Over the years I’ve helped firms with searches to fill design technologist and design technology leader roles. My own experience doing searches, looking for design technologists, and design technology leaders with both hands-on and strategic skills – while they do exist, they are also very hard to find. A few years back I was asked to assist with a search for a well-known architectural design firm for a design technologist. It was after the 2008 downturn in the economy, and throughout the industry employees were expected to do the work of two, or even three – their own work, and that of those who were let go or had left on their own. When workloads increased, instead of hiring, employees were expected to absorb the additional work. Fees hadn’t recovered to their pre-2008 level, so firms in many cases had no other choice. So when it came to find a design technologist, this firm essentially initiated a search for two people: someone who was hands-on, could be integrated on a team, and be billable – and someone who was more strategic and forward-thinking, whose time would be considered overhead: only they wanted these abilities in the same person. A worldwide search was undertaken, and while a few promising candidates were identified, no one could quite fill their expectations.
Just a few years later, it’s a different story. Today, design technologists – and especially design technology leaders – are expected to be both hands-on and to have a strategic outlook from which the firm can benefit. Filling this role, while never a slam-dunk, has become easier. Some of my own architecture major students who minor in computer science, after a few years out in the field, would be ideal candidates for such a role. Following the advice and suggestions in this chapter should make the process easier still.
Searching for design technologists
Some firms, especially those who have seen how hard it can be to hire from outside their firm, opt to grow them from within. The key is to keep constantly on the lookout, not just when you’re in need of filling a position, and not to let finding a promising candidate with lesser technology skills dissuade you from having a conversation. This chapter looks at the seemingly never-ending search to find design technologists – identifying, recruiting (and the reality of poaching) Superusers, leadership and design technologist buy-in, and hiring Superusers as a design challenge, concluding with hiring for tool virtuosity vs. soft skills, interpersonal intelligence, and social awareness.
Where does one find design technologists – professionally and geographically? We’ll look at hiring design technologists externally, internally, and from other industries and educational backgrounds, and consider the pros and cons of employing and engaging them. Design technologists come from within architecture, architectural education, or branch off from architecture firms to become in-house design technologists or design technology consultants. Strategists vs. doers: this is the recruitment challenge. In this chapter, design technologists share their insights and experiences on how they find good people to fill design technologist roles.
Figure 5.1
CO Architects’ technology investment over five-year span for both labor and hardware/software, averaging around 4.8% of net revenue. (2018) Credit: CO Architects.
How you hire anyone is how you hire everyone
When Morphosis hires, they appear to do so behind strong recommendations. What is behind those recommendations? “A portfolio and interview are always a large part of any hiring process; however, the one thing Morphosis does well is using their internship program as an alternative to direct hiring,” explains Cory Brugger, Director of Technology at Morphosis from 2010–2017, now CTO of HKS. He continues:
That is one of their biggest avenues as far as bringing on new staff. A large portion of the staff in the office started as an intern, and they either get it or they don’t. They have three month, six month and one-year evaluations. At any given time they can have six to ten interns in the offices. At best one or two a year become full-time employees. This is great for entry level and junior staff, but you’re always balancing your resources within an office.
Morphosis conducted an audit every year to see where they were in terms of staff resources and technology. Brugger continues:
This is where we are improving, this is where we have weaknesses, this is how either resources, process and/or technology can help that. It was always a way for us to have a conversation about how to move forward. At one point we started to notice that we had this huge gap in mid-level architects. We had these big projects coming up at the time that were starting to get into DD and CDs and, there was a noticeable talent gap. We needed people to be able to help manage drawing sets and understand what we are working towards for deliverables. We were very heavy at the top and very heavy at the bottom. To address this, we’re relying on our network within the industry to find the right people. You can teach somebody how to be an architect, and you can teach them new tools, but you have to start with someone who has personal drive, and the ambition to engage in a broader conversation about architecture. It is much more about personality: mindset, attitude, etc. If you want to be part of changing something as stodgy and engrained as the AEC industry, you have got to have a lot of ambition and pretty thick skin. This industry isn’t going to change that quickly.
How about specifically concerning the hiring of design technologists? “On the technology side, we were running one or two tech interns per year,” says Brugger. “People who were working with us on global tools and doing R&D. We typically hired one full time person per year from this group. Sarah Kott, Viola Ago, and Michelle Lee added a ton of value to the office.”
Design technologist and leadership buy-in
Jordan Billingsley’s firm, Hord Coplan Macht, starts their search strategically, seeking input from their people committee and their student engagement committee, to decide which traits they need to look for. For Billingsley, the process is much more intuitive:
For me it’s really easy, because whenever you catch eyes with someone and you both know something, you just have this feeling. You both understand what we’re talking about. There’s that non-verbal shorthand, and when someone’s able to describe a very complex problem in very simple terms, or describe a very complex project in great detail, people know that they have not just read some buzzwords on ArchDaily, and put something together in an interview so that they can get a job that should have a little bit higher salary.
One of Billingsley’s hiring objectives is to have his firm’s leadership recognize the value of visual programming skills to better recruit like-minded people. “Once you get people to be aware of automation and the benefits of it, then they start thinking, ‘What else can we automate?’” says Billingsley. “Someone at my firm described this mindset best by translating the thought of, ‘I wish we had an intern to do this task’ to ‘Can we automate this?’”
How often are design technologists themselves involved in the hiring of design technologist staff? Billingsley says:
My position, historically, has not been involved in the hiring, but it has been more involved lately. I requested it. What it came down to was they recognized that I wasn’t able to put more time towards training. So I said, “Look, I don’t have any more time for training, so we need to be smarter about who we hire.” It’s not only those who come out of school without any experience. We still give them a shot. We are looking for mental sharpness and ability to learn and eagerness, all of the same things that our hiring committees have traditionally looked for still remain. I just add a little bit of a filter for specific traits.
How do firms find good people? And who in the firm is, and who isn’t, involved in the hiring process? Dan Anthony says:
There are two parts to this question: one is organizational, the other is the search and how we identify talent. At NBBJ, we’re lucky that Design Computation Leaders actually do have a say and people trust us. We’re always on the lookout. We identify when we need to be doing a better job and when there’s a role that needs to be filled. Now it has become specialized. We advertise the role as a design computation specialty. There is still going to be a lot of project design that’s expected, but by labeling it a specialist, that makes it part of the active HR exploration. We want to make sure candidates have the skills, having done work that has demonstrated their visual programming skills, some algorithmic design, maybe an interest in fabrication. We look for that in their work. The three computational leaders will interview leads, and pass on those leads to studios and say, hey, we think this person has a unique skillset that suits the requirements for this area. We also say, they may be good designers.
As for who decides who gets hired and who doesn’t, at NBBJ it’s up to the studio to make the final determination about their fit. “We still at this point don’t have much authority in whether the person is hired or not,” admits Anthony. “But we try to recommend talented individuals. The way we find those individuals varies. In order to find talent, you have to be out there looking for talent. We really try, as much as we can, to do that.”
KieranTimberlake has a both/and solution when it comes to deciding who decides whom to hire. “The stakes and the investments in architecture are high, so it is important that firm leaders and younger staff are involved in evaluating resumés as well as interviews and hiring decisions,” says Matthew Krissel. “We like to pair an experienced interviewer with a less-experienced one, so you get a multi-generational, multi-perspective take on somebody.” In terms of finding specialists, KieranTimberlake has had the best luck promoting from within.
Figure 5.2
CO Architects’ investment in dedicated technology staff over five-year period evolved from a focus on desktop/IT support to additional dedicated digital technology designers. Digital technology staff is complemented by project-centric staff with digital and computational design skillsets. (2018) Credit: CO Architects.
Finding, recruiting (and poaching) Superusers
So, where are design technologists found? “You don’t find them straight out of college,” says Billingsley. “You either have to develop them internally, or you have to recruit.” And when he says “recruit,” how does he recruit? “Well, I didn’t want to say ‘steal’ or ‘poach’ but you basically you have to,” says Billingsley. He continues:
I’ll be at some happy hour and there’ll be the CEO, and they’re going around the room talking to the young people, which is weird, and then they come to talk to you and they’re, “Where do you work at and what do you do?” And then immediately, they say, “Well, if you ever want to come work for us, here’s my card.”
We’ve all seen this behavior. It seems like everybody does it. Today, they don’t say “steal,” they say “poach.” Until recently, nobody used the word “poach,” not publicly, and now everyone’s admitting to doing it. Oh, that person you’re talking about, are they good? Great. We’ll give them a call in the morning, and steal them.
In Chapter 2, Shane Burger described superpowers for his core team members: being a problem solver; an ability to figure it out; a thirst for learning the next thing; being good at teaching; having good conversational skills, among others. He admits:
What I have basically described to you – there aren’t a whole lot of people who have those kinds of skills. Which is why everybody’s fighting for them. And everybody’s poaching them from everybody else. It becomes important for me to look for some of those things, especially in some of the younger people coming out of the university. I just lucked-out that I ran into a woman I thought who was fantastic in our Sydney studio, when I was there a few weeks ago. Very junior in terms of skills. But already has some of this mindset. Especially around the thirst to learn, to problem solve, and to teach. And even though she kept apologizing, saying I don’t have the same technical skills as some people, I told her you seem to have the right mind to pick them up. I’m less concerned about that. That’s easier to teach.
Hiring powerusers
What about hiring advanced users of the tools? Are there certain things to look for in a candidate, especially someone with the skillsets of a software developer? “We need everybody,” says LMN Architects Principal, Stephen Van Dyck. He continues:
We need the people who understand enough about technology to make it more fundamental to our process. We also need the people who know how to execute technically really well. For us right now, I would say our pinch point is that second group. We’ve got a lot of staff that understand the basics of Grasshopper and other advanced tools well, but don’t use them regularly enough to be powerful users. Grasshopper in particular is one of those platforms with an exponential performance curve: the more you know, the better you are, and it gets increasingly more powerful at a steep rate. You’ve got to have those experts. But you’ve got to have the people who can strategize and think about how the tool can be applied.
LMN Architects has found that some people just don’t want to do the strategy – some people just like to immerse themselves in solving technology problems. Should firms look for both of those qualities in the same person? “Yeah,” says Van Dyck, “But maybe that’s a unicorn!”
Figure 5.3
Design technology specialist mind map. (2018) Credit: Jordan Billingsley.
Hiring as a design challenge
In what ways is hiring a design challenge? “I read in Ed Catmull’s book, Creativity Inc., that ‘If you give a good idea to a mediocre team, they will screw it up. If you give a mediocre idea to a brilliant team, they will either fix it or throw it away and come up with something better,’”1 says Matthew Krissel. He continues:
When we’re hiring, we meet for an hour each week to discuss who we met with and where everything stands. Between the resumés, work samples, and the interviews we have a pretty good sense of someone’s design skills, how facile they are with tools, and how well-spoken they are.
It is harder to discern how they react under pressure or in a time crunch. How collaborative are they really? Can they synthesize ideas? Can they read between the lines to really extend a nascent idea? It’s one thing to memorize a few questions so you look for how natural question asking comes to them. Do they see inquiry as a design tool? How well do they take a critique? Are they quick to make excuses or blame others? Or when we start to debate something, do they riff on ideas and get excited about building something together? Almost everything we do here is driven by a small group and not just one or two people. It is remarkable what small groups of talented people can do, but part of the design challenge is how we organize ourselves and certainly hiring and mentoring plays a key role.
When people already have a design technology bent, certain firms are the first that they think of, firms that exploit the technology. When you’re not on the design technologist’s radar, does that make it harder for firms to find good design technology people? “I guess I’m going to find that out soon, because we have some positions that just got posted,” says Hilda Espinal, CTO at CannonDesign. There are two ways Espinal has been able to recruit people to the team:
Through the connections everyone has, because, let’s face it, you don’t come out of school with a degree that enables you to be the CTO of an architectural firm. So, networks, I’m still going to leverage that. But also, let us not undermine leading by example, externally and internally. Externally, I’ve been doing a fair amount of publications and speaking events, which seem to attract talent’s interest. Internally, just about everywhere I’ve been in this position, almost always somebody (architect, interior designer, engineer, you name it!) says, “Hilda, I’m interested in doing what you do.” Almost always followed by how did you get there? And then that almost always eventually leads to, “I want to give it a try, I have an aptitude for this.”
Tool virtuosity vs. soft skills
Hiring is hard. It’s hard to predict who will stick and who won’t. What are some of the things one should look for when hiring that are predictors for success? What, in other words, are Superuser qualities to look for when hiring? When Matthew Krissel, Partner at KieranTimberlake is interviewing someone, he looks for the following ten attributes in candidates:
- Creative, with a good design sensibility and capable of seeing the big picture and the details. We like people who enjoy working at multiple scales.
- Curious, observant, resourceful, and listens well. Asks smart questions, can draw out insight and synthesize ideas effectively. We look for ways to understand how observant they are. As a designer, it is critical to be always looking and learning from the world around you. Then, can they project these observations forward into actionable design?
- Comfortable with uncertainty. An elastic mind and process that is responsive to change, can course correct, and remain motivated. How did you respond and how did you move forward?
- A penchant for research, data, and objective analysis. Can operate laterally and vertically, and is interested in continuous learning.
- Critical thinker, is open minded, and knows when to extend an idea and when to pull back.
- Well organized, excellent at prioritizing, and works well independently and collaboratively.
- Works intelligently, efficiently, and is tool agnostic. Especially in environments where they have been exposed to a lot of tools. Do they just keep going with the first thing they learned? Or are they constantly trying to learn new things, to see how they work, stretch their abilities? Are they willing to learn something new because it’s the right tool for the job even if it is one they are less familiar with?
- Works fluidly across multivariant design concepts with persistence and optimism.
- Well spoken. Can speak about the design process, an idea, or the project with clarity. How insightful and reflective are they on their work?
- High standards, shared values, and interest in our mission, our work, and can help us get to where we want to go.
“Obviously, no one hits every single attribute, especially people right out of school or new to the field, so you want to see their capacity to evolve and acquire these qualities,” says Krissel. He continues:
We are deeply connected to the success of everyone at the firm and take seriously our role in each person’s professional development. We pair new employees with mentors for regular and informal feedback. We encourage informal reviews and discussion while also having structured performance reviews at three months, six months, and annually with a mix of people involved in each review. We want to give clear and frank assessments and advice to support the growth we expect from everyone and hear their ideas about ways we can improve.
If you have made it to the interview your work has been analyzed and debated. We already know if you can draw, model, and have some graphic design sensibility. Questions around how one works, their command of the tools available to them, how they adjust in the flow of design and the choices they make are a part of the interview. At the same time, I want to draw a distinction. While we are encouraged by tool virtuosity, one cannot be so easily persuaded as it does not always translate to a great designer, or collaborator. Tools can be learned so we look for more of the soft skills, habits, motivations, and a person’s mindset. We’re happy to train people as we see ourselves as always learning as well. We’re happy to give people the tools they’ve never tried before to elevate the work. But they must be interested in mastering new skills and, of course, have the aptitude and motivation to do it well.
Figure 5.4
Modeling process, mimicking actual panel fabrication, allowed for more accurate study of precast shaping depth in relation to light. (2018) Credit: LMN Architects.
Career path cases: part I
There are as many career paths taken by technology trailblazers in the AE profession and industry as there are technology trailblazers. Here, in their own words, are testaments to what can be achieved with talent, hard work, emotionally intelligent handling of circumstances, and opportunities granted.
CTO career path
Cory Brugger, is an architect and designer. Just prior to the interview, Cory announced that he was leaving Morphosis and joining HKS as their new CTO:
When I first met with HKS the idea being discussed was for me to start up a LINE (Laboratory for INtensive Exploration) cluster in LA because they wanted to expand the reach of the group. Heath May (director and influence behind the creation of our HKS LINE) and I go back years. We’ve been chatting for a long time about joining forces somehow. And the right opportunity finally came up. When I met with Dan (Noble, HKS’s CEO) he was like, no way, we want something bigger. As the conversation evolved, the one thing that came out is that there is a genuine interest to invest resources and time into innovation. The idea that sold the firm to me was their work on establishing a framework for responsible design. They showed me their internal chart for the five key project stakeholders, which includes Client/Users, Client/Capital, Co-Creators, Earth, and Community. This showed that they care beyond just the design of a building. It demonstrated a new level of professional and ethical responsibility that I haven’t seen in many firms before, especially at our scale. That convinced me that their intentions were in the right place. Our values aligned in terms of what architecture could be. Now, we had to take a step back to define our path forward and leverage what they have in place already.
We’ve got all these initiatives that are spokes going out in their own directions. They all operate somewhat siloed. Everybody recognizes it and we all agree that creating synergy among the groups is our biggest opportunity for growth. We have some of the smartest people in the industry. A lot of back end information and expertise. So now we’ve got to figure out how to leverage our overlap in knowledge and process. Much of our initial work is really about process change. Some of the work will inevitably involve technology, but we need to look at it first and foremost as process change. If we’re really looking at this as an innovation group, then we need to start rethinking how we establish success metrics and what tracking and assessing them means. There will be initiatives that fail or do not achieve the intended outcomes. It is part of pursuing innovation. After all progress is based upon experimentation. We’ll need to learn how to deal with this. Some studios’ culture already supports innovation initiatives. Office-wide? Not so much. That’s to be expected, HKS is a large firm with well-established processes. Many of the younger staff are focused on pinnacle wins, and the need to carry the technology all the way through. There is a need to see everything perfectly executed. Which is great, but we need small wins too, and a lot of them to convince people that we’re moving in the right direction. My first four months are discovery. I need to look at regions, to look at markets, to look at each of the offices. See what our strengths are. Establish what the median capability and proficiency is. HKS operates as one firm. So while individual offices work semi-independently, we tend to share expertise and resources firm-wide based on project, sector, and market need. Within that one firm mentality we have a need to define our median proficiency – see who’s below and see who’s above – and figure out what we can do better to support our staff and our projects. How do we maintain equilibrium in different market sectors and regions that may not have, nor need, that same expertise? We would like to have the ability to easily swap out staff so there is a global push to upskill our workforce.
I have so much to learn about the firm. I have standing meetings set up with HKS’s Practice Technology group to help set the tone for when I come on board. I have a meeting set up with Heidi Dial HKS CIO (Mark Overton left right after I joined), Jim Whittaker who directs alternative delivery, and Ray Smith the director of technical resources, HKS’s detailing group; Kirk Krueger our Director of Construction Services (CA services); Lean strategies group (Bernita Beikmann); and Workplace strategies group (Kate Davis, Place Performance – Jull Duncan). This group of people are the ones I am aiming to have a conversation with. They have strong groups, and they have direction. And now we’re going to be spending a lot more time together focusing on an aligned vision. We’ve sat down to discuss our history. The work we have done in the past, looking at project delivery, and alternative uses or downstream uses for models beyond CD documentation. My first conversations with Dan were like: I want to talk to Alternative Delivery. I want to talk to Specifications. I want to talk to Legal. Everybody was like, wait, we’re talking about technology. No, this is where everything has to be rooted. We need to look at both our ability as an office to deliver something new, and also what does it mean to Practice, to Liability, to how we write and sign contracts? To set the tone before coming on board, I met with Dan and Billy (Hinton, Director of Architecture) and they asked me what does a CTO at an architecture firm look like? I responded by giving them a 32-page document with everything from interactions with all the firm’s work groups, different levels of organizational relationships, as well as why those organizational relationships are important. I tried to focus on the idea of a CTO using the four quadrants from The Role of the CTO: Four Models for Success, by Tom Berray. The underlying vision for the role was what we needed to establish. The two topics that I focused on were process and innovation. HKS has two ambitions. We want clients to come to us for landmark projects. So part of the push is to be recognized as a go-to design firm. The second ambition is that we want, through responsible design and innovation, to find a way to add value for all project stakeholders. To positively influence the industry and the built environment. What can we do differently? What kind of innovations can help us change the way we practice?
Figure 5.5
The Eleventh rendering. (2018) Credit: Design Architect – Bjarke Ingels Group.
Computationally Inclined Architect (CIA) covert career path
Ryan Cameron, Project Architect and Associate, DLR Group:
My first real introduction to design technology was with Maya 2006. It didn’t have an x-ray mode and I realized you could create custom commands [much like AutoCAD] using the [Maya-Embedded Language] MEL scripts. I think it was 12 lines of code [trial and error], and it completely changed my experience in that program. Immersing myself at that level made me realize anything is possible.
Every five years I rebuild my entire skillset. It’s painful. I sit down and say, the stuff I did last year, I want to blow it out of the water. It’s a constant five-year rebuild. That’s due more to the recession than anything. When I was in college – I graduated with an engineering degree in 2001, a B.Arch in 2006 (a year behind Nate Miller at University of Nebraska–Lincoln) – between January 2002 and 2006, I did a complete rebuild of everything. In 2002 I was still using CAD. In 2006, I was deep into Revit. By the recession of 2008, getting laid off in December 2010, I was deep into Revit, 3DsMax, Rhino, and Maya. I was winning a lot of awards and competitions because of those skills in that time frame between 2006–2010. That was another rebuild. After that layoff I had to gut and rebuild everything. I got into computer science quite a bit more. There were no jobs for me, so I knew I had to start creating my own something. I started with Architect Machines and building data management, and a data asset management tool that could be used by anybody because when I got laid off, I lost all of my models, the families, the scripts I built. Granted, some of it belonged to the firm that I worked for at the time so I had to rebuild everything from scratch. I’d hate for that to happen to anybody else. It was happening left and right. All of my college classmates were just getting laid off between 2009 and 2012. So, I thought, wouldn’t it be nice if they had a resource where they could put all their files – not like RevitCity.com or FoodForRhino.com – and just have a tiny sliver of their true digital portfolio (not their online portfolio with rendered images and floor plans) but your tools portfolio, and to be able to put that in a safe place? Not just DropBox it but share it, and see what other people are making. That’s where Architecture Machines came from. We developed apps and all kinds of things. I really started to getting into coding at that point. In 2014 I got into Arduino programming and sensor building. Then asked, how do I tie this in with what I am doing? It was, once again, a complete rebuild of my skillsets. My day-to-day became quad touchscreen monitors that come apart, get brought near me, touchscreen access to all of my data dashboards. That was the next step of skill rebuild.
Every few years I have an assessment of my skills and hard re-evaluation on what to drop and what to add. It’s always painful dropping a skill you put four to five years into but realize you can only master so many at a time. Dropping AutoCAD created an opening for Revit. Dropping Sketchup created an opening for Rhino. I could go into any legacy program and do the minor task I need to in the program, then move onto my current data environment. Knowing that has helped me relax a little when rebuilding my skillset. I can’t predict what that shift will be. I only know there will be a shift and to prepare now. I’ve already started my next rebuild schedule. So many mundane tasks are automatable in this field – truly automatable – and we’d be better off for it. Unfortunately, that rebuild isn’t my usual hardware-mode, software-upgrade cycle. I’d like to include my kids in these tech adventures, too. My oldest has some interest in game development for mobile. Maybe it turns into a client-to-architect app that makes construction documents. Who knows? There’s a lot of opportunities I see that keep me passionate.
Career-wise, if your goal is to rise in the organization then build that support and find a common language. For me, if it gets recognized, great. I’m also busy with running my own company and working with other businesses to help provide insight on technology. I love what I do at DLR Group but if I only wanted recognition I would have left long ago. Getting emails about how I helped someone has been more rewarding than climbing the corporate ladder. Design tech is viewed as a “tech position” still. How you change that view is up to the person in that role.
Computational BIM manager career path
Jordan Billingsley, Design Technology Specialist, Hord Coplan Macht:
When I was in grad school, some of my favorite classes were the more abstract and theory-based architecture classes, and for almost all of my projects, the feedback was, “There’s no fault to your logic, there’s no fault to your reasoning. Your drawings are just not developed enough.” I didn’t like working on the drawings as much. I liked telling the story, figuring out the logic behind a problem. So I only received markdowns for my renderings not being polished, or for not having enough drawings to point at. So, it was pretty consistent criticism. I always considered myself a Jack-of-all-Trades kind of person, and after I graduated it was a recession, so it was a good time for me to do my own thing. So I was doing entrepreneurial freelancing work under the Blackline umbrella. I did some freelance rendering and some freelance model making, and I leveraged some of those skills that I had learned while I was a student. I had a good background, a good mix of things. CERL taught me how to use Excel and database management really well, because everything is data with the army. And at Porter Athletic, I learned how to build really good parametric families, so both of those have roots in information. Then I got married and my wife accepted a job at Johns Hopkins, so that was the move out to Baltimore. And when I first moved out here, oddly enough I had never had an internship at an office, I had never been employed by an architecture firm, and I was actually very intimidated or cautious about working at a large firm. A multi-office, hundred person plus firm, that was what I considered large at the time, so I opted to work at a small firm when I first moved out here. And my reasoning was that I was already doing all aspects of my freelance work, and I didn’t want to give up that kind of control. I didn’t want to specialize at that time, or so I thought. At the small office that I ended up working for, I met a really good project manager who ended up taking me back to a much larger firm, HCM, so I was only at that small firm for maybe four months. And when I was recruited by this larger firm, they actually vaguely described it as Revit support, and I said, “Okay, that’s fine, but I really want to still be focused on project work.” But as I got more and more involved within the Revit processes, and them in general, because it extended past Revit pretty quickly, I just kept moving up and they wanted me to move into a BIM coordinator role for the firm. So, now I’m helping with four different office locations, and I never thought that I would enjoy problem-solving as much. Now I’m trying to get only put onto smaller projects, or really problematic projects, and mostly just staying on the BIM side of the work. I don’t know if that’s a direct route or even good advice, but that’s the way that I came to my position.
Technology consultant career path
Ana Garcia Puyol, Director of User Experience and Integration at IrisVR:
I studied architecture in Spain and during my fifth year of architecture school, I went to study in Carbondale, Illinois. I spent my fifth year of architecture school at Southern Illinois University (SIU). Even though they had very little technology and it wasn’t a full-on computational design education, they did have laser cutters and a CNC and then some of the students were learning Grasshopper. These were things that I had never seen or heard of while I was studying in Spain. Looking back, of course, and connecting the dots, how everything turned out makes sense. In October of 2010, I went back home (to Spain) to finish my studies and, randomly enough, a Generative Components (Bentley) workshop had been organized at my university. Don’t ask me why … I signed up for it and it was a little expensive at the time, but it was a great investment. It was so fun. In addition to that, for my thesis project as part of the six-year professional degree I was part of, I decided to learn Grasshopper on my own.
It didn’t end there. Upon graduation, I was set on learning more about digital design and fabrication and how to make very difficult things because it represented a challenge. So I applied to grad school and ended up going to the Harvard Graduate School of Design to earn a Master in Design Studies with a concentration in Technology. I’m one of the very few people who can say that my degree, my education, was in design technology. It’s a very new thing. The program, it’s now perhaps 15 years old? It was great. I did a lot of work with robots, with the ABBs. I did a lot of work with CAD/CAM in general. Of course a lot of laser cutting, 3D printing, and then a lot of BIM. I also took a class at MIT with Zach Kron and Dennis Shelden. Dennis Shelden at that time was at Gehry Technologies and Zach Kron was at Autodesk. He started teaching us Dynamo, which was in its early state. It was funny because I said to him, “Hey, Zach, I can’t do this thing,” and he’d be like, “You just found a fault (or bug) for us, thanks.” They would fix it and I would continue doing my work. And then, of course, I got super excited about all of this and there were only two companies that I wanted to work for when I graduated: CASE Inc. and TT CORE Studio. So I came to New York and built my portfolio just for these firms. I interviewed with both. I had met Jonatan Schumacher briefly before. I interviewed with him on a Tuesday and on Friday he offered me a job.
Note
1 Ed Catmull and Amy Wallace, Creativity, Inc.: Overcoming the Unseen Forces That Stand in the Way of True Inspiration, Random House, 2014.