Welcome To The Grind
A guide for new and recent architecture school graduates
For the last few months, I’ve been hard at work putting together an advice pamphlet for those just finishing school and entering the profession. Today, that document is out in the world as a free PDF. You can check it out here.
This was such a fun and fascinating project, and I’ll probably share a few excerpts or reflections over the next coming weeks via this newsletter. For today, it seems fitting to share the introduction.
Welcome
This is a guide about architecture, but not one about designing buildings. There’s nothing in here about the right way to detail a foundation wall for a cold climate or the most useful keyboard shortcuts for Revit. Instead, this guide is focused on the grind of it all: getting a job, showing up day after day, surviving, learning, and growing in the profession.
If you’ve just gone through two or four (or more) years of architecture school, you already know this field can be demanding: long hours, heavy workloads, and sudden changes in direction are all too common, justified by the belief that architecture is a calling that requires sacrifice.
When I finished my own undergrad degree and went out looking for jobs, I brought these assumptions about the field with me, using them to hide what should have been some pretty obvious red flags. I took a job that paid terribly (but that’s okay, I told myself, I’m working on real architecture, not boring corporate stuff). At my new terribly-paid job, I often worked nights and weekends, ignoring any sense of balance or boundaries (because at the end of all of this, I’ll get a great letter of recommendation from Someone Who Knows People and can help me get in to The Best Grad School.) When the firm hit a rough patch and laid off most of its staff, I cleaned out my desk with a sense of guilt and regret. (If I’d only worked a little harder...) Without a job, I felt alone and adrift, frustrated with myself and with the world of architecture that did not seem to love me anywhere near as much as I loved it.
I do not recommend this approach.
At its heart, this guide is my attempt to make sure that people entering the profession today – that is, all of you reading this – can have an easier time than I did.
But it’s not just about me. Everyone I know in architecture has stories of bad jobs and toxic work environments. Experiences which should be rare or nonexistent sometimes feel like they’re universal. That’s a failure for our field to live up to the ideals we set for ourselves and our work.
I don’t think these ideals are extravagant or unrealistic. We want to be paid a living wage. We want work that feels meaningful, where we can use the skills we’ve built up to make our world a tiny bit better. We want the time and flexibility to have rich, full lives outside of the office. We want to know that there’s a clear path to taking on more responsibility and leadership when we’re ready and able to pursue it. And we want these things to feel like the default condition, not like winning some sort of early-career lottery.
Everyone I know has stories of bad jobs. But we also have stories of good jobs, of good mentors, of finding an open door at what we thought was a dead end. We all chose to pursue architecture because we think it’s worth doing and worth doing well.
I asked some people I look up to (some close friends, some complete strangers) to share some of their stories – both good and bad – from working in architecture. If there’s lasting value in this guide, it’s in this hard-won wisdom from those who’ve been in your shoes before.
Alongside these stories from the field, I’ve put together some information that may be helpful at this stage of your lives. All of this info is available elsewhere, but not always in a clear, centralized, and accessible format.
The guide is divided into four sections: work, GRAD SCHOOL, LIFE, and some ODDS & ENDS that didn’t fit neatly into the other categories. Within each section, you’ll find practical information, helpful resources, and some general advice and reflections. Read through it start to finish, or jump around to the sections that interest you most. Take what feels meaningful and helpful to you and disregard what doesn’t.
This guide is being made available for free – nobody should have their access to advice and guidance restricted by their ability to pay – but it wasn’t free to produce. I’ve had the time, space, and resources in my own life to put this project together because of the care and support of others. If this guide is helpful to you, all I ask in return is that you find a way to pay it forward: Check in on a coworker who might be struggling; join an organization fighting for a cause you’re excited about; years from now, write down some of your own wisdom and lessons learned for the next generation of architects and designers.
As you leave school, move cities, find a job, start a family, move up the ladder, and build a life, your relationship with architecture will change. Some days you’ll feel the excitement and wonder that led you to the field in the first place. Some days you’ll feel boredom, drudgery, and dissatisfaction. A lot of the time you’ll feel a little bit of both.
If I have one big, abstract piece of advice for you, it is this:
be an active participant in your relationship with architecture
Our profession won’t become any more equitable, sustainable, and healthy on its own. If you see that the field’s priorities are in the wrong place, work to change them. Like architecture itself, this can take many different forms and operate in many different ways, but it takes work to make it happen. Find something in the field you’re passionate about. Find a way that works for you to contribute to the cause. And then do. Someone has to or it won’t ever get done.
The world of architecture has always been shaped by the people in it and that list of people now includes you. Welcome.
—Vitruvius Grind
