Architectural Assistant Review

I am an architectural assistant mainly focusing on the architectural technology side as an undergraduate placement student. Some of my day-day tasks includes; client and contractor meetings, internal meetings and CPDs, creating existing and proposed models, working on standard and non-standard details, wall-type drawings, site-visits and surveys these are just some of the examples of things I do on a day to day basis but there is so many more.

Yeah I was given a lot of responsibility on placement but it wasn't overwhelming as I knew I had support around me if needed. Some of this responsibility included going down to London to do site visits on my own which involved knocking on around 200 flats to take out an attribute survey. Some other responsibility included designing 22 existing dwellings for a project I was working on in Cardiff.

I have learnt a range of new skills and developed skills I currently had when starting my placement to another level. Some of the skills I picked up was surveying as I didn't have the opportunity to do this at university. Getting the opportunity to talk to residents and survey there flats has improved my communication skills massively. I also got to use a new software that uses lidar scanning to create a point cloud of an existing building, which will be extremely valuable when i work on existing buildings in the future. As for my previous Revit and AutoCAD skills I am far more competent and efficient due to my placement year.

I received a lot of support and guidance through placement, every three months I would have an internal review with my team leaders and one of the associates. This helped make sure I was doing everything I wanted to achieve during placement as well as rise any concerns or queries. As well as this there was always people around willing to help me with any questions I had or if I was struggling with a specific task.

Everyone in the office was happy to help each other and know one was left to feel apart from the team. I enjoyed the atmosphere in the office although everyone would be wroking on what they needed to get done there would be some office chats and banter flown around which kept the morale up. As well as this there was several staff-dos within the wider team they do an annual Christmas party and annual pizza party with drinks and food provided. But as well as this there would be specific team budgets for staff-dos where anyone can arrange one and these would take place around once/twicer a month.

I really enjoyed my placement at Michael Dyson Associates, and would do it all over again in a heartbeat. There has been challenges as there is with any job but the people I've met and the memories I've made I will remember. The opportunities and skills I've gained are invaluable and I can't thank MDA enough for the opportunity. Moving to a new area far from home can be scary but i quickly found my feet thanks to the colleagues around me.

Yes