a friendly reminder for all you recent graduates (or those looking for work) relative to those upcoming interviews: it's almost never about who you are or what names are on your resume. it isn't about fancy schools or who your studio professor was.

it's about what you've done. what you've actually, genuinely accomplished. and to that end, you're primarily limited by your imagination and motivation. 

(from the folks at amazon, via the wsj. yes, it's about mba's, but just replace that with 'MArch or BArch" and it holds up well). 

a friendly reminder for all you recent graduates (or those looking for work) relative to those upcoming interviews: it's almost never about who you are or what names are on your resume. it isn't about fancy schools or who your studio professor was.

it's about what you've done. what you've actually, genuinely accomplished. and to that end, you're primarily limited by your imagination and motivation. 

(from the folks at amazon, via the wsj. yes, it's about mba's, but just replace that with 'MArch or BArch" and it holds up well). 

everyone's talking about 'green shoots' these days - either they're sprouting or being choked out before they ever begin. 

green shoots? how about full on growing plants.

right now...  it feels.... busy - at least at my firm. we're winning a lot of opportunities, hiring people, looking to expand our offices. yes, it smells like growth (or bacon. though i really don't understand the attraction). 

anecdotally, the whole of the architectural market in the u.s. seems busy. or at least busier than we've seen in a long time. hiring is up - perhaps way up over the past year. the best graduates are fielding multiple offers in town and the job placement rates are the highest they've been in a while at our local universities. 

this kind of optimism doesn't extend to the full profession yet - there's still some de-leveraging going on in the market, especially in very specific sectors that seemed to have (to most people) weathered the initial brunt of downturn - science...

interesting dichotomy of numbers out today.

on the one hand, the aia's architecture billings index (which i am a participant with) is truly picking up steam over the past few months. at the very least, reading through the tea leaves, it indicates that work is picking up overall. and i can anecdotally back up that claim - we've brought in more staff over the past two months than the past four years combined. 

on the other hand... you get a survey like this one produced by BD in the UK, which indicates a truly staggering number: only 24% of British architects are currently employed by a "company" (i'm not including self-employed in this number, although that's about 45%). 

24%. 

22% of architects are unemployed (staggering in itself) and 9% have just given up architecture to move on to other pursuits. the numbers are doubly worse for 'non-qualified graduates.'

cripes. what are we supposed to think? maybe the glass is just a glass, depending on where you're d...

much ink has been spilled the past couple of weeks over yahoo ceo marissa mayer's recent decision to require all employees to work inside the office. a vast majority of the knee jerk responses have focused in on why at-home workers are more productive, have a healthier work-life balance and generally happier employees. 

you know what? all of those reactions can be backed up by some great data and are generally sound, accepted business practices in the early 2000's. 

and they're all wrong for yahoo (right now). this is why marissa mayer is smarter than you.

yahoo, as a company, is currently a shell of what it once used to be. talent has been leaving in droves over the past few years. since 2009, they've turned over ceo's like a line cook flips burgers. revenues are falling, but more importantly, the product focus is a mess. i think most of the employees who've moved to 'at home' working have done so solely to escape the highly dysfunctional and toxic environmen...

we've been beating this drum, relative to what will help 'right' our economy, since 2009:

it's all about construction. all. about. construction.

it's really this simple: get construction spending back to 'normal' levels and everything else will fall into place.

so, it's nice to see people focus on this subject, once in a while (today, derek thompson at the atlantic).

at various times, i've wondered why kermit baker, the aia's chief economist, can't pull this information together, perhaps in collaboration with the AGC or NAHB. because, if we're going to make a collective political case to help unwind what truly ails us, shouldn't we be  demonstrating the economics involved over, and over, and over?

a confluence of articles out today are worth collating and reading in sum. all, as you may have guessed from today's title, are about jobs. or employment. or 'how are we going to get people working again?'

robert samuelson argues, yet again, that we're in a particularly stubborn situation right now. the economy is moving, just... slowly. in a nutshell, there's just not enough demand being created. 'why' is more effusive - the places we can generate demand are easier to pin down: it has to come from a mix of consumer, business and government. right now, it's a triad of paralysis: consumers are saving more (those who have jobs), while cutting back on 'non-essentials''; businesses, responding the weakening demand, are hoarding cash wherever they can and are reluctant to 'anticipate' demand. the government, which should be the spender of last resort (to jump-start demand), is... well, we all know that score. don't bet the bank on the government moving first. (although, really...

so we have a har-bowl after all. bleah. can't really root for either team, so it's time to catch up on some reading...

following up on my last post, it really is all about teams...

you a winner? or a loser? hope you're the former...

about that corner office...

i really, really want to be one of the cool kids...

of course, since i'm not, i'll just listen to someone who is...

i'm probably going to buy this handlebar on principle (even though i don't own a bike right now).

the construction forecast is generally up for 2013, although the wall street types aren't as optimistic as the industry guys...

i love libraries. so, it's nice to see that pew has devoted a section to them. and, there's some nice conversations about their future ongoing.

the paperman has only been viewed 8.5M times, half by me alone.

are you ready for the circular economy? or does that article belong in the circular storage file? (wait, did you think i ...

the short list for the new Atlanta Falcons stadium was released yesterday. they are:

360 Architecture
Ewing-Cole
HKS Inc.
Populous + SHoP Architects
Tvsdesign/Heery/Gensler

well, it's getting to be crunch time for the nfl. my current hometown falcons are playing a meaningful game in late january, we still have the option of a 'bi-coastal tech bowl (sf and new england/boston)', a all-bird bowl (falcons/ravens); the 'har-bowl' (as nominated below)* and whatever you want to call atlanta/ne. 

accordingly, teams are on my mind. since my last post, in mid december,  we've added 3 new people to our firm. that's roughly a 33% gain. there's more work, new challenges and a crazy desire to keep the momentum up. more importantly, i really, really like our little team.

most of us will work in situations where teams come together for a short time, create something, then move on. those teams will be put together internally (which pm, pa, staff, etc.), as well as between different companies. it's incredibly difficult to get the same team working on more than one project - inevitably, someone's moved on, been swapped out - whatever circumstantial events th...