Is A Green Card Really Green?

The next week of my life was primarily spent stressing out over the finite details of the newly established “Green Card” employment permit scheme.

I forgot to mention this in one of my earlier posts (Another Dervish Of Interviews), but on the previous Wednesday the Department of Enterprise, Trade, and Employment had finally released (just a week before they would go into effect) the details of their new work visa schemes (something that I had been worried about since I found out they were changing it), specifically whether I would still find architect on the list of “in demand” professions that would qualify for the easier version of their employment permits, or whether I would be booking a flight back home with a sore groin and broken heart (the revisions to Ireland’s standard work permit scheme have made it more of a tedious and difficult process, to the point where it would likely not be an option for me if the Green Card wasn’t going to work out).

To my delight, architect was still on the list and my initial look through the application didn’t suggest much had changed in that process. Basically all that was required was a letter of offer from an employer (the employer has to be registered in Ireland), which must outline the specifics of their offer in a prescribed way (IE including information on wage, term of employment, etc.). Included with the letter would be the filled out application with sections for both employer and employee, two passport-style pictures, copies of a few pertinent documents (specifically the perspective employees passport), “certified proof of qualifications” for the prospective employee, and a big fat check of €1,000.

The money amount was a fairly significant change from the $150 dollars I was going to have to pay with their previous scheme, but it wasn’t something I was going to let hold me back. Another change for the good and bad was that the paperwork would be processed through the DETE directly, where it would have been processed through my local consulate (in San Francisco) before. This meant that I wouldn’t have to go all the way back to the States to wait on the paperwork to process through the consulate, but it also meant that it would take 2-3 times as long to process…SIX to EIGHT WEEKS! They also changed how spouses of the permit holder are dealt with, largely for the better (this I will get into later).

Unfortunately, despite this major effort to revise and strengthen Ireland’s employment permit policies and a seemingly well put together description of the application process, there were still quite a few holes that left me with questions (here’s where there worrying part started). The application itself, as I started the process of filling it out, had a lot of little holes and problems. Things that, had they actually gotten someone to look at it before posting it, might have been elevated. Some examples of this are: questions with three possible answers and only two answer options, and sections that were not required for a Green Card having no obvious way to mark them as not applicable.

The largest question was in the requirement of “certified proof of qualifications.” That was it. A statement I found to be incredibly vague and no other descriptions were provided to narrow down what form this “proof” needed to take and which “qualifications” it applied to. Was this primarily aimed at doctors and some IT professionals that would be required to have higher level certifications? For a lower level architect, like myself, would proof of degree suffice, or did they want complete proof of all qualifications outlined in the job description? What would constitute “certified proof” of “strong design skills?”

These were the questions rolling through my mind as I tried to decipher this seemly harmless statement… I’m sure I could come up with just about anything to instill myself with worry, but in relation to making sure this application went through smoothly and as quickly as possibly, I really wanted to have all the answers.

Now, you are probably asking yourself, “Why are you stressing over a few small questions? Just ask somebody…” And it would seem that simple, wouldn’t it. Except for the fact that, with this surge of new change, the “call center” for the employment permits office was so inundated with calls that never were my calls answered. No automated system existed for a message to be left (though it’s likely that wouldn’t have yielded any response). My experience with questions left via email yielded similar results (otherwise known as NONE!). Even when I went down to the DETE offices to speak to someone in person, there was no way to interface with some who was working in this department and no way to set up an appointment. The best I managed to get was bouncing questions off of the guy at the desk, who, though he answered my questions in an informed fashion, wasn’t exactly the authoritative source for information that I would be able to place my confidence in.

“All the answers,” it seems, was not meant to be...

In the end I was left with the desk guy’s answers and my own common sense to finish the application. Reasonable sources in most cases, but again, not the solid foundation I wanted when mistakes could potentially lead to months of extra processing time…months that I wouldn’t really have.

In all fairness, I am confident that the package of information I turned in met to all of their prescribed requirements, so hopefully it will just roll (slowly...very slowly) on through processing.

During that week I met with Henry J. Lyons’ human resources person, Martina, twice. In the first meeting, which occurred on Tuesday, we went over the details of their offer, which held a few nice surprises (including time-and-a-half pay for overtime, 22 days of starting vacation time, a 10% discount on a private health insurance plan of my choice, and a fairly casual work environment), and I explained the application process and outlined exactly what I needed from the company in regards to documentation. The second meeting occurred the next day where I signed the final offer letter, making the job offer official, and collected all other needed documentation. Another wonderful surprise that came out of the second meeting was that Henry J. Lyons would be willing to pay the application fee for me. I also got to finally thank my soon-to-be boss personally for the offer. A weird side effect of having a recruiter is that you never, aside from the interview itself, have any personal interaction with the companies you are meeting. So, though I had technically already accepted their offer through my recruiter, I had never actually gotten to talk to anyone.

On Thursday, February 1st, the first day allowed in the new specifications, I turned in my Green Card application. This puts receiving my Green Card out to mid to late March. They actually told me not to bother calling to even check on whether everything had been received correctly for four weeks…

So, I am on the edge of my seat for the next six to eight weeks…

While on the edge of my seat, at least for the rest of the week and into the weekend, I decided to watch the first season of the TV show 24, which I had been holding onto for quite a while. This wasn’t exactly the best show for setting myself comfortably at ease (it’s really an intense show, almost too intense, but very well put together), but it was fun while it lasted.

Mini Media

For those of you out there who were interested in how the whole Mac Mini media center thing was going to work out over here, I can report that it seems to be working out pretty well, but it wasn’t without its hiccups.

In the States, the most common video connections for peripherals like VCRs and DVD players are through the standard cable connector or an RCA video plug. The cable antenna doesn’t work at all for computers, and the RCA connector yields fairly marginal output results. Within the last 5-7 years S-Video has become much more popular as a higher quality video connection. More recently, component video (separated Red, Green, and Blue channel cables) and HDMI (for high definition TVs) have come around as better options, but S-Video has been incorporated into a lot of computer graphics cards and adapters. Consequently S-Video was the means I was using to do this at home.

In Europe, however, S-Video is the redheaded stepchild of video connectors. In its place a connector called SCART has taken its place as the most popular fairly quality video connector. SCART supports both of the RCA and S-Video types of connection along with RCA type audio all bundled together in one very large, completely unrelated connector cable.

Fortunately, after a good deal of research, I figured out that I could get a SCART adapter that would support both S-Video and RCA video connectors along with the RCA audio (which is how I typically output the sound from my computer).

The result is not perfect, but very watchable on the small TV that I have in my room. We will have to wait and see how things go with whatever kind of TV we end up buying when we get our own place (though many apartments in Ireland come furnished, a TV is not usually part of the deal).

Weekend Respite

The rest of the weekend (this is still only my second weekend in Dublin I am writing about, by the way) yielded little more than sleeping, eating, movie watching on my laptop, a little writing, and Internet time, with one notable exception:

On Saturday my landlady, Phyl (short for Phyllis, but she doesn’t like being called Phyllis for some reason), invited me to have dinner with her and some family that would be coming by that evening. This ended up being a 16th birthday party for her granddaughter and turned into a very nice time. Phyl has three daughters and a son. Two of her daughters were there, Laura and Karen, Karen’s husband and two children (one the birthday girl), Phyl’s sister, myself, and Phyl. Karen is a wonderful cook and put together a very nice chicken curry dish. Cake and presents came after, of course, and some great craic (I spelled this wrong before – it’s a Gailic word, but it sounds just like crack).

It wasn’t a big event, but it was great for taking a little of the edge off the loneliness of being here by myself. It would have been a lot harder for me if I had been in a hotel or hostel by myself for these first few weeks.

What A Sicko!

I am sorry it has been so long since I have posted anything here, and hopefully I haven’t lost all of my devoted readers…but I have been sick for the last week (they have the flu over here too) and haven’t really been up to writing much. I am starting down the road to recovery at this point, so hopefully I will find more opportunities to write.

One interesting thing that came out of being sick was my few trips to the Pharmacy (or Chemist, as it is often called here), for some kind of relief from the pressures, aches, and pains that go along with being sick. One of the reasons we decided to move to Ireland (as opposed to some other country) was that English was the spoken language. Going into a Pharmacy, however, I felt like I was speaking a completely foreign language. Everything is called something different. Unless you know the root medical terminology for the drugs you are used to, speaking in brand names for familiar drugs will only yield puzzled looks. Along with that, different kinds of medicines are popular here. A Thera-Flu-like hot drink has seemed to be all the rage here, where it is just one of many in the states.

Ireland’s drug regulations are also much more restrictive here, so your options are paired down considerably and nothing is as powerful as the stuff you can get back home unless it is prescribed by a doctor. Tylenol, an incredibly common painkiller, is too powerful for the Irish standards for over-the-counter purchase and must be prescribed. I have yet to see a bottle of Ibuprofen on a shelf, and in the States that is like candy to anyone over 40.

So, via a plethora of recommendations for the drugs best suited to "cure" the common cold, I have been testing out just about everything that comes my way. This hasn’t yet yielded any loopy side effects (mostly because I have been doing my best to only take one thing at a time), but I am still waiting.

TRASHED!

There is trash…everywhere…in the street, in the bushes, in the canal…EVERYWHERE!

Ireland has laws against littering, but just like most other low level laws, they are fairly lax about enforcing them. It seems that no one here can bear to hold a piece of garbage for more than a few seconds. Possibly an allergy… I am no tree-hugger, but I am getting close to picking up a plastic garbage bag and forming my own road crew. (They do have road crews here as well for criminal community service, but it must not be up to par with our road crews… Our shoplifters and vandals know how to clean a road!)

This is really the only thing I have found so far that really bothers me. Not in a break-your-heart sort of way, just in a fingernails-on-chalkboard, irritating-sibling, dirty-diaper sort of way. It seems to be more than just laziness on the part of drivers and walkers to hold on to their trash. It is willful (garbage lodged in bushes and the like). Fortunately when it’s gray and rainy, you don’t notice it so much…and it’s gray and rainy a lot…

I guess this is why some call it "Dirty Dublin."

A Note On The Weather

One of the first questions I always get asked is, “Why Ireland?” which is inevitably rooted in the “bad weather” that Ireland tends to have, but the weather in Ireland is very, very similar to that of the North West – lots of rain, but fairly steady temperatures – and I have always preferred the temperate climate of the NW. There is a bit more wind here because Dublin is basically right on the coast, so it tends to be a bit chillier, but none of the below zero temperatures of the North East or the infernos of the South West.

Unfortunately, just like back home, we are having a bit of a cold snap in Dublin (it has actually snowed here a little recently, which is rare) with some pretty fierce winds (the kind of thing that could knock you over if you’re not careful). Somehow I have spent very little time walking in the rain so far, but I am sure this will change in no time.

The thing about this cold snap that really makes it hard, is the woman I am staying with just recently had some components of her heating system changed, specifically the burner. The heating systems here typically run on propane or kerosene. She had been using kerosene previously and had just filled her tank. As it turns out, kerosene thickens in cold weather. The burner she had put in was actually designed for propane and wouldn’t start with kerosene when it was in its thickened state. So…whenever it is really cold, specifically in the morning, the heat won’t come on.

This isn’t a problem when you are warm under the covers of your bed, but getting out of bed becomes an entirely different beast. Showering in a freezing cold room is also…not pleasant (I am having flashbacks to days of old on the farm and showering in a cold bathroom with a 20 mile per hour wind rushing through because of an overpowered exhaust fan needed to keep the walls from molding…). I have since been spoiled with higher than sub-arctic bathing facilities, so morning showers are not the high point of my trip at the moment.

The cold seems to be coming to a close, though, and the burner is set to be swapped out, so this will hopefully not be a long term condition of my stay.

“A Drink At The Pub”

During the day on Friday I didn’t do much. Just recouped, comfortable that I had at least one job offer that I was happy with, and waited to see if more came in. They didn’t, so I just spent the morning and afternoon watching movies, writing, and cruising the Internet. For the evening I had been invited out for a drink at the pub with a group of guys that Mariah and I had met on our trip out last March.

We headed down to the pub at around 7pm. It was right at one of the LUAS stops, so it was just a quick ride to get there (I have yet to need to get to some place NOT on the LUAS, but eventually I will need to learn the bus system, or expect to spend a good deal on Taxis). There ended up being six of us in total – myself, four guys, and one guy’s girlfriend – and we just sat around shooting the s*** as it were. In Ireland, this is called crack (no…no drugs involved). A place that is known for good conversation is said to have “good crack”. To say “What’s the crack?” is to say, “How’s it going?” or, “What’s the good word?” in the US. Suffice it to say, there was plenty of good crack to go around.

Now, in Ireland “a drink” is never a drink. It is usually more closely translated to “as many drinks as it takes us to close down the pub.” I knew this, but my brain had not yet fully adjusted to my Irish surroundings, so I was still thinking a few hours at the pub…

I checked the time at about 12:20am (the last LUAS runs at about 12:30am) when I thought things seemed to be slowing down. A few of the guys wandered off here and there and I waited at the table with a few others for someone to indicate it was time to head out. I had taken the LUAS down with one of the guys and, since we would be stuck with a Taxi now, I figured we might as well split it, so I stuck around. (Anyone who knows me, knows that I can really only handle so much chit-chat in one place, especially when everyone around is hammered, but I managed to eek out a bit more conversation and stuck around). Next thing I know, those few blokes that wandered off had actually found their way to another bar in the pub and were taking shots…

The hours carried on and the pub stayed open, which was also not something I had expected. Most Irish pubs shut down at 12:30am (they have specific rules for different kinds of liqueur and food licenses) and then you move on to a club nearby (usually a good time for me to take my leave) that stays open until 3:00am or so…and then you move on the chipper (AKA fast food joint) for a late night bite to eat. In this case, the pub we were in had some kind of late night license, so there was no need to leave.

We headed out at about 2:00am and caught a Taxi back home. I was happy to have one of the guys along with me to give the Taxi man directions. I could have told him where I wanted to go, even including a handful of the adjacent streets, but because Dublin streets are so complicated, you practically need to tell the driver exactly what turns to make to get you to your destination and I wouldn’t have been able to pull that off.

I was asleep by about 2:30am.

It was a good night, despite being later than I had originally planned. I am not complaining here, because this is just how it works in Ireland, but in my defense, as a sober participant I tend to get a little bored once the intoxication level gets to a certain point. And before any of you monkeys (you know who you are) start posting a slew of comments that read, “I have a solution for you…” I’m not planning on taking up the drink, despite the inevitable years of peer pressure (it couldn’t be much worse than high school…). I will just have to work on building up a higher tolerance for putting up with drunks.

You Thought It Was Over…But It’s Not

Thursday morning I woke up expecting to have no agenda in particular. Just a relaxing day recovering from so much talking about myself… Not too long after I woke up, however, I received a call from John, my recruiter, promising both good news and bad news. The bad news was that two of the companies had come back to him declining to offer me a position – Oppermann and RKD (I’ve already explained why) – which was a bummer because there was a three way tie for first (in relation to my interest in the companies I had interviewed with) and Oppermann was one of those three.

The good news was that Traynor O’Toole had come back with an offer, feeling that I would be a very good fit in their firm. Also, Frank Ennis & Associates (the company that had been forced to cancel their interview a few days before) had come back and set up a new interview for that evening at 5pm. This was all good news, but then my brain kicked on and forced me to stress over it (I do this too much…). Traynor O’Toole was somewhere around seventh or eighth out of nine on my mental list of preferences and they wanted an answer by the following Monday. This established the potential for me to be in a position of accepting an offer from a company that I wasn’t as excited about just to guarantee that we could be here (sort of taking a hit for the team). There was still a good two whole days to get feedback from the many other companies that I had seen, most of which I was more excited about working for, but my brain latched on to this one negative possibility and I got to think about that all day long…

I met with John about 3pm to get info on this last company I was to meet. It turns out that they were located south of Dublin, along the coast a bit, in a town called Blackrock. Fortunately (since I have no car here) there is another commuter train system called the DART that runs along the coastline and scoops into city center. The DART is more like a real train than the LUAS (or MAX). It rides on more standard feeling tracks, goes faster for longer distances (since it isn’t shooting through as much urban area), and has that rolling rhythm that trains are supposed to have. It also felt older, like it had been around a while, but was a good ride and seemed like a good commuter system (why all these trains aren’t in some way connected, I don’t know, but they are planning on doing that…eventually…). I would compare it to the commuter train I rode on in Chicago that shot way out into the suburbs (not the urban "L" train).

On the DART, Blackrock was only a twenty-minute ride away and I studied the documentation that John had given me on the way out (this was the company that had no website). This particular firm was fairly small (25 people) and focused largely on the leisure industry – hotels, spas, pubs, restaurants, etc. The kind of work they were doing seemed interesting, but I was a bit skeptical because this industry seems to rub off on the architecture firms that work within it on a regular basis, and not in a good way. I met with one of the partners who was a very down to earth guy, which came as a happy surprise, but he also said he was the partner trying to expand the business beyond just leisure. I never met Frank Ennis, but I expect he was the super star that dealt with all of the leisure architecture (it’s hard to explain, but it seems like when people work a lot for clients that have big money, want to make more, get high on power, and want to do “creative” things, but don’t really know how to be creative, that it rubs off on them in a grease floating on water sort of way…).

In any case, as the interview went along this firm didn’t seem like they were offering anything that would rank them above the offer I already had. They were doing a lot of residential development and seemed more like a production architecture sort of place. All glitz and no soul, if you know what I mean. Oh, I forgot to mention, that the firm itself was set in a building that used to be a pub, which they had remodeled as their office. The space itself didn’t give me a good feeling either, like they didn’t really care enough to make it presentable.

So, I left the interview with limited interest and still faced with Traynor O’Toole as my only offer. Don’t get me wrong, TOT would be a great firm to work for and I would get a lot of really good experience there, but in making this big change, part of the deal was finding a place where I might actually get excited about architecture again, and this didn’t strike me as that place. As I sat stewing in my own blend of unjustified mental anguish I decided to call John and let him know how the interview had gone (he was very good at checking in with me after every interview and seeing how things went). I let him know that Frank Ennis didn’t strike me as an upgrade from the offer I already had on the table and laid out for him what firms I would really be excited about, and what other firms I would also consider over Traynor O’Toole.

He then said something that changed my mood completely. “You will be happy to know, then, that one of those firms you just mentioned as your top firms have come back to me and offered you a position.” The firm was Henry J. Lyons, one of the firms tied for first in my brain.

I thanked him profusely for this information and spent the rest of my ride home with a big s***-eating grin (there's really no other way to describe it...) on my face. Now I could move on to worrying about something else…

Instead of going home I headed for the shopping center to call and let Mariah know the good news. My mom also got a call and, of course, I posted here for everyone else. I then decided to treat myself to a good meal. I had yet to really go into a restaurant to eat anything, primarily because eating in a restaurant by yourself is just about the loneliest thing I can think of (I really feel sorry for people who have to travel and do this on a regular basis). As it turned out, there was a Friday’s linked to the mall (yes…I said Friday’s), and some US style ribs really sounded good right then. I headed over and got a table…alone…and ordered what they had on offer for ribs, which was a full rack and came with chips (fries) and onion rings (yes…I said fries AND onion rings…). I guess the onion rings are supposed to count for a vegetable. I would have ordered a small salad, but the ribs themselves were already LUDICROUSLY EXPENSIVE! So, I skipped the health and went strait for the heart attack. Nothing about food had yet struck me as completely out of proportion in relation to expense, even though I recognized things were a bit more expensive here and there, but this seemed absurd. €22 for…RIBS…and as it turned out, not very good ribs. They were very, very dry and the sauce was all tang. The onion rings and chips were good though…

Before I left I was faced with the dilemma of not remembering if tipping was custom in Ireland. I had the thought that it wasn’t, like most European countries, but I wasn’t sure. After looking around a bit to see if I could tell if other patrons were leaving tips and having no success, I decided, given the fact that the food was hardly tip worthy and it was unlikely I would ever patronize this restaurant again, I paid for my meal and headed home. (I have since found out that it is starting to be done more often here, but not as an expected percentage, but more if you have some change left out of your payment you leave that.

It wasn’t the kind of orally blissful celebration I was hoping for, but it worked out well enough and I headed off to bed.

Another Dervish Of Interviews

Three more! THREE MORE! For Wednesday I had three interviews lined up, but at least I had already talked to my recruiter the evening before, so I didn’t have to meet with him again on top of it. The first interview started at 10am with McCauley Daye O’Connell. They are a smaller to medium sized firm (30-40 people) and have a decent portfolio of work. I met with one of their founders, Robert McCauley, and had a decent interview with him. He seemed all around a bit less interested than some of my other interviewers. He focused more on the experience that I had with different building types and talked about some of the smaller scale work they were doing, more to what I had previously done. This wasn’t really what I was looking for, but was a reasonable way to get things started. Generally speaking, I am looking to expand the experience that I have had, not just do more of the same.

So, I left that interview with a sort of enh feeling and headed toward my next interview looking for someplace to have lunch. Henry J. Lyons was a good 25 minute walk away in a building that looked a bit like an old, 60’s college administration building. The entrance was barely marked (only text on the glass front door), but once I managed to locate it I found that there were quite a few different restaurants at the next cross street. I found a place to relax for a bit and had a sandwich wrap to tide me over (still suffering a bit in this regard, but I was beginning to think it had more to do with my nerves for interviewing than any part of the relocation).

Close to the proper time (I tended to get to my interviews early – possibly a bit too early in some cases) I headed over and sat in reception for a bit before my interviewer came and took me into a conference room. My interviewer was a younger director in the firm, but someone who was really trying to change the way things were working, taking an older established commercial type firm and trying to put much more of the focus on design. And as it turned out, he seem to be succeeding. He worked in the States for a few years (specifically for a fairly high profile firm called Morphosis), so he had a perspective on where I was coming from and some good experiences in a very design oriented firm.

We started out just talking about design and seemed to connect right away. He brought a few books of drawings in and showed me what he was working on at the moment and looking to build a crew for. One of the projects was a large civic courthouse project that was basically lined-out (IE, well through schematic design), but would need a lot of design development work to flesh out the details. Though my interests and focus tend to lean heavily towards initial ideas and schematic work, the sheer scope of this project, in comparison to anything I had done before, was enough to get me excited. Another project was a residential/commercial mixed use project that was also pretty much through schematics, but would also be an excellent opportunity to get started. He also talked about a few projects just a little ways out that I would likely have the opportunity to get in on right at the start and work on them straight through.

We then looked at my portfolio, sort of keying in on comparable projects I had worked on (which were largely my student works because all of my real world works have been more on a smaller scale), but he seemed to really get into where I was coming from when it came to my design. At the end of the interview I had a really good feeling about this place, specifically my interviewer, the man I would be working for. The whole thing was very positive and it seemed to me that, if he wasn’t held back by company requirements, he would have offered me a job right then. I went away from it feeling like the interview lasted a good deal longer than some of the others and raced off for my final interview of the day.

This turned out to be the firm I am going to be working for.

O’Mahony Pike was a bit out of the heart of Dublin, so I had to jump on the LUAS and catch a ride out there. This was a firm I was very exited to interview with because I had heard a great deal of good things about it from Will, a friend that went to school with Mariah and I, who had been working at OMP in Dublin for a few years before. They had just recently renovated and relocated into an old church (think small cathedral, not Baptist church), which is, intellectually, the coolest building for an architectural office that I can think of (another reason I wanted to interview with this company – I had heard about this from Will). It turns out that they weren’t even close to done with their renovations, so I didn’t get to see the “church of architecture” in a comprehensive state, but I got a preview, which was pretty interesting. The interview, again, went very well. OMP seemed to be doing a lot of things more on par with what I had done in the past, in relation to residential development, and had a strong focus on green technologies and concepts. The feel I got from the people I interviewed was positive and very low key. It struck me as a very comfortable place to work. They also focus a great deal on urban design (which is what Will was doing here), which I would love to learn a lot more about. It was high on my list of places that I was excited about working, though I felt like it might not challenge me as much as some of the other firms in being part of projects that I had never worked on before.

In the end, OMP also passed on me based on a need for someone with a bit more senior experience.

After finishing with this I headed straight home and crashed out, finished with the last of the interviews and hoping to hear some good news soon.

NEWS FLASH!

I have accepted the position at Henry J. Lyons. Working with the HR person there we got everything prepared for my Green Card application together (which they were just great about doing, including paying the €1,000 fee that goes along with it – not something I expected, but very, very helpful!) and this morning (Thursday, Feb 1st - the earliest possible day I could) I turned that application in to the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment.

Now the only thing to worry about is that the application goes through with no kinks, so please think good thoughts for me!

I will write a more detailed post about this later, but since I am more than a week behind, I expect you all would like to get the important news sooner rather than later.

Still More Interviews

Well…one as it turns out. I was scheduled for two interviews in the afternoon on Tuesday and met with my recruiter at around noon to look at information about these companies. On the way in I had stopped and done some research on the first interview, but for the second their website was under construction, so I could only look at what my recruiter had available. When I got there he informed me that the second interview with Frank Ennis & Associates had been canceled due to a client meeting emergency. This only left one interview, fairly nearby, which was OK with me after the previous days set and what was ahead for Wednesday. He gave me information on that days interview as well as everything for the next, and I headed on to the meeting.

At 2:15 pm (it turns out that because most businesses not opening until 9am, lunches are typically taken between 1-2pm, hence the common 2pm time slot for meetings) I met on of the founders of Murray O'Laoire, Sean O’Laoire, and one of his assistant directors. This company was doing some fairly interesting work, especially in relation to their interest in green architecture and technologies. I got a good feeling from both of my interviewers, but unfortunately they had made some mistakes with scheduling, had set up two interviews on top of each other, so they rushed through the interview quite a bit. After 20-30 minutes (instead of the hour I seemed to be spending with just about everyone else) they booted me out the door and moved on to their next meeting. I liked them well enough and, all things considered, placed them in the middle of the pack for my interest, but expected that the rush would have some impact on the impression I left with them (or would have liked to leave, had I gotten the time). One funny note (well…funny to me anyway) was that this was one of the first companies that ever used PowerCADD (which is a less common Macintosh based drafting program, which I have been using and teaching for the last two years) in a professional sense (I even found an old article on it in the PowerCADD website when I was doing some research), so I talked to them a little bit about that. They have since switched to using Microstation.

In the end, this company also declined to give me an offer based on experience requirements, specifically the small scale of projects that I had experience with.

The rest of the afternoon and evening were spent on the internet doing more research on Wednesday’s interviews and catching up with Mariah and my mom on the internet phone.

More Interviews

Monday morning rolled around and I was facing down a meeting with my recruiter to prep and then three interviews throughout the day. I woke up about 6am to get ready. This was three hours before I needed to be anywhere, but it takes a good hour to get into city center from where I am staying and I wanted to stop by the shopping center and do some internet research before I headed in.

As a note on showers in Ireland, most that I have used are actually set up with what they call an “electric shower,” which is essentially a little electric regulator and pump with an instant hot kind of heater in it. You set the temperature you want and then just push a button to turn it on. The electric unit itself heats the water, so you aren’t using the water from the hot water heater. This, I assume, allows you to have a smaller water heater that costs less to keep warm for warm faucet water or dishwashers and the like, but allows for fast access to hot water for a shower. Some have spray strength adjustments as well. Water pressure in Ireland is no where near what we are used to in the US, so the amount of water you get out of the head, even on high, some might find a bit lacking (especially on a cold day). It is no worse than a water conserving showerhead, though.

I went through my morning routine and had a bowl of cereal, then headed to the center to research my first interview. After a short stint there I jumped on the train and headed down town for my meeting with John at 9am. He set me up with website print outs for the firms I was meeting with and gave me directions on how to get from one place to the next.

My first interview was at 11am with RKD - a fairly corporate company located about thirty minutes walk from the heart of the city. It was set up inside two adjacent renovated row houses, which was surprising for such a large firm (100+ people), but I found this is very common for the areas around city center. I have walked along many streets filled with row houses and all of them have been refitted as offices.

The man I met with was one of their directors. A fairly straightforward fellow, but personable and we got on well. The interview seemed to stay on a positive note, though he was somewhat concerned about the scale of work I had done previously versus the work he was doing at the time. When it was done I felt fairly good about the interview, but put RKD towards the middle of the pack for my interest, given the kind of work they were doing, their location, and the feel I got off of the interview.

This firm, as you know from a previous post, decided not to hire me based on applicable experience.

My next interview was with Traynor O'Toole. They were only about a 10 minute walk away from RKD, but wasn’t until 3pm. I had about two and a half hours to kill, so I found a little sandwich shop with a seating area, ordered something that sounded safe (my system was still not yet completely settled, especially when considering the added stress of going to interviews) and read up on the next two interviews from the information my recruiter printed out. I decided to get to this interview a bit early to see if I could get a little extra time between interviews, because it was going to be a good hour long walk from my second interview to the third.

This company was also taking up two adjacent row houses, though they were a bit smaller in number of people. For the meeting we headed down to the basement level, which they had stripped down to the old stone that it was originally made from, and the area there was just beautiful. The interview seemed to go well enough, though I didn’t get very much energy from the two people I interviewed with (one of the founders, O’Toole, and another director). They just didn’t seem to be responding with the kind of energy I was looking for when we were discussing design and their practice. They were both still very nice and we had a good long conversation, which ended with one of them showing me around their office. Because of the low energy during the interview and the work they were doing not looking like what I was going for, this company ended up lower on my list of interest.

As we know, this was the first company that offered me a position in their firm.

I then headed across town for my final interview of the day at Oppermann Associates. This firm was located on the north side of Dublin city center (IE on the north side of the River Liffey). The north side of Dublin is known as their trouble area. It is where the cheaper housing is available, so is also where all of the lower income and immigrant workers end up. It is also where most of the violence and murders occur in the city. This didn’t exactly put me at ease in relation to having a meeting there at 5pm that wouldn’t let out until after dark. The woman I am staying with also told me that I would be murdered going there after dark, sort of in jest, but not really… I made the walk in less time than expected and found it without too much difficulty. The firm was on a side street, but it didn’t strike me as particularly dangerous once I got there.

This was a firm I was very excited about. They are a medium sized firm (40+ people) doing medium scale projects, but all of their completed work looked to have been done with a very good attention to detail and care for design. They also were doing quite a bit of education work, which has always been something I have been interested in working on. I met with one of their directors and their HR person (who basically just sat through the interview quietly listening, dropping in a question or comment here and there) and the interview started out with the director describing the position she was looking to fill (basically a construction and project manager), which I recognize I didn’t have the experience to handle. I brought this to her attention, but we continued with the interview and it seemed to go along very well. She seemed like a great person, grounded in the realities of architecture, but still focused on putting together quality design. I liked her quite a bit and was further excited about the prospect of working for them, but recognized that it was a long shot, given their specific position availability. By the end of the interview they agreed that I wouldn’t be able to fill the position they had started out looking for, but suggested that they would look to see if they could find a spot where I could fit in.

This firm ended up rejecting me based on the position they were actually looking to fill.

All in all it was a very long day, but I felt good about how everything went. As I was walking back south from the streets of north Dublin I didn’t feel at all in danger. There were plenty of people walking around, heading home from work, and it just felt like any other neighborhood in Dublin, though it had more of a dingy aura about it. I could see how I wouldn’t necessarily want to be walking around here late at night if I were living here. Then again I don’t know how comfortable I would feel walking around anywhere late at night in a city (like coming home from a late night at the pubs – which is any night going to a pub with the Irish…), areas in Portland included.

I headed home for a grilled ham and cheese sandwich and then off to bed to prepare for the next day.