Where next? Any advice would be gratefully received!

Cabbageman

Hello all,

This is my first time posting here, although I have been dropping by the site for some time. I am looking for any advice some of you may have.

After leaving school I went to the UK to study architecture. It was a six year course during which I received a BSc and BArch degree. I graduated in the summer of '06. I had intended on leaving architecture behind me and focusing my career towards business. However I came top of my class and was offered a job in London by the external examiner at one of the UK most prestigious design firms. Despite my inner feelings against the idea, I was persuaded by those around me that the opportunity was too good to turn down, and that after investing six years of hard work into the discipline, it would be madness to turn my back on it before working at it professionally. So I headed off to London, and spent two happy and constructive years working on some fantastic projects.

However deep down I was not content. So in Sept 2008 made a move and started a masters course in business at a top business school which I have recently completed.

I am interested in working in a small/medium sized start up or new venture, particularly in media/new media. The problem is everyone I contact see's my professional background in architecture, and appears unable to look passed it. I am not sure if I come across as someone looking for a job filler until the economy turns around and I like the 50% plus of unemployed architects can return to work!

But this is not the case. I did plenty of ex-curricular activities at university, such as taking entrepreneurial courses with local enterprise boards, was an active member of the student business societies, and was awarded a place in the university pre-incubator business development facility to develop a product I had designed. These were activities I undertook to broaden my education and improve my career prospects.

I hope I do not come across as a whinger. I am a hard worker with so much to offer. I have searched endlessly for the past 6-7 months for an opening, to no avail. I have even offered to work for free, in order to gain experience, but astonishingly even with this I have failed to find a suitable placement. I am not afraid of hard work and desperately want to get out there and offer my skills to enterprise.

If any of you have any advise I would be most grateful for your insight. I am willing to try almost anything at this stage. I feel the world is moving on ahead of me and my career is stuck in limbo. I want this to end.

Thank you for reading if you have got this far (even writing this has relieved some frustration). I know I am merely one of tens of thousands.

lion_bar

If i was trying to get into Media from where you are, i would start a blog. Maybe an Architecture flavoured one but with a twist.

I don't know what that twist is but it will be the bit that gets you noticed, sparks interest and employed.

Employers might see you as more likely to go back to Architecture as soon as the current recession is over. It is a well respected and was a well paid profession. So you need to show something that convinces them you are now committed to their business.

If you know where you want to be you do need to twist your past to suit your future.

Hope that helps

maninasia

You need some work experience, you may have to go outside Ireland to get it. Go back to London and work there for a year is the best advice I can think of for you.

antoinolachtnai

Do you have really relevant, specific skills for the role you are looking for? That is what you will have to emphasize.

What do you mean by a design firm? I am guessing you had an architectural/enviornmental design role at one of the more broadly based agencies. That experience, if it is what I think it is, should lead you in a much better direction although you need to present it the right way. I'd say it is tough to break this particular nut in Dublin.

I think you are on the right track, mind you, and it will work out well in the end.