Working in Oz

a friend of mine in LA keeps an architecture/designer blog, recently told me that about two jobs are listed in the whole of the United States every day.  That friend is moving to Melbourne.  I was fortunate enough to get a job after looking for a couple weeks and started within a week of arriving in this city.  Admittedly jobs aren't following out of pockets and littered along the road, but after being in the job market for a year back in Seattle the grass is greener in the other hemisphere.  

i am now probably melbourne's newest building surveyor and probably its only unchartered surveyor.  i wouldn't be surprised if i'm also the only one from the United States as it seems to be a profession based in the UK affiliated with the Royal Institute or Chartered Surveyors (probably with the addition of an extra vowel such as a "u" somewhere to make it more British).

back in the states, I feel that architects often straddle the roles of designers and project managers.  most of us probably went to school for the glamorous "designer" roles we thought architecture would be.  getting into the workforce, however, you find that three years of learning architectural history and theory, sketching, watercolors, cardboard models, and mountains of trace paper do very little to prepare you for life as an indentured autocad servant, or anything remotely construction or project management related.

i digress.

i've since made a leap over that threshold into the building/construction side of things working for a property consulting company.  this largely involves inspecting commercial and industrial properties and composing reports that are appended to new leases or used to facilitate end of lease settlements.  i'm not going to lie--it sounded rather dry when i first heard it, but i'm actually liking it quite a bit.  i'm usually out on site a couple of days out of the week, and have even had the opportunity to travel to Perth recently.  there's just something so nice about seeing the buildings in person and getting out of the office and away from the computer monitor to do it.  getting out to site wasn't ever really a big consideration to me, but i think i'm going to be looking for it wherever possible. my work in the office only scratches the surface of the services the company provides.  we do all kinds of reports, some of which include environmental/sustainability reports, and technical due diligence reports.

being in a new place, professionally, has gotten me to rethink my academic and career goals.  i spend a lot of time working with property management and investment professionals, and have more chances to dabble in construction management.  while my placement here is only a temporary contract position because of my visa, i'm very excited to see where this path takes me!

just throwing it out there:

seek.com.au

mycareer.com.au