I am currently a student with an internship at a multi family firm and am wondering how I would go about switching to another type of architecture. I want to get into sports architecture but I don’t know how multi family experience would translate.
Orhan Ayyüce
Jul 9, 23 2:04 pm
As a student, don't you think it is too early to specialize in anything yet? I'd suggest finishing your school and internship, and applying for a job at a firm specializing in sports architecture if you are still interested in that typology. You would be surprised how much you learned from multi-family housing can help you gain general experience in any kind of architectural work in the future.
natematt
Jul 10, 23 12:33 am
I don't think they actually know if it's too early to specialized or not. Hence why they are asking.
Agreed with the rest of your statement. Firms may look for people with specialized experience, but are generally pretty open to hiring people with universal skills. Many firms will work on different typologies. I've worked on both of these types of work at my current job for example.
flatroof
Jul 10, 23 9:17 am
I do see that firms are really forcing specialization earlier now, especially in Healthcare, Labs, and Data Centers, to the point where schools are offering cash cow Masters Degrees in like Healthcare architecture to spend another 80k to transition into something that you could learn in 6-12 months on the job if given the chance.
pandahut
Jul 10, 23 11:24 am
Agreed there are some firms (Gensler, P+W, HDR) that have specific studios for HC Clinics, Office & Lab, Data Centers) usually these are treated like car dealerships (rollouts) and are pretty specialized program. Hiring people with exp. in these means high profit and high output.
OP, you are still finishing up school. Go through with your internship pending you enjoy it and you have plenty of time to figure out what your interests are in. If you like sports arch look to firms that work on those. Populous and Stantec both specialize in that type of work. I've made my career by reaching out to people or wiggling my way to contacts and go from there, especially if the firm says no open positions. Often times firms should be looking for good talent interested in the work versus just trying to fill a desk to get a project moving along. Just find firms you think the work looks great and go from there.
JLC-1
Jul 10, 23 11:50 am
When you guys speak of "specializing". it means they have developed a sausage making machine with all the parts pre-designed and just put together in any site around the country? I wouldn't call that architecture.
flatroof
Jul 10, 23 12:22 pm
There are peculiarities to these types of work that firms seek out people with experience in, hospitals especially. Those things are hardly cookie-cutter as much as clients wish they were. But someone with 5-10 yrs exp in other types of work would have a hard time transitioning in and if they do might have to take a pay cut as they are entry level in the new type. Back at the "need experience for the job, need a job for the experience" catch-22.
pandahut
Jul 10, 23 12:36 pm
JLC-1 call it what you want but more firms than you know have a group that does that type of work, BIG included ;) (I agree with you BTW)
sameolddoctor
Jul 10, 23 12:38 pm
I think multi-family housing is what has become a sausage-making factory these days...but it does pay the bills
JLC-1
Jul 10, 23 12:44 pm
Multi family was already a sausage factory in 2005, I worked briefly with KB homes in AZ doing master planning - the task was, fit as many units as you legally can in this piece of desert. And the saying "drive until you qualify" was invented there.
I know it's a way to pay the bills, and all the big arch firms do it since the beginning, but I can't understand why somebody would want to be designing the same "thing" all their careers.
natematt
Jul 10, 23 1:01 pm
@flatroof
"But someone with 5-10 yrs exp in other types of work would have a hard time transitioning in and if they do might have to take a pay cut as they are entry level in the new type."
Mostly disagree. I worked at a firm and office that had a heavy emphasis on healthcare, and while they liked to hire people with healthcare experience, they really didn’t discriminate. There is a lot of transferable knowledge from most any typology. There are particular positions that will typically require more explicit experience, such as medical planners, but a lot of it is only a slight setback in my mind. The further along the more problematic…15 years, It’s probably a problem if you’ve never done healthcare, because at that point in your career, anything they give you is yours to run and at a scale that a steep learning curve is going to be impractical.
At 5 years, if you’ve specialized in something, you’re probably not very good at a lot of things you should be.
Josh Mings
Jul 10, 23 2:09 pm
Natematt, in some instances you're correct, in others not so much. It really is a gray area, and you're right that the more experience you have the harder it is to transition. For example, pretty much all my experience is in affordable housing. No one is going to hire me to work on hospitals at this point. A community health center, maybe. I also wouldn't blame them because healthcare is a completely different animal. That said, definitely don't think about specializing while still in school. You don't know what you're into yet, and you may also just find your way into something like I did with affordable housing.
natematt
Jul 10, 23 4:41 pm
Housing and healthcare are very different animals, there are a lot of stepping stone typologies between them. So yeah, with a lot of experience specifically in housing, that would be a hard switch. If you had like 5 years experience, I’d say not a big deal though.
This is where getting a breadth of experiences in your early career an help you avoid getting stuck later on, in addition to helping you form ideas about things you might want to specialize in.
sameolddoctor
Jul 10, 23 5:19 pm
JLC - KB homes is mostly single family housing but your point is right. Apartment "stumpies" are even more boring, formulaic and dumb. They have all started to look the same these days. In any case, for the OP, you need to know the basic before you can specialize. The basics take about 5-10 years after school to get down. Otherwise you can be assured to be in the same boring pigeon-shit-hole for all your life
I am currently a student with an internship at a multi family firm and am wondering how I would go about switching to another type of architecture. I want to get into sports architecture but I don’t know how multi family experience would translate.
As a student, don't you think it is too early to specialize in anything yet? I'd suggest finishing your school and internship, and applying for a job at a firm specializing in sports architecture if you are still interested in that typology. You would be surprised how much you learned from multi-family housing can help you gain general experience in any kind of architectural work in the future.
I don't think they actually know if it's too early to specialized or not. Hence why they are asking.
Agreed with the rest of your statement. Firms may look for people with specialized experience, but are generally pretty open to hiring people with universal skills. Many firms will work on different typologies. I've worked on both of these types of work at my current job for example.
I do see that firms are really forcing specialization earlier now, especially in Healthcare, Labs, and Data Centers, to the point where schools are offering cash cow Masters Degrees in like Healthcare architecture to spend another 80k to transition into something that you could learn in 6-12 months on the job if given the chance.
Agreed there are some firms (Gensler, P+W, HDR) that have specific studios for HC Clinics, Office & Lab, Data Centers) usually these are treated like car dealerships (rollouts) and are pretty specialized program. Hiring people with exp. in these means high profit and high output.
OP, you are still finishing up school. Go through with your internship pending you enjoy it and you have plenty of time to figure out what your interests are in. If you like sports arch look to firms that work on those. Populous and Stantec both specialize in that type of work. I've made my career by reaching out to people or wiggling my way to contacts and go from there, especially if the firm says no open positions. Often times firms should be looking for good talent interested in the work versus just trying to fill a desk to get a project moving along. Just find firms you think the work looks great and go from there.
When you guys speak of "specializing". it means they have developed a sausage making machine with all the parts pre-designed and just put together in any site around the country? I wouldn't call that architecture.
There are peculiarities to these types of work that firms seek out people with experience in, hospitals especially. Those things are hardly cookie-cutter as much as clients wish they were. But someone with 5-10 yrs exp in other types of work would have a hard time transitioning in and if they do might have to take a pay cut as they are entry level in the new type. Back at the "need experience for the job, need a job for the experience" catch-22.
JLC-1 call it what you want but more firms than you know have a group that does that type of work, BIG included ;) (I agree with you BTW)
I think multi-family housing is what has become a sausage-making factory these days...but it does pay the bills
Multi family was already a sausage factory in 2005, I worked briefly with KB homes in AZ doing master planning - the task was, fit as many units as you legally can in this piece of desert. And the saying "drive until you qualify" was invented there.
I know it's a way to pay the bills, and all the big arch firms do it since the beginning, but I can't understand why somebody would want to be designing the same "thing" all their careers.
@flatroof
"But someone with 5-10 yrs exp in other types of work would have a hard time transitioning in and if they do might have to take a pay cut as they are entry level in the new type."
Mostly disagree. I worked at a firm and office that had a heavy emphasis on healthcare, and while they liked to hire people with healthcare experience, they really didn’t discriminate. There is a lot of transferable knowledge from most any typology. There are particular positions that will typically require more explicit experience, such as medical planners, but a lot of it is only a slight setback in my mind. The further along the more problematic…15 years, It’s probably a problem if you’ve never done healthcare, because at that point in your career, anything they give you is yours to run and at a scale that a steep learning curve is going to be impractical.
At 5 years, if you’ve specialized in something, you’re probably not very good at a lot of things you should be.
Natematt, in some instances you're correct, in others not so much. It really is a gray area, and you're right that the more experience you have the harder it is to transition. For example, pretty much all my experience is in affordable housing. No one is going to hire me to work on hospitals at this point. A community health center, maybe. I also wouldn't blame them because healthcare is a completely different animal. That said, definitely don't think about specializing while still in school. You don't know what you're into yet, and you may also just find your way into something like I did with affordable housing.
Housing and healthcare are very different animals, there are a lot of stepping stone typologies between them. So yeah, with a lot of experience specifically in housing, that would be a hard switch. If you had like 5 years experience, I’d say not a big deal though. This is where getting a breadth of experiences in your early career an help you avoid getting stuck later on, in addition to helping you form ideas about things you might want to specialize in.
JLC - KB homes is mostly single family housing but your point is right. Apartment "stumpies" are even more boring, formulaic and dumb. They have all started to look the same these days. In any case, for the OP, you need to know the basic before you can specialize. The basics take about 5-10 years after school to get down. Otherwise you can be assured to be in the same boring pigeon-shit-hole for all your life