees that other ongoing class action lawsuits, such as those waged on behalf of polio vaccine recipients who developed cancer from monkey virus contaminations, will have no legal recourse.
In other words, the worst-case-scenario interpretation of the legislation is that U.S. citizens living in MEHPA adopting states will:
* have a mandatory vaccination or be charged with a crime,
* get a mandatory medical exam, or be charged with a crime and,
And perhaps we should begin by demanding answers to the most basic of questions. Namely, if the vaccines are so effective, then why are those who opt out of them considered such a risk to the immunized populace? Especially to the extent that they are going to be criminalized and fined? And, furthermore, if such drastic measures are being contemplated in respect to the collective health and welfare of the U.S. population, why can’t more scrutiny and funding be allocated for an investigation into the rise in autism among child immunization clients, as well as an entire generation’s sudden affliction of “attention deficit disorders”?
It's disheartening to hear that some firms exploit young people by offering them nothing but unpaid "internships." I have never heard of that in Houston, which is not to say that it doesn't happen, but I don't believe it is common here. In looking at the links provided above, it is clearly discouraged by the AIA and in violation of the labor laws. No matter how much the old farts may protest that "interns don't know anything, so why should we pay them?", that is B.S. The interns we employ (and pay) are skilled, sometimes highly, and they definitely add value for which they deserve to be paid.
In a dead hiring market like this one, it may seem to be better than nothing for the intern to get some experience to put on a resume. If you really feel you have to do it, I wouldn't work for free for more than three months at the most. Make it clear going in that you intend to put it on your resume. If they balk at that idea, forget it, and go wait tables instead.
As in many things in life, people value what they have to pay for. I suspect that the firms that don't pay their interns are crappy places to work. Consider yourself better off for knowing who they are and avoid them when the market comes back.
touchy indeed because of the duality of the issue
a needed harm that has to happen to so much life to make future life safe(r)
out of work working free too sucks
but the odd cadd tutor thing and pc it stuff does help me eat..
infuriating indeed so many highly talented people be wasted and going idol
tumbleweed... I'm not against free internships as long as they are actual internships.
I don't try to criticize every company that doesn't pay interns but generally, I'd imagine you'd have to be a very generous company with ulterior motives (hoping to impress good interns to hire them post grad) or a genuinely friendly company.
But either of those two scenarios, a company will generally advertise how great their direct-to-hire programs are or how philanthropic they are. So, any company touting their efforts to donate money to charity et cetera are more than likely hiring interns to help people out.
I guess I'm bitter about this because I never had the option of doing an internship in school. Everything on campus was workstudy which I never ever qualified for. The companies around my school were definitely not looking for art and history students. And my department's connections were all with now defunct homebuilders.
These were pretty much "evil" companies- EIFS American Dream stucco fuck boxes is what the specialized in.
Downtown was almost over 15 miles from my college, hour commutes to downtown and a majority of businesses were in the "corridor." The "corridor" was closer to 25 miles and 2 expressways away.
As the owner of a shitty car and a close paying job... I never took the gamble of 50 mile 3 hour shifts at those internships.
But back to the homebuilding companies, they were having the interns do the site plans. A job, which if paid, is well into the 50k range. I sent a nasty e-mail to the dean's dean sometime starting the program. This lead to me to have a great conversation with them and being snubbed by the department within the college. This ended up with my advisor purposely signing me up for a class that is offered once every three semesters. As you guess, I graduated over 3 semesters late with one 3 credit hour course needed to graduate!
haha, it was illegal here but they repealed that once someone pointed out that a majority of road-related pedestrian deaths are from bicyclers riding on shoulders.
Our bike lanes are only 24" too and almost all the roads with shoulders are 45-50 mph roads.
So, I'd rather ride slower on sidewalks then amongst the cars. I wish I could find the graph of depicting the relationship between bicycle speed and lethality.
This is how I survive. (Note this is an internship abroad and not in the U.S so i'm not sure if the same rules apply) I "technically" get paid but it's quite abysmal for the amount of work i'm doing. I work 7 days a week about 12-14 hours a day and my first month pay check was equivalent to $120.
1) Forget driving and take whatever means of public transportion offered where you live (I personally commute ~2 hours a day on bus). This is also a good place to catch a few Z's
2) Find a 2nd job, whatever it maybe. Everyday my boss tells me how when he was young and interning in New York (unpaid) he had to deliver pizzas after work to make ends meat.
3) Be optimistic. Even if you do get an unpaid internship, just think about all the networking possibilities. In the shortterm this probably isn't so valuable. but in the long run, the network connection that were made will eventually be proven invaluable.
4) I just keep reminding myself that my boss is going to eventually write me a super recommendation letter. Or maybe I'm fooling myself.
The great thing about a work environment is that I can use all their resources. If you know what i mean.
But then again I still have one more year before i graduate and get my B. Arch.
Since being laid off and setting out on my own, I've done 3 small architectureish jobs, none of which I was paid for (I knew this going in, so no big deal). I've also designed, created and sold over 50 pieces of jewelry, all of which I was paid for. I'm working on both careers, plus a third, seeing which one will take off.
For a long time I struggled, wondering what skills or traits I lacked that made the profession of architecture so hard for me. Since starting my business, I've been able to test myself, realizing that I'm comfortable exercising my strategies, even if I make mistakes... And that people will pay me to do something, and that thing can be more fun and more profitable than architecture, while being a lot simpler. I feel empowered, satisfied and enlightened, which is priceless. In the real world, it is hard to win at architecture. Do not underestimate what it takes to architect a building adequately, the range of personality and skills to get someone to pay you to do that. How about to do it WELL? And be profitable? Does the average, or even good architect have the tools to win in today's complex world? Some do, some don't. In my recent, well paid young architect position, I was being held back... I wasn't learning from the architects I worked for because dare I say they lacked those skills, and suffered immensely for it.
I'm looking forward to my third potential career, agriculture. Like jewelry and architecture, it is about creating something. All 3 have different wavelengths of feedback, with architecture having the longest. I think this means it takes longer to reinforce what is good and useful, generally delaying learning strategies necessary to be successful in business. Makes it a good back-burner career at best, for me. I know I'm going to forget all that ADA stuff if I take too long of a break!
What I am trying to say here is Freedom is more important than Money. And the big picture is more important than the little one. If you are going to work for no monetary compensation, you should at least be working for your own freedom and this, only the individual knows. Isn't freedom and balance the essence of a well lived life? Are you getting something out of this? Or are you a tool for servicing some architect's inadequacies? ...by the way, another good reason to discourage debt, you might find yourself not having an income one day and it could be the best day ever.
i just realized, when i counted all the firms i've applied to on the chicago aia website (which doesn't include all the other firms i've applied to) and counted the applications in my sent mail, that i've send out almost 600 resumes in the last year.
How to Survive?
s.selophane, I said that it was bad but not as bad as some of the other markets. You're right I know people who have been out of work in the DC area for quite sometime.
Keep in mind many of the major coprorate firms that have DC offices are here mainly because of contracts and dealings withe the various government agencies. My office has done reasonable well in this downturn because of those continued contracts however our other offices in other cities have been hurting badly because they are involved in other markets affected by the recession.
I've worked in several corporate firms in DC and one of my previous firms was hit hard mosly because a lot of the mix-use, multi-family, and retail projects went belly up.
i hope to work on the forced immunization clinics that are being bid on now as somebody who has never had them haha
forced immunization clinics? oh, god... shut up.
no joke, maybe instead of the rude 'shut up' you meant: tell me more.
he hidden truth behind a last-minute provision of the Homeland Security Act.
one day after the super-secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court’s decision to expand the Justice Department’s power of surveillance over U.S. citizens, Republican lawmakers squeezed the controversial bill through the Senate with a last-minute promise to moderates that it would later be gutted of “special interest” provisions, one of which shields pharmaceutical companies from liability in vaccine-related injury suits. As it stands, the American public will now be subject to forced immunization, under the penalty of fine and imprisonment, without the potential of legal recourse against the companies that manufacture them.
The F.D.A. team’s conclusions were frightening. Vaccines added [from 1995 – 1999] had tripled the dose of mercury that infants got in their first few months of life. As many as 30 million American children may have been exposed to mercury in excess of Environmental Protection Agency guidelines — levels of mercury that, in theory, could have killed enough brain cells to scramble thinking or hex behavior.
“It’s outrageous to think that injecting a child with all that toxicity is an acceptable risk,” said Bernard Rimland, director of the Autism Research Institute in San Diego. “It’s also outrageous that despite such compelling evidence of harm, the medical community would subject children to it.”
And so it is under this climate of intense scrutiny and potentially devastating class action litigation that the Senate passed the Homeland Security bill, with its future and retroactive liability protection for the vaccine-manufacturing pharmaceutical sector. Just at a time when mainstream news publications have finally begun to publicly air and corroborate long-standing accusations of a major cover-up by pharmaceutical companies of their guilt in producing mercury-poisoned vaccines to a generation of child immunization patients, many of whom have developed autism and other forms of neural damage as a result. And it may not end there. In a radio interview broadcast after the Senate vote, Dr. Len Horowitz, one of the leading voices for increased public scrutiny of the pharmaceutical sector, warned:
“This legislation not only impacts the victims of mercury poisoning, but equally guarantees that other ongoing class action lawsuits, such as those waged on behalf of polio vaccine recipients who developed cancer from monkey virus contaminations, will have no legal recourse.
In other words, the worst-case-scenario interpretation of the legislation is that U.S. citizens living in MEHPA adopting states will:
* have a mandatory vaccination or be charged with a crime,
* get a mandatory medical exam, or be charged with a crime and,
And perhaps we should begin by demanding answers to the most basic of questions. Namely, if the vaccines are so effective, then why are those who opt out of them considered such a risk to the immunized populace? Especially to the extent that they are going to be criminalized and fined? And, furthermore, if such drastic measures are being contemplated in respect to the collective health and welfare of the U.S. population, why can’t more scrutiny and funding be allocated for an investigation into the rise in autism among child immunization clients, as well as an entire generation’s sudden affliction of “attention deficit disorders”?
Roe Vs Wade.
People have a right to their body.
HUR DUR.
It's disheartening to hear that some firms exploit young people by offering them nothing but unpaid "internships." I have never heard of that in Houston, which is not to say that it doesn't happen, but I don't believe it is common here. In looking at the links provided above, it is clearly discouraged by the AIA and in violation of the labor laws. No matter how much the old farts may protest that "interns don't know anything, so why should we pay them?", that is B.S. The interns we employ (and pay) are skilled, sometimes highly, and they definitely add value for which they deserve to be paid.
In a dead hiring market like this one, it may seem to be better than nothing for the intern to get some experience to put on a resume. If you really feel you have to do it, I wouldn't work for free for more than three months at the most. Make it clear going in that you intend to put it on your resume. If they balk at that idea, forget it, and go wait tables instead.
As in many things in life, people value what they have to pay for. I suspect that the firms that don't pay their interns are crappy places to work. Consider yourself better off for knowing who they are and avoid them when the market comes back.
true thanks
touchy indeed because of the duality of the issue
a needed harm that has to happen to so much life to make future life safe(r)
out of work working free too sucks
but the odd cadd tutor thing and pc it stuff does help me eat..
infuriating indeed so many highly talented people be wasted and going idol
tumbleweed... I'm not against free internships as long as they are actual internships.
I don't try to criticize every company that doesn't pay interns but generally, I'd imagine you'd have to be a very generous company with ulterior motives (hoping to impress good interns to hire them post grad) or a genuinely friendly company.
But either of those two scenarios, a company will generally advertise how great their direct-to-hire programs are or how philanthropic they are. So, any company touting their efforts to donate money to charity et cetera are more than likely hiring interns to help people out.
I guess I'm bitter about this because I never had the option of doing an internship in school. Everything on campus was workstudy which I never ever qualified for. The companies around my school were definitely not looking for art and history students. And my department's connections were all with now defunct homebuilders.
These were pretty much "evil" companies- EIFS American Dream stucco fuck boxes is what the specialized in.
Downtown was almost over 15 miles from my college, hour commutes to downtown and a majority of businesses were in the "corridor." The "corridor" was closer to 25 miles and 2 expressways away.
As the owner of a shitty car and a close paying job... I never took the gamble of 50 mile 3 hour shifts at those internships.
But back to the homebuilding companies, they were having the interns do the site plans. A job, which if paid, is well into the 50k range. I sent a nasty e-mail to the dean's dean sometime starting the program. This lead to me to have a great conversation with them and being snubbed by the department within the college. This ended up with my advisor purposely signing me up for a class that is offered once every three semesters. As you guess, I graduated over 3 semesters late with one 3 credit hour course needed to graduate!
test out demand change, ride your bike , 15 miles NP. you are the "costumer" what you want is what you will get
you've never ridden a bike where I live. Sidewalks here are non-existent.
Who rides on sidewalks? In many places that is illegal.
haha, it was illegal here but they repealed that once someone pointed out that a majority of road-related pedestrian deaths are from bicyclers riding on shoulders.
Our bike lanes are only 24" too and almost all the roads with shoulders are 45-50 mph roads.
So, I'd rather ride slower on sidewalks then amongst the cars. I wish I could find the graph of depicting the relationship between bicycle speed and lethality.
maybe you need to start a critical mass bike ride to assert bikes right to the roadway
have one, not going to happen any time soon.
i do have them every week and it does raise awareness about bike safety.
back on topic how to survive?
dumpster dive!
you know how much fresh organic produce gets tossed?!
Gross, enjoy your worms.
This is how I survive. (Note this is an internship abroad and not in the U.S so i'm not sure if the same rules apply) I "technically" get paid but it's quite abysmal for the amount of work i'm doing. I work 7 days a week about 12-14 hours a day and my first month pay check was equivalent to $120.
1) Forget driving and take whatever means of public transportion offered where you live (I personally commute ~2 hours a day on bus). This is also a good place to catch a few Z's
2) Find a 2nd job, whatever it maybe. Everyday my boss tells me how when he was young and interning in New York (unpaid) he had to deliver pizzas after work to make ends meat.
3) Be optimistic. Even if you do get an unpaid internship, just think about all the networking possibilities. In the shortterm this probably isn't so valuable. but in the long run, the network connection that were made will eventually be proven invaluable.
4) I just keep reminding myself that my boss is going to eventually write me a super recommendation letter. Or maybe I'm fooling myself.
The great thing about a work environment is that I can use all their resources. If you know what i mean.
But then again I still have one more year before i graduate and get my B. Arch.
Since being laid off and setting out on my own, I've done 3 small architectureish jobs, none of which I was paid for (I knew this going in, so no big deal). I've also designed, created and sold over 50 pieces of jewelry, all of which I was paid for. I'm working on both careers, plus a third, seeing which one will take off.
For a long time I struggled, wondering what skills or traits I lacked that made the profession of architecture so hard for me. Since starting my business, I've been able to test myself, realizing that I'm comfortable exercising my strategies, even if I make mistakes... And that people will pay me to do something, and that thing can be more fun and more profitable than architecture, while being a lot simpler. I feel empowered, satisfied and enlightened, which is priceless. In the real world, it is hard to win at architecture. Do not underestimate what it takes to architect a building adequately, the range of personality and skills to get someone to pay you to do that. How about to do it WELL? And be profitable? Does the average, or even good architect have the tools to win in today's complex world? Some do, some don't. In my recent, well paid young architect position, I was being held back... I wasn't learning from the architects I worked for because dare I say they lacked those skills, and suffered immensely for it.
I'm looking forward to my third potential career, agriculture. Like jewelry and architecture, it is about creating something. All 3 have different wavelengths of feedback, with architecture having the longest. I think this means it takes longer to reinforce what is good and useful, generally delaying learning strategies necessary to be successful in business. Makes it a good back-burner career at best, for me. I know I'm going to forget all that ADA stuff if I take too long of a break!
What I am trying to say here is Freedom is more important than Money. And the big picture is more important than the little one. If you are going to work for no monetary compensation, you should at least be working for your own freedom and this, only the individual knows. Isn't freedom and balance the essence of a well lived life? Are you getting something out of this? Or are you a tool for servicing some architect's inadequacies? ...by the way, another good reason to discourage debt, you might find yourself not having an income one day and it could be the best day ever.
(what was in that funny cigarette anyways?)
Oh, and how to survive? I've taken a vow of poverty.
strawbeary: terrific post - great words to live by.
i just realized, when i counted all the firms i've applied to on the chicago aia website (which doesn't include all the other firms i've applied to) and counted the applications in my sent mail, that i've send out almost 600 resumes in the last year.
it's all about who you know
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