You’re probably pretty content in your present position. But if your “dream job” opened up, would you be ready to go for it? Would your resume be up to today’s standard? In many cases, probably not.
Design Force can help. We have 12 years’ experience providing premium career development support to AEC professionals. We’d be glad to review your resume on a free, 100% confidential basis.
One item that can be very effective in any resume is your experience with mentoring. Many design and construction firms have formal mentorship programs that pair new professional staff with veteran members of the firm. How effective is your firm’s mentoring program? Don’t have one? Maybe you should help get one started.
There are different forms of mentorship. In many AEC firms, mentoring occurs almost by accident. The new staff member somehow latches on to a more established person in the firm to seek advice and counseling on the ins and outs of the firm.
This form of mentorship gives you choice—you’re not getting stuck with someone you don’t like. But there’s no guarantee that the mentor will do a good job, or even that he/she is really interested in mentoring you.
At some AEC firms, particularly the larger ones, you may be assigned a mentor by the HR department, the CEO, or your department head. This has the advantage of being sanctioned by your firm and presumably tested over time. You can reasonably expect that the mentorship has a structure and that you will benefit from it. On the other hand, due to personality differences, gender issues, age or generational differences, etc., you may not be entirely comfortable with your assigned mentor. This could prove awkward in the everyday work environment.
You may want to have more than one mentor: one for specific advice about the workings of the firm—its strategic direction, what kinds of project work is most valued, what management is looking for from you, what gaps exist that fit you can fill to enhance your career growth path; the other for more general advice about your profession—how to get placed on professional society committees, how to obtain speaking engagements, what pro bono work can help your career, community service, alumni affiliations, etc. This person may be completely outside your firm but well-established in your profession.
Mentorships should have clear guidelines. You and your mentor should establish how frequently you will meet—once a week? Once a month? Quarterly?—and under what circumstances—coffee outside the office? A formal sit-down in the office? Should the discussion be business only, or can personal matters enter into the conversation? How long a period should the mentorship last? Should it be reevaluated once a year? How would it be ended? Should there be a written report at some point? Who would have access to such a report?
Some AEC firms have come up with interesting innovations in their mentorship programs. One firm we know assigns two mentors to every new employee. This helps you get feedback and advice from different perspectives.
Other firms are using two-way mentorships. Senior staff members work with younger or junior staff on subjects like how to improve client relations, how to bring in business, and how to get things done most effectively within the firm’s structure.
The protégés then work with their senior counterparts on solving problems that they’re more comfortable with, such as how to implement new software, or how to use the latest AEC-industry apps.
An interesting approach we recently learned about through one of our clients is for you and your mentor to take responsibility for a specific task that contributes to the firm's betterment. It could be a better way to catalog standards in the firm’s library, or the development of a new presentation prep technique, or rethinking the marketing strategy for a studio.
What if you are asked to become a mentor? My advice: Think carefully before agreeing to do so. Mentorship is a serious responsibility. Your protégé’s career can and probably will be affected by the quality of the mentoring you provide.
But mentoring, done right, can give you visibility to climb in your career—and for your protégé as well. You’re both working hard for your individual improvement and the firm’s betterment.
Ahmed Kurtom is Managing Principal of Design Force, a Washington, D.C.–based firm specializing in career placement opportunities for AEC professionals.
For a FREE 100% CONFIDENTIAL resume review by an experienced Design Force hiring manager, email your resume to: careers@designforcesolutions.com - SUBJECT LINE: Free Resume Review/BDC090816A
Related Stories
| Aug 11, 2010
200 Fillmore
Built in 1963, the 32,000-sf 200 Fillmore building in Denver housed office and retail in a drab, outdated, and energy-splurging shell—a “style” made doubly disastrous by 200 Fillmore's function as the backdrop for a popular public plaza and outdoor café called “The Beach.
| Aug 11, 2010
Integrated Project Delivery builds a brave, new BIM world
Three-dimensional information, such as that provided by building information modeling, allows all members of the Building Team to visualize the many components of a project and how they work together. BIM and other 3D tools convey the idea and intent of the designer to the entire Building Team and lay the groundwork for integrated project delivery.
| Aug 11, 2010
High Tech High International used to be a military facility
High Tech High International, reconstructed inside a 1952 Navy metal foundry training facility, incorporates the very latest in teaching technology with a centerpiece classroom known as the UN Theater, which is modeled after the UN chambers in New York. The interior space, which looks more like a hip advertising studio than a public high school, provides informal, flexible seating areas, abunda...
| Aug 11, 2010
Putting the Metal to the Petal
The Holocaust and Human Rights Center of Maine was founded in 1985, but the organization didn't have a permanent home until May 2008. That's when the Michael Klahr Center, which houses the HHRC, opened on the Augusta campus of the University of Maine. The design, by Boston-based architects Shepley Bulfinch Richardson & Abbott, was selected from among more than 200 entries in a university-s...
| Aug 11, 2010
Great Solutions: BIM/Information Technology
4. Architectural Visualization through Gaming Technology Before 3D walkthroughs for client presentations were popular, HKS manager of Advanced Technologies Pat Carmichael and his team were working to marry gaming engines with 3D building models. "What's being tasked to us more and more is not just to show design, but to show function," Carmichael said.
| Aug 11, 2010
The softer side of Sears
Built in 1928 as a shining Art Deco beacon for the upper Midwest, the Sears building in Minneapolis—with its 16-story central tower, department store, catalog center, and warehouse—served customers throughout the Twin Cities area for more than 65 years. But as nearby neighborhoods deteriorated and the catalog operation was shut down, by 1994 the once-grand structure was reduced to ...
| Aug 11, 2010
Jefferson Would Be Proud
The Virginia State Capitol Building—originally designed by Thomas Jefferson and almost as old as the nation itself—has proudly served as the oldest continuously used Capitol in the U.S. But more than two centuries of wear and tear put the historical landmark at the head of the line for restoration.
| Aug 11, 2010
Let There Be Daylight
The new public library in Champaign, Ill., is drawing 2,100 patrons a day, up from 1,600 in 2007. The 122,600-sf facility, which opened in January 2008, certainly benefits from amenities that the old 40,000-sf library didn't have—electronic check-in and check-out, new computers, an onsite coffeehouse.
| Aug 11, 2010
American Tobacco Project: Turning over a new leaf
As part of a major revitalization of downtown Durham, N.C., locally based Capitol Broadcasting Company decided to transform the American Tobacco Company's derelict 16-acre industrial plant, which symbolized the city for more than a century, into a lively and attractive mixed-use development. Although tearing down and rebuilding the property would have made more economic sense, the greater goal ...
| Aug 11, 2010
Great Solutions: Healthcare
11. Operating Room-Integrated MRI will Help Neurosurgeons Get it Right the First Time A major limitation of traditional brain cancer surgery is the lack of scanning capability in the operating room. Neurosurgeons do their best to visually identify and remove the cancerous tissue, but only an MRI scan will confirm if the operation was a complete success or not.
