This week on EntreArchitect Podcast, The Architect’s Guide with Brandon Hubbard.
Background
Brandon is a licensed architect based in San Francisco, California and the founder of TheArchitectsGuide.com, dedicated to helping architects with their job application and career goals. He practiced architecture with Foster + Partners in London where he worked on several high profile design projects, including Heathrow Terminal 3, the Bloomberg Headquarters and the Samba Bank Tower. Currently he's a senior architect in Heller Manus Architects in San Francisco working on large scale commercial and residential projects. You may have seen him online posting about architecture careers on TheArchitectsGuide.com as well as a content provider at Arch Daily.
Origin Story
Brandon was born and raised in New Zealand until he was ten, when he moved to Montana. There he completed his schooling, including a masters in architecture from MSU Bozeman. During his last few years and after graduation he worked for a small firm in Bozeman. The small, five-person firm landed a $100 million residential project. In a short amount of time, Brandon gained a lot of experience. Following graduation, he enjoyed working on that large-scale project. Looking around Bozeman, he didn't see a lot of similar work readily available. He decided to look abroad, applying to several firms in London. He joined Foster and Partners and was there for 7 years. During his time there, he worked on a client base in Madrid, Spain and rode out the recession in 2008. He moved to San Francisco in 2014 to work with Heller Manas. When he arrived, he had to complete a supplemental exam and then used his free time to start TheArchitectsGuide.com.
What pulled you to London?
Brandon had wanted to relocate to China, but he realized he had to be vaccinated for a six-month waiting period for a few different things. During the wait time, he looked at other places abroad and landed on London. After a few offers and a week-long visit, he ended up moving there.
What brought you back to the US?
Brandon felt like he reached a point where he had to decide on a country. He had family in the US and friends in London, and felt like he was always flying back and forth. Then, the AREs weren’t available in London, so he was constantly flying to and from.
Based on the scale of his projects, he was between San Francisco and New York. Brandon wanted a change and to have the option of being more in the outdoors.
What lessons would you want to share from that experience?
One article Brandon wrote details why he thinks you maybe shouldn’t work abroad in architecture, Is Working Abroad Bad For Your Architecture Career?. There are pros and cons to everything. Depending on your goals, it could be great. If your goal is to meet a diverse group of people and work on interesting projects, moving abroad and outside of your own comfort zone may be a good idea. One downside may be the disconnect between the US based regulations and local codes versus those in Europe.
What inspired you to help other architects with their job search process?
Part of it came from the number of...