I'm a recent architectural graduate from Western Australia and have been working for nearly 6 months in a local firm.
Before I started working full time, I was handing out my application to my favourite firms around the world, e.g. Herzog & de Meuron, OMA, Peter Eisenman, Zaha Hadid, etc. What I noticed was that while most of them generally allow you to upload a maximum 10MB electronic copy of the resume and portfolio package, some of them will only accept 2MB or even 1MB! How is that possible and what's the reason behind this?
I've come across this question just now while doing research and browsing on the internet for some materials to hand in to my 1st students at my university since I've just started tutoring as well. And while looking for axonometric drawings by Peter Eisenman, it says on his website that the file of the resume and images are to be less than 1MB!
Anyone who's either in these firms or know anything about this, please explain it to me?
One thought is that they wanted you to be able to choose your best projects and best images of these projects. But how can one image cover everything behind a design research, concept, process and the outcomes?
Anything would be appreciated!
Ryan
gwharton
Aug 24, 15 2:12 pm
Thousands of wannabe interns posting 20MB portfolios will crash a server quickly. Host your portfolio on your own or a third party site and send them a link. That's not difficult.
haruki
Aug 24, 15 2:57 pm
Interesting that you include Herzog & de Meuron, OMA, Eisenman, and Zaha Hadid as favorite firms. Are they your "favorite" for the quality of their work or just because they are famous?
I suspect the answer is because they are well know not because of their work. I certainly don't consider Eisenman or Hadid to be in anywhere near the same league as Herzon & de Meuron or OMA based on their work.
natematt
Aug 24, 15 3:50 pm
@gwharton
You should never send just a link unless they specify that they want you to, and they never do. Most firms won't look at a website or link unless they have already seen something they like. Work samples + link (ideally a website if you are going this route) seems to work.
thearchitectsguide
Aug 24, 15 6:29 pm
Hi Ryan,
The reason for such a small file size requirement is typically for internal distribution reasons. Usually your portfolio will be passed around by management via email and most offices have an attachment file size limit of <5MB.
Also, keep in mind for this initial application you should only be sending a sample portfolio, not your entire catalog of work. So file size should not be an issue. Check out the article below that discusses this.
It's also a screening test to see if you can follow directions. People who think they're the exception to rules, or that their portfolio is so special that we'll be thrilled we waited for it to download even though it's 10 times the size we asked for - well, those people tend to be difficult to work with.
3tk
Aug 24, 15 8:31 pm
^-++ Our spam filter kills the big ones out for us. Students with attitude are the worst, some confidence is great, but hubris is infuriating (and a waste of time).
Emailing/printing 100s of portfolios internally can add up quickly - few, if any, really care to slow down their work day looking at intern applications. Most want to see a bit of something, then if the person is worth pursuing, then get more.
Xinyi Wang
Aug 26, 15 7:38 am
Thanks for all the replies guys. Really helpful.
@thearchitectsguide
thanks for the link! very useful!
chrisschumm
Aug 26, 15 12:15 pm
i have always had luck posting resume links to the local AIA resume bank as well... fun part is you can look at other people's resume's so you can get a better understanding of what your up against... you would be surprised how horrible some of the resumes are!
I used google drive & hyperlinked my portfolio, LinkedIn, etc to my resume PDF, so i essentially sent them a cover letter & 1 page resume with supplemental links in the pdf...
If sending to a potential employer -
Be sure to make the reader aware that the links are in the pdf to eliminate confusion.
Dear All,
I'm a recent architectural graduate from Western Australia and have been working for nearly 6 months in a local firm.
Before I started working full time, I was handing out my application to my favourite firms around the world, e.g. Herzog & de Meuron, OMA, Peter Eisenman, Zaha Hadid, etc. What I noticed was that while most of them generally allow you to upload a maximum 10MB electronic copy of the resume and portfolio package, some of them will only accept 2MB or even 1MB! How is that possible and what's the reason behind this?
I've come across this question just now while doing research and browsing on the internet for some materials to hand in to my 1st students at my university since I've just started tutoring as well. And while looking for axonometric drawings by Peter Eisenman, it says on his website that the file of the resume and images are to be less than 1MB!
Anyone who's either in these firms or know anything about this, please explain it to me?
One thought is that they wanted you to be able to choose your best projects and best images of these projects. But how can one image cover everything behind a design research, concept, process and the outcomes?
Anything would be appreciated!
Ryan
Thousands of wannabe interns posting 20MB portfolios will crash a server quickly. Host your portfolio on your own or a third party site and send them a link. That's not difficult.
Interesting that you include Herzog & de Meuron, OMA, Eisenman, and Zaha Hadid as favorite firms. Are they your "favorite" for the quality of their work or just because they are famous?
I suspect the answer is because they are well know not because of their work. I certainly don't consider Eisenman or Hadid to be in anywhere near the same league as Herzon & de Meuron or OMA based on their work.
@gwharton
You should never send just a link unless they specify that they want you to, and they never do. Most firms won't look at a website or link unless they have already seen something they like. Work samples + link (ideally a website if you are going this route) seems to work.
Hi Ryan,
The reason for such a small file size requirement is typically for internal distribution reasons. Usually your portfolio will be passed around by management via email and most offices have an attachment file size limit of <5MB.
Also, keep in mind for this initial application you should only be sending a sample portfolio, not your entire catalog of work. So file size should not be an issue. Check out the article below that discusses this.
http://www.thearchitectsguide.com/blog/2015/7/25/the-two-page-architecture-portfolio
Good luck!
It's also a screening test to see if you can follow directions. People who think they're the exception to rules, or that their portfolio is so special that we'll be thrilled we waited for it to download even though it's 10 times the size we asked for - well, those people tend to be difficult to work with.
^-++ Our spam filter kills the big ones out for us. Students with attitude are the worst, some confidence is great, but hubris is infuriating (and a waste of time).
Emailing/printing 100s of portfolios internally can add up quickly - few, if any, really care to slow down their work day looking at intern applications. Most want to see a bit of something, then if the person is worth pursuing, then get more.
Thanks for all the replies guys. Really helpful.
@thearchitectsguide
thanks for the link! very useful!
i have always had luck posting resume links to the local AIA resume bank as well... fun part is you can look at other people's resume's so you can get a better understanding of what your up against... you would be surprised how horrible some of the resumes are!
I used google drive & hyperlinked my portfolio, LinkedIn, etc to my resume PDF, so i essentially sent them a cover letter & 1 page resume with supplemental links in the pdf...
If sending to a potential employer -
Be sure to make the reader aware that the links are in the pdf to eliminate confusion.
whole enchilada was about 200 kb
anyways my .02
hope it helps.