[Cory Blaquiere]

The two offices I’ve worked at:

• I worked at a VERY small firm, with the Principal and one Associate LA. I joined as a co-op student to help with the Associate’s work load. I was a very friendly atmosphere and we all got along, had the same tastes in music, went out for fancy lunches when times were good, etc.
• My second firm was similar but slightly larger, we had 7 employees when I first started and it was similar to your office. We were all “head” of our department. There was the Principal, the office administrator, the business consultant, the LA and me, the CAD technician. We eventually hired a 2nd LA but all three of us were responsible for all stages of the design process. 
• A good chunk of construction/design companies I’ve interviewed with are 1 person.

I think the majority of firms are in the same position as yours. 5 employees or less and everyone’s job is to do whatever is needed. I’ve seen occasional firms in the 20-50 employee range where you have a team that can you can lean on and still get the advantages of working for a small firm, but I can count the ones in my area on one finger. Then there are the large scale consulting firms that have thousands of employees architects, engineers, planners, etc. all over the board. I don’t think I need to name those ones off. 

Everyone is talking about the curse of having more than 8 years of experience or being 40+. In a lot of industries, this happens because they think you’re not “malleable enough” but I think with the LA industry, it’s because most of us eventually head off and start our own small firm. So, you might have a hard time working for someone, but finding work shouldn’t be a problem.

Good luck at your new job!

[Cory Blaquiere]

Haha, last I checked there was nothing in my contract about slavery 🙂

In Canada, we have the BCSLA and the OALA (BC and Ontario, respectively). They only contain language regarding respecting the confidentiality of documents received from clients or employers. They do contain language stating that a member will always acknowledge work done by another member, though. I assume this works both ways, me giving credit to an employer and my employer giving credit to me.

Thanks for the support. And yeah, I have to second “bad-mouthing”, that’s the quickest way to ruin an interview.

[Cory Blaquiere]

I have a project with a clear NDA attached to it but it’s from a few years ago and isn’t something I would choose to show anyway.

Hopefully they won’t come back and ask for revisions.

[Cory Blaquiere]

That’s amazing to hear that worked out for you. I’ve taken a few business courses myself and this might be an avenue for me in the future.

I will have to review my contract to make sure there’s nothing in the fine print, but from what I remember from the restrictive covenants, there is only a mention of not sharing any proprietary information.

[Cory Blaquiere]

Thanks for the advice, especially regarding my wording. Everyone’s been extremely helpful.

I think the safest thing would be to strip the examples of as much detail as possible (who’s going to want to read my notes of concrete slump testing during an interview anyway?) in the interest of protecting my current employers IP. 

A lot of our work is municipal and has been posted online for Tender so I have lots to choose from there.

I also think that despite the outcome being fairly predictable, I’m going to exercise due diligence and follow up with him one more time.

[Cory Blaquiere]

I’ve run into this experience (exactly) with co-workers in the past. Generally, it fuels me to step up my game and put the gloves on. I hate it myself, but there are unfortunately people out there who feel everything is a competition and you’ll need to deal with them because they don’t stop until the other competition is gone. So don’t be afraid to challenge everything he says about your work, or even call him out on it. When someone is working right next to me and is visibly “testy” or breathing down my neck, it’s very distracting and I’ve told them to stop doing it.
Anyway, that was my own airing. Hope you don’t get heartburn.

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