Week in the life of a 21-year old Part 1 Architectural Assistant living in London
Written by Nausheen Mahmood, Edited by Aliya @archistudentnotes
This week we have a week in the life submission from Nausheen Mahmood, a 21-year old architecture graduate applying for Part 1 Architectural Assistant jobs in what seems to be tough market!
Would you have tackled the week any differently?
Monday
As I have been applying for Part 1 Architecture Assistant roles for over 2 months now and had no success, I did start to doubt my emailing strategy so this week I set out to call all the firms that I could find on google in my area.
Note from Aliya: This is an excellent idea to really push for an answer from what could be a very busy office!
By calling I then found out whether they were hiring and haven’t put a job advertisement out yet or they would ask me to send over my CV and portfolio. During one of the phone calls I found that one of the Architecture firms called me in to help look at my CV and Portfolio as a favour to help with making my work look better.
Tuesday
I went to my part time job and on the way there I saved some new Part 1 Architecture Assistant job advertisements to apply to on the way back from work. Going to work has been a good break to keep my mind focused on finding the career that I want to pursue.
On the way back home from work I went back to those job advertisements, sent my CV and portfolio and if required rewrote my cover letter catering it towards the firm.
Wednesday
On Wednesday morning I took a break from applying to jobs, as sometimes you do get in your own head about it, so it’s better to take a break.
In the evening after running some errands I applied for more roles and senr some more emails applying for again for Part 1 roles. I also received an email from previous firm that I had work experience with after they had also reviewed my CV and portfolio, they mentioned that both of the documents looked great and that I should keep applying for more roles.
Note from Aliya: I really appreciate any firm that will take a look at an application to give feedback, even if they are not hiring. I would encourage any applicant to request feedback as well!
Mid Week Plug
Enjoying this weeks ArchiWeek? Interested in sharing your own week?
Thursday
After work I went to see the architecture firm at 4pm.
After having a chat they marked up my CV and Portfolio with small correction such as swapping 2 images around and some grammatical errors in my CV. Other than that they really enjoyed my work. It was very nice and thoughtful of this firm to do this for me and I really enjoyed their company.
I am glad that some firms even though they are not able to provide you with a job, they try their best to help out upcoming architects.
Friday
On Friday, I went to meet up with a university friend who is also on the hunt for a Part 1 Architectural Assistant job. Most of us recent graduates are finding it difficult to find a job at the moment.
Once I got home, I took a break from applying again and instead concentrated on some Netflix, sketching and Rhino 3D modelling that I’ve been working on, in order to redesign and refurbish my house.
And that’s the week!
Thank you to Nausheen for this weeks ArchiWeek! It was great to hear that breaks from job hunting were made a priority through the week and also how incredibly helpful the architecture firm was, that had a look over Naushsheen’s job application!
If you’re interested in sharing your own ArchiWeek, your own reflection, week in the life of architecture - click here!
