I find that I spend my self repeating lots of aphorisms, here’s the whole lot of them.
If you don’t get a promotion in two years, it’s time to find another place.
People will take all the free work they can get. I’m gonna also.
You have to protect yourself and your time. It’s your choice to do anything.
It’s your job to tell your manager what can be accomplished given the constraints. Let them decide how to allocate your efforts. The logical extension is that sometimes you got to threaten to let a project fail, because the alternative of sacrificing yourself for the sake of a project.
When you work overtime you are getting a lot of experience, even if you’re not getting paid. 44 hours a week is 10% more than the regular joe and the learning compounds fast. On the flip side, if you’re willing to accept slower advancement in the profession, it might not be worth working OT.
Architects get paid in money and experience. Make sure you’re getting your fair share of one, the other, or both.
Don’t let yourself be comfortably miserable at a job.
We don’t make as much as other professions, but it’s better than a lot of the other alternates out there and I really enjoy the work. But if you hate the job, for god’s sake we don’t get paid enough for the stress and long hours.
For a recent job, I made it clear in the first interview that with a young family I was not interested in doing overtime. It almost certainly affected my negotiated salary, but my boss was really good about making sure I would not be overloaded. It was the best decision I made for that four years run.
The architect is a symphony conductor but he also has to play his own instrument.
Every email you send has a lawyer attached to it.
It’s not a problem unless you have a solution.
If you aren’t recovering from the previous recession, then the next recession is around the corner.
An architect’s job is to manage expectations.
And don’t forget to write meeting minutes.