Reply To: What’s it like working in your office

[Tosh K]

Of the offices I’ve been at:

1. 7 person engineering/planning office – everyone did everything, though the PMs did most of the spec work.  The principal checked everything and made most of the big decisions.  More PMs than staff, so they had to do their share of CAD work too.  Some task work (marketing, etc) but not much as there was a non-design staff.

2. 20 person design firm – CD/CA work was often farmed out.  Lot’s of design work, there were design leads that led the day-to-day project effort with the principal as the main lead in design decisions.  Lots of internal discussion among staff to hash out projects.  Marketing, etc was done by others (non-design staff)

3. 100+ design firm – different depts, the one I was in had about a dozen people.  Lots of internal crits with dept head, who in turn had reviews with the principal.  design and project work but 0 task work.

4. 2 person design firm (2) – have to do everything short of direct marketing. direct oversight from principal

5. 10 person design firm – do mostly everything, including task work. Oversight from PM, who receives internal review from other PMs and principals.

I would say a lot depends on the type of office (some do no construction end work CDs/CA; others do it more heavily) – whether there’s more ‘design’, technical work, etc.  I’ve found that the type of work and the people you work with are harder to match – jobs tend to be out there in larger metropolitan areas as long as you maintain a good professional reputation and attitude.