Opw – Riai Architectural Graduate Training Scheme 2010

Californian dreaming 😉

sssshhhhhh!!!! don’t tell anyone! 😎

What a salary. Just shows how out of whack the civil service is with the rest of the country.

You’ve really landed a golden ticket if you get that job. Unbelievable salary really.

@missarchi wrote:

Californian dreaming 😉

California Dreamin’ is right. God Only Knows, its a Ticket to Ride, but I’m just a Jealous Guy.
I think the OPW/RIAI/Government/Civil Service Unions are considering throwing in a free surf board as well.

the application process…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-PWAQPbOx7I

I’m surprised the people that get these jobs don’t become rock stars:D
There must be some awards ceremony.
At least now you might be able to buy a house with that wage after 20 years…

@missarchi wrote:

the application process…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-PWAQPbOx7I
……

That’s very mad and very funny.:D

I wonder if the OPW would ever “release” certain town/village castles, mills, houses, etc from their care so as to allow local architects to do enhancements with support of local people, possibly on a voluntary or locally-funded basis . . . .

As I understand it, promotion above the basic Grade III conservation status boils down to an architect successfully working on buildings of sufficient scale and complexity.
With nearly all the conservated buildings being appropriated by OPW, it makes it hard for most architects to get conservation jobs that would be likely to raise their status, even if they were willing to do them for the love of it.
There is no need for OPW protectionism in the question of Irish castles & mills — there are enough to go round for everyone 🙂

Teak, I note your expectation that the rest of the profession should offer their services on a voluntary basis, maintaining various OPW and State round and ivory towers. That’s great.
As me granny’s cousin’s sister-in-law’s neighbour said,
You’ll always get work if you work for nothing.
Would you expect the carpenters, joiners, electricians and plasterers to work for free as well? Somehow I doubt it. Isn’t that weird?

Hi Tayto,

I share your general concern about this.
However, I didn’t take that specific meaning from Teak’s posts.

I thought he wanted the release of this buildings to allow work to be undertaken by local groups.
The trade off for the professionals would be an accredited experience leading to a higher classification regarding conservation work.

For the record I have been doing pro-bono work since I went into independent private practice.
Looking back, I could have concentrated on paying work, but at the time we seemed to have enough and I didn’t put more than 10% of my time into it most years.
All of the work benefited me directly in my practice – in experience, not in terms of money in – it was voluntary and unpaid, and indeed I often paid for printing expenses out of my own pocket.

Through this pro-bono work; –

• I was one of two main offices representing at an Oral Hearing
• I authored a significant submission a local action plan in Wicklow
• I have developed my planning observation and appeals competence
• I became a director of a company and co-ordinated the writing their revised articles of association
• I have developed my knowledge of the legislative process and my experience of lobbying and co-ordinated and advised on a current Bill.
• I have kept my knowledge of legislation and associated detailing up to date through advising others on public BBS’s and contributing to debates.

All of the above was pro-bono, sometimes at the peak this would take up 100% of your time over short periods.
All of it had significant benefits to my practice, although the professional independence you bring to the role usually fails to bring in work.
I have turned down profitable work in my area while I served on the planing sub-committee of my residents association because of the conflict of interest it would have involved.

The point I am making is that in a recession, with a deart hof paying work, architects should consdier expanding what may do anyway – pro-bono work.
This will help prepare the ground for any economic upturn by upskilling and working with the community, which in turn should help get your name out there for future reference.
Having the done pro-bono work involving the conservation of a local monument on your CV might be no bad thing, especially if you plan on sending in a job application form to the OPW!

😀

Doing pro-bono work in a recession and forging community links needs to be balanced against the need to prompt persons with money to offer paying commissions.
Public goodwill goes a long way – plus its good PR for the Profession of Archtiecture – but it doesn’t, in and of itself, put food on your table or pay bills.

So there is a line to be drawn where you advise people up to a certain point and beyond this they have to appoint a professional.
You advise them partly to help them realise that they need a professional because many of them don’t know the law.
Pro-bono work also helps improve your communication skills with lay people and keep your advice relevant.
If I sudenly became financially independent I’d still keep up some pro-bono work – its hugely rewarding.

ONQ.

Some people, when they are asked for help, do their best to give it. If there are benefits to doing so, so be it. If there are no benefits to doing so, so be it. (Some people actually behaved like this long before the invention of internet posts).

There’s are great opportunity these days to get free work out of architects. Why not exploit it then? Why not formalise it in to an accredited FAS course, restoring castles for example? It used to happen in the 80’s & 90’s for blocklaying, carpentry and plastering trainees. Why not architects? All those conservation CPD courses are too expensive anyway. A FAS course would be free and everybody would be happy.
Beggars can’t be choosers, as they say.

(chuckle)

Well, Tayto, as someone who has recently faced down both barrels of financial oblivion I can certainly sympathise with that view.
But the flip side is that any work has to be paid for by someone and conserving old castles ends up being paid for by the taxpayer usually, through the OPW.
Preserving our collective history is a laudable aim, with the twin benefits of both increasing our knowledge of the mid to distant past and providing alternative end use tourist destinations, which will in turn benefit the state.

At the moment there are fewer tourists, the banking élite are sucking the world dry because for some unknown reason governments seem to be beholden to them and more interested i nkissing their butts instead of holding them to account.
So if a little humility needs to be shown I’m all for it, and if someone wanted to offer me a FAS course conserving old buildings, racking up my CPD points and getting the experience necessary to become a conservation architect grade III, I’d be all for that.

You can suggest its exploitation if you like, but when the alternative for many people is the unemployment assistance – if they’re lucky – then for them getting paid on a FAS course may be getting more than they are in material terms anyway.

I’m not forgetting we live a very rich, inequitable society, where the Bank Bond Holders are protected by the state and our children’s children will be paying for keeping them and their offspring in the style to which they’ve become accustomed instead of letting them carry the can for the failure of the banks, which is the risk they took when the became Bond Holders in the first place – the flip side of this, the hope that keeps many people going through this nightmare in our profession is all boats may rise – my fear is that the Bond Holders yachts will sail off to the Costa Del Sol and the ret of us will all be left paddling around Dublin Bay in an overcrowded dinghy.

Believe me Tayto, I can sympathise with your view and I can do it while I’m holding all that foregoing commentary in my head, because I’m living it every day of the week.
But I still say that if you get an opportunity to get ahead and increase your knowlede and skills you take it, expecially if you don’t have to pay tuition fees for the privilege and might even get paid some FAS money to do so.

Me, I’m back in 1980’s mode again – take what you can get, say “thanks” and see if you can get some more – keep the head down and keep going – don’t despair.

ONQ.

Here’s hoping that not ALL the positions go to graduates who happened to be members of Ógra Fianna Fáil during their college years.

My proposal was as ONQ said, Tayto.
(Amazing how when an idea is re-phrased by another person it seems clearer.)

The payment would be at a reduced rate, not pro bono as there is a lot of scholarship/study as well as design and draughting to be done on these things.

Maybe the idea of OPW making a contribution towards the cost of approved community restoration projects would not be bad.
Except that the country is now more banjaxed than in the Gaybo era.

We need to innovate our way out of this disaster.

Let’s target hydrogen fuel cells and start making them.
We have an enormous coastline – surrounded by seawater.
We need some afforadable means of making hydrogen fuel cells.

A standardised fuel cell matrix or multiple matrix to an EU agreed standard.
We need s distribution network – using existing fuel suppliers we should be okay.
Then we can give two fingers to the fossil fuel industry AND austerity in one fell swoop.

Hydrogen burnt in excess oxygen pruduces only water vapour as a by-product – clean as a whistle.
And a few more clouds in the sky might help with global cooling – we could hold more desert car races.

But at least lets shake off the fear mongers influence and realise we are the most creative creatures on the planet.

ONQ.

@onq wrote:

We need to innovate our way out of this disaster.

Let’s target hydrogen fuel cells and start making them.
We have an enormous coastline – surrounded by seawater.
We need some afforadable means of making hydrogen fuel cells.

A standardised fuel cell matrix or multiple matrix to an EU agreed standard.
We need s distribution network – using existing fuel suppliers we should be okay.
Then we can give two fingers to the fossil fuel industry AND austerity in one fell swoop.

Hydrogen burnt in excess oxygen pruduces only water vapour as a by-product – clean as a whistle.
And a few more clouds in the sky might help with global cooling – we could hold more desert car races.

But at least lets shake off the fear mongers influence and realise we are the most creative creatures on the planet.

ONQ.

I don’t know – I’ve seen that video of the squirrel getting the nuts

@onq wrote:

We need to innovate our way out of this disaster.

Let’s target hydrogen fuel cells and start making them.

ONQ.

Have you ever seen a perfect mixture of hydrogen and oxygen go pop in a balloon? And you thought a petrol station was dangerous!!!

In my experience petrol stations are usually quite well-behaved…

ONQ.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5m-VgWwfh0c
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eZTP4pT0W0E&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_KuGizBjDXo&feature=related

Its a bit like football hooligans and foreign wars – not Irish

@onq wrote:

Its a bit like football hooligans and foreign wars – not Irish

but the Fightin’ Irish tend to turn up ayways!