Hi everyone, happy Sunday! So studying
architecture is a great thing and it's
super fun but it really means nothing if
you can't find a job or an internship, so
today we're going to talk about applying
for jobs and internships. So when you're
applying for jobs and internships you
need four things. You need a cover letter,
a resume, a portfolio, and this is optional
but I would suggest having a teaser
portfolio. A teaser portfolio is just a
single, one-sided sheet that has
basically an overview of a few projects
that you think give an overall idea of
types of projects that you do and are a
good representation of your work. And
it's a great thing that you can bring
with you to your interviews if you don't
have a hard copy of your entire
portfolio. So once you have those three
or four documents, you'll have to find
firms to apply to. So ways to find firms
are, you can try to find connections
through your school like through the
Career Center, your professors, or your
Dean's. You can also use LinkedIn you can
search for firms and they'll even give
you suggestions of similar firms. Another
thing you can do is search on Google or
Google Maps for architecture firms in
the area that you want to work in. So
once you find these firms you'll want to
really research them and make sure that
they're places that you want to work at
before you take the time to apply. The
next thing you need to do is figure out
a way to contact these firms. So first I
would suggest going on their website and
seeing if they have a careers tab on
their website where they may have a
contact email which may be a careers or
info email or they may have an online
application process that you can use. You
may want to see if you have any
connections with this firm through
something like LinkedIn or through your
school, with your professors, or your
Dean's, so this way you have someone that
you can reach out to. Another thing you can do is try to find
a contact person through the firm's
website like a principal architect or
Human Resources, so this way your
contacting a actual person rather than
just a general email. I always find it's
better when you can address your email
to an actual person rather than the
general firm that you're applying to.
So once you've completed all of those
steps, you'll want to finally apply for
the job or internship. And I have two
methods for going about doing that.
The first being applying through email
and the second applying through an online
application through their website. So
applying through email you either have
an individual person to contact or you
have a careers or info email that the
firm uses for their career opportunities. So once you have that you start
constructing your email and make sure
you write a meaningful and specific
subject line for your emails so that
they don't think it's spam and that they
can easily refer to it in the future, and
it also makes it easy for you to for
back to it in the future. So if you're
contacting an individual person you'll
want to address the email to that
individual, but if you're emailing to a
careers or info email or a more general
email address you'll want to address
your email to the firm. So next I want to
paste or type up your cover letter which
should be between 150 and 300 words. It
should be long enough that it gives them
an idea of who you are and what your
intentions are but it should be short
enough that they'll want to read the
entire email, because you have to
remember that there's sometimes getting
hundreds of applications. Be sure to
mention at the end of your email that
you have attached your resume in
portfolio. This is helpful to both you
and the firm
because it lets them know that you have
them attached and it's also helpful for
you because the actual word "attached" is
recognized by the email and so if you
hit send before you actually attach
those documents it will let you know and
remind you that you need to attach your
resume in portfolio. And when you attach
your resume and portfolio, make sure you
put them in separate files that if your
portfolio takes longer to open they can
still review your resume while they're
waiting for the portfolio to load. Make
sure you save them as PDFs and that they
have specific titles that contain your
first and last name, the year, something
like "spring2015" and what it is, if it's
the resume or your portfolio. So this way
they can easily identify what it is, who
is from, and what year it's from without
even having to open it. I suggest sending
all of these documents right away so
that you don't waste time going back and
forth with the firm with them asking you to
send additional documents when you could
just send them right away and it's less
effort for both you and the firm. And
finally you want to send a follow-up
email to the firm to make sure that they
have received your email and that
they're reviewing your application now
when you're applying through an online
application through the firm's website
you'll want to follow the process that
they have for their online application
but make sure that you provide them with
as much information as you can so it
shows that you're not trying to hide
anything and it also prevents them from
having to ask you for more information
in the future. And finally you'll want to
again follow up with the firm and make
sure that you're contacting an actual
person so that you know that you can get
a response back. When you follow up you
can get assurance that they have in fact
received your application and are
reviewing your credentials.
It also lets the firm know your level of
interest in them which can help you get
more recognition. So these are a few tips
that I've learned through my many times
of going through the application process
and this is by no means the only way of
going about it, but these have been the most
successful guidelines that I have
followed. So I hope that these methods
can help you in the future. If you have
any questions let me know and have a
great week and I'll see you next Sunday!
You've got models to build, materials to
buy, supplies to buy, it all adds up and
sometimes you're going through weeks
where you have to decide whether you
want to get groceries for the week or
whether you need to buy materials
finished that- they got five people to listen
to them pitch their ideas and critique
them and figure out who should do the
bridge and I thought this was
fascinating and really entertaining so I
decided to film it so...
