XPO 15

                Today, we went to the Architecture Career Expo at the iHotel, which is a very nice hotel by the way, and turned the tables on the firms there. We interviewed the firms instead of them interviewing us. I talked to a firm by the name of Raths, Raths, and Johnson. What’s interesting about them is that they don’t actually build the buildings. They inspect and repair building that need brought up to modern standards, or just simply need a few repairs. They are based out of Chicago and have one office downtown. However, they do jobs all across the country including one in Nevada. They have been around since 1966 and have worked on some very large projects such as repairing the John Hancock Center in Chicago.

                I asked them exactly what they were looking for in a student that walked up to their booth, and they said that they wanted the student to have some type of work experience already. If they didn’t already have an internship, then they needed to at least have a previous job with lots of experience in the workplace. They also wanted students to be very knowledgeable about the field and the many aspects of architecture, but they also wanted to see a lot of creativity. They mentioned that confidence and communication skills also played some role in the decision making process for selecting interns. After the XPO, RRJ would get ahold of a few they were interested in and have short informal interviews on campus, then they would narrow it down and ask for the potential intern or employee visit their office in Chicago for an official interview before they made their decision.