Life of an Architect Podcast Ep. 154: Networking

Today we are tackling a topic that we have never covered before, not even a little. Imagine walking into a crowded room and not knowing who to talk to or what to say, a situation I have found myself uncomfortably in more times that my therapist can ignore. The ability to build meaningful relationships and strategic alliances is a critical part of the success of any business. Today, Andrew and I will discuss a topic that at least from my side of things, have zero training in but is nonetheless a part of my job description and responsibilities in the office. Time to have a frank conversation about the indispensable practice of turning professional interactions into valuable assets. Welcome to EP 154: Networking.

Whether your interests or skills lend themselves to design or technology, I think it is safe to say that creativity plays a role in the day-to-day experience of an architect. Sometimes you aren’t feeling it and the ideas don’t flow – which is bad. Sometimes the ideas are flowing too much, which can be worse. Either way you have to start somewhere. Welcome to EP 153: Inspiration.

All around the country, new architecture school graduates are rolling up their sleeves to start their professional journey with their first “this time it counts” job. Some will be excited for this moment, some will be optimistically cautious, and then there are those who realize that this is the beginning of the end and the longest holiday they will take for the next 30 years is two weeks maximum. Andrew and I thought we could help these people ease into this phase of their lives with insightful and relevant information that could profoundly impact the trajectory of their entire lives. Welcome to EP 152: Tips for Starting a New Job.

We are finally conceding to a request that’s been made a thousand times–-do an episode on starting an architectural business-–a topic that I have resisted for essentially six years, and I think I’ve finally broken. This is not as easy of a topic to discuss as you might think because there are a million different ways you could answer a question this broad. In an attempt to make this conversation of value, we are going to start at the beginning, and we are going to eat this whale one bit at a time.

This will be the 5th time in 5,209 days that I have put my opinions about taking on extra work outside of your normal job and typically during ridiculous hours of the day and night. This practice has come to be known as “moonlighting” and depending on your age and where you are at in your career, it is either the light at the end of the tunnel or an oncoming train. Andrew and I originally had something else scheduled for today’s show but this topic has been forcing itself into my brain over the past month or so and I want to talk about it.

You check the time and realize that you have four minutes before your next meeting. Maybe it’s an internal meeting, maybe clients are coming in. Is it in person or online? Depending on how you answer those questions, time to start scrambling so that you are where you need to be and have the information required to make this meeting a good use of your time. But guess what? I promise that you will end up waiting on someone (maybe you are that someone). Either way, you aren’t getting that time back and you haven’t even started yet. Welcome to Life of an Architect Podcast Ep. 148: Meetings are a Waste of Time.

How good do you need to be at drawing if you want to become an architect? What if you can't draw? Can you still become an architect? These are questions I hear a lot, especially from people my age who became accountants and consultants. Is there an easy answer to these questions? Of course there is, but that doesn’t mean the answer is easy. Welcome to Life of an Architect Episode 147: Draw Like an Architect!

We get asked a lot of good questions here on the show. They come up in the comment section, they are sent into our email inboxes, and some slide into our DM’s. Sometimes we reach out and ask people what they would like us to discuss, which is what’s happening on this episode. We started with 10 questions and made our way through seven of them before we hit our time limit. One of these days I think a fireside chat done in real time would be an interesting way to work through these questions. In the meantime, welcome to episode 146: Ask the Show Spring 2024!