Life of an Architect

How do you define a great employee? The answer is most likely dependent on who is attempting to respond, the employee or the employer. I will concede that I have told previous employers that I would be the best employee they have ever had. And I actually meant it when I said it. Did it happen? I like to think so; at least once or twice, but it’s not for me to say. Andrew and I have been both employee and employer, and this is a topic that I think deserves a little time in the spotlight ... Welcome to Ep 125: A Great Employee [Note: If you are reading this via email, click here to access the on-site audio player] [hoops name="top1"] A Great Employee - Definitions jump to 2:10 As a primer to the conversation, I thought it would be useful to get an understanding of what other people think makes a great employee. To do this, I sought out the input of people from different age brackets, different stages of experience, architects, interior designers, landscape architects, and owners - just to see if there was a pattern in place that presented itself regardless of the baggage people were bringing with them. Turns out that people generally have the same idea of what makes for a great employee. Miranda Davis – Architect at BOKA Powell: "A great employee first takes care of all the tasks they are assigned in the time that they were given/gave themselves. This includes taking notes/mental notes to facilitate that in the capacity that they know they will need to not forget/miss steps (self-awareness). They communicate well, giving notice as soon as they realize they might not finish something on time, giving their team a chance to pivot if needed. They cannot go above and beyond without first fulfilling the original assignment thoroughly and on time, otherwise the extras cannot be appreciated. They listen actively and ask good questions after first troubleshooting on their own, acknowledging that everyone’s time and brain-space is important. They present a willingness to take on other tasks to learn and grow with a good attitude, bonus points for visible enthusiasm." Brannon Heake: "What makes “a great employee” is not only willing to go the extra distance, but also know when it is necessary to do so. A great employee creates healthy boundaries with work, instilling a sense of pace, forecast, and rigor with a project. Lastly, having the self-awareness to remain cool and collected and check your ego at the door is critical. Although hierarchy is important, a great employee looks at their team as a collective rather than who oversees whom." Paul Freeland - Landscape Architect Kimley-Horn: "A great employee thinks critically about their task and the deliverables at hand. They are proactive, checking quality in their work, holding themselves to a high standard. They solve problems on their own and are great at follow-up internally and externally. They are self-motivated and collaborative, with a positive attitude and a willingness to help their team in times of need. They are easy going, open to feedback, and don’t take themselves too seriously." Melanie Hanna - Interior Designer BOKA Powell: "A great employee is subjective and can greatly vary depending on a company’s leadership style, culture, and values. For me personally, a “great employee” can be defined as a self-motivated individual who has excellent communication skills, embraces a growth mindset, and is aligned with the company’s mission, vision, and values. This individual is respectful, celebrates success, learns from failures, and has a “rising tide lifts all ships” mentality." Nick Thorn – Architect at Marlon Blackwell Architects: "A great employee has many positive traits and attributes, but first and foremost, they are effective communicators because this leads to positive engagement with others. They also possess a duality of other important traits; confidence in their abilities while remaining humble, understanding their role while striving to advance their ...

You’re about to graduate from architecture school, or maybe you already have a job, and you’re just simply looking for a change. Going through interviews is part of the sequence of getting a new job, and there are some things that are worth knowing before you step into the room.

Buying gifts for Architects can be tough for some people because architects are very specific about the sorts of things they want. This is the 10th consecutive year of "What to Get an Architect for Christmas" and there is something here for every sort of architect.

December 2024, and Andrew and I find ourselves in front of the microphone for the final time until 2025 – from my perspective a mere 28 days away. It is the annual state of the state address where we look back at all the interesting bits and pieces covered over the last 12 months while providing a sneak peak at the adventures to come in 2025. . ... Welcome to EP 166: 2024 Yearapalooza. [Note: If you are reading this via email, click here to access the on-site audio player] [hoops name="top1"] Today we are wrapping up the 2024 podcast season. I don’t know about you but I am ready for a break. Any part of wrapping up should include some sort of reflection but we will also be spending a portion of the show – presumably towards the end – of looking forward, what do we think we are doing and what might we be talking about. I built todays conversation based on a similar format to how we wrapped up 2023 – a pulling back of the curtain to talk about what matters – at least where this website and podcast are concerned, and what we are thinking for next year. In an effort to look forward, I am a believer that you have to look back, take a look at what work – and what didn’t – so that you can modify behavior in a way that is beneficial and meaningful to all those involved (us as creators, you the listener as participants.) impossible to read but even at this size, this is only 4 of the 8 years worth of downloads By the Numbers jump to 6:56 I will admit that I used to be obsessed with the numbers associated with the blog site - and eventually the podcast - but the reality is that I don't care so much anymore. That doesn't meant that I don't ever look, but my reasons for looking have less to do with how the show or site is performing and more about what topics and discussion are of interest to the people who visit this site and listen to the podcast. While I still end up choosing topics that represent my current activities and interests, it's interesting to know what people think is worth their attention. Since there is a lot of secrecy surrounding the true metrics of how podcasts perform, most of the benchmarks I refer to are fairly generic and all are free to access. The gold standard to determine how a podcast is performing is how many downloads an episode has at the 30 day mark, and according to data commonly cited by platforms like Libsyn and Buzzsprout, this is where ALL podcast (regardless of genre or topics) fall based on that standard: Podcast Performance by Percentile Top 50%: ~30 downloads per episode in 30 days. Explanation: This is the median—half of all podcasts achieve fewer than 30 downloads within 30 days. Top 25%: ~100 downloads per episode in 30 days. Explanation: Podcasts in this range are doing better than 75% of shows and likely have a niche audience with consistent engagement. Top 10%: ~400-500 downloads per episode in 30 days. Explanation: These podcasts are often well-established and attract a steady audience, making them appealing to niche advertisers or sponsors. Top 5%: ~1,000 downloads per episode in 30 days. Explanation: At this level, a podcast is highly successful in its niche, with a strong following and the potential for premium sponsorships or monetization. Top 3%: ~3,000 downloads per episode in 30 days. Explanation: These podcasts are industry leaders within their category and are often approaching mainstream popularity. Top 1%: ~5,000+ downloads per episode in 30 days. Explanation: These podcasts are typically professional productions with large budgets or significant marketing reach. They often attract substantial sponsorship deals and are highly recognized within the industry. For the 2024 season, the Life of an Architect podcast averaged 4,847 downloads per episode at the 30 day mark ...which puts us just shy of hitting the Top 1% of all podcasts. Andrew and I are obviously proud of this accomplishment but the reality...

You check the time and realize that you have 4 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 EP 148: Meetings are a Waste of Time [Note: If you are reading this via email, click here to access the on-site audio player] [hoops name="top1"] I wrote a post on this topic 11 years ago – and it was also titled “Meetings are a Waste of time.” When I wrote this down as a topic, it wasn’t because I had already covered this topic a decade ago, it was because I had forgotten that I had covered it and I most likely had just come out of a meeting that I felt was an unproductive waste of time. Is this going to be a crabby podcast episode? It’s entirely possible, but you can hit the pause button, go grab a beer, and then restart the show because I feel like most people feel like I do when it comes to the majority of meetings they attend. I am becoming more and more sensitive to sitting in meetings where I think: What am I doing in this meeting? You already said that, move on ... What does that have to do with what we are supposed to be talking about? I went back to reread that post from 2013 and as I went through the points, I typically thought to myself “Nailed It” but things are a little different for me now and shockingly, I thought I was in a lot of meetings before, I am in ten times that number now. It’s not even close! A couple of caveats to consider: There is a huge difference between professional environment meetings and volunteer organization meetings, Meetings with Clients, and internal meetings. Along with those distinctions comes a slightly different pain threshold for what is acceptable behavior or not. While I would like volunteer meetings to be run with the same efficiency, I have to acknowledge that these are "volunteer" based meetings and if the people attending have to do something as part of their real jobs, I am not going to get in their way. Probably 50% of the time I spend in meetings isn’t scheduled. My office (air quotes) is pretty open and it lends itself to pop-in meetings – which was purposeful at the time of design. Exactly what is supposed to happen DOES in fact happen, but it does become disruptive to developing any sort of rhythm to the creative process. Client meetings generally fall outside of the requirements I considered, unless I am the one who is slowing things down – which does happen. I wrote in the 2013 post the following: “At least half of the meetings I attend, nothing is really happening other than the swapping of stories. One on hand, that’s okay because I’m the Pecos Bill of stories, but I simply don’t have the time for it anymore.” So in an effort to reclaim some lost time, here are some tips I have collected and follow to help make sure that my days don’t get longer by sitting in unnecessary or gratuitous meetings. Start your meetings on time jump to 17:39 If someone is late, that’s their problem. Don’t review information that’s already been covered. I make it an effort to be on time to meetings and it drives me insane when someone else is late and I have to just sit there waiting on them. Not only a waste of time, it’s disrespectful – it says “my time is more important than yours”. I wrote "For the Love of All That is Holy ... Be on Time" and it sums up my opinion on the matter rather succinctly. Set the meeting length to an hour and end the meeting on time. jump to 20:19 Unfortunately, some meetings always seem to take longer than an hour but I’ve found that when I walk into a meeting and tell people they have an hour before I ha...