I have around 8 years of experience and will be interviewing again soon. What should I bring to the interview besides my resume? Obviously printouts of built work and a few cd sets.... but how do I format or present these? Recreate a post academic portfolio, bound and everything,.... or just format the images on 8.5x11s?
Any suggestions would be great. Thanks
I wouldnt waste the time/effort re-formatting print-outs or CD's of your professional work - just bring what you got and be prepared to talk about it. I typically dont want to look at a college portfolio after 2-3 years of work out of school duriong our interviews
thats a good point cajunarch. its funny to see portfolios that includes charcoal drawings of fruit and self portraits for positions that doesn't have any use for them. its nice to know that people enjoy traveling but i don't need to see black and white photographs of your world travels. keep it current!
to the extent you are interviewing for what you hope to be a "career" position, you may want to assemble a portfolio of materials that present you in the broadest sort of way.
personally, when I'm interviewing experienced candidates I find it valuable to view -- in addition to examples of recent work -- both a limited sample of school work and examples of artwork produced by the candidate at whatever stage of their career. the early work experience of so many young architects is so narrow (mostly presentation work and CDs) that it's hard to get a good view of the "whole" person if the only materials we are allowed to view during the interview are professional documents from the past 3-5 years.
when I interview candidates, I definitely want to know the skills they offer to fulfill the job opening I have right now -- but I am interested also in the "complete person" and find it valuable to know what skills they offer that might be useful to our firm 5-6 years down the road.
Good point Blue Goose - what I meant was after a few years out of college I don't want to see the 60 page exhaustive college portfolio that documented the interviewee's entire college studio experience including 1-week first-year charette's efforts - I do enjoy seeing a LIMITED selection of both college and outside material that help paint a "complete" picture of the person
Thought I'd revive this for any additional input. I'm working on my portfolio and have 6 years of experience, and its a weird middle ground where my work experience is going to be more in a supportive role than one of leadership so the projects only tell part of the story. School work shows more of what I have to offer in the future, and is completely mine. Locating that balance is tough though. As is deciding the amount of supplementary materials like 11x17 construction sets to have.
Thought I'd revive this for any additional input. I'm working on my portfolio and have 6 years of experience, and its a weird middle ground where my work experience is going to be more in a supportive role than one of leadership so the projects only tell part of the story. School work shows more of what I have to offer in the future, and is completely mine. Locating that balance is tough though. As is deciding the amount of supplementary materials like 11x17 construction sets to have.
i took my latest (large) 11x17 set for a massive TI i had been working on.
my portfolio is a good mix of college, personal work (competitions, suppositions, art...cetera) and profi work.
basically, i talked about all my projects, i have a lot of activities on the side... and the 11x17 set was a chance to talk about my role in projects, how i put sheets togethor, coordinated w/ consultants, etc.
I'm curious, do people really carry in sets of CD's to interviews? My last interview, several years ago now, I only brought photos of finished work and early schematic work I did on those same projects. Today I'm doing much more in terms of CD's. So, should I be saving old 1/2 size sets for a potential future interview?
My general rule of thumb is looking for the type material that is relevant to the position I am interviewing for - If I am talking to a spec writer/detailer candidate, I dont expect to see a majority of glossy marketing photos - I want to see HIS or HER work product - conversly, if a person is applying for a designer position, photos and schematics are fine but CD's are still welcome unless there is no possibility of production work as part of this position.
Like everything else in interviewing, think about the position and firm you are interested in and focus on what would interest THE TARGET FIRM and how you can make hiring you more attractive than the next guy/girl.
Jul 22, 10 11:50 pm ·
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interviewing with 8 years exper.
I have around 8 years of experience and will be interviewing again soon. What should I bring to the interview besides my resume? Obviously printouts of built work and a few cd sets.... but how do I format or present these? Recreate a post academic portfolio, bound and everything,.... or just format the images on 8.5x11s?
Any suggestions would be great. Thanks
Bring anything that can be a proof of your 8 years of experience.
I wouldnt waste the time/effort re-formatting print-outs or CD's of your professional work - just bring what you got and be prepared to talk about it. I typically dont want to look at a college portfolio after 2-3 years of work out of school duriong our interviews
good luck!
thats a good point cajunarch. its funny to see portfolios that includes charcoal drawings of fruit and self portraits for positions that doesn't have any use for them. its nice to know that people enjoy traveling but i don't need to see black and white photographs of your world travels. keep it current!
to the extent you are interviewing for what you hope to be a "career" position, you may want to assemble a portfolio of materials that present you in the broadest sort of way.
personally, when I'm interviewing experienced candidates I find it valuable to view -- in addition to examples of recent work -- both a limited sample of school work and examples of artwork produced by the candidate at whatever stage of their career. the early work experience of so many young architects is so narrow (mostly presentation work and CDs) that it's hard to get a good view of the "whole" person if the only materials we are allowed to view during the interview are professional documents from the past 3-5 years.
when I interview candidates, I definitely want to know the skills they offer to fulfill the job opening I have right now -- but I am interested also in the "complete person" and find it valuable to know what skills they offer that might be useful to our firm 5-6 years down the road.
Good point Blue Goose - what I meant was after a few years out of college I don't want to see the 60 page exhaustive college portfolio that documented the interviewee's entire college studio experience including 1-week first-year charette's efforts - I do enjoy seeing a LIMITED selection of both college and outside material that help paint a "complete" picture of the person
Thought I'd revive this for any additional input. I'm working on my portfolio and have 6 years of experience, and its a weird middle ground where my work experience is going to be more in a supportive role than one of leadership so the projects only tell part of the story. School work shows more of what I have to offer in the future, and is completely mine. Locating that balance is tough though. As is deciding the amount of supplementary materials like 11x17 construction sets to have.
Thought I'd revive this for any additional input. I'm working on my portfolio and have 6 years of experience, and its a weird middle ground where my work experience is going to be more in a supportive role than one of leadership so the projects only tell part of the story. School work shows more of what I have to offer in the future, and is completely mine. Locating that balance is tough though. As is deciding the amount of supplementary materials like 11x17 construction sets to have.
reflexive, that's about where i was.
i took my latest (large) 11x17 set for a massive TI i had been working on.
my portfolio is a good mix of college, personal work (competitions, suppositions, art...cetera) and profi work.
basically, i talked about all my projects, i have a lot of activities on the side... and the 11x17 set was a chance to talk about my role in projects, how i put sheets togethor, coordinated w/ consultants, etc.
did the trick, anyway.
keep it minimal and ask them questions
I'm curious, do people really carry in sets of CD's to interviews? My last interview, several years ago now, I only brought photos of finished work and early schematic work I did on those same projects. Today I'm doing much more in terms of CD's. So, should I be saving old 1/2 size sets for a potential future interview?
thanks holz, thats good info.
aqua, i have 12x18s or 11x17s stacked in a box of every project i worked on (and a few i didn't) for reference.
i have always taken reduced sets to interviews. glossy photos are one thing, but the sets always seem to get more attention than the photos.
Aqua:
My general rule of thumb is looking for the type material that is relevant to the position I am interviewing for - If I am talking to a spec writer/detailer candidate, I dont expect to see a majority of glossy marketing photos - I want to see HIS or HER work product - conversly, if a person is applying for a designer position, photos and schematics are fine but CD's are still welcome unless there is no possibility of production work as part of this position.
Like everything else in interviewing, think about the position and firm you are interested in and focus on what would interest THE TARGET FIRM and how you can make hiring you more attractive than the next guy/girl.
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