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I believe one of the biggest problems recently graduated architects are encountering is their lack of professional experience. That’s totally normal. Without knowing what to do, finding employment in architecture can be very costly, both financially and time wise.

Personally, I started my professional career with some internships where I saw how an architecture project in the street worked: the paperwork that’s involved, the invoices, the budgets, the smell of the ink from the plans in the office, how the models feel under your fingers.

Honestly, you have no idea how open other architects are to sharing their knowledge and making room for the new generations that come after. It makes sense because in a way they see themselves in the new generation, as they were a few years ago.

I started by doing a few internships, these were my first steps in the working world, but once you are inside it is much easier to progress and move in that environment. It’s like moving going from living on land to being in the water, at first you are clumsy and slow, but then you learn to swim on your own. But I’m not going to lie to you, all that glitters is not gold.

Put it this way, people looking for their first job as an architect are like “salt”. Just an object for trade, a mere commodity.

You’ll notice that it usually doesn’t matter what kind of salt you prefer. All salt looks the same. You could change one brand of salt for another and no one will notice the difference. In fact, the price of salt is extremely low. So you don’t want to be “salt” you want to be “caviar”, something so unique and scarce that people pay huge amounts of money to get it.

If you behave like “caviar”, architecture studios wouldn’t even consider passing you up, because you have demonstrated clearly through your application that you are the solution to their problems. At least a part of them. This will make you unique.

(Read more via archdaily.com)