"Open, Collaborative, Inquisitive" - Ben Green, Tzannes

Filmed by Bespoke Careers at the World Architecture Festival in Berlin, Ben Green, Director of Tzannes discusses pre-interview research, understanding a company’s design approach and the importance of communication within an interview.

What CV advice would you give a candidate?

It’s all about communication; what do they want out of their job and what do they want to communicate about their skills that make it readily obvious for the person reading it. We get a lot of CVs and clear communication will make you stand out from the crowd. I also think it’s good to have some work within the CV, it’s great to see what people have done in the past. 

What makes a good first impression?

Firstly, relax and don’t stress – the people interviewing you aren’t going to be terrifying. I think you should just let your personality come out, if you’re truthful about who you are, you’re going to give a good first impression. By doing this, you’ll also get to see what the match is like with the practice as well, which is the most important thing. 

What type of portfolio do you prefer to receive?

I’m old school and like a hard copy portfolio as I like to flick through the pages. Also, it’s probably a clearer way to talk over the drawing, particularly if you’re in an interview situation, I find an iPad or laptop is a bit narrow in terms of showing the full image.

If you could offer one piece of advice, what would it be?

Just be confident about who you are and what you want out of the job. 

What questions should people ask?

The first thing would be to know something about the firm you’re going to, there’s nothing worse than people that come and talk to you and have no idea about your firm – it shows that you’re not interested and based upon that attitude I would immediately think about the type of work that you’re going to be producing. Questions about the type of projects, the type of role you would have on projects and how you would fit in with the broader team are a very simple way to start a conversation. 

What is your design ethos in three words? 

Open, collaborative and inquisitive. 

What makes a candidate stand out? 

Inclusiveness – having a very clear way of looking at things. We don’t have a design style, but we do have a design approach and questioning this is critical.