Today is my first day in a new job at A&E Architects. it happened rather quickly and unexpectedly over the last few weeks. A colleague asked me, ” After getting so close to that fellowship, how are you going to go back to working at your current firm?” I understood what she was saying, I had been thinking hard about what I really wanted to be doing with my career. I really enjoyed working at Envi Design, I had a great boss and working environment, but it wasn’t what I really wanted to be doing.
I told a friend at A&E that I didn’t get the fellowship and was trying to figure out my next move. He said, we are hiring in Bozeman, send me your stuff and I’ll get it to the right people, I kinda thought he was joking. Bozeman is in demand, finding any kind of professional job here is not easy. Most firms that have offices in multiple locations, want you to go to a different office first, there is a queue for the Bozeman location. Less than a week later, I was meeting with one of the principles and had a job offer a week later.
A&E does a variety of projects and hopefully I will be working on more of the public/government type projects that provide great design for the masses, not just the 1%, (though they do have those kind of projects too). They also do a lot of preservation work that can be really interesting. The Bozeman office just started a year or so ago and it is currently being run by a couple of my classmates. I will be the sixth addition to the office. Even though it will be an adjustment to go back into straight architecture, different office dynamics and being at work at 8 AM (that hasn’t been the case for 8 years!), I think it’s going to be a fit and I am looking forward to seeing how it goes.
I am grateful for my time at Envi and sad to leave such and awesome office and people. I hope they find a replacement that is even better than me and they continue providing awesome designs. Maybe down the road we can work on a project together.
Perishable Item 