Hey there! I’m writing this on the train heading home from Galway. I’ve gotten up to a lot the last week(ish)! This past weekend a friend from the states visited me and we explored Howth and Dublin city. I’m not a big fish eater but enjoyed some stellar Fish and Chips from the Howth Beshoff Bros. The seagulls had multiple attempts at getting our fish and chips but we fought them off and eventually retreated to the cover of a cafe to finish our meal. We enjoyed walking the famous Howth cliff trail overlooking the ocean and Dublin. Here are a few picks from our adventure:

I also started my internship at Reddy A + U this week. My first day was a bit of a whirlwind as they showed me to my desk, gave me my company user and password, and had me jump right in to work! I knew that being a last minute placement the company would probably be a bit unprepared to host me so I was ready to go. The office is basically one large room that most people work in with many fun architectural skylights which bring in a lot of natural light. I immediately started to understand that this was a much more serious and corporate culture than I expected. Everything felt a bit intimidating, especially as they didn’t have enough time to give me an official welcome to the office.

One of the Directors who was the person to officially hire me took some time to tell me more about the organization later that day. He explained that they are super busy right now and would try to give me some good projects to work on and said he felt I would add significant value to the team “unlike some unpaid interns”. Eek! This excited me but also worried me because I truthfully have a more basic understanding and abilities in Revit. Turns out he thought I was a fourth year but figured out I was a second year on Friday which hopefully lowers those daunting expectations a little!

The company culture has been pretty interesting to observe as well. Most peoples hours are 9-6 with an hour for lunch from 1-2pm. When I come in at 9 am most people are already working, over half of the employees work during most or all of their lunch and when I leave a little after 6 I’m pretty much the only one leaving. I figure this must either just be an intense company or they are just in their busy season (or both!). Additionally, most employees don’t talk to each other and tend to keep their heads in their work. I was expecting a more social and relaxed workplace based on the cultural norms in Ireland, but think this company feels a bit more American than Irish in that way. The kind older man who sits next to me at work told me that in his year and a half there, he’s barely spoken to anyone beyond the few people in our row of desks-let alone the rest of the office. It’s been hard for me to settle into this environment as it honestly is pretty intimidating and a little unwelcoming.

So far the work I’ve had to do has been relatively minimal and I’ve spent a good amount of time reading through the company webpage and policies. A younger professional named Ivor has been giving me some work with classifying and labeling different window types in a housing development outside of Dublin. I’ve also been numbering and editing some planning permission documents for the same development. Ivor has been kind about showing me how to do things I forget and has been understanding of my level of knowledge in Revit. The work that I have done has been detail oriented but not hard to accomplish as long as you pay attention to these details!

Time management at this role hasn’t been particularly difficult when it comes to actual tasks assigned to me. I have only had one thing to do at any given time and haven’t struggled with completing tasks in a timely manner. However, managing the times when I don’t have a task to complete are a bit more difficult. It would be really easy for me to just go on my phone, look up the news, or just do unproductive things. However, I’ve been filling my spare time with learning more about Revit, company workflows and project structures, the regulations and government support involved in many projects and much more.

I have read through around 30 precedent studies from the firm, pretty much every informational article on the employee resource page, and the Irish government’s entire project 2040 proposal. While this may seem to be unproductive, I’ve actually learned so much about how architecture and architects work in the real world. At my level in school we don’t have to take a lot of real world considerations into our design. We don’t have to worry about zoning or our projects being 100% plausible engineering wise. There are no clients, developers, budgets, or construction companies we have to work with. I’ve learned so much about these things when reading through all the articles and PDFs. It takes good time management skills to not waste your or your employers time and by furthering my understanding of what actually happens at my firm I hope to be able to better follow along and contribute to the team.