I'm an architect with 5 years of experience, and I'm looking to update my portfolio for the first time since school. I'm most experienced with the "technical side" of the design process, i.e. CDs, CA, and being a job-captain. I would be applying for a job captain/project architect position.
What would be most effective to showcase my skill set?
Should I include any projects from school?
Should I bring 11x17 CD sets to an interview?
Any advice would be greatly appreciated!
Rbsm
Dec 20, 16 10:01 pm
I would love to see one of your projects koz
natematt
Dec 20, 16 10:34 pm
^make a new profile... though now that the idea has come up it might be a bit obvious who you are.
I think people typically say 11x17s work for pro projects, but It's never been that clear to me. Need some hiring managers in here.
Generally I feel like people do well to include school work for 5-7 years after they start working professionally. Often there are skills or experience that firms may want that you won't have much of professionally (Graphics, big picture design ideas, etc.) As you transition roles in that 5+ year range often the work you did in school is no longer of great meaning, unless it's something like research.
It all really depends what you are going for. If you want to focus on the technical side, then maybe go light on the school work unless it has a heavy technical lean, which seems unlikely.
bikebicycle
Dec 20, 16 11:28 pm
11x17 drawing sets are fine - useful to flip through while the interviewee is talking about their experience on the project. I don't think there's a time-limit on school work if it is of very high quality (like a thesis project) - if it there is a good story behind it and you think it might be interesting to your potential employer, then why not include it?
s=r*(theta)
Dec 22, 16 3:09 pm
IMHO, I would not show my school work unless I won a serious competition or something, otherwise what is the point seeing you are a licensed architect with 5yrs of work experience? with that alone you are probably eliminating 65% of the competition
Non Sequitur
Dec 22, 16 5:26 pm
^ I agree. Once you can list off a few addresses for previous projects, the school work looses much of its appeal.
"Hey, these are some quick concept renderings for a museum lobby water feature and this is a size less orb representing the dismissal or the urban fabric from a gerbile's point of view. Oh, and those last few pages are working drawing examples of this 20 storey condo building I oversaw concept through close-out. "
Gregory Zamell
Dec 22, 16 10:34 pm
I disagree with the opinion that academic work should be omitted from a portfolio.
I also am licensed with 5 years of and I recently interviewed with a very large firm for a position outside of the US. I expected to mostly discuss my professional work, but decided to bring my academic portfolio, because why not. In the end, it was my projects from school that we spent the most time discussing and what I believe earned me the job. To be fair, my professional work is more technically oriented while my academic portfolio shows design skills that I've not been able to showcase as much professionally.
TL;DR if you have strong, beautiful work of any kind and you can speak about it with conviction, then by all means include it. In doing so, you have little to lose and much to gain.
natematt
Dec 23, 16 1:19 am
I think a lot of it comes down to the fact that even entrenched professionals often like to think of themselves in an academic light, so they often like to jump onto talking about the more out there work people bring in, which is almost always school work.
I'm an architect with 5 years of experience, and I'm looking to update my portfolio for the first time since school. I'm most experienced with the "technical side" of the design process, i.e. CDs, CA, and being a job-captain. I would be applying for a job captain/project architect position.
What would be most effective to showcase my skill set?
Should I include any projects from school?
Should I bring 11x17 CD sets to an interview?
Any advice would be greatly appreciated!
I would love to see one of your projects koz
^make a new profile... though now that the idea has come up it might be a bit obvious who you are.
I think people typically say 11x17s work for pro projects, but It's never been that clear to me. Need some hiring managers in here.
Generally I feel like people do well to include school work for 5-7 years after they start working professionally. Often there are skills or experience that firms may want that you won't have much of professionally (Graphics, big picture design ideas, etc.) As you transition roles in that 5+ year range often the work you did in school is no longer of great meaning, unless it's something like research.
It all really depends what you are going for. If you want to focus on the technical side, then maybe go light on the school work unless it has a heavy technical lean, which seems unlikely.
11x17 drawing sets are fine - useful to flip through while the interviewee is talking about their experience on the project. I don't think there's a time-limit on school work if it is of very high quality (like a thesis project) - if it there is a good story behind it and you think it might be interesting to your potential employer, then why not include it?
IMHO, I would not show my school work unless I won a serious competition or something, otherwise what is the point seeing you are a licensed architect with 5yrs of work experience? with that alone you are probably eliminating 65% of the competition
^ I agree. Once you can list off a few addresses for previous projects, the school work looses much of its appeal.
"Hey, these are some quick concept renderings for a museum lobby water feature and this is a size less orb representing the dismissal or the urban fabric from a gerbile's point of view. Oh, and those last few pages are working drawing examples of this 20 storey condo building I oversaw concept through close-out. "
I disagree with the opinion that academic work should be omitted from a portfolio.
I also am licensed with 5 years of and I recently interviewed with a very large firm for a position outside of the US. I expected to mostly discuss my professional work, but decided to bring my academic portfolio, because why not. In the end, it was my projects from school that we spent the most time discussing and what I believe earned me the job. To be fair, my professional work is more technically oriented while my academic portfolio shows design skills that I've not been able to showcase as much professionally.
TL;DR if you have strong, beautiful work of any kind and you can speak about it with conviction, then by all means include it. In doing so, you have little to lose and much to gain.
I think a lot of it comes down to the fact that even entrenched professionals often like to think of themselves in an academic light, so they often like to jump onto talking about the more out there work people bring in, which is almost always school work.
If you've got it, flaunt it!