Diary of a new recruit

Araba Hagan is a Part 1 student with JSA. She's spending a year with the practice before going on to complete her Masters Degree. Her diary introduces you to life as a new recruit at the practice, and into what life's really like working with us.

Every six weeks Araba will post an update on what's been happening in her job. For a link to the updates, so you can chart her progress and explore the idea of a career with JSA yourself, submit your mail address here.

For our first entry, Araba introduces herself and explains what she's doing at JSA.

Here's a little story...

We used to do a long drive through London every Sunday night to drop my mum to her night shift. Being that small all I could see were building façades and lights out of the window. When we reached Central London the architecture really gets exciting. Apparently I would giggle as we went through Trafalgar Square. Weird.

I grew up in London and it's a great place for architecture. More importantly, I've always been interested in how spaces work, and using it in different ways. At home we were constantly moving things around and being imaginative with space. We transformed our classrooms and school into a big, themed, open exploration space at times. That's all part of it. As an academic all-rounder, I can't say I always wanted to be an architect. But the love for art and design fused with architectural interest as I got older. Studying mainly design, modern language, science and geography were good tools because they all are relevant to architectural understanding. Perhaps it's a common story. I followed London Open House Exhibition for a few years, and other architectural exhibitions. Work experience before university is always a good idea - mine was in Central London and was an eye-opener.

I've just finished a BA (Hons) Architecture at the University of Sheffield. As a year-out Student, er, my job is to do everything I'm asked! The year-out student is basically learning the realities of the job. The role ranges from standard processes such as issuing drawings, printing, to attending consultant meetings, being on site, conducting small meetings, doing faithful CAD drawings, and moving between projects - sometimes it's quite hectic! You're required to understand the project at a certain level of detail, and usually quickly. It is, as it should be, full of variety.

I want to be an architect for a while, most definitely! I'd love to go back to London and encourage children who were in a similar situation to mine to do the same if they have similar dreams.

I'm working on a couple of big projects at the moment. One of them is a £70,000,000 second phase re-development project for Bradford College that we're currently bidding for. On my first day I was taken to site, and then I worked with Matt and Brian on the whole bid: feasibility studies, budget and programme analysis, net area calculations, and then the best bit, design development. We began to conceptually develop a scheme, which involved idea analysis, sketching, photomontages, all those creative processes we all love to do! I learned much more sketch-up, more CAD, and got to use my drawing skills. Most importantly, we shared all our design ideas and came up with something really solid. Matt and I jointly made the graphical presentation for the bid, and then finally I co-presented our work to the client board. I was proud to be part of that team. It was challenging as I was brand new and with quite a responsible role, for a big project. But I gained a lot of confidence especially through working with the right people, and I learned a lot in a short time.

I'm also working on East Riding College, a college redevelopment scheme based in Bridlington. It's a curved building which again was unexpected, in a good way. It was handed over to us at Stage C and to be honest it had so many problems to re-tweak, this was a tough project to be working on. I saw first hand what the hardest parts of this job can entail. It was really quite stressful, but I enjoyed the thought processes behind resolving the design. Through working with Anne and attending meetings with the clients and consultants, I've learned a great deal.

When I first arrived at JSA everyone was really approachable and welcoming. I was impressed that they got on well with each other. It became apparent that JSA was a well established, successful practice, though at the time the practice was in the old office in Sheffield which was a put-off. But as soon as the plans for the new office and new approach were revealed, it became quite an exciting prospect.

East Riding College has been the most challenging job I've done so far. It was a really complicated project, has a very tight schedule and requires fast thinking and experience. So it was tough handling the pressure, and having to learn from mistakes. As a Part 1 you will have to work some stuff out on your own, but it's important to be guided through key things first to build your confidence. I found it hard when I felt as if I didn't know I was doing, or meant to be doing. So never be afraid to ASK for help. Just don't rely too heavily on it.

The bit I enjoy most is doing creative work, working on bids, being on site, talking to other specialists, and initiating meetings where I get to share my ideas - those are less common activities but they are the best! It's really encouraging that my views are seen as important. I feel a key and active member of the practice which is great. I've also been sparking up conversations about architecture and design, which could happen more often.

In the next instalment...

More conceptual design work and a challenging new bid takes shape...

Plus Araba reports on the start of JSA's 50^th anniversary celebrations and builds links between the practice and the University of Sheffield.