#473 - STARTING YOUR ARCHITECTURE CAREER
SUMMARY
This week David and Marina of FAME Architecture & Design share their advice for young architects who are beginning their career. They discussed when to start your own practice, how to avoid setting yourself back, personal vs professional development, career lifespan of an architect, being young and risk appetite, producing vs learning, cheap design disclaimers, how long to stay in an office, should you have your own office, and more. Enjoy!
TIMESTAMPS
(00:00) Advice to young architects starting career.
(12:37) When to start own practice.
“Some people, they think they need to have more experience at other offices before they can do their own thing. Other people, though, are quite capable of learning and advancing their design skills on their own without being mentored by someone in an office. Because when we talk about gaining five years of experience at an office, mostly we are thinking about the trade experience, not the business experience. There are some people who will learn all that stuff just as well, if not more completely on their own, because they have that way of working, questioning things, and information proactively. Versus others who need the structure of an office and a mentor to learn those things. So, it depends on the person.” (17:27)
(21:50) How to avoid setting yourself back.
“When you just have academic experience without professional experience, you don't really know what you want to do professionally. Because you might enjoy the conceptual design of X, Y, and Z structures, but to design them as an actual practicing architect is a very different thing. Offices also do things differently. You could end up discovering something incredible that's meant for you by working randomly in an office that you were not even considering before. It's interesting because a lot of students often are like, “Oh, I want to work for one of the big names.” And when they make it there, they want to get out. I think how you might set yourself back a little bit is by being too specific, too early, without giving yourself a chance to try different things.” (24:25)
(26:01) Personal vs professional development.
(40:25) Start own practice sooner.
“There's always a lot of critical steps, decisions and moments in an architecture project where there is an unknown thing that someone has to solve. Yes, it has to do with that person's experience. But I think first and foremost, it has to do with their ability to be a master problem solver, regardless of their experience. So, for me, it's like, if that's the standard of practicing anyway, why not just do that from the get-go and have 99% of it be new from day zero when I'm young and I have nothing to lose.” (47:25)
(48:13) Career lifespan of architect.
“Time is like a currency. You only have so much money to spend, and you need to think about it, which is the antithesis of being free and doing whatever you want. You don't need to strictly adhere to these parameters and there's no hard ruleset, but I think you should at least think about it. Because once those ages of 20 to 25 goes, those five years are gone. You don't get to do them again. For most people, the stakes ramp up over time. You don't get to go back and just fuck around for a couple of years doing this and that. Once you get to an older age, it's not possible and it's not responsible to do.” (50:23)
(51:16) Being young & risk appetite.
“The people who have the most interesting design work are the folks who have a mixture of backgrounds. They've gained experience in different ways because they don’t just plop down in one region, one city from the age of 23 and stayed there their entire lives. They went out and tried stuff in different places and there’s a lot of things that could be learned from this experience. It also makes you more resilient. If you've left everything you had for a place you know nothing about and managed to survive for a year or two, you would be able to figure anything out. That is a huge survival skill that will benefit you in your career and life.” (01:01:24)
(01:01:12) Producing vs learning.
(01:04:42) Cheap design disclaimers.
(01:09:27) How long to stay in an office.
“You should trust your gut. If you're at a place and within those first three years of experience you feel unhappy there, it’s probably for good reasons. It's either because the office is to blame, or it's the wrong fit. In either case, you're unhappy, so you should change. It's tough when it's your first job because when you're at that threshold where you don't have a lot of experience, you don't want to prematurely pull the plug. But you also don't want to overstay your time because it's just a waste. If you're really unhappy, then I would give it maybe one more month at most. And if you’ve tried to make improvements in that office by being proactive and [voicing out the issues], but they're just like, “Oh, well, that's too bad.” Then leave. Don't waste your time anymore.” (01:09:56)
(01:17:14) Should you have your own practice?
