Architecture advice at The Hundred of Hoo Academy

A woman working on sketches on a table

It was a fantastic morning in the careers department at the Hundred of Hoo Academy where one student had two virtual conversations related to her career aspirations. The first was with Martin Ford from CPMG, an award winning firm for architecture, interior design and visualisation and then secondly with Juliet Hook of KSS who are a leading architecture and design practice specialising in major sports venues and training facilities, educational projects and residential developments.

Her comments are as follows:

I have found my virtual talks to be very helpful in the perspective that I can gain an angle of the reality of what it is like to have a career in architecture. I had prepared questions surrounding subjects that I didn’t have a full understanding of, and these couple of conversations with these professionals, helped to fill in any gaps in my knowledge and correct any misconceptions I may have had.

It gave me an insight to what the biggest attractions were to this job and there were honest answers based on what challenges the job may consist of. I now know what day-to-day tasks are involved in this career and what skills and qualities it is good for a person to have in order to be successful as an architect.

After the conversations, I feel more confident knowing a lot more of what the university courses are like and what alternatives are available; for example only going to university for three years and completing the rest of the degree in an apprenticeship. On top of this, I was able to obtain their perception on how much they enjoy their jobs and the reasons why. For example, architecture has a lot more variety that meets the eye, such as the fact as when building plans progress, the individual won’t be dealing with the same things and it is interesting that there will always be variety in your work. It was intriguing to get the perspective on different individuals’ views of the job; such as whether they find it difficult to balance the workload with life outside the workplace. It is nice to get first hand experience in meeting individuals who find their job rewarding and enjoyable; it has encouraged me to consider taking this course knowing any doubts and misconceptions have been cleared up. Both individuals were very helpful and talkative and therefore I found it really easy to engage in a conversation with them.”