In an architectural firm, it is natural to have times where you may find yourself project-hopping. This is when, over short periods of time, you may support a project to hit a deadline, help with a proposal, or do some work during a busy time of construction management. You are on these projects for a week to a month, then move on to another team that needs additional support. Almost all architects and designers experience this at some point(s) in their career. There are many challenges but also benefits that can come from this experience.
Let’s walk through some difficulties of this part of the profession. This will give you tips on what to look for if someone is joining your team to help a deadline. If you are the one joining a team, it will help you understand the adjustments being made, questions to ask, and potential benefits to learn from.
Why is project-hopping difficult?
Lack of ownership
The temporary team member does not have as much ownership in the project and often not part of the decision-making process. It can be easier for the individual to feel disengaged from the project or team. If there are specific areas that still need to be designed or detailed, that may be a great opportunity to provide a modicum of ownership over the work rather than picking up a slew of red lines. If the fundamental tasks available are picking up redlines, be aware that the redlines need to be more detailed than if provided to someone that’s been on the team since the beginning. It is always good to allow time for the lead professional to double-check work as newer team members have a lack of knowledge as to whether that markup is correct, and/or if it causes more questions.
Team Member’s Recent History
It is important that the team understand where the employee is coming from. It’s a simple matter of having an informal conversation when bringing someone on board for a short amount of time. What were they just working on? What do they enjoy doing? What are they good at?
Did they just hit a major deadline that they have been working a ton of overtime hours for months? They may be burnt out and prefer to do some less demanding work. Just ask.
Are they new to the company?
A new employee may need some examples of what the office drawing standard is. Or they may have more general overall questions rather than project-specific.
They may have been light on work and ready to hit the ground running. This can happen when projects go on hold, or when someone is new to the company. They may have just a 2-week break while an owner reviews a set of drawings for approval/sign off. So it is only a short time they are available to help before they need to jump back into their major project. And there may be times they need to drop everything to touch base with that other owner. Knowing how long tasks take is important for the new team leader.
Are they right out of college?
There is a learning curve coming out of school and starting a professional career. There will be questions this person may not even think to ask, whereas someone with a few years of experience may have experience knowing where something needs to go and the questions to ask. This also applies to redlining: those right out of school may need more detailed markups, whereas someone more experienced understands the level of work something needs to reach for the deadline.
Lack of communication
A team member who is temporarily added gets left out of team communication. They are often not invited to client meetings to know recent changes and missed when team emails go out. It only takes an extra minute to remember you are emailing the WHOLE team.
If there are weekly meetings already on the calendar for regular team members, it is easy to forget to add the new team member. OR, forget to add the new team member to the full series of meetings and just invite them to the first one. It is never good to just exclude them from these meetings because they are only on the project for a short time. That only decreases their motivation to help the team if they feel excluded.
If there are updates from outside consultants or clients, this person is typically not known by these outside team members. As a team leader, it is important to double-check who received the email to make sure any recently new additions have been copied. For instance, I have had an entire project I was helping with go on hold and it took my team two days to tell me. They didn’t realize I wasn’t on the email. There were many people copied on the email from the client, but it should never be assumed that your whole internal team was copied on important emails like this one. A quick check from the team leaders is always good practice.
How to make the most of a project hoping?
Project-hopping can’t be avoided forever, and some professionals start their career this way. It is all the luck of what projects you’re staffed on, timelines, and external/economic forces. There may be several occasions where there is a project lined up for you when you accept a job offer. By the time you start your first day it may have been put on hold or delayed. In this case an office may need you to help a team temporarily while organizing to have a different long-term project role for you.
In most recent events such as Covid-19, many owners were forced to pause, hold, or cancel their projects. In some offices, so much work was put on hold that hours were cut or employees were laid off. If the office had work that needed more support, people were shifted on to support the team for a deadline. However, the project couldn’t support an additional team member long term. It is important for the employee to find the positives and benefits no matter what the situation or reason behind the project-hopping.
I want to share some personal positives I’ve experienced recently from project-hopping for 3 months because of my long-term project being put on hold due to Covid-19. Some additional background is needed to understand the benefits I was looking for. I am a registered architect with 6 years of work experience, and I started at SmithGroup early February 2020. So, I have worked in other offices before, registered, and a newer employee. We started working from home full time on March 16, and are still that way today. I have been working from home full time most of the time I have been with SmithGroup.
Benefits
You get to see a variety of projects in different phases
I have had the opportunity to help teams with a variety of deadlines. It was a nice way to jump into both construction documents and construction administration to understand the company drawing standards and procedures. If I were a recent graduate, it would be great experience getting a glimpse of these areas for experience.
Meet new people
Over the first few months, I got used to my core team and those relationships. Anyone else I met outside my local office resulted from reaching out on a whim or trying to meet people in the larger office’s lounge on the occasional times I’d travel there for work. When you jump projects, you get to meet a whole new group of people. As a newer hire, it was awesome to expand my network of professionals in such a large company. I know other friends that started at new firms during the Covid-19 working restrictions at smaller firms and there are coworkers they still haven’t met in person yet.
Project Variety
It’s nice to dabble in a variety of project types and scales. I have worked on a handful of projects at SmithGroup. I’m still a young professional finding what type of projects I enjoy most and could use the experience to build my project portfolio for this office. So I’ve appreciated it. If you are right out of school, this is a great opportunity to get a variety of experience to understand what project types you enjoy or dislike.
To-Do List
When you come into a project trying to hit a deadline, the team typically has a list of tasks to complete. (Not always, but it is helpful when the team is organized and ready for supporting team members joining) For me, I’m great when given a list of tasks that I can put my head down and get to work. Joining a team rather than running a team can be a nice change of pace as you are given work rather than trying to organize what needs done. When you go from a primary role on a project to a supporting role, it can be nice to just take directions or be given a list of focused tasks. This is also an opportunity to learn how other project architects organize their team and divide up the work.
This is also helpful for staying motivated. I am not perfect. There were days where I didn’t have the motivation when just given little red lines to pick up. The regular team meetings and open communication helps to build motivation and energy. I learned more about how I want to handle support staff coming into a project by experiencing it recently.
I’ve seen the benefits before
I’ve had support staff on projects at a previous firm. I’ve seen how giving an architect with experience more detailed, specific bigger tasks can save our team later when questions are asked in construction. It’s important to always remember those times when someone helped for a short period and truly impacted the project reaching the finish line. I always remember what that professional did for me then and strive to do that for other teams when I’m in that position.
Jumping around to different projects is never easy and most design professionals want that sense of ownership over a longer-term project. Understanding that this occurs throughout one’s career, it is temporary, and focusing on the lessons you can learn from this process can help you become a stronger leader and team member.
Written by
Katelyn Rossier, AIA, LSSBB