Would tours/shadowing be helpful to a hs student?

neumes
Thu, 25 Oct 2007 11:47:34 +0000

Job shadowing is a great idea if a firm is open to it–some are, some aren’t. Our HS has spring internships for seniors with decent GPAs (keeps them out of school from May 15 to graduation–a great thing!). Some kids intern in architecture offices, including my H’s. A lot of H’s coworkers are young (30s, 20s!) and aren’t so interested in spending time with a high school kid, but since we have two teenaged boys, and because my H is a nice guy!, he spends a lot of time making sure the HS intern gets more to do than making copies–but making copies and doing grunt work is part of the process. He takes interns to jobsites, gets them going on CADD work, take them to town hall (face up to it–being an architect involves dealing with codes!), and has them do a little model building. Some architecture offices won’t be so interactive, so shop around. It’d be a great experience. It’s a great way to discover that being an architect, as with any profession, involves spending lots of time on the phone, lots of time writing reports, lots of time reading codes, lots of negotiating. It’s not all DE-SIGN and standing on rooftops acting like the guy in Fountainhead!

While it would be fun to only go into an office when people are doing something interesting, it’s much more real-life to go in frequently and be exposed to every aspect of an architect’s life.