10 Essential Tips for Launching a Successful Career in Architecture
The transition from architecture university to working in a professional practice can be both exciting and overwhelming. As you are an aspiring young architect or designer you may be wondering how to kickstart your career and gain an edge against the competition. These 10 essential tips are written from the experience of Leon Willcocks from The Orangery Blog, to help you achieve your career goals.
Make an effort with your colleagues
This really goes a long way in forming relationships. If you're known for being polite, social and engaging. Create small talk, greet your colleagues in the morning, talk about the weekend, weather, sport - oh, and make an effort to be interested. This will help you build a strong network.
You will find that by being engaging, your colleagues will gravitate towards you, want to work with you on architectural projects and invite you to social events. Plus, management will recognise you as a team player that blends in with the office.
Develop Strong Communication Skills
As an architect or architectural designer, you will need to be able to clearly communicate your design ideas to colleagues, potential clients and consultants. The types of communication skills you will need to develop are; public speaking, writing (particularly emails with instructions and descriptions), and presenting. Don't worry, all this comes with practice.
Triple check your work
The skill of auditing and checking your work is immeasurable. Not everyone is in the habit of combing through their work before issuing as it is tedious, and takes time.
However, it speaks volumes about your mentality to work. There is always a blemish somewhere and it is far better you correct it than someone else. The bottom line it is better to send something out late and correct, than on time with mistakes. If you rely on others checking your work you will gain a reputation for being sloppy and lazy.
Seek Mentorship
Your first job in your architecture career could be in a small or large practice. Regardless, there will be a superior you will work closely with, and in my experience, the natural dynamic of Grasshopper and Sensei will form. An experienced architect can guide you through the initial steps in your career and pass on skills and knowledge.
Learn from Failure
Failure is the best way to learn. It doesn’t feel like it, but it is. Mistakes in architecture can be costly and due to the architect often being the overseer of all works and consultants, therefore mistakes are common.
As a young architect or designer, your responsibilities are relative to your work experience. So it is unlikely you'll be at fault for a massive disruption to works in the early stages of your career, but there will be someone who has made a costly mistake. Understand their mistake and remember it.
Go the Extra Mile
This is particularly important if you are looking to progress through the ranks. Going the extra mile gets you noticed by management. An example of this would be to set up all the existing drawings for a project prior to a planning application, this will save the team some precious time while showing that you think in advance. Completing little tasks like this isn't overstepping your mark but gets brownie points.
Focus on the User Experience
A great architect removes ego and personal taste and thinks about what are the needs of the people who will be occupying the building. Good design is partly about creating a space that is functional and user-friendly as well as creating visually stunning designs.
Emphasize Collaboration
In practice, architectural projects are a collaborative effort and working cohesively with your colleagues is essential for the success of a project as well as your own success professionally. Learn how you can influence a design and except that you do not have full creative control.
Develop Strong Time Management Skills
An architecture firm will have multiple projects simultaneously running so you need to have strong time management skills as this is essential to your success. Learn how to 'plate spin' by prioritising tasks and managing timelines and clients.
Stay Passionate
As a graduate of architecture or design, you already know architecture is a challenging but rewarding profession that requires commitment and dedication. To stay passionate about architecture, continuously learn, stay updated with technology, seek inspiration from other architects and architectural projects, remember you contribute to something that stands the test of time.
Conclusion
Whether your ambition is to become an architect or seek another profession in architecture, launching a successful career requires a combination of commitment, perseverance, strategic thinking and ambition.
The 10 essential tips in this blog have been written from first-hand experience to guide young architects in laying a foundation to begin their professional journey. Remember architecture is something you constantly practice so stay committed to lifelong learning.
You will gain the experience required to navigate the challenges and seize opportunities to fulfil a meaningful career in the world of architecture.
FAQs relating to essential tips for launching a successful career in architecture:
What makes a successful architect?
A successful architect or designer possesses a combination of technical and sustainable expertise, artistic skills, an eye for detail, strong communication skills and able to understand and deliver clients' needs.
What are the weaknesses of an architect?
Some weaknesses of an architect may include:
Excessive time spent on details due to perfectionism
Difficulty in finding a balance in form and function.
Potentially struggling with client communication and expectations
However, continuous learning and self-awareness can help overcome these weaknesses.
Thanks to guest author, Leon Willcocks from The Orangery Blog.
The Orangery Blog is an online learning platform for architects and architecture students.
Since establishment, the Orangery Blog has grown in audience due to the weekly uploads of blog posts, tutorials, and resources. Consisting of insightful information and guides to studying architecture, along with workflow, productivity, and product recommendations. Tutorials, hacks, tips on how to create amazing architecture imagery. And a digital download store full of architecture assets such as Photoshop effects.
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