I went to architecture school for for years; graduated with a bachelor of arts in architecture degree. I am apprenticing in a firm to earn my intern development program credits (IDP); I will return to graduate school to get my master’s degree in architecture.  I will complete my IDP and start taking 7 architect’s registration exams (AREs).  I will gain my license to practice architecture.  I will participate in continuing education credits and attend seminars to stay up to date with my profession.  I will become a project manager.

At times it feels frustratingly overwhelming how much I feel I don’t know.  My employer gave a very interesting dialogue today of the paperwork that our firm fills out during the design development process of our educational jobs, and it was really interesting to me; within a few hours he had me transcribing marks on payout forms from a general contractor, discussing how he determines and evaluates how much to give builders.  On a current project that we have in the office, the construction manager (CM) provided us with a design development cost estimate, and I had no idea how the monetary figure was determined for rough carpentry - and had to look at a specification to see what was included in the woods section.  These are new things that I didn’t receive exposure to in school and feel completely inexperienced.

At the same time, I’m learning so much.  In just over one year, I can see a tremendous change in myself.

I’m learning to listen - and not just “hear” people.  I’m getting better at not interrupting people while they speak - and it’s amazing what I’ve missed for so long.  I’m seeking to see patterns in the needs of my employers, so I can better aid them and make their jobs easier.  I’ve been asked to take on more responsibilities at work: I’m now the webmaster of our website, and I’m assisting in promotional projects like adding our company a page on facebook.  I’m learning how to read a set of documents to answer questions about the building’s existing conditions and verify construction progress to a set of contract documents.  I’m learning to draw in more detail than I ever did in undergrad- and compose a set of documents in a beautiful, artistic, and logical way.  I’m seeking to be more thorough in quality control of the document review process.  My vocabulary is expanding.  My 3D vision is becoming more fine tuned.  I’m interested in flashing details and issues of environmental controls.

I think architecture is what I want to make not only my job, but also my long term career.