from what I hear I have 5 mates working there, and a new addition recently. The pay is barely...BARELY if you are lucky, to get buy in London, nevermind going out to the clubs. The benefits....none, other than their name on your CV. Working hours.....suck ass, one of my mates got called in on her weekend off to just finish up some work (2 hrs worth she was told) ended up there till 4 am Monday morning.

You make the call!

what about working for Grimshaw ? What are the working conditions at that office?

Expect to have to work harder than you ever have, cancel social engagements regularly and miss whole weekends, enjoy the luxury of 5 hours sleep a night etc, all as typical features of your first year.

The flip side is that you if you get a position, you will probably look back in ten years time and think that it was the best move of your professional career, as I do after working for F+P for 10 years (90-00)

Salaries typically start low but build up once/if you prove yourself as with many london offices.

good luck !

Have you every been in an overcrowded subway during rush hour? That is the way it feels working in F+P office. 600+ employees working in one office space. I never understood the need to cram as much people (especially in the big firms) as possible in a single room. Even library internet rooms have more breathing space between each computer.

I've finished my Master in US and work here fore 1 year.

I think it really depends on project in terms of the working hour.
the average slary is £20-25k if you're not registered architect in UK.

benefits:
20 days hoilidays + 12 days study leave (part3)
2 professional membership.
subsidary for part3 course.

Personally, I think it's a good experience.

so what about Grimshaw or any other UK offices? Richard Rogers? I'd like to know what your experiences are with any of them, seeing as i'm moving out the US for sure now.

dsze, Can you tell us how you landed your job in London? I'm planning on heading over in May of 2005. Do you have any advice on how or where a US Citizen should look for a job. I don't have any connections over there yet, so I'm all on my own. Thanks for the help.

I'm a UK citizen but studying in US. so I'm not really sure what's the process of US citizen working in UK. However, I know many US students could do it and the process is not very complicated as long as the company would willing to do the work permit.

In my case, I came here and stay with my friends for the first 3 weeks. From my experience, it's much easier if you came for a while and set up the interview, rather than setting up your interview in the states, because the negotiation of your contract term would take a while...

There're couple of ways to look for jobs
1) send your CV and samples of work to company that you really wanna go, call the office and ask who is responsible for CV. (digital CV and portfoilio are not preferred ususally)
2) check with job web page EG. Building Design
3) registered with job agent EG. SIV

I got this job through the agent.
I hope this would help.

dsze

the conditions that you described, are they in Foster and Partners?

do you know if they sponsor overseas citizens?

thanks