10 minute read
Licensed and then?
Yay! You’re finally licensed! Many of us often find ourselves asking, now what? The YAF Knowledge Focus Group has polled architects from all over the country to see how they got licensed, and what they did next.
Farah Ahmad, RA, LEED AP BC+C Architect, Sustainable Design NYC
Gloria Kloter Principal Tampa, FL
Farah Ahmad (FA): The most direct impact was that my bosses offered me a job promotion instantly. I have also received access to office titles that required licensure. A supplemental benefit of the RA has been that it lends more credibility to my name when I pursue speaking and publishing engagements. KG: What can recently licensed architects do to feel like they belong in the profession?
FA: Take charge in the profession by owning conversations. Contribute your perspective to your colleagues and affiliated groups because, as a licensed professional who has spent time navigating this industry, you have a voice that recognizes which areas of the industry need more attention. KG: What is unique about your career path or licensure?
FA: I veered off the traditional path of the design role and dove headfirst into standards compliance review and development, in the niche of green building. It has been an interesting blend of applying my technical expertise to plan reviews and guiding project teams on sustainable design, as well as writing, research, development, and advocacy, all through the lens of green building trends and high-performance design, construction, and operation.
Knowledge Group (KG): What barriers did you face getting licensed? Gloria Kloter (GK): One of the biggest barriers was language, as I was a slow reader in English. It was a struggle for me to finish the exams on time. Thankfully, NCARB is now offering English as a second language (ESL) accommodations to ARE candidates with ESL. I made many mistakes due to a lack of knowledge and understanding of the process and requirements, and these mistakes cost me money and precious time. Because of this, I currently serve as the Architect Licensing Advisor for the State of Florida through AIA Florida, and individually I have mentored thousands of immigrant architects in pro bono one-on-one sessions on how to navigate the licensure process. KG: What opportunities opened up after licensure?
GK: So many opportunities opened up for me after I became licensed in the US – one of them starting my own architectural firm, Glow Architects. It was great to practice as an independent architect and work on my own projects again, like I had done in the Dominican Republic. Finishing up my licensing journey freed up so much time for me to start to achieve many personal goals including travel, starting a family, and spending more time with loved ones. In the professional realm, I feel that my career just skyrocketed. I was able to serve more through the AIA, NCARB, the WIA Committee, and the Foreign Architects private community on Facebook. I was honored with many awards, publications, speaking opportunities, and recognitions as well.
GK: I believe that the struggles I faced made me not only stronger but also more empathetic to others. Personally, I represent different specific minority groups, and I have become well known for being an advocate for them. I’m an immigrant woman architect, Latina, Archimom, a business owner, keynote speaker, author, and mentor. I believe my professional success is due to God knowing what’s in my heart and my desire and willingness to help others without expecting anything in return. In all honesty, I don’t think there’s anything “special” about me. I’m just an island girl who came to the US without knowing what was ahead of her, and the Lord has opened doors for me that I wouldn’t have dared to think of, not even in my wildest dreams! This could be you… If I can do it, you most definitely can do it too!
Katherine Lashley, AIA, Project Manager, Northwest Arkansas
Francesca Zucchi, AIA, Associate | Architect, Denver, CO
Katherine Lashley (KL): Honestly, most of my day-today experiences remained similar. To me, the biggest benefit was the spark to my confidence and pride as a member in the architecture community. However, I did have a few community roles that opened up to me specifically because of licensure. I became a member of my city’s Board of Adjustments and filled the “architect” seat on that board. I also joined NCARB’s community of Licensure Advisors as a representative for my state’s AIA chapter.
KL: I would recommend getting involved with your local AIA chapter, especially with Emerging Professionals and Young Architects (EPYA) committees. As a recently licensed architect, I felt well situated to advocate for other emerging professionals within our profession and wanted to use my experience to help others who were on the same path. I worked with my local EPYA committee to develop resources and events for licensure candidates in my area, including an NCARB Q&A session, a virtual ARE Quiz Night, sponsorships for ARE prep, and an ARE/AXP info pamphlet relating specifically to testing results and advice from candidates in our region.
KG: What is unique about your career path or licensure? KL: At my first firm, I was able to gain a lot of varied and valuable experience quickly, and I soon became the most experienced designer behind our firm principles. I had a seat at the table for discussions about firm management, marketing, hiring, and projections. Five years out of school, I found myself being offered a significant leadership role and so, I had a major career decision to make sooner than I[’d] expected. It was a crossroads with a choice of either stepping into a stable future, or embracing the flexibility and uncertainty of continued growth. It was a difficult decision, but I decided to turn down this opportunity to try something new. I reflected on some of the best advice I have ever received during my time in architecture: “Always increase your exposure.” Meaning, increase your exposure to ideas, to different cultures, different ways of doing things, different design philosophies; always try to see and experience something new.
Francesca Zucchi (FZ): It was very hard for me to get all my AXP hours, especially the contract administration ones. Working for a small firm delayed the process almost a year, but eventually I was able to gain the appropriate experience and finally get my license. I would suggest anyone seeking licensure or AXP hours to be vocal (and persistent) about your goals and identifying where you can plug in to acquire the experiences you need.
KG: What opportunities opened up after licensure?
FZ: Getting licensed was a great achievement in my educational journey, a culmination of many years of professional studies. However, when it came to the profession, not much changed. I think this is a relatively common theme in the profession, so I would encourage recently licensed architects to advocate for themselves and ask for additional responsibilities and experiences. Putting licensure behind me allowed me to focus on other professional development opportunities, like participating in the AIA Christopher Kelley Leadership Development Program. KG: What is unique about your career path or licensure?
FZ: I am originally from Italy, where I grew up and got my undergraduate degree at the Politecnico in Milan. Once I graduated, I decided to move to the US and get my professional degree (MArch) from an American university, to gain a different perspective on the profession. This experience provided me with a diverse educational background that allows me to tackle design challenges from a wider perspective. After school I was lucky enough to eventually find a firm that has the same passion for design and architecture as I do. I decided to stay and get my license and my citizenship. After almost 10 years I am still here.
Eric Ward, RA, NCARB, LEED AP, Associate Professor of Practice, Southfield, Michigan
LaShaun Key, AIA, NCARB, Associate | Architect, Charleston, SC
Eric Ward (EW): One of the biggest barriers I found was specifically setting aside time to study for the exams as I was actively involved in the profession at the time. I was hired into a firm who needed people who had the ability to learn quickly, and I jumped at every opportunity. I was devoting weekends to studying, and at the time, in the early 90s, they only offered the exam once a year. So if you did not pass, it was another year of studying, and waiting to take the exam again in June. When I began testing, I had also been out of school for eight years, which made it tough to re-teach myself how to study.
LaShaun Key (LK): There were a couple of things that stood out to me. The biggest challenge was getting my mind wrapped around the way the test is set up. There is a consensus that school teaches architecture one way, you practice it another way, and, for some reason,
the test is set up a third way. Another thing was I am not traditionally a good test taker. Between my post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), it was a challenge. I had to practice focusing for long periods of time and really learn how to study and how to take an exam. Caffeine really helped, lol.
KG: What opportunities opened up after licensure?
EW: Licensure was the entry point to a trajectory within the firm. As a result, once you got licensed, it really opened up doors to accomplish anything you set your mind to in the office. The test is a threshold of knowledge, and once I was licensed I was able to apply it in successive levels to help myself go further. It’s a mountaintop that once you reach the peak, you can see a lot more things to do beyond. For me, this meant leading projects, working on proposals, and starting to lead others in the firm. Many firms view licensure as a point of investment; it can be seen as you investing in the firm. As a result, they will start to invest more into you.
LK: For me the opportunity to open my own firm was the largest. It was always a goal of mine to be a business owner and, with architecture as my career choice, it made sense for my business to be an architecture firm.
EW: The support at Gropius was amazing. They would help you learn, help you to become a leader, and show you all the steps along the way. There was this incredible amount of support in stepping up to your role within the profession. They knew if the firm was to continue to thrive, they needed to build you into the person they needed, and they were happy to do it. After practicing and progressing in the firm, my career started to take a little bit of a different turn. Because the firm was a teaching office, it cleared out at 4:00pm so many of the staff could go teach at the Boston Architectural College. As a result, I soon found myself teaching as well, something I am still doing to this day.
LK: This is a fun one. While my story is unique to me, I really don’t think it is unique to people, architects in general. Life has curves or shall we say setbacks. I used to feel like I hit a lot of them personally and professionally, from getting injured and leaving the military, to growing my family while in college and unemployed, to graduating during the recession, to having two employers closing out of the blue, to getting laid off and starting my business during a pandemic. These were all originally thought to be setbacks. When really looking at them and their effects on my life, decisions, and actions, I learned these were catapults. They propelled me farther forward and closer to achieving my goals… Closer than I could have imagined.
AIA YAF Knowledge Focus Group (Kaylyn Kirby, AIA, NCARB/Darguin Fortuna, AIA, NCARB/Ryan Lewis, AIA/Kiara Gilmore, AIA/Trent Schmitz, AIA, NCARB, LEED Green Associate/Jason Takeuchi, AIA, NCARB, NOMA/Terry Zink, AIA)
The YAF Knowledge Focus Group is dedicated to identifying important issues of recently licensed architects and the creation of knowledge resources to enable young architects to advance their careers.
