How I got my 1st job in architecture
Note 016: Guide for architecture students on how to get your elusive first job
Wow, the big smoke! Grown up stuff.
I was excited, way too blissfuly ignorant to be nervous, but an obvious out-of-towner with my head craned up, eyes wide, as I walked down York Street from Wynyard Station in Sydneys CBD towards the harbour.
This was it. The city.
This verticality was very different from both my sleepy beachside hometown of Terrigal, and the isolated bush-campus architecture studio at Newcastle University.
Just 21 years old, I was obsessed with Capital-A Architecture - (as I naively understood it back then) - city building, and this was actually my 1st experience of said city during daylight hours.
OK, getting closer.
Dreadlocks pulled back in a ponytail? Check.
A1 multilayered multi-kilogram 90s fanboy archi-student design drawings in my cumbersome A1 art folder? Check.
Scrunched piece of paper in my pocket with the handwritten address of the studio I was heading towards? (there where no mobiles or internet yet) Check.
I un-scrunched to be sure. “Durbach Block Architects, York Street, Sydney”
I smiled to myself. Man, I bet these guys are going to drop everything to look through all of my amazing talents the second I arrive at their door, unannounced!
It is their lucky day…
I exited the lift and found the door. Looked to be no one inside. I knocked and had no answer, so decided it was probably OK to let myself in.
Was everyone was at lunch? There was only one person, Neil Durbach, who was drawing on a table in the middle of the space.
Neil looked up at me absolutely baffled - who was I and what on earth was I doing here?
I smiled, oblivious, introduced myself, started talking about how I loved his drawings, how much I loved drawing myself, that I was actually about to go on a world-trip scholarship next year to draw all the architecture I had only read about in monographs… then caught myself.
How rude of me!
All this talk of drawing, when I had the real deal, right here in my cumbersome oversized A1 folder!
Obviously his centre table was the one for drawings, so I plonked down my folder with a thud, unzipped and unfolded and started evangelising all my 2nd year and 3rd year undergraduate design drawings - just what a famous architect is dying to have his own design process interrupted to see.
To Neils credit, he let me complete what must have looked like a young Rob Zombie selling encyclopaedias door to door - and praised my drawings very highly, even back in 2001 it was a dying art.
This was followed by a very efficient “thank you for showing me all these - unfortunately there is absolutely no jobs here at the moment.”
I was shocked, blinking at the sunlight.
I unscrumpled the piece of paper again.
With a no from Neil, that was now 2 out of 3 down.
This was still the era of the physical yellow pages to look up companies by industry (think a google search printed out in black and white on yellow paper in tiny font and bound) (a careful reader versed in Australian architectural mythology should be able to guess who my 1st call was based on this hint, i’ll reveal it at the end), and to flesh out other options I had looked through a single Architecture Australia magazine we had received in our delegate pack from the AIA conference my best mate Marty (now model maker at ADAD), and I had trecked to Sydney for back in 2000.
There was another standout project from that awards issue, a completely unique concrete, minimal, industrial warehouse conversion - many years before this was a fashionable thing to do - by Sam Marshall.
Where Durbach Blocks models and drawings were very attractive as an extension of the university design process I was becoming comfortable in (in my very basic way), the construction, materiality and detailing of Sams warehouse where elements of architecture that were not only foreign and mystifying to me - but also terrifying!
Imagine learning about that…
I got the train back up to Central and repeated the process with Sam, unannounced, as with Neil.
A similar, raw, warehouse space in a huge building (Marlborough House that features in Note 006: Space), I knocked and walked through the massive product library (another big physical feature of the pre-internet architects office), same baffled look, but Sam was a very kind hearted person who had no problem letting me present all the drawings.
There was a small team bustling around iMacs and tiny models - a great vibe.
The process unfortunately, repeated itself.
Excellent drawings, a dying art, no jobs, sorry.
Well, that was 3 from 3. I thanked Sam, looked around, and walked back to the gate for air in front of the space. I took out the ponytail (dreadlocks kind of hold their shape for a time unsupported) - that was that.
Waiting for the lift I heard a voice… “…wait, Andrew was it?”
I turned around.
“Listen, Chauntelle, my student, is moving to Japan midway through next year. There is no job now, but if you want a shot, we can try you out then.”
I grinned ear to ear. Should have kept the ponytail in!
Perfect! I said. I actually leave on a 6 month travelling scholarship around the world soon and won’t be back in the country until exactly that time!
Thanks Sam!
We shook hands, I got into the lift smiling ear to ear. I didn’t know it then, but that conversation wold go on to shape every subsequent building block of my architectural life, including these notes to you now 20 years later.
It can be daunting taking that first step towards getting your own first job, and I have learnt a lot over the last 20 years - not so much in going for jobs, that student job turned into graduate position, to an architect, to a partnership offer - but I have learnt a lot both in screening candidates for my future business partner then, and more recently screening, interviewing and employing students, graduates and architects in my own architecture practice, ADAD, over the last 10 years.
In my personal view, there are 9 critical stages to securing your first (and any subsequent new) dream job.
Where are you now?
If you are a 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th or 5th year student - start at step 1.
If you have (or are just about to) graduate from 3rd year, or 5th year, on the hunt for a job (or a new opportunity) start at step 3.
Once employed, or If you are already employed - start at step 7.
Then level up - Step 9.
How to get your first job in the architecture industry
At Uni
People, people, people
Crush it at uni
Job Hunt
The Perfect Portfolio
The Attention Grabbing resume
The Cover Email
Surefire Interview Techniques
Once Employed
People, people, people
Crush it at work
Levelling Up
Become indispensable
1. People, people, people
I am an adult. High school is over. Later, muggles!
All of this freedom, bands at the bar, minds opening, friendships forming…
These are some things I remember thinking as I left high school behind and the world of university begun.
But this was kind of short lived.
A few weeks into the car pool with other high school mates travelling between Terrigal and Newcastle (engineers, philosophers, sports scientists) a rift became apparent.
My assessments weren’t written.
My ‘unofficial’ classes did not end at 5pm.
At the days leading to our 1st submission…. No one went home… or maybe, home was being redefined…
Ah, the agony and ecstasy of year 1 architecture school, you have entered a different, all engulfing world, where nothing matters beyond your perfecting of A1 drafted sheets of pencil to be transformed into ink before 9am submission day (or for the last 20 years, digi-sketches to CAD base drawings, 3D modelled, then harrowingly rendered and printed before 9am submission day)
A hazing, whatever you wish to call it, lifelong bonds are formed, work habits and perfectionism internalised.
Yes perfecting your skills is important.
But not until later in life will the major assets truly be revealed - the personal, in the trenches, id do anything for a fellow soldier, asset - for the first time of many recurring forms to come.
It is ALL about people. Your people. You are their people. And this 1st bond is formed now, with your classmates, and you don’t know it yet, but with your tutors, lecturers, course coordinators, and professors. Then future students of your own…
2. Crush it at uni
I won’t mince words. Work as hard as you humanly can. Push all your boundaries. Surprise yourself with each subsequent studio at what you are capable of.
Ensure you capture your creative detritus in some kind of hi resolution digital form, could be hand drawings scanned painstakingly, physical models photographed and photoshopped, could be digitally produced beauty. File for later.
Even now, with any comp, submission, future uni studio or possible business revenue stream - I have a folder labeled ‘fodder’.
Your creative work produced now is your future personal gunpowder. Captured, it’s ready to go. You need not know yet where it is aimed just yet.
3. The perfect portfolio
OK, now you have actually completed your undergraduate degree (or masters) - congratulations!!!
Its time to collate all of that beautiful, captivating fodder into a document that you can both:
• PDF export and email to potential employers
• Physically print and bring to interview you are successful in securing ( I recommend smaller than A1!)
What to include in a super short sentence:
All your best work. None of your terrible work.
Thats it!
I am sure degrees have changed a ton since I went through, but my first portfolio was based on my first undergraduate degree, so I will outline all of our ‘phases’ (what design studios were called at Newcastle uni in the late 90’s), what I included, and what I did not.
1st year designs that made the cut:
• Tocal Homestead - Measured Drawings
• On Campus Student Accomodation - Design
• Wetland Information Centre - Design
What 1st year designs made it into my portfolio? 0%
(I’ll use a heavy metal analogy… did you know Pantera had 4 terrible glam metal albums before the genre defining Cowboys from Hell? Their ‘1st’ album? Exactly. Let them go!)
2nd year designs that made the cut:
• Terrace Renovation in Newcastle - Design
• House at Belbourie - Design
• Multi-Res in Newcastle - Design
What 2nd year designs made it into my portfolio?
• Terrace renovation - 0%
• House at Belbourie - 85% this is where I 1st GOT IT.
This project needs a whole note, but in a nutshell, James Stockwell (refer Note 012: Mentors) was my tutor, then a young project architect at Peter Stutchbury, we camped at John Roberts Winery at Belbourie, had Paul Pholeros drop in to data log environmental conditions, Pete and Ric Leplastrier camped and showed us how to track animals across the rural site.
We later toured 4 of Pete’s houses, Ric's own house, soaked in the whole mythology, and James pushed me to extremes to follow my own creative nose, forget the myth of touching the gentlest part of the site lightly, - augment the craziest
It was OK to love Morphosis, decon and LA, craft an A4 book of 1:1 details as an onsite Bible - rules I live by to this day. Many, many models.
A single 2nd year project featured as 85% of my undergrad portfolio.
• Multi res Newcastle - The design, average, but drawings were extreme - and for that reason:
• Multi Res Newcastle - 5% Drawings Only
3rd year designs that made the cut:
• Speers Point Library - Design
• Chatswood Courthouse - Design
What 3rd year designs made it into my portfolio?
• Speers Point Library - 10% Drawings Only
• Chatswood Courthouse - 0%
• Speers Point hand drawn 3 point perspectives led me to be exhibited at Tusculum, Potts Point, where Ric, also exhibited, was the only person I knew from our camping animal tracking days at the winery - featured 10%.
• Chatswood Courthouse - luckily I got my Bernard Tschumi, Peter Eissenman, decon theory out of the way on this one (as opposed to Morphosis, Zaha, Domenig decon drawings that are deep within all that I do to this day). Featured, understandably - 0% :)
Out of 8 projects completed over my 3 year undergraduate degree - I only featured 1 extensively - that is, I focused 90% of my portfolio on the top 12.5% of my design work!
OK, so you have selected your best work, and rightfully binned your worst.
You are all well equipped to progress to the next step, as all of your presentation works at uni to date follow they same parameters - it should be internalised by now :)
Some graphical reminders follow just in case.
Tips for creating your curated portfolio
Leave enough white space - but not too much.
Have it logically presented… logically for you! meaning:
Start with your best image (note - this is the OPPOSITE to my design crit advice - were you should wow with your 2nd best image out of the gate, tell a-story through drawings, then knock out punch with your best image and leave it on screen for maximum time real estate when answering jury questions until forced to backtrack)
This is because time is seriously limited with ‘scanning’ employers
Work through what you want to show, your design ethos, your ethic, presentation skills.
Be sure to show something in CAD! We (employers) know you have little or no practice knowledge, that’s OK, we all started ate the same place (hopefully these notes help there!), but almost everything that has dollar amount attached to it in practice comes from CAD.
You do not what an adobe creative suite sentence! Show you can fill in someones shoes when given the chance (a grad goes overseas and you step up for instance), not just presentation work
Remember your Purpose - This document is about YOU not THEM
But remember yourAudience -it has to be framed in a way that will benefit THEM.
4. The attention grabbing resume
I think my view may be skewered here. Private school, ‘old boy’, family connections, on an on, may be desirable to some employers…
But have no interest in any of that and tend to look for the opposite.
Have you fought through uni despite not getting in straight from high school? Tell me about it!
Have you soldiered on through single parenthood while miraculously studying full time? Tell me about it!
Have you relocated from somewhere seriously regional, away from family and friends, to give your dream a shot? Tell me about it!
These ambitious, positive, obstacle smashers are my kind of people - but be sure to know the bias of whomever you are going or a job with.
Experienced applicant warning: this note is for entry level positions. If you are going for something higher - show it, Project architect experience at XYZ firm on projects A, B and C, and so on. And be accurate.
If you had a particular role on a particular project flaunt it. Do not say ‘Project Architect’ if you weren't, I have had resumes where more than one person claimed the same role at the same practice!
5. The cover email
This is the most important part, make or break, actually very easy, and my jaw drops at how often this is not approached correctly.
For every 100 propositions I get at ADAD, 10 will actually address me personally - I.e, not to whom it may concern, not dear sir, not dear managing director… this is the first GATE you must pass
have you actually googled to find our who to address your application to?
Then, along with this (within 1 paragraph, try 50-100 words, this a what us as practitioners need to do for media summaries for awards submissions, and in the olden days - press releases for newspaper editors) - get to the point!
Who are you, what do you bring, what do you want to learn, why should I open any attachment?
Also… think about format. We read things on phones at the moment. I have drafted this post on a laptop, but will check read on why iPhone with a coffee. Or glass of red wine (i.e. - as YOU will be reading this, this is about YOU, not ME) - so will likely break up dense little chunky big screen paragraphs into skimmable iPhone paragraphs.
Very, very important third thing:
do not attach dropbox / issuu links to online portfolios! I will never, ever, click on these.
Directors are busy. Thats whey we need you to join our teams!
This means - when the time comes to scan for prospects, we scan through your emails, like you mat be with this newsletter post ;) and the submissions that address me as a person, suggest a project of mine, or method of working creatively that I (as in your potential employer) undertake that resonates with you.
What you want to bring to me, what I can bring with you, plus and attached PDF so I can preview your work quickly for later scrutiny in email, is essential to passing through the 1st gate.
Bonus ninja-level advice:
Have a single page PDF ‘splash page’ in addition to your attached PDF full CV, and in addition to your attached PDF full Portfolio. Your Splash Page is your best page, best highlights, condensed into a single A4 PDF sheet.
Why?
If I am scanning through submissions in my inbox, I am scanning for items we’ve already covered:
Am I addressed personally? If so, then I’ll download your CV and PDF documents.
Think about this though. If you’re potential employer is doing the same, and they come to an email where your best image, bullet points, name, is in a 3rd PDF document single page - this means that the full image (not small PDF document preview icon), loads IN email, you are streaks ahead psychologically.
You are the 1st cracking image I see amongst the group.
6. Surefire Interview Techniques
By the interview stage, all I am interested in is a rapport check.
Architecture is so high energy, so camaraderie driven, the human intangibles beyond design skill are so important.
In an interview, I want to get a sense in person as to whether you have a good sense of humour (or at least won’t be offended by a high laughter work environment!) - and most of all, can you get along with the other crew. Team 1st.
For yourself, make sure you use the interview as:
Your chance to ask any further questions you have not already
Get your own vibe check on the space and people
Use it again as a chance to remind the potential employer of all your great qualities
If you get a chance, focus in on your excellent portfolio work, but don’t be dejected if time doesn’t permit - you would not be at this stage if your work wasn’t up to scratch - they already like it! :)
Be yourself. Be professional of course, but do not hide your personality.
7. People People People
Congratulations!
You have the job. Kudos!
What next? The wonferful, long, slow, iterative, satisfying climb towards mastering this art, while solidifying and growing your personal network.
Yes, you will progress through the never ending skill building of:
photocopying
library duties
markups
modelmaking
DA submissions
drafting duties
CAD duties
DA preparation
design assistance
documentation assistance
registration track
site assistance
design lead
architectural registration
project management
associate track
recruitment assistance
fee proposals
…. and on and on over the years. That is why architecture is such a satisfying life long endeavour.
But always remember - the golden rule stays the same as for the rest of life - People 1st.
Support your team members, become a solid, special forces unit. Culture IS you and your workmates - not your boss. Form it.
8. Crush it at Work
Same as Uni crew! The rules don’t change, only the field of play :)
Work very hard, be very creative, push boundaries, meet deadlines, have fun, on and on.
Do it all within the 9-5 - unpaid overtime is forbidden.
Yes, I did an absolute boatload of unpaid overtime when I was younger.
Yes, other directors my age believe it is a right of passage, and their employees must do the same, right?
NO I do not subscribe to that at all.
We must be the change we want to see in the world. I forbid it for my employees.
And I forbid you in undertaking it wherever you work out of uni.
9. Become Indispensable
The final level of employment. Boss stage!
Become so good, so invaluable, that your boss cannot do without you. That is what I did over 10 years at my 1st (and only) job pre ADAD.
In my own firm, ADAD, I am on the offensive here, and let my fresh grads and students know I support them and have this goal in mind over many many years for them.
The world is a changing place.
I believe the future of business is in supporting young people to flourish over a long period of time.
I don’t employ lackeys. I employ fresh graduates, work with them, let them present all the ideas, and they know I am in their corner.
If there’s a design problem, I’m there.
Harsh client or builder personality? I’ll nail it.
Design mentorship? I’ll provide it.
They don’t have to wash dishes, or file. I do.
The modern leader supports their fleet of superstars. From the bottom up. Hence these notes :)
How to Get your 1st Job in Architecture - In Conclusion
While at Uni:
Create long lasting bonds with your fellow students, tutors, lecturers, heads of school. Design crits are but a blip. Personal connections last a lifetime. My past fellow students now range from leaving architecture, to starting firms, project mangers, professors of architecture, politics, activism, etc. Look out for each other now, and don’t stop.
Crush it at uni - Yes, I am aware we are in an environment of work / life balance, mental health and so on. You need to work as hard as humanly possible at Uni. Passion does not precede hard work, hard work, results in a job well done, which feeds a passionate spark, and then the cycle really ramps up and continues. You have to work hard. No matter what. No short cut.
Job Hunt:
Portfolio - only show your best work - do not under any circumstances link to a third party hosting site un-previewable in an email scan - include a splash page.
Resume - on your very first archi-job - what you have fought to overcome and what do you stand for personally. Show past employment - whatever it was, pizza delivery, retail, mowing lawns - we were all students at one stage. If career jumping, clearly demarcate role and project per firm. You do not want to be claiming same role as another candidate on same project - red flag!
Cover email - address personal name of your potential employer - thier firm - a job of the practice that resonates with you- under 100 words - single PDF Splash page in email - CV and portfolio attached. Bam! You have massively jumped the queue.
Interview time - show your true personality! Vibe check. For you, for them. Be yourself.
Once Employed:
A repeat of Point 1 - in the workplace: look out for each other, the virtuous cycle continues.
A repeat of Point 2 - in the workplace: Work as hard as humanly possible in the practice - writhin the hours you are employed - be the change you want to see in the world - no overtime.
Levelling Up:
Become indispensable. 3 choices. Internal upward mobility, next opportunity elsewhere or start your own practice.
Where it started, my first ever nerve wrecking phone call to an architects office
The year was 2001. I want to the downstairs home-phone for some privacy. This was an era of phones still attached to a wall, with a physical curly-fries like cord coming out connecting the unit to to the handset. I was young, an undergrad, and still living at home.
I thumbed thought the yellow pages, ‘Architects’.
Would you look at that! The rumours were true. Our most internationally famous architect indeed has this as his only form of advertising amongst other full page flashy ads.
A single line, robust as his detailing:
Glen Murcutt, Architect. Phone Number (a single landline number).
Well here goes nothing…
A soft voice answers after only 2 rings: “Hello?”
That was my first contact with a potential employer. Glenn graciously listened to me talk through what I liked about his work, but more so, my evangelising of my own university projects, drawing in particular, how I was travelling the world on a scholarship to draw buildings all over the world soon, and that I would love the experience of working for him, what I would bring to him as an employee, on and on, for almost 20 minutes.
He reinforced back to me the value of drawing, that I must keep it up. The value of travel, buildings I must see in the places I was going. A true gentleman and a kind soul.
It was only at the end that he graciously let me down easy.
“Andrew, I really thank you for taking the time to call me.
Your work and love for drawing is magnificent, please keep it up, and extend your sketching tour as long as you can. I would love to give you the opportunity to work for me, however, I live in a modest farm house 5 hours drive from Sydney, and I work now, as I always have, alone.
So thank you again, I wish you all the best for your travels and your future career into architecture, the most noble of all the arts, I know you will succeed”.
The humble farm house was of course the Marie Short House, possibly Australia’s most famous example of critical regionalism, and the pivotal touching-the-earth lightly, modernist, blend, sectional driven work that set the theme for all his future work.
This humble man went on to win the Pritzker Prize in Architecture in the following months, the worlds premiere accolade in architecture.
Glenn Murcutt’s kindness and positivity to me that day is something I try to emulate with anybody that contacts me to this day.
Anyway, I needed to get off they phone.
Mum needed to use the internet - and Dial Up only worked if the home line was not in use back then :)
Merry Christmas Crew, farewell 2021 and bring on 2022.
The time for renewal, change and new opportunities in a changing world.
Go make those dreams happen!
See you on the flipside,
Andrew Donaldson
Note 016 done and dusted! Please give me any feedback whatsoever, I would love to hear from you - after all, this is for you :)
PS - if you have a friend, colleague, or archi-buddy that you think would benefit from Andrew’s Notes, please feel free to send this to them or share with the button below: - lets grow this tribe :)