Hello! My name is José Pablo Macías Pimentel (You can call me JP!).
I´m from Aguascalientes, México, but I study in Monterrey, México at Tec de Monterrey an Architecture Degree.
It all started with my faculty having this international internship program called GED (SDG-Special Design Group), where you can apply with your architecture portfolio; a jury of architects evaluates it and decides who gets a spot. I was one of the 10 students who were selected. But before applying I had other plans. I was about to graduate and start working, as a matter of fact, I was looking for jobs, but after talking to the program directors, they told me that the GED program was reopening after being paused because of COVID-19.
Then, by this time I had only the index in my portfolio and there was only one week left before the deadline. It really seemed difficult because as you know each project you make throughout your career, there’s an exploration of different design techniques, design styles and different representation styles. So every project had diverse representations. There was no time to modify everything so I did the best I could to hand in a decent portfolio, which meant that I wouldn’t be available to modify everything and that it could cost me some points in the evaluation.
So the toughest first week of classes passed by and I handed in a printed hardcover portfolio. After it, there was only waiting for the results that took up 2 months to come out. I was selected to participate in the program and two weeks after we selected to which studios we were going to apply. (This didn’t mean we were immediately accepted, it meant that our school backed us up to apply for an internship spot at the studio). Of course, a portfolio can always be improved, so we had some feedback from the jury and had some time to correct it before actually applying.
SHoP Architects really caught my attention in how their design process never forgets its context, as a matter of fact, they use it to give identity to their projects. As if they were giving NY back to NY. Let me explain it, even tho NYC is a place where a lot of buildings are built as if there was no context, each neighborhood has its own essence and history. So SHoP uses that essence and history to design their projects and give meaning to them.
By May, my application process started and my portfolio was sent to SHoP Architects in NYC. The entire process was finished by the end of July when I received an offer letter from SHoP. Through the process, I had two interviews with different people inside SHoP and a lot of emails were exchanged. This is when SHoP´s department of HR put me in contact with Architect-US and everything started running smoothly. The whole process actually took a lot of time but it didn’t seem difficult because I had help every step of the way.
I’ll see you soon,
JP
