Mike LeFande
Principal
SBLM Architects
With retail construction improving, companies are hiring project managers and other positions. When you are hiring new a member of the team, what is the most important item that you want to see on a resume and why?
In recent years, the number of candidates responding to ads for employment has been so high that the culling and narrowing-down process is more important than ever.
We look for an educational background and degree in our profession of architecture as a starting point and foundation. We look at commitment, based on number of years spent at each firm. We look for individuals who are well-rounded, but who also possess a specialty knowledge in the design studio for which the opening occurs. At SBLM, this includes Retail/Commercial, Educational, Healthcare/Wellness, Mixed Use/Residential, and Civil.
Most importantly, we like to see the candidate's actual accomplishments. It is very helpful to see what clients and specific projects the candidate was involved with. It is even better to be able to quickly extract what specific tasks the candidate accomplished and what were their roles and responsibilities. It always helps to see a logical and believable progression in the timeline from education to internship to a progression of enriching work experiences.
While we do not expect to see salary request or requirement on a resume, we find that candidates with an awareness of the going market salaries tend to be more in tuned to the fact that architectural firms are in fact service industry businesses in a competitive field.