"Demonstrate the Basics" - Craig Bacheller, Rafael Vinoly Architects

As part of our "What Employers Want" series and filmed by Bespoke Careers at MIPIM 2017 in Cannes, Craig Bachellor from Rafael Vinoly Architects tells us about their design ethos, the best things about their practice and office culture, his advice for candidates on what they look for in a CV, what questions people should ask at interview and advice for those starting out in architecture.

What is your design ethos?

I tend to be innovative, aggressive, and design oriented.

What are the best things about your practice?

With Rafael there’s never a dull moment and there’s definitely nothing formulated or determined, there’s always something new for every project.

How would you describe your office culture?

It’s very collaborative, if you are going to be working on a particular project you have your team and as that project evolves you move on to that project or you move on to another project. It’s competition-based firm, so a lot of people start doing competitions and then those competitions evolve into projects. But it’s very collaborative and a very dynamic place to work.

What are you looking for in a CV?

Resumés can be works of art in themselves. Putting every single office you’ve ever worked at frequently makes it look that you’ve jumped around a lot. I find that to be one of the first, red flags. So if you’ve worked in six places over three months, it might be a problem. Maybe reduce that one to one or two that are important. 

How should people present their work?

I’ve seen a number of different types, whether it’s on a screen, projected or through a HDMI or an iPad. I tend to find that architects want to be able to touch your portfolio and the person interviewing probably doesn’t have a lot of time so they don’t want to have you slowly showing every single page, so I would bring a digital version but in the event that it doesn’t work always have a print. 

What questions would you advise people to ask?

Your salary, your benefits, those things are usually left to the HR Department, you ask those quickly at the end, maybe,  if you have questions about what the benefits are and what the hours are. You should probably start, if you do ask questions about the culture, about what kind of projects are being done, to see if it works for you as well. Make sure you know or you understand what it is that you are signing up to.

What advice would you give to someone starting out in architecture?

Work hard! As much as innovation is important in becoming a part of the profession, make sure that you can still demonstration the basics of construction and design – not just what kind of software you’ve used to design and make a project.