Why is that there so many jerks out there that you work you rear off for get laid off by and then they act like you had nothing to do with the projects you spent so many hours working on so they can get all the acclaim for them?
I recently came into a situation where when I was out there trying to get a job, as I have been for the past year and a half, and I was @#$%blocked by a senior member of the staff for the previous firm I worked for. This guy already has a job. money in the bank and I am out there trying to get a job show people the projects that I worked on and then I am @#$%blocked by this guy who acts like I had nothing to do with the project that I worked on for hours and hours and hours day and night on. This guy wants to take all the credit for the design (which is fine since he was the actual designer, or conceiver) and push anyone who did support work on the projects out of the picture. I am by no means saying or claiming i designed the work nor do i even come close to portraying that I did. I only talk about what the projects were, ie scope. size, complexity and so fourth and when someone ask him about it he acts like i was just some petty grunt.
I hate jerks that have no appreciation for the people who enable them to look good in front of their peers. You work you rear off for people in this business and when you simply try to tell someone about the projects you worked on you get thrown under the bus! Why are architects and designers like this? Who peed in their cherrios? So where does that leave me? If i cant talk about or show someone images of the projects I worked on for the past 6 years of my 10 years of experience how the hell am I supposed to get a job? The problem with this guy is he has a lot of friends in high places who work in senior positions in firms all over the city i live in. This really sucks because I have great ability, and creativity that I can't show or discuss how I have used it in my past positions.
The only answer I can come up with at this point is to just stop trying to get a job, disappear off the design and social radar, go back to school finish up my education and when I am all done I either use the projects I did in school to help me get a job or I use the work i did in college and make up some fake projects along the way and build a bogus portfolio of to show my ability and creativity and start my own firm and go from there. I can't leave this god forsaken city because my wife has built a business here that will allow us to survive through this tough economical time while I am out of work. dealing with all of this makes me just want to quit chasing my passion for architecture and go work at walmart.
Forgive me for being lengthy this helps to vent here.. I wonder if other people in the industry come across similar difficulties and I hope to hear other folks stories of unemployment and the jerk designers they work or worked for. If anyone wants to comment or offer support feel free I just kindly ask that you don't be rude.
archidude,
yes i know what you mean been there done that, the designer who has little to no idea how the building will be erected is making life miserable for all of us expendable people.
last night i posted something that reading it know i have to say that i had a reeces pieces peanut butter cup and was on a sugar high. here it is.
My fellow architects and architecture educated comrades,
Some will argue that we architects deserve whats happening to us. We are being annihilated, and categorized every day by everybody, but more importantly by architecture firms and bosses who have forgotten or don't care about the building art. We must revolt against these people who want to obliterate us. Are we going to stand by idly as they increase their bottom line? while we the so called expendable production people draft all their bizarre and distasteful corporate cookie cutter buildings to life?
We have all scene Star Wars the movie. Well my fellow architects you are all metaphorically Jedis and they are the dark side. You are all part of a religion that is being annihilated, chopped up, used, abused, corrupted by money hungry scavengers. A thousand years from now people will excavate and when they find the remains what do you want them to say? Because right now we are not doing justice to the innovative spirit that Brunelleschi left us. We must remember that the recession we are going through right now is much more different from the great depression, and we are almost at 50% unemployment (in architecture). In the great depression there just was no money! in this recession there is money but people are afraid to spend and invest, or for politically motivated reasons do not want the economy to recover while we have a sitting African American President.
What can we do? lets start by saying No! Start your own firms and lets flip this world upside down on these bureaucratic bastards! fight the power.
Archidude;
Calm down.
Why don't you try meeting with jerk designer guy, and explain that you are accurately representing your role in the project? Tell him you will print right on the documents that it was "designed by jerk designer" and agree on how you will explain your role with him. If he is the designer, he probably also got all riled up and angry thinking you showed someone the project and said you did it.
Please realize that he might have been burnt in the past. I have a former employee who left he firm and moved to another state, and started his own firm. I actually give him lots of work, had him work part time for us on projects, supported his start-up, etc. Imagine my chagrin when I heard that he was trying to get our clients (the ones he was interfacing working on projects with us) to give his firm their next project (even after signing a non compete.) Then I took a look at his new shiny web page and saw that every single project posted was ours. He did not give us any credit at all, and implied that the projects were totally his. For some of the projects, he was involved in a major way completing construction documents, but for some of the projects, he just helped at the end picking up redlines.
archidude, archie's advice about trying to meet this problem at the source is a good one. If you think there is any chance you can have a reasonable discussion with jerk designer and let him know you are absolutely NOT misrepresenting your role, go for it.
On the other hand, if this guy is a total a**hole prima donna who can't be reasoned with, he most likely has that reputation around town: architecture is a small community, and we all know who the jerks are in our own cities. In this case, you can gently, politely, tactfully say to potential employers that while you don't at all want them to get the impression that you are claiming credit for this design, you also want to state that you had a more significant role in the project than Your Friend Mr. Highly Respected Jerk Designer might represent if they call him for a recommendation. Do this with utmost humility: consider how the potential employer would want you to speak about their firm upon leaving them, and adjust your language appropriately. A subtle comment from you might get a knowing nod from people who know jerk designer's reputation.
But! whatever you do, don't be bitchy about it, even if potential employer tries to draw you into a gossip fest. Be professional, respectful and honest - they will recognize that you are being so if it's sincere. Good luck.
PS if potential employers know jerk designer's reputation and still take his side, you don't want to work for them anyway. Thank lucky stars your wife's business can keep you afloat, hang out a shingle, and get busy networking with NON architects for small jobs.
You all are great thank you for your words of advice. I will take them all constructively. After some discussion with my wife however, I think I am on to something with the whole goin back to school thing.
After all this emotional inner battle and conflict I am feeling it might be a smart move. Not only will I be able to take a break from the stresses of finding work and making an income but I most likely will be able to build new alliances with future designers and graduates from the school and also I can eliminate the burden of worrying about working right now I know. I pretty sure I will calm down and be able to take a step back, relax and breathe fresh air again after making a choice to change the way i live and work.
Its so competitive to get a job in my city and unemployment is very very high here. I think that given the amount of time it will take for me to finish school and allow time for the economy to recover it might be just the right amount of time i could spend away from the profession to improve on the skills, ability and creativity I already posses. I've never really had my chance to shine in the spotlight so to speak, and this may be a way to feel good about what I am doing.
Talk to the "jerk".... ask him what he would like you to say and come to an agreement. The profession has standards for sh@t like this. Dont use the designer "jerk" as a reference... Ask the principal or owner for a reference.
---->Tuna
He is already employed has been at the same firm since it started and isn't goin anywhere anytime soon. I think maybe he got angered when he got wind that I had an interview with a large label firm here in my city. (which didn't have a real job ready for me anyways) After that happened the text messages and comments on my social networking profiles started rolling in. I am just re-thinking my whole goal and I am feeling real good about letting go of chasing after a job for a while and focusing my efforts now to getting back in school.
---->do2
I have exhausted that effort to talk rationally with him, he stands his ground. He forgets how much I actually worked on projects with him, so when i try to gain his approval to use the work i was apart of or discuss those projects with other firms he complains that I didn't have a significant enough role to use them. I just have to deal with it as it is i think and like I said in my response to everyone who made comments, I am just gonna stop looking for work and go back to school. In a few years this will have all blown over and I will have new works that I can elaborate and discuss freely after school is complete.
The problem with using the owner or principal is that he has way to much pull with the principals and ownership. They are way too loyal to him and have no clue what I did or did not do. They are so invisible in the process and rely on the info they senior design management gives them.
It's alight I am over it now. Hearing what other have to say helps me feel better about what I was trying to do and it supports my thought process of what I was thinking to be right.
I was merely vent my frustrations here and it helped me to find clarity in what I should do that will benefit me in the long term.
FYI, it works the other way too.. Jerk designers who leave/get fired/laid off take your work (on projects they barely touched while still employed), claim it as their own at conferences, even publish the work in article under their own name.
May 26, 10 8:34 pm ·
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unemployment and jerk designers
Why is that there so many jerks out there that you work you rear off for get laid off by and then they act like you had nothing to do with the projects you spent so many hours working on so they can get all the acclaim for them?
I recently came into a situation where when I was out there trying to get a job, as I have been for the past year and a half, and I was @#$%blocked by a senior member of the staff for the previous firm I worked for. This guy already has a job. money in the bank and I am out there trying to get a job show people the projects that I worked on and then I am @#$%blocked by this guy who acts like I had nothing to do with the project that I worked on for hours and hours and hours day and night on. This guy wants to take all the credit for the design (which is fine since he was the actual designer, or conceiver) and push anyone who did support work on the projects out of the picture. I am by no means saying or claiming i designed the work nor do i even come close to portraying that I did. I only talk about what the projects were, ie scope. size, complexity and so fourth and when someone ask him about it he acts like i was just some petty grunt.
I hate jerks that have no appreciation for the people who enable them to look good in front of their peers. You work you rear off for people in this business and when you simply try to tell someone about the projects you worked on you get thrown under the bus! Why are architects and designers like this? Who peed in their cherrios? So where does that leave me? If i cant talk about or show someone images of the projects I worked on for the past 6 years of my 10 years of experience how the hell am I supposed to get a job? The problem with this guy is he has a lot of friends in high places who work in senior positions in firms all over the city i live in. This really sucks because I have great ability, and creativity that I can't show or discuss how I have used it in my past positions.
The only answer I can come up with at this point is to just stop trying to get a job, disappear off the design and social radar, go back to school finish up my education and when I am all done I either use the projects I did in school to help me get a job or I use the work i did in college and make up some fake projects along the way and build a bogus portfolio of to show my ability and creativity and start my own firm and go from there. I can't leave this god forsaken city because my wife has built a business here that will allow us to survive through this tough economical time while I am out of work. dealing with all of this makes me just want to quit chasing my passion for architecture and go work at walmart.
Forgive me for being lengthy this helps to vent here.. I wonder if other people in the industry come across similar difficulties and I hope to hear other folks stories of unemployment and the jerk designers they work or worked for. If anyone wants to comment or offer support feel free I just kindly ask that you don't be rude.
Please explain more fully how said "jerk designer" blocked your ability to obtain another job.
archidude,
yes i know what you mean been there done that, the designer who has little to no idea how the building will be erected is making life miserable for all of us expendable people.
last night i posted something that reading it know i have to say that i had a reeces pieces peanut butter cup and was on a sugar high. here it is.
My fellow architects and architecture educated comrades,
Some will argue that we architects deserve whats happening to us. We are being annihilated, and categorized every day by everybody, but more importantly by architecture firms and bosses who have forgotten or don't care about the building art. We must revolt against these people who want to obliterate us. Are we going to stand by idly as they increase their bottom line? while we the so called expendable production people draft all their bizarre and distasteful corporate cookie cutter buildings to life?
We have all scene Star Wars the movie. Well my fellow architects you are all metaphorically Jedis and they are the dark side. You are all part of a religion that is being annihilated, chopped up, used, abused, corrupted by money hungry scavengers. A thousand years from now people will excavate and when they find the remains what do you want them to say? Because right now we are not doing justice to the innovative spirit that Brunelleschi left us. We must remember that the recession we are going through right now is much more different from the great depression, and we are almost at 50% unemployment (in architecture). In the great depression there just was no money! in this recession there is money but people are afraid to spend and invest, or for politically motivated reasons do not want the economy to recover while we have a sitting African American President.
What can we do? lets start by saying No! Start your own firms and lets flip this world upside down on these bureaucratic bastards! fight the power.
Archidude;
Calm down.
Why don't you try meeting with jerk designer guy, and explain that you are accurately representing your role in the project? Tell him you will print right on the documents that it was "designed by jerk designer" and agree on how you will explain your role with him. If he is the designer, he probably also got all riled up and angry thinking you showed someone the project and said you did it.
Please realize that he might have been burnt in the past. I have a former employee who left he firm and moved to another state, and started his own firm. I actually give him lots of work, had him work part time for us on projects, supported his start-up, etc. Imagine my chagrin when I heard that he was trying to get our clients (the ones he was interfacing working on projects with us) to give his firm their next project (even after signing a non compete.) Then I took a look at his new shiny web page and saw that every single project posted was ours. He did not give us any credit at all, and implied that the projects were totally his. For some of the projects, he was involved in a major way completing construction documents, but for some of the projects, he just helped at the end picking up redlines.
talk about a stab in the back.
archidude, archie's advice about trying to meet this problem at the source is a good one. If you think there is any chance you can have a reasonable discussion with jerk designer and let him know you are absolutely NOT misrepresenting your role, go for it.
On the other hand, if this guy is a total a**hole prima donna who can't be reasoned with, he most likely has that reputation around town: architecture is a small community, and we all know who the jerks are in our own cities. In this case, you can gently, politely, tactfully say to potential employers that while you don't at all want them to get the impression that you are claiming credit for this design, you also want to state that you had a more significant role in the project than Your Friend Mr. Highly Respected Jerk Designer might represent if they call him for a recommendation. Do this with utmost humility: consider how the potential employer would want you to speak about their firm upon leaving them, and adjust your language appropriately. A subtle comment from you might get a knowing nod from people who know jerk designer's reputation.
But! whatever you do, don't be bitchy about it, even if potential employer tries to draw you into a gossip fest. Be professional, respectful and honest - they will recognize that you are being so if it's sincere. Good luck.
PS if potential employers know jerk designer's reputation and still take his side, you don't want to work for them anyway. Thank lucky stars your wife's business can keep you afloat, hang out a shingle, and get busy networking with NON architects for small jobs.
You all are great thank you for your words of advice. I will take them all constructively. After some discussion with my wife however, I think I am on to something with the whole goin back to school thing.
After all this emotional inner battle and conflict I am feeling it might be a smart move. Not only will I be able to take a break from the stresses of finding work and making an income but I most likely will be able to build new alliances with future designers and graduates from the school and also I can eliminate the burden of worrying about working right now I know. I pretty sure I will calm down and be able to take a step back, relax and breathe fresh air again after making a choice to change the way i live and work.
Its so competitive to get a job in my city and unemployment is very very high here. I think that given the amount of time it will take for me to finish school and allow time for the economy to recover it might be just the right amount of time i could spend away from the profession to improve on the skills, ability and creativity I already posses. I've never really had my chance to shine in the spotlight so to speak, and this may be a way to feel good about what I am doing.
doesn't it seem like the people getting employed are the ones that already have jobs? would you still be angry if both of you got hired?
Talk to the "jerk".... ask him what he would like you to say and come to an agreement. The profession has standards for sh@t like this. Dont use the designer "jerk" as a reference... Ask the principal or owner for a reference.
---->Tuna
He is already employed has been at the same firm since it started and isn't goin anywhere anytime soon. I think maybe he got angered when he got wind that I had an interview with a large label firm here in my city. (which didn't have a real job ready for me anyways) After that happened the text messages and comments on my social networking profiles started rolling in. I am just re-thinking my whole goal and I am feeling real good about letting go of chasing after a job for a while and focusing my efforts now to getting back in school.
---->do2
I have exhausted that effort to talk rationally with him, he stands his ground. He forgets how much I actually worked on projects with him, so when i try to gain his approval to use the work i was apart of or discuss those projects with other firms he complains that I didn't have a significant enough role to use them. I just have to deal with it as it is i think and like I said in my response to everyone who made comments, I am just gonna stop looking for work and go back to school. In a few years this will have all blown over and I will have new works that I can elaborate and discuss freely after school is complete.
The problem with using the owner or principal is that he has way to much pull with the principals and ownership. They are way too loyal to him and have no clue what I did or did not do. They are so invisible in the process and rely on the info they senior design management gives them.
It's alight I am over it now. Hearing what other have to say helps me feel better about what I was trying to do and it supports my thought process of what I was thinking to be right.
I was merely vent my frustrations here and it helped me to find clarity in what I should do that will benefit me in the long term.
Yeah but.... if i were you, I wouldn't back to architecture school!
What about starting a revolution archidude? what do you say?
FYI, it works the other way too.. Jerk designers who leave/get fired/laid off take your work (on projects they barely touched while still employed), claim it as their own at conferences, even publish the work in article under their own name.
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