You're an Intern?!?                               January 13, 2010 

Throughout my very young architectural career every once in a while a friend or new acquaintance would ask the inevitable question; "So, what do you do?"  After basically going through a five-year haze to attain my degree in Architecture I would eagerly respond, "Oh, I'm an Intern Architect at a mid-sized architectural firm in..."  Wait... You're an Intern?!  

Outside the medical field the title of Intern has long been associated with the youngster who makes coffee runs and brings in the doughnuts.  After always having to explain to people outside my profession exactly what an Intern Architect did, which was definitely NOT bring in the coffee, I started to become more hesitant to tell people outside my profession what my exact title was.

It seemed wrong and slightly uncomfortable to refer to myself as an Architect, not being licensed, and early on looking at my day-to-day tasks I really didn't feel right calling myself a Designer either.  While the elusive term 'Intern Architect' is more meaningful and can mean many things to those actually in the profession, how can we globally explain this term to people who are not?  Does it mean scrapping that title all together?  How does 'Junior Architect', 'First-Year Associate', or 'Designer I' sound?  After all, I really did grow tired of explaining to people that I did get paid, with benefits, and did do a significant amount of work.

I don't know what the solution in this 'battle of nomenclature' is, but in the end I do know that in any field the title Intern is something to be proud of.  Interns in any profession act as the support of the entire operation.  Interns carry out the small tasks and the details that are necessary to assemble the big picture.  So don't let people give you that "glare" when you say that you're an Intern.  Own your title, whatever it may be, don't let it own you!

Written by Dominique Wilmore  |  Get on the Id.interns Mailing List! 

Add Comment

Name

Email (will not be published)

Comment

Enter the letters you see in the image.

Click to get a new image.