If
you could change one thing about architectural internship, what
would it be?
would it be?
If I could change one thing about the architectural internship program it would be focusing on leveling the playing field. Having started the
process in the fall of 1984, graduating with honors, receiving 4 awards in a design and technical competition with the local Southern Illinois Chapter of the AIA and starting my internship with an outstanding mentors; I’ve been faced with the repercussion of the changing rules. But the rules only affected those not yet licensed. My proposal gives recognition to the new rules set upon the intern after 1984 which has given me quite a bit of hardship at the benefit of many licensed architectural employers who hired me.
I’ll give you an idea of the problems I am facing now. My last interview was last month and once again, I tried not to oversell myself with my extensive experience. One interviewing partner stated, “You are partnership material!” as the other partner states, “She not licensed we can’t use her.” I have had zero income for over a year! I have had other points in my career that hit difficulties, like during the CAD
architectural downsizing years, when my “good drafting hand” put me last on the board. I called myself a dinosaur drafter.
In the last year, I’ve refinanced my home, and got licensed to sale real estate. I knew a had to get licensed in something fast and with the
mentors at the local AIA stating, “Getting licensed as an architect would be still a 1-3 year process…”. With all of this experience, becoming a “realtor” seemed like a reasonable albeit pathetic alternative.
As I watched a small group of architects speak to a gathering of local interns in the Portland, Oregon office, I could not help but wonder about the motivating reason they were here to help us all get licensed. I concluded it was not goodwill as being portrayed; it was that they are all at retirement age and need a larger pool of licensed architects to sell their business too. Again self serving, just like when the rules for the IDP were enacted. From my vantage point it appears like the yuppie generation got licensed, in power, and changed to rule to limit the competition.
I am now marketing site selection and financial analysis services and hope to be a developer. In my “spare” time I may get licensed for
architecture. If not for any other reason than all of the hardship, I wish that there was a special destination “Master Architect” for any persons getting licensed through the IDP Program. Any “licensed architect” wanting that designation would have to document and practice under qualified supervision and retake the architectural licensing exam as required in the IDP Program.