Kenneth Caldwell answers some of the basic questions.

 

How do architects actually get work?

It’s a scale issue. Most architects do not get work by being well known. They get work through a relatively small set of personal contacts. And those may be people they’ve known at every stage of their life—elementary school, high school, college, first job, and so on. It’s about nurturing referral sources. 

Architects talk about clients all the time. But clients don’t always bring you more work. So let’s say you worked on a hotel project with a mid-level project manager. She might not be able to give you a commission. But she can suggest your name for a list.

One little secret that I would like to share is that architects get a lot of work from architects.

 

From other architects? That doesn’t make sense?

It’s almost a closed loop, because architects go to work on the other side. At every major developer, academic institution, or healthcare provider, there’s usually an architect involved in selecting the architect.

The easiest people to stay in touch with are the people you went to school with. Your network really begins in architecture school. Staying in touch with those people can be fruitful.

In architecture, communications is about staying in touch with people you meet on the path. If you get published in Architectural Record, it probably isn’t going to bring in another job. It might help morale or recruit potential employees. But commercial and institutional clients are a sophisticated lot. Typically they don’t hire you because they saw a library in a magazine.

The value is when you send an article or a blog to your key contacts personally—not in a mass email, not on Facebook. Those are fine, too. But first, it’s about you sending it to the people who really like you. That’s how you get work.

 

But what about proposals?

Of course, it is more complicated than just staying in touch with your old friends. But return to the root. How did you get on the list to receive the request for proposals? And then you get short listed for an interview; you get to the table. Generally, any one of the firms at the table can do the project. Why will the client select you?

 

Because of your good design?

That’s the cost of competing. An architect I know said, “Good design? That’s table stakes.” But if a client likes you and your ideas, that’s probably why you are going to get hired.

 

So you should start even before college?

Yes, starting with your earliest school experiences—whenever you know you are going to be an architect. I know one architect who has won a lot of commissions because he went to prep school with his client. Luck certainly plays into this.

 

So you put together a list of all the influential people you meet at every turn?

Kind of the opposite. You stay in touch with people you like. They may not be able to refer you work when you meet them. The litmus test isn’t wealth or status or influence. It’s whether you like each other. In that way, it’s natural. Your best self is your authentic self.

 

But how will you know what kind of clients they will be?

You don’t. But I think work is more fulfilling if you work with people you respect and like. Move away from the people you don’t like. It seems sort of obvious, but architects learn in school that getting clients is mysterious and they have to take what they can get. I don’t agree with that.

 

How many people should be on this list?

There is no magic number. It depends on the kind of work and the individual. I knew an architect who had several dozen key client contacts, but they were in just a handful of developer organizations. He was actually very shy, but when he connected, he really connected. And I’ve known architects in commercial interiors who have hundreds and hundreds of contacts, and they needed that many to feed the machine.

 

What about an economic downturn?

They are inevitable. Architects are laid off, and they may end up driving for Lyft. It’s not pretty. Most architects understand that this is a cyclical business. Just like good luck, bad luck comes into play.

But if you stay in touch with people you like along the way, you have a better chance of getting another job—or (if you own your own firm) eventually getting some work commissions!

 

What are some good examples of staying in touch?

Everything from sending a personal email, which takes a few minutes—because you have to proof it—to inviting people to go with you to a ball game or the theater, which might take several hours. You have to ask yourself, what level of contact is appropriate to the relationship? If you are published in a magazine, you are probably going to send your contacts an electronic link to it. But adding a personal note that connects the article to something your contact is interested in is critical. These days, with fewer opportunities for print publication, you might be sending out a blog post you wrote. Again, you have to connect the dots for your clients. If you send it personally, there is a pretty good chance your contact will open it.

 

But I don’t want to be a bother?

If you design hospitals, and your contact is involved in that process, they are going to be interested in how your new hospital brought down infection rates dramatically. In other words, your relationships are interested in your expertise as well as your humanity.

 

What are other tools?

1) Giving presentations at professional conferences. That means that people are there to hear from experts like you.

2) The proverbial cocktail party. This has more to do with your social side than your expertise. It’s why it’s critical to limit yourself to one cocktail!

3) Once you know someone, it might be the tried-and-true lunch, where they get to know both you and your expertise better.

4) Sometimes firms hold seminars and workshops for a targeted audience, on topics such as new information about seismic codes or LEED.

 

But what if I’m shy? I don’t like cocktail parties.

Some social contact is going to be necessary in this work, but there is no one-size-fits-all process. What matters is to find the kind of contact that best suits your personality. It may be public presentations, or it may be golf. The main point is to listen and share ideas and interests with people you like. An important part of being an architect is to share your best self.