Practice Management Member Conversations

"Without fail, everyone supports the military. Until they have to support the military."

In my personal experience both in the military and as civilian architect, I have experienced that career progression is very limited the later in your architectural career you get. I can only understand from the perspective of a guardsman. The difficult issues seen in the professional world is that smaller to medium sized firms are not equipped to double or triple slot your position, so if you are called out on active duty emergency or deployment, you are simply gone for quite a while and anything you are responsible for or in charge of needs to be passed off to another person in the firm (USERRA Regulations). I see often that upon returning, these duties being passed off become permanent and new duties become limited as leadership and supervision becomes unsure of availability. This is understandable because the service member only really knows about half of the time when they are obligated to do something. It is a major sacrifice to the service member to remain in the civilian service for projects or deadlines, because it could mean delay or significant hinderance to their military career and benefits. On the flip-side, serving on active or TDY (temporary duty orders) hinders their ability to gain experience, enable a sense of culture, and form a cohesive bond of trust with the team. I have served in the architectural world for 20 years and from what I have experienced, it is the clients you serve, the people you help, the projects you deliver, and the budgets that succeed that all prove your position. In the military, my unit is all about service before self, pushing ourselves to help each other, and sacrificing ourselves so that others do not have to. These dichotomies are difficult to navigate if you want two separate successful careers. In my experience, the person who goes above and beyond, working endless hours, growing their technical skills, and bringing in unparalleled profit grow fairly quickly. While at the same time in the military, it is the people who care the most about others, develop their teams, and sacrifice all they have are the ones who promote quickly.

Each time I join a firm I have learned to firmly lay out, in colored Gantt charts of course, my obligations and timelines. I make it a point to directly layout my obligations and strongly emphasize what it means to hire someone like me. I am definitely no hero, I am no better than any other person. I choose to be the person standing shield to shield willing to defend our country to the end. I believe that business and the military are similar but different enough that they warrant respect differently. My obligations are solid, I must go for the minimum. However, I will always be the person to volunteer to stand in for my brothers and sisters who cannot. When they have personal issues, relationship issues, family issues, or simply faith issues, I will step in without hesitation. I promise that I will never be the reason my brothers and sisters wave goodbye for the last time, so send me.

In the civilian world, it generally is different. You tend to aim toward being better than those around you. Always stand out from your peers in a good way and that is what gets you promoted. Sometimes business is dirty and people step on others to get to where they are, its nothing personal, it's just business. These are two entirely different personalities.

You are probably thinking about how much or little this applies to you and your business. I don't blame you, because there is another area we haven't yet explored. If you do not have a service member in your ranks or know anyone who ever served, then please stop here and feel free to comment on your thoughts.

For those of you who are, have, or will be serving, I know there is another layer to the challenge posed above. I know that most of us left with good intentions and all gung-ho about making a name for ourselves. Well, it turned out that the military changed us, sometimes in good ways and sometimes in not so good ways. Sometimes we leave a lucrative architectural senior position at the top of our game and take 6-12 months off. Yeah, it seems like a LONG vacation to our co-workers and friends. But as we have been trained and briefed over and over, as well as our families, it is no vacation. We get some warning for deployment but natural disasters, we have little. We chose to serve our communities. Some of us don't come back home. Some of us can't come back home. Some of us mentally will never be able to return to who we were. Some of us need much longer than a few weeks upon getting off that plane at home. Some of us bury our friends. Some of us come home to shattered families and relationships. We aren't made of stone, some of us will never be the same.

So when we get back to the fanfare and happiness of being back in the United States under our own flag. What's next? We must become functioning human beings in society again. Some of us return like nothing happened. Some of us will never be able to achieve that optimal peak again. Some of us may spiral. Some of us come home without our friends. Some of us never fully come home again. Even our simple 2-6 week trips revolve around an entire career type that generally has nothing or extremely little to do with architecture.

When we walk in the door to our long awaited architectural firms, what do we have greeting us? From the employer's standpoint I am obligated by law to keep the job, wage, benefits, and place for my service member. For the service members, the work may not be the most optimal for a while. Often times, our service member staring us in the face may not be the same human being. After all of that sacrifice, your service members just hope that you care enough about them to try. It won't always be perfect and it won't be easy but all they ask is to try.

The business case for the smaller to medium firms is understandable. A person missing from their seat isn't producing let alone profitable. The larger firms might be able to double or triple stack that person and ensure they have something to come back to. In any case, what can you do to reinforce them coming back? How long do we wait until they are profitable again? Can we trust to give them the absolute minimum duties because they may need to leave again? When they return, can we entrust them to do what they did before they left? Will they remember how? 

Take a moment to reflect on your current stance on the service members. Think about how you approach someone who lost everything. How do you support them? How would you advise others to support them? 

------------------------------
Michael Perez AIA
PMKC Leadership Group
------------------------------

"Without fail, everyone supports the military. Until..."

These words are all too common from frustrated new applicants who serve and work in the civilian industry. The words stopped me and made me think about how I support others in the industry. 

In my personal experience both in the military and as civilian architect, I have experienced that career progression is very limited the later in your architectural career you get. I can only understand from the perspective of a guardsman. The difficult issues seen in the professional world is that smaller to medium sized firms are not equipped to double or triple slot your position, so if you are called out on active duty emergency or deployment, you are simply gone for quite a while and anything you are responsible for or in charge of needs to be passed off to another person in the firm (USERRA Regulations). I see often that upon returning, these duties being passed off become permanent and new duties become limited as leadership and supervision becomes unsure of availability. This is understandable because the service member only really knows about half of the time when they are obligated to do something. It is a major sacrifice to the service member to remain in the civilian service for projects or deadlines, because it could mean delay or significant hinderance to their military career and benefits. On the flip-side, serving on active or TDY (temporary duty orders) hinders their ability to gain experience, enable a sense of culture, and form a cohesive bond of trust with the team. I have served in the architectural world for 20 years and from what I have experienced, it is the clients you serve, the people you help, the projects you deliver, and the budgets that succeed that all prove your position. In the military, my unit is all about service before self, pushing ourselves to help each other, and sacrificing ourselves so that others do not have to. These dichotomies are difficult to navigate if you want two separate successful careers. In my experience, the person who goes above and beyond, working endless hours, growing their technical skills, and bringing in unparalleled profit grow fairly quickly. While at the same time in the military, it is the people who care the most about others, develop their teams, and sacrifice all they have are the ones who promote quickly.

Each time I join a firm I have learned to firmly lay out, in colored Gantt charts of course, my obligations and timelines. I make it a point to directly layout my obligations and strongly emphasize what it means to hire someone like me. I am definitely no hero, I am no better than any other person. I choose to be the person standing shield to shield willing to defend our country to the end. I believe that business and the military are similar but different enough that they warrant respect differently. My obligations are solid, I must go for the minimum. However, I will always be the person to volunteer to stand in for my brothers and sisters who cannot. When they have personal issues, relationship issues, family issues, or simply faith issues, I will step in without hesitation. I promise that I will never be the reason my brothers and sisters wave goodbye for the last time, so send me.

In the civilian world, it generally is different. You tend to aim toward being better than those around you. Always stand out from your peers in a good way and that is what gets you promoted. Sometimes business is dirty and people step on others to get to where they are, its nothing personal, it's just business. These are two entirely different personalities.

You are probably thinking about how much or little this applies to you and your business. I don't blame you, because there is another area we haven't yet explored. If you do not have a service member in your ranks or know anyone who ever served, then please stop here and feel free to comment on your thoughts.

For those of you who are, have, or will be serving, I know there is another layer to the challenge posed above. I know that most of us left with good intentions and all gung-ho about making a name for ourselves. Well, it turned out that the military changed us, sometimes in good ways and sometimes in not so good ways. Sometimes we leave a lucrative architectural senior position at the top of our game and take 6-12 months off. Yeah, it seems like a LONG vacation to our co-workers and friends. But as we have been trained and briefed over and over, as well as our families, it is no vacation. We get some warning for deployment but natural disasters, we have little. We chose to serve our communities. Some of us don't come back home. Some of us can't come back home. Some of us mentally will never be able to return to who we were. Some of us need much longer than a few weeks upon getting off that plane at home. Some of us bury our friends. Some of us come home to shattered families and relationships. We aren't made of stone, some of us will never be the same.

So when we get back to the fanfare and happiness of being back in the United States under our own flag. What's next? We must become functioning human beings in society again. Some of us return like nothing happened. Some of us will never be able to achieve that optimal peak again. Some of us may spiral. Some of us come home without our friends. Some of us never fully come home again. Even our simple 2-6 week trips revolve around an entire career type that generally has nothing or extremely little to do with architecture.

When we walk in the door to our long awaited architectural firms, what do we have greeting us? From the employer's standpoint I am obligated by law to keep the job, wage, benefits, and place for my service member. For the service members, the work may not be the most optimal for a while. Often times, our service member staring us in the face may not be the same human being. After all of that sacrifice, your service members just hope that you care enough about them to try. It won't always be perfect and it won't be easy but all they ask is to try.

The business case for the smaller to medium firms is understandable. A person missing from their seat isn't producing let alone profitable. The larger firms might be able to double or triple stack that person and ensure they have something to come back to. In any case, what can you do to reinforce them coming back? How long do we wait until they are profitable again? Can we trust to give them the absolute minimum duties because they may need to leave again? When they return, can we entrust them to do what they did before they left? Will they remember how? 

Take a moment to reflect on your current stance on the service members. Think about how you approach someone who lost everything. How do you support them? How would you advise others to support them? 

------------------------------
Michael Perez AIA
PMKC Leadership Group
------------------------------

Michael, thanks for sharing your experience and your broader perspective about balancing military service (reserve status) and a professional architecture career. The challenges are extensive for the employee and employer, and the impacts are long-lasting as you mentioned. The unique experience of military service is a differentiator for professional architects, and the military veteran network is relatively small. 

Let's continue to build the network of military veterans and currently serving military reservists in AIA.   

"Without fail, everyone supports the military. Until..."

These words are all too common from frustrated new applicants who serve and work in the civilian industry. The words stopped me and made me think about how I support others in the industry. 

In my personal experience both in the military and as civilian architect, I have experienced that career progression is very limited the later in your architectural career you get. I can only understand from the perspective of a guardsman. The difficult issues seen in the professional world is that smaller to medium sized firms are not equipped to double or triple slot your position, so if you are called out on active duty emergency or deployment, you are simply gone for quite a while and anything you are responsible for or in charge of needs to be passed off to another person in the firm (USERRA Regulations). I see often that upon returning, these duties being passed off become permanent and new duties become limited as leadership and supervision becomes unsure of availability. This is understandable because the service member only really knows about half of the time when they are obligated to do something. It is a major sacrifice to the service member to remain in the civilian service for projects or deadlines, because it could mean delay or significant hinderance to their military career and benefits. On the flip-side, serving on active or TDY (temporary duty orders) hinders their ability to gain experience, enable a sense of culture, and form a cohesive bond of trust with the team. I have served in the architectural world for 20 years and from what I have experienced, it is the clients you serve, the people you help, the projects you deliver, and the budgets that succeed that all prove your position. In the military, my unit is all about service before self, pushing ourselves to help each other, and sacrificing ourselves so that others do not have to. These dichotomies are difficult to navigate if you want two separate successful careers. In my experience, the person who goes above and beyond, working endless hours, growing their technical skills, and bringing in unparalleled profit grow fairly quickly. While at the same time in the military, it is the people who care the most about others, develop their teams, and sacrifice all they have are the ones who promote quickly.

Each time I join a firm I have learned to firmly lay out, in colored Gantt charts of course, my obligations and timelines. I make it a point to directly layout my obligations and strongly emphasize what it means to hire someone like me. I am definitely no hero, I am no better than any other person. I choose to be the person standing shield to shield willing to defend our country to the end. I believe that business and the military are similar but different enough that they warrant respect differently. My obligations are solid, I must go for the minimum. However, I will always be the person to volunteer to stand in for my brothers and sisters who cannot. When they have personal issues, relationship issues, family issues, or simply faith issues, I will step in without hesitation. I promise that I will never be the reason my brothers and sisters wave goodbye for the last time, so send me.

In the civilian world, it generally is different. You tend to aim toward being better than those around you. Always stand out from your peers in a good way and that is what gets you promoted. Sometimes business is dirty and people step on others to get to where they are, its nothing personal, it's just business. These are two entirely different personalities.

You are probably thinking about how much or little this applies to you and your business. I don't blame you, because there is another area we haven't yet explored. If you do not have a service member in your ranks or know anyone who ever served, then please stop here and feel free to comment on your thoughts.

For those of you who are, have, or will be serving, I know there is another layer to the challenge posed above. I know that most of us left with good intentions and all gung-ho about making a name for ourselves. Well, it turned out that the military changed us, sometimes in good ways and sometimes in not so good ways. Sometimes we leave a lucrative architectural senior position at the top of our game and take 6-12 months off. Yeah, it seems like a LONG vacation to our co-workers and friends. But as we have been trained and briefed over and over, as well as our families, it is no vacation. We get some warning for deployment but natural disasters, we have little. We chose to serve our communities. Some of us don't come back home. Some of us can't come back home. Some of us mentally will never be able to return to who we were. Some of us need much longer than a few weeks upon getting off that plane at home. Some of us bury our friends. Some of us come home to shattered families and relationships. We aren't made of stone, some of us will never be the same.

So when we get back to the fanfare and happiness of being back in the United States under our own flag. What's next? We must become functioning human beings in society again. Some of us return like nothing happened. Some of us will never be able to achieve that optimal peak again. Some of us may spiral. Some of us come home without our friends. Some of us never fully come home again. Even our simple 2-6 week trips revolve around an entire career type that generally has nothing or extremely little to do with architecture.

When we walk in the door to our long awaited architectural firms, what do we have greeting us? From the employer's standpoint I am obligated by law to keep the job, wage, benefits, and place for my service member. For the service members, the work may not be the most optimal for a while. Often times, our service member staring us in the face may not be the same human being. After all of that sacrifice, your service members just hope that you care enough about them to try. It won't always be perfect and it won't be easy but all they ask is to try.

The business case for the smaller to medium firms is understandable. A person missing from their seat isn't producing let alone profitable. The larger firms might be able to double or triple stack that person and ensure they have something to come back to. In any case, what can you do to reinforce them coming back? How long do we wait until they are profitable again? Can we trust to give them the absolute minimum duties because they may need to leave again? When they return, can we entrust them to do what they did before they left? Will they remember how? 

Take a moment to reflect on your current stance on the service members. Think about how you approach someone who lost everything. How do you support them? How would you advise others to support them? 

------------------------------
Michael Perez AIA
PMKC Leadership Group
------------------------------

Michael,

I echo Ryan's thoughts. You've raised issues I imagine many of us haven't thought of (especially because only 0.4% of the US population currently serves and only 7.3% have ever served). What is the percentage of architects in this mix? I imagine an equally small percentage, who provide both vital and selfless service to us all (my husband is a veteran, father, etc.).

I'm interested in the questions you pose and if anyone in our vast community has thoughts or insight into them:

• When service members walk (back) in the door to their architectural positions and firms, are we as a profession prepared to support them?
• What can we do to answer the needs and support service members when they return? 
• What are the profit and loss factors for firms that support military personnel in their offices?
• How can we navigate the potential for service members in our firms to be called up again? This is critical considering the many natural disasters of the last years, when communities like those in western North Carolina needed extensive national guard support.
• How would you advise others who want to support these selfless professional colleagues? 

In the past decade or more, firms increasingly dedicate time to community and public service projects, taking a profitability "hit" for the greater good. Is any firm out there devoting its service to our colleagues in the military? Does anyone have strategies for how we can do better?

Thanks again, Michael, for this post. You've opened my eyes on this issue.

Michael, thanks for sharing your experience and your broader perspective about balancing military service (reserve status) and a professional architecture career. The challenges are extensive for the employee and employer, and the impacts are long-lasting as you mentioned. The unique experience of military service is a differentiator for professional architects, and the military veteran network is relatively small. 

Let's continue to build the network of military veterans and currently serving military reservists in AIA.   

"Without fail, everyone supports the military. Until..."

These words are all too common from frustrated new applicants who serve and work in the civilian industry. The words stopped me and made me think about how I support others in the industry. 

In my personal experience both in the military and as civilian architect, I have experienced that career progression is very limited the later in your architectural career you get. I can only understand from the perspective of a guardsman. The difficult issues seen in the professional world is that smaller to medium sized firms are not equipped to double or triple slot your position, so if you are called out on active duty emergency or deployment, you are simply gone for quite a while and anything you are responsible for or in charge of needs to be passed off to another person in the firm (USERRA Regulations). I see often that upon returning, these duties being passed off become permanent and new duties become limited as leadership and supervision becomes unsure of availability. This is understandable because the service member only really knows about half of the time when they are obligated to do something. It is a major sacrifice to the service member to remain in the civilian service for projects or deadlines, because it could mean delay or significant hinderance to their military career and benefits. On the flip-side, serving on active or TDY (temporary duty orders) hinders their ability to gain experience, enable a sense of culture, and form a cohesive bond of trust with the team. I have served in the architectural world for 20 years and from what I have experienced, it is the clients you serve, the people you help, the projects you deliver, and the budgets that succeed that all prove your position. In the military, my unit is all about service before self, pushing ourselves to help each other, and sacrificing ourselves so that others do not have to. These dichotomies are difficult to navigate if you want two separate successful careers. In my experience, the person who goes above and beyond, working endless hours, growing their technical skills, and bringing in unparalleled profit grow fairly quickly. While at the same time in the military, it is the people who care the most about others, develop their teams, and sacrifice all they have are the ones who promote quickly.

Each time I join a firm I have learned to firmly lay out, in colored Gantt charts of course, my obligations and timelines. I make it a point to directly layout my obligations and strongly emphasize what it means to hire someone like me. I am definitely no hero, I am no better than any other person. I choose to be the person standing shield to shield willing to defend our country to the end. I believe that business and the military are similar but different enough that they warrant respect differently. My obligations are solid, I must go for the minimum. However, I will always be the person to volunteer to stand in for my brothers and sisters who cannot. When they have personal issues, relationship issues, family issues, or simply faith issues, I will step in without hesitation. I promise that I will never be the reason my brothers and sisters wave goodbye for the last time, so send me.

In the civilian world, it generally is different. You tend to aim toward being better than those around you. Always stand out from your peers in a good way and that is what gets you promoted. Sometimes business is dirty and people step on others to get to where they are, its nothing personal, it's just business. These are two entirely different personalities.

You are probably thinking about how much or little this applies to you and your business. I don't blame you, because there is another area we haven't yet explored. If you do not have a service member in your ranks or know anyone who ever served, then please stop here and feel free to comment on your thoughts.

For those of you who are, have, or will be serving, I know there is another layer to the challenge posed above. I know that most of us left with good intentions and all gung-ho about making a name for ourselves. Well, it turned out that the military changed us, sometimes in good ways and sometimes in not so good ways. Sometimes we leave a lucrative architectural senior position at the top of our game and take 6-12 months off. Yeah, it seems like a LONG vacation to our co-workers and friends. But as we have been trained and briefed over and over, as well as our families, it is no vacation. We get some warning for deployment but natural disasters, we have little. We chose to serve our communities. Some of us don't come back home. Some of us can't come back home. Some of us mentally will never be able to return to who we were. Some of us need much longer than a few weeks upon getting off that plane at home. Some of us bury our friends. Some of us come home to shattered families and relationships. We aren't made of stone, some of us will never be the same.

So when we get back to the fanfare and happiness of being back in the United States under our own flag. What's next? We must become functioning human beings in society again. Some of us return like nothing happened. Some of us will never be able to achieve that optimal peak again. Some of us may spiral. Some of us come home without our friends. Some of us never fully come home again. Even our simple 2-6 week trips revolve around an entire career type that generally has nothing or extremely little to do with architecture.

When we walk in the door to our long awaited architectural firms, what do we have greeting us? From the employer's standpoint I am obligated by law to keep the job, wage, benefits, and place for my service member. For the service members, the work may not be the most optimal for a while. Often times, our service member staring us in the face may not be the same human being. After all of that sacrifice, your service members just hope that you care enough about them to try. It won't always be perfect and it won't be easy but all they ask is to try.

The business case for the smaller to medium firms is understandable. A person missing from their seat isn't producing let alone profitable. The larger firms might be able to double or triple stack that person and ensure they have something to come back to. In any case, what can you do to reinforce them coming back? How long do we wait until they are profitable again? Can we trust to give them the absolute minimum duties because they may need to leave again? When they return, can we entrust them to do what they did before they left? Will they remember how? 

Take a moment to reflect on your current stance on the service members. Think about how you approach someone who lost everything. How do you support them? How would you advise others to support them? 

------------------------------
Michael Perez AIA
PMKC Leadership Group
------------------------------

Michael, thanks for sharing your experience and your broader perspective about balancing military service (reserve status) and a professional architecture career. The challenges are extensive for the employee and employer, and the impacts are long-lasting as you mentioned. The unique experience of military service is a differentiator for professional architects, and the military veteran network is relatively small. 

Let's continue to build the network of military veterans and currently serving military reservists in AIA.   

"Without fail, everyone supports the military. Until..."

These words are all too common from frustrated new applicants who serve and work in the civilian industry. The words stopped me and made me think about how I support others in the industry. 

In my personal experience both in the military and as civilian architect, I have experienced that career progression is very limited the later in your architectural career you get. I can only understand from the perspective of a guardsman. The difficult issues seen in the professional world is that smaller to medium sized firms are not equipped to double or triple slot your position, so if you are called out on active duty emergency or deployment, you are simply gone for quite a while and anything you are responsible for or in charge of needs to be passed off to another person in the firm (USERRA Regulations). I see often that upon returning, these duties being passed off become permanent and new duties become limited as leadership and supervision becomes unsure of availability. This is understandable because the service member only really knows about half of the time when they are obligated to do something. It is a major sacrifice to the service member to remain in the civilian service for projects or deadlines, because it could mean delay or significant hinderance to their military career and benefits. On the flip-side, serving on active or TDY (temporary duty orders) hinders their ability to gain experience, enable a sense of culture, and form a cohesive bond of trust with the team. I have served in the architectural world for 20 years and from what I have experienced, it is the clients you serve, the people you help, the projects you deliver, and the budgets that succeed that all prove your position. In the military, my unit is all about service before self, pushing ourselves to help each other, and sacrificing ourselves so that others do not have to. These dichotomies are difficult to navigate if you want two separate successful careers. In my experience, the person who goes above and beyond, working endless hours, growing their technical skills, and bringing in unparalleled profit grow fairly quickly. While at the same time in the military, it is the people who care the most about others, develop their teams, and sacrifice all they have are the ones who promote quickly.

Each time I join a firm I have learned to firmly lay out, in colored Gantt charts of course, my obligations and timelines. I make it a point to directly layout my obligations and strongly emphasize what it means to hire someone like me. I am definitely no hero, I am no better than any other person. I choose to be the person standing shield to shield willing to defend our country to the end. I believe that business and the military are similar but different enough that they warrant respect differently. My obligations are solid, I must go for the minimum. However, I will always be the person to volunteer to stand in for my brothers and sisters who cannot. When they have personal issues, relationship issues, family issues, or simply faith issues, I will step in without hesitation. I promise that I will never be the reason my brothers and sisters wave goodbye for the last time, so send me.

In the civilian world, it generally is different. You tend to aim toward being better than those around you. Always stand out from your peers in a good way and that is what gets you promoted. Sometimes business is dirty and people step on others to get to where they are, its nothing personal, it's just business. These are two entirely different personalities.

You are probably thinking about how much or little this applies to you and your business. I don't blame you, because there is another area we haven't yet explored. If you do not have a service member in your ranks or know anyone who ever served, then please stop here and feel free to comment on your thoughts.

For those of you who are, have, or will be serving, I know there is another layer to the challenge posed above. I know that most of us left with good intentions and all gung-ho about making a name for ourselves. Well, it turned out that the military changed us, sometimes in good ways and sometimes in not so good ways. Sometimes we leave a lucrative architectural senior position at the top of our game and take 6-12 months off. Yeah, it seems like a LONG vacation to our co-workers and friends. But as we have been trained and briefed over and over, as well as our families, it is no vacation. We get some warning for deployment but natural disasters, we have little. We chose to serve our communities. Some of us don't come back home. Some of us can't come back home. Some of us mentally will never be able to return to who we were. Some of us need much longer than a few weeks upon getting off that plane at home. Some of us bury our friends. Some of us come home to shattered families and relationships. We aren't made of stone, some of us will never be the same.

So when we get back to the fanfare and happiness of being back in the United States under our own flag. What's next? We must become functioning human beings in society again. Some of us return like nothing happened. Some of us will never be able to achieve that optimal peak again. Some of us may spiral. Some of us come home without our friends. Some of us never fully come home again. Even our simple 2-6 week trips revolve around an entire career type that generally has nothing or extremely little to do with architecture.

When we walk in the door to our long awaited architectural firms, what do we have greeting us? From the employer's standpoint I am obligated by law to keep the job, wage, benefits, and place for my service member. For the service members, the work may not be the most optimal for a while. Often times, our service member staring us in the face may not be the same human being. After all of that sacrifice, your service members just hope that you care enough about them to try. It won't always be perfect and it won't be easy but all they ask is to try.

The business case for the smaller to medium firms is understandable. A person missing from their seat isn't producing let alone profitable. The larger firms might be able to double or triple stack that person and ensure they have something to come back to. In any case, what can you do to reinforce them coming back? How long do we wait until they are profitable again? Can we trust to give them the absolute minimum duties because they may need to leave again? When they return, can we entrust them to do what they did before they left? Will they remember how? 

Take a moment to reflect on your current stance on the service members. Think about how you approach someone who lost everything. How do you support them? How would you advise others to support them? 

------------------------------
Michael Perez AIA
PMKC Leadership Group
------------------------------

I appreciate the line of discussion although I am not personally a veteran. Cromwell Architects + Engineers has at least one architect in our Little Rock office, perhaps others in our regional offices, and numerous veterans in all other disciplines. This architect's contribution to the firm is very valuable! 

Two of my sons are embarking on their careers in the military (not architecture) and I stressed to them the value this would have on all future endeavors for the self discipline, project management, and communication skills they will have after service.

If anyone is looking for a firm that will follow through in welcoming military service members and families please reach out to Cromwell.

Michelle Teague, AIA, ACHA, NCARB, LEED AP  Architecture     1300 East 6th Street – Little Rock, Arkansas 72202  T 501.372.2900  |  D 501.400.1137  |  C 501.472.7297 mteague@cromwell.com  I  cromwell.com

Michael, thanks for sharing your experience and your broader perspective about balancing military service (reserve status) and a professional architecture career. The challenges are extensive for the employee and employer, and the impacts are long-lasting as you mentioned. The unique experience of military service is a differentiator for professional architects, and the military veteran network is relatively small. 

Let's continue to build the network of military veterans and currently serving military reservists in AIA.   

"Without fail, everyone supports the military. Until..."

These words are all too common from frustrated new applicants who serve and work in the civilian industry. The words stopped me and made me think about how I support others in the industry. 

In my personal experience both in the military and as civilian architect, I have experienced that career progression is very limited the later in your architectural career you get. I can only understand from the perspective of a guardsman. The difficult issues seen in the professional world is that smaller to medium sized firms are not equipped to double or triple slot your position, so if you are called out on active duty emergency or deployment, you are simply gone for quite a while and anything you are responsible for or in charge of needs to be passed off to another person in the firm (USERRA Regulations). I see often that upon returning, these duties being passed off become permanent and new duties become limited as leadership and supervision becomes unsure of availability. This is understandable because the service member only really knows about half of the time when they are obligated to do something. It is a major sacrifice to the service member to remain in the civilian service for projects or deadlines, because it could mean delay or significant hinderance to their military career and benefits. On the flip-side, serving on active or TDY (temporary duty orders) hinders their ability to gain experience, enable a sense of culture, and form a cohesive bond of trust with the team. I have served in the architectural world for 20 years and from what I have experienced, it is the clients you serve, the people you help, the projects you deliver, and the budgets that succeed that all prove your position. In the military, my unit is all about service before self, pushing ourselves to help each other, and sacrificing ourselves so that others do not have to. These dichotomies are difficult to navigate if you want two separate successful careers. In my experience, the person who goes above and beyond, working endless hours, growing their technical skills, and bringing in unparalleled profit grow fairly quickly. While at the same time in the military, it is the people who care the most about others, develop their teams, and sacrifice all they have are the ones who promote quickly.

Each time I join a firm I have learned to firmly lay out, in colored Gantt charts of course, my obligations and timelines. I make it a point to directly layout my obligations and strongly emphasize what it means to hire someone like me. I am definitely no hero, I am no better than any other person. I choose to be the person standing shield to shield willing to defend our country to the end. I believe that business and the military are similar but different enough that they warrant respect differently. My obligations are solid, I must go for the minimum. However, I will always be the person to volunteer to stand in for my brothers and sisters who cannot. When they have personal issues, relationship issues, family issues, or simply faith issues, I will step in without hesitation. I promise that I will never be the reason my brothers and sisters wave goodbye for the last time, so send me.

In the civilian world, it generally is different. You tend to aim toward being better than those around you. Always stand out from your peers in a good way and that is what gets you promoted. Sometimes business is dirty and people step on others to get to where they are, its nothing personal, it's just business. These are two entirely different personalities.

You are probably thinking about how much or little this applies to you and your business. I don't blame you, because there is another area we haven't yet explored. If you do not have a service member in your ranks or know anyone who ever served, then please stop here and feel free to comment on your thoughts.

For those of you who are, have, or will be serving, I know there is another layer to the challenge posed above. I know that most of us left with good intentions and all gung-ho about making a name for ourselves. Well, it turned out that the military changed us, sometimes in good ways and sometimes in not so good ways. Sometimes we leave a lucrative architectural senior position at the top of our game and take 6-12 months off. Yeah, it seems like a LONG vacation to our co-workers and friends. But as we have been trained and briefed over and over, as well as our families, it is no vacation. We get some warning for deployment but natural disasters, we have little. We chose to serve our communities. Some of us don't come back home. Some of us can't come back home. Some of us mentally will never be able to return to who we were. Some of us need much longer than a few weeks upon getting off that plane at home. Some of us bury our friends. Some of us come home to shattered families and relationships. We aren't made of stone, some of us will never be the same.

So when we get back to the fanfare and happiness of being back in the United States under our own flag. What's next? We must become functioning human beings in society again. Some of us return like nothing happened. Some of us will never be able to achieve that optimal peak again. Some of us may spiral. Some of us come home without our friends. Some of us never fully come home again. Even our simple 2-6 week trips revolve around an entire career type that generally has nothing or extremely little to do with architecture.

When we walk in the door to our long awaited architectural firms, what do we have greeting us? From the employer's standpoint I am obligated by law to keep the job, wage, benefits, and place for my service member. For the service members, the work may not be the most optimal for a while. Often times, our service member staring us in the face may not be the same human being. After all of that sacrifice, your service members just hope that you care enough about them to try. It won't always be perfect and it won't be easy but all they ask is to try.

The business case for the smaller to medium firms is understandable. A person missing from their seat isn't producing let alone profitable. The larger firms might be able to double or triple stack that person and ensure they have something to come back to. In any case, what can you do to reinforce them coming back? How long do we wait until they are profitable again? Can we trust to give them the absolute minimum duties because they may need to leave again? When they return, can we entrust them to do what they did before they left? Will they remember how? 

Take a moment to reflect on your current stance on the service members. Think about how you approach someone who lost everything. How do you support them? How would you advise others to support them? 

------------------------------
Michael Perez AIA
PMKC Leadership Group
------------------------------

I appreciate the line of discussion although I am not personally a veteran. Cromwell Architects + Engineers has at least one architect in our Little Rock office, perhaps others in our regional offices, and numerous veterans in all other disciplines. This architect's contribution to the firm is very valuable! 

Two of my sons are embarking on their careers in the military (not architecture) and I stressed to them the value this would have on all future endeavors for the self discipline, project management, and communication skills they will have after service.

If anyone is looking for a firm that will follow through in welcoming military service members and families please reach out to Cromwell.

Michelle Teague, AIA, ACHA, NCARB, LEED AP  Architecture     1300 East 6th Street – Little Rock, Arkansas 72202  T 501.372.2900  |  D 501.400.1137  |  C 501.472.7297 mteague@cromwell.com  I  cromwell.com

Michael, thanks for sharing your experience and your broader perspective about balancing military service (reserve status) and a professional architecture career. The challenges are extensive for the employee and employer, and the impacts are long-lasting as you mentioned. The unique experience of military service is a differentiator for professional architects, and the military veteran network is relatively small. 

Let's continue to build the network of military veterans and currently serving military reservists in AIA.   

"Without fail, everyone supports the military. Until..."

These words are all too common from frustrated new applicants who serve and work in the civilian industry. The words stopped me and made me think about how I support others in the industry. 

In my personal experience both in the military and as civilian architect, I have experienced that career progression is very limited the later in your architectural career you get. I can only understand from the perspective of a guardsman. The difficult issues seen in the professional world is that smaller to medium sized firms are not equipped to double or triple slot your position, so if you are called out on active duty emergency or deployment, you are simply gone for quite a while and anything you are responsible for or in charge of needs to be passed off to another person in the firm (USERRA Regulations). I see often that upon returning, these duties being passed off become permanent and new duties become limited as leadership and supervision becomes unsure of availability. This is understandable because the service member only really knows about half of the time when they are obligated to do something. It is a major sacrifice to the service member to remain in the civilian service for projects or deadlines, because it could mean delay or significant hinderance to their military career and benefits. On the flip-side, serving on active or TDY (temporary duty orders) hinders their ability to gain experience, enable a sense of culture, and form a cohesive bond of trust with the team. I have served in the architectural world for 20 years and from what I have experienced, it is the clients you serve, the people you help, the projects you deliver, and the budgets that succeed that all prove your position. In the military, my unit is all about service before self, pushing ourselves to help each other, and sacrificing ourselves so that others do not have to. These dichotomies are difficult to navigate if you want two separate successful careers. In my experience, the person who goes above and beyond, working endless hours, growing their technical skills, and bringing in unparalleled profit grow fairly quickly. While at the same time in the military, it is the people who care the most about others, develop their teams, and sacrifice all they have are the ones who promote quickly.

Each time I join a firm I have learned to firmly lay out, in colored Gantt charts of course, my obligations and timelines. I make it a point to directly layout my obligations and strongly emphasize what it means to hire someone like me. I am definitely no hero, I am no better than any other person. I choose to be the person standing shield to shield willing to defend our country to the end. I believe that business and the military are similar but different enough that they warrant respect differently. My obligations are solid, I must go for the minimum. However, I will always be the person to volunteer to stand in for my brothers and sisters who cannot. When they have personal issues, relationship issues, family issues, or simply faith issues, I will step in without hesitation. I promise that I will never be the reason my brothers and sisters wave goodbye for the last time, so send me.

In the civilian world, it generally is different. You tend to aim toward being better than those around you. Always stand out from your peers in a good way and that is what gets you promoted. Sometimes business is dirty and people step on others to get to where they are, its nothing personal, it's just business. These are two entirely different personalities.

You are probably thinking about how much or little this applies to you and your business. I don't blame you, because there is another area we haven't yet explored. If you do not have a service member in your ranks or know anyone who ever served, then please stop here and feel free to comment on your thoughts.

For those of you who are, have, or will be serving, I know there is another layer to the challenge posed above. I know that most of us left with good intentions and all gung-ho about making a name for ourselves. Well, it turned out that the military changed us, sometimes in good ways and sometimes in not so good ways. Sometimes we leave a lucrative architectural senior position at the top of our game and take 6-12 months off. Yeah, it seems like a LONG vacation to our co-workers and friends. But as we have been trained and briefed over and over, as well as our families, it is no vacation. We get some warning for deployment but natural disasters, we have little. We chose to serve our communities. Some of us don't come back home. Some of us can't come back home. Some of us mentally will never be able to return to who we were. Some of us need much longer than a few weeks upon getting off that plane at home. Some of us bury our friends. Some of us come home to shattered families and relationships. We aren't made of stone, some of us will never be the same.

So when we get back to the fanfare and happiness of being back in the United States under our own flag. What's next? We must become functioning human beings in society again. Some of us return like nothing happened. Some of us will never be able to achieve that optimal peak again. Some of us may spiral. Some of us come home without our friends. Some of us never fully come home again. Even our simple 2-6 week trips revolve around an entire career type that generally has nothing or extremely little to do with architecture.

When we walk in the door to our long awaited architectural firms, what do we have greeting us? From the employer's standpoint I am obligated by law to keep the job, wage, benefits, and place for my service member. For the service members, the work may not be the most optimal for a while. Often times, our service member staring us in the face may not be the same human being. After all of that sacrifice, your service members just hope that you care enough about them to try. It won't always be perfect and it won't be easy but all they ask is to try.

The business case for the smaller to medium firms is understandable. A person missing from their seat isn't producing let alone profitable. The larger firms might be able to double or triple stack that person and ensure they have something to come back to. In any case, what can you do to reinforce them coming back? How long do we wait until they are profitable again? Can we trust to give them the absolute minimum duties because they may need to leave again? When they return, can we entrust them to do what they did before they left? Will they remember how? 

Take a moment to reflect on your current stance on the service members. Think about how you approach someone who lost everything. How do you support them? How would you advise others to support them? 

------------------------------
Michael Perez AIA
PMKC Leadership Group
------------------------------

I appreciate the line of discussion although I am not personally a veteran. Cromwell Architects + Engineers has at least one architect in our Little Rock office, perhaps others in our regional offices, and numerous veterans in all other disciplines. This architect's contribution to the firm is very valuable! 

Two of my sons are embarking on their careers in the military (not architecture) and I stressed to them the value this would have on all future endeavors for the self discipline, project management, and communication skills they will have after service.

If anyone is looking for a firm that will follow through in welcoming military service members and families please reach out to Cromwell.

Michelle Teague, AIA, ACHA, NCARB, LEED AP  Architecture     1300 East 6th Street – Little Rock, Arkansas 72202  T 501.372.2900  |  D 501.400.1137  |  C 501.472.7297 mteague@cromwell.com  I  cromwell.com

Michael, thanks for sharing your experience and your broader perspective about balancing military service (reserve status) and a professional architecture career. The challenges are extensive for the employee and employer, and the impacts are long-lasting as you mentioned. The unique experience of military service is a differentiator for professional architects, and the military veteran network is relatively small. 

Let's continue to build the network of military veterans and currently serving military reservists in AIA.   

"Without fail, everyone supports the military. Until..."

These words are all too common from frustrated new applicants who serve and work in the civilian industry. The words stopped me and made me think about how I support others in the industry. 

In my personal experience both in the military and as civilian architect, I have experienced that career progression is very limited the later in your architectural career you get. I can only understand from the perspective of a guardsman. The difficult issues seen in the professional world is that smaller to medium sized firms are not equipped to double or triple slot your position, so if you are called out on active duty emergency or deployment, you are simply gone for quite a while and anything you are responsible for or in charge of needs to be passed off to another person in the firm (USERRA Regulations). I see often that upon returning, these duties being passed off become permanent and new duties become limited as leadership and supervision becomes unsure of availability. This is understandable because the service member only really knows about half of the time when they are obligated to do something. It is a major sacrifice to the service member to remain in the civilian service for projects or deadlines, because it could mean delay or significant hinderance to their military career and benefits. On the flip-side, serving on active or TDY (temporary duty orders) hinders their ability to gain experience, enable a sense of culture, and form a cohesive bond of trust with the team. I have served in the architectural world for 20 years and from what I have experienced, it is the clients you serve, the people you help, the projects you deliver, and the budgets that succeed that all prove your position. In the military, my unit is all about service before self, pushing ourselves to help each other, and sacrificing ourselves so that others do not have to. These dichotomies are difficult to navigate if you want two separate successful careers. In my experience, the person who goes above and beyond, working endless hours, growing their technical skills, and bringing in unparalleled profit grow fairly quickly. While at the same time in the military, it is the people who care the most about others, develop their teams, and sacrifice all they have are the ones who promote quickly.

Each time I join a firm I have learned to firmly lay out, in colored Gantt charts of course, my obligations and timelines. I make it a point to directly layout my obligations and strongly emphasize what it means to hire someone like me. I am definitely no hero, I am no better than any other person. I choose to be the person standing shield to shield willing to defend our country to the end. I believe that business and the military are similar but different enough that they warrant respect differently. My obligations are solid, I must go for the minimum. However, I will always be the person to volunteer to stand in for my brothers and sisters who cannot. When they have personal issues, relationship issues, family issues, or simply faith issues, I will step in without hesitation. I promise that I will never be the reason my brothers and sisters wave goodbye for the last time, so send me.

In the civilian world, it generally is different. You tend to aim toward being better than those around you. Always stand out from your peers in a good way and that is what gets you promoted. Sometimes business is dirty and people step on others to get to where they are, its nothing personal, it's just business. These are two entirely different personalities.

You are probably thinking about how much or little this applies to you and your business. I don't blame you, because there is another area we haven't yet explored. If you do not have a service member in your ranks or know anyone who ever served, then please stop here and feel free to comment on your thoughts.

For those of you who are, have, or will be serving, I know there is another layer to the challenge posed above. I know that most of us left with good intentions and all gung-ho about making a name for ourselves. Well, it turned out that the military changed us, sometimes in good ways and sometimes in not so good ways. Sometimes we leave a lucrative architectural senior position at the top of our game and take 6-12 months off. Yeah, it seems like a LONG vacation to our co-workers and friends. But as we have been trained and briefed over and over, as well as our families, it is no vacation. We get some warning for deployment but natural disasters, we have little. We chose to serve our communities. Some of us don't come back home. Some of us can't come back home. Some of us mentally will never be able to return to who we were. Some of us need much longer than a few weeks upon getting off that plane at home. Some of us bury our friends. Some of us come home to shattered families and relationships. We aren't made of stone, some of us will never be the same.

So when we get back to the fanfare and happiness of being back in the United States under our own flag. What's next? We must become functioning human beings in society again. Some of us return like nothing happened. Some of us will never be able to achieve that optimal peak again. Some of us may spiral. Some of us come home without our friends. Some of us never fully come home again. Even our simple 2-6 week trips revolve around an entire career type that generally has nothing or extremely little to do with architecture.

When we walk in the door to our long awaited architectural firms, what do we have greeting us? From the employer's standpoint I am obligated by law to keep the job, wage, benefits, and place for my service member. For the service members, the work may not be the most optimal for a while. Often times, our service member staring us in the face may not be the same human being. After all of that sacrifice, your service members just hope that you care enough about them to try. It won't always be perfect and it won't be easy but all they ask is to try.

The business case for the smaller to medium firms is understandable. A person missing from their seat isn't producing let alone profitable. The larger firms might be able to double or triple stack that person and ensure they have something to come back to. In any case, what can you do to reinforce them coming back? How long do we wait until they are profitable again? Can we trust to give them the absolute minimum duties because they may need to leave again? When they return, can we entrust them to do what they did before they left? Will they remember how? 

Take a moment to reflect on your current stance on the service members. Think about how you approach someone who lost everything. How do you support them? How would you advise others to support them? 

------------------------------
Michael Perez AIA
PMKC Leadership Group
------------------------------

Michael, thanks for sharing your experience and your broader perspective about balancing military service (reserve status) and a professional architecture career. The challenges are extensive for the employee and employer, and the impacts are long-lasting as you mentioned. The unique experience of military service is a differentiator for professional architects, and the military veteran network is relatively small. 

Let's continue to build the network of military veterans and currently serving military reservists in AIA.   

"Without fail, everyone supports the military. Until..."

These words are all too common from frustrated new applicants who serve and work in the civilian industry. The words stopped me and made me think about how I support others in the industry. 

In my personal experience both in the military and as civilian architect, I have experienced that career progression is very limited the later in your architectural career you get. I can only understand from the perspective of a guardsman. The difficult issues seen in the professional world is that smaller to medium sized firms are not equipped to double or triple slot your position, so if you are called out on active duty emergency or deployment, you are simply gone for quite a while and anything you are responsible for or in charge of needs to be passed off to another person in the firm (USERRA Regulations). I see often that upon returning, these duties being passed off become permanent and new duties become limited as leadership and supervision becomes unsure of availability. This is understandable because the service member only really knows about half of the time when they are obligated to do something. It is a major sacrifice to the service member to remain in the civilian service for projects or deadlines, because it could mean delay or significant hinderance to their military career and benefits. On the flip-side, serving on active or TDY (temporary duty orders) hinders their ability to gain experience, enable a sense of culture, and form a cohesive bond of trust with the team. I have served in the architectural world for 20 years and from what I have experienced, it is the clients you serve, the people you help, the projects you deliver, and the budgets that succeed that all prove your position. In the military, my unit is all about service before self, pushing ourselves to help each other, and sacrificing ourselves so that others do not have to. These dichotomies are difficult to navigate if you want two separate successful careers. In my experience, the person who goes above and beyond, working endless hours, growing their technical skills, and bringing in unparalleled profit grow fairly quickly. While at the same time in the military, it is the people who care the most about others, develop their teams, and sacrifice all they have are the ones who promote quickly.

Each time I join a firm I have learned to firmly lay out, in colored Gantt charts of course, my obligations and timelines. I make it a point to directly layout my obligations and strongly emphasize what it means to hire someone like me. I am definitely no hero, I am no better than any other person. I choose to be the person standing shield to shield willing to defend our country to the end. I believe that business and the military are similar but different enough that they warrant respect differently. My obligations are solid, I must go for the minimum. However, I will always be the person to volunteer to stand in for my brothers and sisters who cannot. When they have personal issues, relationship issues, family issues, or simply faith issues, I will step in without hesitation. I promise that I will never be the reason my brothers and sisters wave goodbye for the last time, so send me.

In the civilian world, it generally is different. You tend to aim toward being better than those around you. Always stand out from your peers in a good way and that is what gets you promoted. Sometimes business is dirty and people step on others to get to where they are, its nothing personal, it's just business. These are two entirely different personalities.

You are probably thinking about how much or little this applies to you and your business. I don't blame you, because there is another area we haven't yet explored. If you do not have a service member in your ranks or know anyone who ever served, then please stop here and feel free to comment on your thoughts.

For those of you who are, have, or will be serving, I know there is another layer to the challenge posed above. I know that most of us left with good intentions and all gung-ho about making a name for ourselves. Well, it turned out that the military changed us, sometimes in good ways and sometimes in not so good ways. Sometimes we leave a lucrative architectural senior position at the top of our game and take 6-12 months off. Yeah, it seems like a LONG vacation to our co-workers and friends. But as we have been trained and briefed over and over, as well as our families, it is no vacation. We get some warning for deployment but natural disasters, we have little. We chose to serve our communities. Some of us don't come back home. Some of us can't come back home. Some of us mentally will never be able to return to who we were. Some of us need much longer than a few weeks upon getting off that plane at home. Some of us bury our friends. Some of us come home to shattered families and relationships. We aren't made of stone, some of us will never be the same.

So when we get back to the fanfare and happiness of being back in the United States under our own flag. What's next? We must become functioning human beings in society again. Some of us return like nothing happened. Some of us will never be able to achieve that optimal peak again. Some of us may spiral. Some of us come home without our friends. Some of us never fully come home again. Even our simple 2-6 week trips revolve around an entire career type that generally has nothing or extremely little to do with architecture.

When we walk in the door to our long awaited architectural firms, what do we have greeting us? From the employer's standpoint I am obligated by law to keep the job, wage, benefits, and place for my service member. For the service members, the work may not be the most optimal for a while. Often times, our service member staring us in the face may not be the same human being. After all of that sacrifice, your service members just hope that you care enough about them to try. It won't always be perfect and it won't be easy but all they ask is to try.

The business case for the smaller to medium firms is understandable. A person missing from their seat isn't producing let alone profitable. The larger firms might be able to double or triple stack that person and ensure they have something to come back to. In any case, what can you do to reinforce them coming back? How long do we wait until they are profitable again? Can we trust to give them the absolute minimum duties because they may need to leave again? When they return, can we entrust them to do what they did before they left? Will they remember how? 

Take a moment to reflect on your current stance on the service members. Think about how you approach someone who lost everything. How do you support them? How would you advise others to support them? 

------------------------------
Michael Perez AIA
PMKC Leadership Group
------------------------------