The Leave & The Offer
Herzog & de Meuron it is
Best week ever. Let it be known: The week of March 18, 2013 is the best of the life I remember.
This was totally worth the wait. And all of the work I put into the design and publication of that book. I once again had to be at the mercy of all my professors, recommenders, references. It was the worst. But yeah, totally worth it.
On July 3, 2012, I decided I would take a year off halfway through my M.Arch to pursue an internship abroad. This was for two reasons: 1) I want my cv to be loaded upon graduation without using up my OPT hours, making me more hirable for sponsorship when my F1 expires (international student stuff) 2) I really dig GSAPP and want to experience it through at least 2 different lenses; I essentially wanted a reality check.
I love being a student at GSAPP. It’s the coolest learning experience I’ve had thus far. I just love it there. But it flies by so fast, as what often happens with many things that we love. Sometimes I feel like I’m not reloading fast enough — in terms of where I want my head to be so I don’t regret anything by the time this is all over. Like, it snowballs at an alarming speed and grows at an enormous rate — the information I acquire that ground my academic/career decisios. Sometimes you just want to enjoy the snow for a second. I feel that the decisions I make at school are, at times, premature. I don’t know enough out there to be aiming my arrows correctly in here. I mean, don’t get me wrong: I’ve interned every summer since sophomore year. I get it. And that experience is probably what allowed me to really understand what I am lacking today — what I know I want to be armed with before advanced studios. I want to finish this degree with a clear vision of what I want after graduation. The path has to be paved. I don’t want to worry about post-grad stuff while I am at GSAPP. I want it to be set. I want my GSAPP time to be about grad school, purely, essentially — continue my applied research with little to no distractions concerning that job hunt that dooms the 7th floor every spring before commencement. I need it to be set. It’s harder for international students to find work in the states because we come at a price — the need to be sponsored. Anyway, I don’t want to be an intern after I graduation. Who would sponsor an intern? That sounds absurd. Nobody would. You sponsor desirable candidates not disposable interns. It’s a lot of money for them. You also have to be a student to work as an intern in many of the top firms in Europe. So I was either going to be an intern now or a licensed architect decades from now before I’d ever step inside the doors of a world-renowned, Pritzker award winning architecture firm abroad. I decided I’d do it now. Obviously.
I spent the rest of summer 2012 refining my portfolio. I had this radical idea to put my graduate research in the context of my work. I I think the portfolio as a chronological time-stamping of independent projects is dead. It’s a given that everyone’s work is good. The challenge is how they come together to tell a larger story. Essentially, each project should be a chapter in a book – a chapter that is inextricably bound to a narrative, a research, a hypothesis. There has to be something greater than the independent projects. We all know they are brilliant on their own – you gotta track that vein that weaves them all together. This was the challenge I gave myself last summer. I had done something similar for my M.Arch submission but nothing compared to this. Because my research on Punctuology was an intense body of work in itself. I spent 3 months completing that database and then another 3 months graphically communicating it.
So, I gathered the troops for this big plan to take this leave and go off to Europe for a year. I knew it was going to be a mad risk. Because I had already decided to take my leave before I even sent applications out. All I knew for sure was that I did not want to start advanced studios. Core III Housing studio was the perfect ending to the first half of grad school. By gathering the troops I mean my recommenders.
Christoph Kumpusch had become my good friend, advisor and colleague by August 2013. I was in LA and we had discussed future projects. I was very happy to be a part of them. Christoph was all in on my big plan. I rallied my undergrad troops also. From Linda Pollari to PJ Dahl — they were essential and the most, most helpful in making sure my portfolio was on top of the pile. I really have Christoph to thank for so much of this though. Personal calls and notes to Zaha, Karolyn Schmidbaur of Coop Himmelb(l)au, an associate at UNStudio. Christoph made sure I had backups. Insurance. I was taking a giant leap of faith and my fate was in his good humor.
By January 18, I had sent 6 applications out. 3 physical portfolios for the “moonshots” – the firms I didn’t or had little “help” with; and 3 digital submissions for the safetys – the firms I was sure to get after that one phonecall. It was all on me. The plan was as soon as I got rejected from the top 3, I’d take any of the other three. I would just tell the recommenders what my decision was.
By early to mid February, I was receiving positive correspondence from MVRDV, Coop Himmelb(l)au and Herzog & de Meuron — all of which were my top three. At this point I had forgotten about the others. I was dedicated to hounding HR at these three firms. I was ready to fight to get it.
Long story short, Herzog & de Meuron was extremely efficient and professional and just awesome and on top of it. Their HR knows how it’s done and how to snag what they want fast. They had always been my #1 from the beginning. I just never vocalized this because I wasn’t sure how possible it was.
On the phone with HR to follow up 2 weeks after they received my stuff, they told me that my application got “a lot of attention” and that they want to schedule a Skype interview. It was going to be in two weeks. I spent these two weeks at the GSD library (I was at my sister’s place in Boston) reading all of HdM’s published material and I also rehearsed non-stop with my dad’s former colleague with Proctor and Gamble who was the head of HR and had plenty of tips for me. We even had a dress rehearsal via Skype. I practiced my answers like I was an actor auditioning for a role. I was so over prepared. I just knew it could only fall through the cracks if I screwed up this interview.
Boy was I ever glad I did all that research because the interview was the most challenging oral exam I had ever experienced. The associate was testing the hell out of me. It was awesome. I really appreciated how thoroughly they test their trainees. I even had to be critical about their work with a question that went “If you had to hate one of our projects, which would it be and why?” The interview was for an entire hour. They gave me the rundown. I was very pleased because I knew I did everything that I could and that I did it well. Even if I didn’t get it, I would be at peace knowing that I did my best. That’s always what’s driven my work ethic. Because you can’t regret anything if you gave it everything you got.
I knew I got it after that interview. It just went too well. I didn’t want to jinx myself so I just kept quiet and spent the weekend not sleeping – staring at my phone waiting for an update. The following Monday, I got the offer.
I feel like somebody lit me on fire.