So that’s it; you just finished your Degree in Architecture.
College days are over and you don’t know how the years have passed so quickly. And now what? You have to begin your professional career, or maybe you were smart and you worked while you were studying, but anyway, there’s a moment for all us that we have to think about our next steps in the architecture profession.
Follow us, we’re some steps ahead and, in our humble opinion, we can give some tips every architect looking for a job should know.
Look for mentors
Experience counts, we all know that, so better you find some experienced architects who have skills and roles that you aspire to. They can be your teachers, your first employers, a friend of the family but they must be people you admire, a mirror, a model.
Do networking
This tip has pretty much in common with the first one. Surround yourself with a valuable group of architecture and engineering professionals, build meaningful relationships, also in your personal life. They will encourage you and expand your senses and creativity, and if they’re good, they will be there forever, as friends do. You never know when you may need a helpful hand, and for that reason, you should always be there for others.
Make a good impression
First impressions are crucial, so you must impress your future employers. Train and develop your academic and personal knowledge, read, attend to conferences, meet a lot of enriching people, get bond to art… Be a cultivated person.
All of that will be in your manners as a person and as an architect, and it will be reflected in your portfolio. Develop it with care and time, think about every tiny aspect, design it again and again. And then, send your portfolio to many companies, even if they’re not hiring. Because, one day, they may hire you.
For more information, read our post RECOMMENDATIONS TO MAKE YOUR PORTFOLIO.
Be authentic
Job interviews are often impersonal, so you must try (again) to make a good impression. Be so authentic as your portfolio is (an honest archive of your history and experience). Be yourself.
Fail
Yes, fail. Fail and fail. These tips are not the only ones, there are many more, and sure, like everyone else, you’ll fail at doing some of them. You learn more from failure than from success. Learning is a lifelong process, so you better get used to that. And like Samuel Beckett said: «Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again».
