This episode features a lively roundtable discussion with CMBA Architects' talented 2024 intern class! Join us as we chat with all five interns about their experiences this summer. They'll share the projects they worked on, the skills they developed, and what they enjoyed most about their internship at CMBA Architects.
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Episode Transcript
Skyler: Welcome to another episode of laying the foundation.
Skyler: Welcome everybody to another episode of the laying the foundations podcast. I'm your host Skylar back again, and today sitting all around me are our amazing 2024 summer interns, um, from each of our offices. So I'm going to let them introduce themselves. We'll go around the table. Just let me know who you are.
Skyler: Where you're from as far as which office that you interned at and then what like what school you're from as well Because I'd love to hear about that. So we'll start with on my left here
Creighton: Creighton. All right.
Creighton: Yeah My name is Creighton and come from the Grand Island office Um, I go to KU right on right on.
Chris: My name is Chris. I'm also from the Grand Island office I currently go to The University of Nebraska Lincoln.
Chris: Awesome! Very cool, very cool.
Gracie: Hi, my name is Gracie, um, I work at the Sioux City office, and I go to Iowa State University.
Skyler: Iowa State, awesome, very cool.
Olivia: Hi, I'm Olivia, I'm working in the Spencer office this summer, and I'm a fourth year student at Iowa State.
Chuck: My name is Chuck and I am from the Des Moines office and I also go to KU.
Skyler: Awesome. Well, welcome you guys all to the, uh, laying the foundation podcast. It's kind of something that I've been running since I started at CMBA. Um, it's been a really fun project. I get to learn a whole lot. So I like sitting down with either the architects, the designers, the interior designers, the technicians, and learn about like what they do from their standpoint, since I'm in the marketing department.
Skyler: And in this case, I get to learn all about your guys's internship experience. Which is also equally exciting because, uh, I remember when I was an intern, which was a bit different since I was in the marketing sector. So getting to hear about what an architecture internship or a interior design internship looks like is super fun.
Skyler: So first off, first and foremost, I think is just kind of the, the standard question, can you tell us a little bit about, you know, your background when it comes to architecture design? What kind of drove you to, to want to jump into it and, uh, yeah, what, what inspired you, what inspired you to get into this industry, whoever wants to start creating,
Creighton: um, I think as do I, I hear this a lot from a lot of architecture folk, like, especially when we're, um, getting into classes and getting to know people that a lot of people come from Legos or.
Creighton: Things like that. Maybe they already have someone in their family in this industry, but I am no different from that. I loved Legos growing up. My grandma always had a whole bunch of Lincoln Logs. That was our big thing. But it definitely evolved throughout time. My grandma was always super interested and when like we're building their house or Always redoing something so that got me interested and then definitely shop class and in high school made me fall for this work sector.
Skyler: Yeah Yeah, absolutely all the legos the lincoln logs is kind of a fun one that I I don't hear lincoln logs as much from people But I definitely hear the legos. So that's awesome Anybody else who wants to share their kind of background into architecture into design?
Chuck: I too was very into the lego scene Yes, um still am Um, but I would say
Skyler: you and Jim were talking about, you know, what sets you guys had coming in.
Skyler: That's awesome. I thought about warning you about
Creighton: that one. Get him talking about Legos. Good luck. That's right. I
Chuck: think that's how I actually got this internship is me and Jim talking about Lego for half the interview. That's awesome. But, um, so yeah, so it was kind of that hands on experience and enjoy, really enjoying putting things together and sort of that curiosity of how to, Put a puzzle together, but I would say what really secured it for me was Spending a summer in Europe just kind of looking around and you're you're kind of thinking to yourself that should not be standing Like how is that
Skyler: standing?
Skyler: I was ready for you to say like oh yeah the beautiful buildings and all this other stuff I was like, whoa, why is that like that? That can't be right.
Chuck: Like I would feel my architecture interest is less in aesthetics and more in just kind of how it goes together, putting everything together, corresponding with everybody, making sure everything goes smoothly and kind of monitoring the construction process as well.
Chuck: So I feel like that's kind of where I got started.
Skyler: Yeah, absolutely. Efficiency and, and good design, good foundation. That's awesome. That's, I mean, that's what we're all about, so that's awesome. Who else? Who else has some, some background? I
Olivia: also like Creighton and Chuck. I also was very into like the games online, but for me it was more so like Minecraft.
Olivia: Oh, really? I really liked Minecraft a lot. And then I got more into like Sims, so I did a lot of that stuff. But before all of that technology, I more so like would draw on paper and I would just like tape pieces of paper together and. I would go to a friend's house and then, like, draw their house on a piece of paper, like the floor plan, which is really odd, but my, my dad's a draftsman, so I think that kind of gave me a little bit of that idea.
Olivia: And then I really, going into it, didn't think that I would like architecture because I thought it was more like math based, I thought it was almost like engineering, which is not what I like at all.
Skyler: Right.
Olivia: So, but then when I figured it out, it's more so, like, Designing and problem solving then I was like, oh, yeah, I think this is for me.
Olivia: No,
Skyler: that's awesome That's also so you got a little bit of like kind of family experience with your dad doing drafting, which is really cool And then fellow gamer as well, which is awesome. My wife is obsessed with this She's been just Sims 4, any free time she gets, Sims 4, so. Oh yeah. No, that's awesome.
Skyler: Not a sponsor, in case that matters. I
Chris: actually had a friend who did her entire second year project in Sims. In Sims? You're joking. That's crazy. No, I'm not joking. How does that
Skyler: get, does that, is that acceptable in the grading? I don't know. She did it and it was great. She's taking a gap year right now.
Skyler: Either to
Chris: rethink or to play more sims. Yeah, absolutely. So I actually, jumping off of Olivia's story, I kind of have a similar, not exactly the same thing, but so originally, I wasn't actually ever interested in architecture. I never knew it existed. I didn't really know it was what it was because I think that's kind of a lot of people.
Chris: They don't know what architecture is. Um, I originally wanted to be a performing arts student for music and kind of had set up my entire high school. Career that way. And then, um, through some reshuffling of the high school and switching to a career pathway, um, route ended up getting shoved into architecture.
Chris: Cause that was the most artistic, creative thing that you could do. That was similar to music because they were going to more of a STEM focused thing. So started to really enjoy it. I did more interior design and engineering actually within that pathway. Cause the architecture pathway had not actually been defined at the point.
Chris: Okay. Um. So when it came time to decide what degree I was going to pursue during my bachelor's at UNL, um, they kind of gave me an option of, you know, you could still do music if you wanted to, you could do architecture, you could do engineering. At the time, I was like, okay, do I really want to be performing arts or is that more of my hobby?
Chris: Am I going to make enough to live? Because I know all the hoary stories of people trying to make it big on Broadway and like just being a server for a good chunk of their lives. So descended, decided to go with either architecture engineering. Similarly thought it was interchangeable. Thought it would be like one was more math than the other ended up closing my eyes and just being like, okay, a comes first before he, in the alphabet.
Chris: So I'm going to
Skyler: go with that. Yeah. And,
Chris: um, yeah, I, I thought it was interchangeable and you know, I got into it and Looking back on it, it's like, I am definitely. More fit for technical stuff than I am design, but you know, I really like what architecture is. And I honestly, there is a spot for technicality in architecture.
Chris: Absolutely. That's kind of what I absolutely need. Oh yeah, we do need it.
Skyler: And that's really cool to see. Like, obviously we have, you know, some of the more creative side and not saying that anybody's less creative than another person or one person's more maybe capable on math and the technical side than another person.
Skyler: But yeah, Obviously, you know, some people are going to lean more into one side than the other. And it's awesome to be able to, as a company or as a group, marry those skills together and, you know, obviously work on projects from there. So that's really awesome. All right, Gracie, what got you into, uh, what got you into things?
Gracie: Um, basically what got me into it is I was kind of a neighborhood nuisance. Whenever anyone would be doing anything around the neighborhood, I would be there right up in their business. And that kind of sparked my love for. Like engineering. And then I'm also creative person. So I just kind of married the two ideas and the architecture state, but yeah,
Skyler: like you saw like construction projects going on and you like walk up and you're like, what are you guys working on?
Gracie: Yeah, pretty much. At one point my neighbor was like redoing the whole house. on their lower level and they had like all of their furniture just in a tent in their backyard. What?
Skyler: That is weird.
Gracie: And we were just chillin on their couches in their backyard. Like, like it's just I would ask too, I'm right there with you.
Gracie: Can
Chris: I come hang out? I think that's a reasonable question. They would give us like
Gracie: drills and screws to play with. Like, I was young at the time, thinking back on it. Not smart, but it was a lot of fun.
Skyler: Oh, that's awesome. That's awesome. I love how we definitely have a pretty wide variety of kind of those early inspirations that sparked everybody.
Skyler: So that's always exciting. So moving on to kind of the next question. Um, When you guys, and it doesn't have to necessarily be everybody. I mean, obviously feel free to jump in, but when you were looking at, you know, obviously with just about any major, I think anymore, you have to get an internship of some kind to give you a little bit of that real world experience.
Skyler: I think it's usually required credits for whatever college university that you go to. What was kind of going through your mind when you're like, Oh man, I got this, this internship that I got to do. Like I've got to get those credits for, was it scary? Was it exciting? Were you nervous? Like what, what was kind of going through your mind when it came to knowing that you had a necessity to, to get these internship credits?
Skyler: And then I guess to follow up with that, what was your process moving from that? Right? Like, how did you end up here? I guess.
Chris: I mean, I could start. Sure. I had a pretty rough start with my career for during my third year. So at the time I had just gotten accepted into the study abroad program in Spain. And so I knew it would be really tough for me to get an internship anywhere.
Chris: Um, and actually throughout the internship fair, I had two firms at the career fair say that we would like to hire you, but we can't because, You're going to be gone for a whole month and so, and I mean, I interviewed with a good handful of different firms and as the weeks kind of came past as internship, I mean, career fair was over, I constantly got calls saying like, Hey, like, we'd love to have you if you'd be willing to either, you know, drop out of your, your study abroad program or like, Hey, we'd like to take you on next year.
Chris: Just like, you know, You're gonna be gone for a whole month. We're gonna be losing that like that work from you and everything like that I was like, I was feeling really defeated and I had I was actually sitting at The the dining hall with my two of my friends who had you know Already kind of secured their internships and I was like I'm like am I not going to have an internship this summer?
Chris: And then Jim calls me like mid burrito in my mouth I'm like Let's see. And then, uh, he's like, I was like, hello. Cause it was, I didn't know Jim had, I forgot that my number was on my resume. And so I was like, who is this? Right. And I was like, hello. And he's like, Hey Chris, um, how are you doing? I'm like, uh, who is this?
Chris: And he was like, it's Jim. I'm like, Oh, Jim, how you been? And then we kind of got to talking and he told me like, Hey, we'd love to take you on this, um, this summer. I know that you're going to be gone for a whole month. And like, we'd love to, you know, And if you really like, you know, what you see during the month that you're here, like come back next summer.
Chris: And I mean, that's what I'm doing now is I'm back right now, but, um, yeah. CMBA was actually the only firm to offer me a position out of the seven to ten firms that I interviewed. Um, so they let me, you know, get a unique experience studying abroad. Um, and then let me come back and, you know, let me do basically a third of the internship program, um, during its, I think first year is what Kirsten said.
Chris: So it was a really great experience. And I, and I, I'm a huge advocate now at UNL saying like, Hey, CMBA, you know, They do these things for you. Like they'll let you go to study abroad. Um, unlike, you know, these bigger firms that you might be going for. Sure,
Skyler: sure. Yeah, that's, you know, and it's one of those things.
Skyler: It's like, this is an opportunity to let students have real world experience. Why not? Like, I mean, we, we want to show them what we do and all this other stuff and we want to show them how welcoming that we are. Why, why not? Even if it is going to be for a month less than the normal internship experience, like that's, who cares?
Skyler: It's, it's for experience. That's what we're trying to do here. So, no, that's awesome. And Chris, we'd love to have you. Even in the short time that we had you that last. up. It was, it was great having you. And so
Chris: being here the whole summer has been a fantastic experience. I could not ask for a better experience.
Chris: Honestly.
Skyler: That's awesome.
Creighton: That's
Skyler: awesome.
Creighton: Anybody else? Yeah. So unlike I feel like a lot of schools, KU doesn't require any internship experience. Um, we had an interiors in last year. And it sounds like it was required for them at KU, but not the actual architecture program. Um, I think that's something that should change because let me tell you I have learned more here, especially Um after being out here for two summers now than I think I have learned in school for the past four years.
Skyler: Sure.
Creighton: Um, we were kind of talking about this earlier in the office of school Doesn't necessarily teach you to be an architect, teaches design, but that's almost a really small portion of what we do on a day to day basis. Um, but when it came to actually looking for, um, my internship, obviously we had a career fair just like everybody else.
Creighton: And, um, they give us a list of all the firms that will be there and the firms, you know, put in their descriptions and where they're at and whatnot, what they're looking for. And, um, um, I had seen that this, you know, this firm, they had a location in grand Island. I'm like, well, I could make that work. You know, live at home from Hastings or just down the road.
Creighton: Um, I'm like, yeah, you know, I'll talk with them. And I had a list of a bunch of other people and none of the other firms that I have a conversation like I had with, with Kirsten. And it was just really, really nice.
Skyler: Yeah.
Creighton: They were super friendly and, um, Um, you know, afterwards, you know, I talked to a bunch of people that day and afterwards went back to my computer and now I'm trying to find all the applications online and going through all the, um, all the different papers that I had collected.
Creighton: And, um, I didn't hear back from a lot of places, but, uh, I did hear back from CMBA and, uh, we set up an interview and we had a fantastic conversation and I was offered a position and I couldn't, couldn't be happier. I came back. Um, It's been a fantastic experience. I have recommended it to so many people, um, for one of our classes.
Creighton: We got to interview Jim for a project and we're going to get Jim down to Kansas is what we're going to do. A lot of people wondered where he was this last year for the career fair. I was hyping them up. He's
Skyler: our, he's our rep. He's, I mean, Kirsten's obviously our rep. He's our, he's our architectural rep.
Skyler: Yeah. God, I have him. Did he also give you, Kind of an odd call where he didn't introduce himself at the beginning.
Creighton: No, no, no, he did not. Um, I had no idea who Jim was until they were on a zoom call with, with them for my meeting and. There we kind of got to learn a little bit about Jim and who he was, but I never met Jim until my first day of first day of work.
Creighton: And, um, took off from there.
Skyler: I'm just now kind of realizing I didn't even think about it before, but so the left side of the table here that we're we've got set up, I've got the second year. Interns and then on the right side of the table, you guys are all the first year. So what about you guys on the, on the other side, the fresh, fresher, new interns?
Skyler: Like what was, what was that like to kind of have that?
Olivia: This is my first internship ever. So I was very, Very scared to go to the career fair and talk to people because the year prior, I think I didn't take it super seriously because I was not ready to have an internship yet. They're intimidating. They're so intimidating.
Olivia: I was not ready yet. So this year I was like, well, I've been a lifeguard for like so long. And I was like, I don't want to do that anymore. And the previous summer I worked for my dad where my dad works. And so he told me that they didn't have work for me this summer. So I'm going to have to. Find something myself.
Olivia: They did have work for me, but he just said that so I would You wanted to push it out into the into the world and see what else you could come up with Yeah So I did a little research before the career fair into who was all going to be there and I realized that Cmba has an office in spencer. Oh, yeah, which is very close to where I live Awesome.
Olivia: So I was super excited because I live in the middle of nowhere. So, so there's really nothing around. And so I was really excited and I talked to them at the career fair and like everyone else, the experience was just different than talking to other firms. Their CMBA has been so much warmer and inviting, I would say.
Olivia: And even in the interviews, I had like one or two interviews and I don't know if they had already decided on another candidate in some of them, but they They didn't ask me like any questions about myself So it was just me asking questions the whole time which I was like, okay I feel like you're not trying to get to know me at all But then I had my interview with cmba and I feel like they really tried to get to know me And what I would like to learn and so it was a really really good experience.
Olivia: That's
Skyler: awesome And again, that's that's exactly the point right like we yes We're a company and there's going to be work to do and stuff like that But like You guys are trying to learn. You try trying to gain that real world experience. Why would we sit there and just be like, well, they're just here to, you know, be paid to do work for us when it's like, you guys want to learn.
Skyler: Ask me about what I want to learn. Cause I want to be sure that we have that experience. So that's awesome. And agreed. You know, when you're in the Midwest, it can be kind of tricky sometimes and like setting it all up is intimidating. Right? Like I got to go find an apartment or something for the time that I'm at the interchip and, A lot of places don't like to do what?
Skyler: Like three, three month, four month contracts.
Chris: I actually kind of ran into that issue coming back to grand Island. Um, my parents had actually both moved out of grand Island this summer. So I was like stressing to find an apartment, right? Either all the, all the kind of affordable ones were either taken or, um, you know, we're just like, we'll do half a year, but we can't do, we can't do the three months.
Chris: Six months is always kind of the, I want to say like. In May I was still like looking for it. So I think I signed my lease two weeks before I started. Wow work Whoo on Monday on the month on that Monday after I had finished so long time to endure that stress For to come up at that last second there.
Chris: Yeah, and I can't I want to add to Olivia's Yeah, whole conversation is the so I did not attend this year's career fair because I had kovat And so I was sure I wasn't a lot basically a lot even in the building. Oh, yeah But from what I After the second day of CMBA being there, I had, my phone was blowing up saying like, hey, like CMBA was so kind to me.
Chris: And for some reason, my whole class's consensus this year was everyone doesn't sound like they're hiring. Nobody wants to like ask questions. Um, but CMBA, from one of my friends had said, like they had a line wrapping up and down the link at UNL, if you know what, that's it, where that it's at. And, um, people just wanted to talk to them because they were genuine.
Chris: They. They cared about each person that they talked to. They tried their best to, you know, allocate a half an hour slot for every single person that was in line. Um, and that is really tough. And it was really cool to hear about that, you know, from, well, laying in bed sick, um, because it was like the year before, um, I mean, you know, you get your big lines that, you know, your big firms, your big corporate firms, the ones that have offices across the U S and then to hear like, um, You know, the office that is in my town, you know, is we're a little medium, medium sized.
Chris: I mean, we only have about like around 70 employees, you know, competing on that kind of like popularity level as like these massive 10, 000 right. Employee firms was amazing to hear. So,
Skyler: Well, Hey, we're excited to be there. And like I said, I mean, I totally get like that career fairs can get kind of intimidating for sure.
Skyler: And the idea of putting in that application for this job or this place that you've never been to before is definitely, it's definitely different than in other people's situations where it's like, you know, they, they've jumped from job to job throughout their career. And, you know, it's like, Oh, well I'll send in another applicant.
Skyler: They're offering me more money, whatever. But like that first. Set up of the internship and I'm going to be there for three months. And I don't know these people and I don't know what kind of work is coming my way. I'm just starting to learn and things along those lines. Like Olivia, you said like, there's a point where it's like, it's too soon.
Skyler: It's too soon this year. I know for, um, when I was in college, I think we didn't even have, uh, then push for it until like junior year, I think is about when they said you need to. So it's, it's intimidating for sure. And it's, uh, it's definitely scary. But with that being said, when you guys got the internships, you got started and everything.
Skyler: What, what kind of work have you guys seen since the start of your internship? What kind of projects have you guys been involved in? Cause I know a lot of people are really excited to. Work on things rather than, you know, the stereotype of internship, which is you go get coffee for the office and you do menial tasks of filing paperwork or something like that.
Skyler: I don't know. Maybe that is what you guys did. I don't know. What, what were you guys involved with?
Olivia: So this sounds kind of nerdy, but this is like the first project I worked on, but This last semester, me and Gracie at Iowa state learned a lot more about code. Sure. So Adam had me help him with a code review, which was so great because I kind of like knew what he was talking about, which was great.
Olivia: And so I just kind of applied some of those things and he let me do the math and apparently I did it right. So that's a nice sigh of relief for sure. Yeah. So I was kind of excited to see that. Some part of my education from school was like transferring over because a lot of the other classes they are You know, very theoretical,
Skyler: right?
Olivia: So it was nice that I could apply something. So, and it was like a confidence boost to like the first thing I worked on. I was like, Oh, I can, I can handle this. I can do it and I'm
Skyler: doing it and it's working and I'm feeling like I'm succeeding. That's awesome. That's awesome. And you had Adam along the way to, to kind of guide you through it, which is good.
Skyler: He made sure, yeah,
Olivia: he made sure everything was going smoothly and my mentors were checking on me. So. Very cool. It all went well.
Skyler: Awesome. What, what else have you guys been working on?
Chuck: I will say that I haven't really branched out a lot this summer. It's your first time here. I'm kind of grateful because.
Chuck: I've been on this one project that's at the university of Iowa, and it's kind of this very obscure, not typical project. And, um, although I haven't been able to branch out and maybe work with healthcare or the K through 12, I've literally seen this project, like get kicked back to the beginning and then work back through every single stage.
Chuck: And so I was on it through SD now through DD, and then now kind of, uh, Progressing forward, just seeing where it's going to head. Um, I honestly think that kind of being in the same project for multiple phases has opened my eyes and the sense of while you are, um, like day to day looking for those things that you can bring from school to kind of like connect.
Chuck: It's. just realizing how much they teach you in school that you actually don't like use every day because you know, we're, we have all these consultants and it's kind of this just like maze of making everyone work together and getting all the information you need. And I think that that's, One of the coolest parts to me is kind of seeing how, like how it is going to eventually get sent out.
Chuck: Someone's going to build it and someone's going to enjoy it. So
Skyler: absolutely getting to be a part of an actual project that's actually being made and worked on. And like I said, not, not filing paperwork for, um, projects that have already been done or maybe projects that are in the works that you're just like, uh, like I said, doing the menial task for, but like being a part of.
Skyler: The actual process is like, Oh, that's so nice. This is like, I get to see what it looks like to actually do one of these. And then when you go back, I'm sure when you go back to school, you're going to be looking at the classes and the lessons a lot differently, because you'll be like, Oh, I know how this is like, at what point this gets applied or how this is going to work out in the long run and stuff like that.
Skyler: So that's awesome. That's awesome.
AD: Attention architecture students. Are you looking for a hands on internship opportunity that will provide you. With real world experience and a competitive pay rate, look no further than CMBA Architects. Our internship program offers flexible scheduling. A casual dress code and team building exercises to help you build valuable skills and connections in the industry.
AD: Plus, who doesn't love having Fridays off?
Skyler: To learn more about our internship program, visit the careers page at cmbaarchitects. com and spend your summer with CMBA. Anyone else, any other projects that you guys had a chance to jump into?
Creighton: I am working on something pretty fun right now. Um, it is a corporate office building that doesn't sound very thrilling when you think about it.
Creighton: Cause most of them, aren't very exciting or we're pretty restricted on budget or we're just all about getting as many people into a space as, as we can. But that is not the case at all. Um, for this project, the clients, they, they know what they want. They like what we're putting in front of them. And, um, there's been very, very minimal pushback on things.
Creighton: Um, we were just kind of limited to about the square footage. They gave us how many employees and, um, we've got some cool features like. One of the first things that would usually be, um, cut from a project would be like a clear story. You know, they're pretty expensive to, uh, to construct, but bringing in a lot of natural light for office spaces that don't usually ever get it.
Creighton: Um, it was, uh, it was kind of an important thing to us to try and keep in this project and the clients were all about it. They loved it. And it's become kind of the, I'm not going to say a focal point, but it's definitely a big design decision in this project. And, um, some of the other things we're doing, we've got an awesome outdoor patio space that's halfway covered by the building.
Creighton: It's got two massive vertical bifolding doors that open up outside. There'll be an outdoor kitchen and, um, hopefully a little fire pit area. And, Oh, wow. And a
Skyler: corporate office. Yeah, they
Creighton: were, First showed it a lot bigger. It just kind of the way it worked with the building and stuff. And, and they were like, well, we just don't think we're ever going to use that.
Creighton: Cause you know, we, we don't do anything now. And we're like, well, you don't have a space. Now you have a gravel parking lot, you have literally nothing outside now. And, um, they're like, you know what? That that's a good idea. Yeah, let's do this. We're like, great, awesome. And so. It's shrunken. I don't know. It's probably gone down about half the size, but it's still bigger than everything else.
Creighton: And there's, it's a lot of cool features. Um,
Skyler: because I know we've on the podcast have talked, had a couple episodes about, um, office culture and work culture and stuff like that. And like having those amenities and design those spaces to promote the idea of being able to hold little events and games and all this other stuff to like really improved.
Skyler: So I'm glad that they're, they're keeping that idea and I'm glad that you guys are, you know, pushing that idea and say, Hey, you might not use it now, but like imagine if you could and imagine how beneficial that's going to be in the long run. Yeah, that's pretty cool. Yeah, for
Creighton: sure. And they're just really great people to work with as an, it's not just the owners, the people at the top of the company that are making these decisions, like, yes they are, but they've also been getting their staff involved a lot as in, well.
Creighton: They're the ones that are going to be sitting in these desks out there. So what do they want?
Skyler: Right. Like
Creighton: we've shown them some of the companies that we're kind of looking at for furniture and stuff and they kind of gave them the booklet and said, what do you want?
Skyler: Sure.
Creighton: And so we have, yeah, that's
Skyler: a good project.
Skyler: It's
Creighton: yeah. The way our open office area is it's kind of split in the middle by a, uh, by an office in a couple of conference rooms. Um, but there's two bigger open areas kind of, uh, Under one clear story and, uh, they're different departments. And so, um, they want such different things. The customer service side picked out some fun desks.
Creighton: They're not. They're kind of rounded corners. They're collaborative. They're cool. And then the other side's accounting. They chose the most square cubicle looking. They're all facing in the same direction, higher walls.
Skyler: Well,
Creighton: I can't say we expected something different, but it was kind of the idea of. You know, some people would just say, well, here's your desk, make it work.
Creighton: But they've actually tried to get people's input on this and see what others would want. Yeah, it's been, it's been really cool to see when I came in this summer. I was handed some colorful boxes on a, on a piece of paper that kind of said, well, the offices are going to kind of go around here. This is here.
Creighton: Maybe this is over there. And, um, over the summer, we've taken it from that to a full. Exterior design materials picked out to a full floor plan knocked out. We are, um, really starting to get into the interior finishes and. Layouts and we're dabbling into the CD sets right now. And it's been a very accelerated project.
Creighton: They have a very accelerated timeline, um, that we're going to try to please. And we've been trying to move as fast as we can, but again, we're only human and we can only go so fast, but it's been a whole lot of fun.
Skyler: That's awesome. That's how it does sound like a lot of fun. I mean, I'm not an architect, but it does sound like a lot of fun to just kind of be like, let's just see what we can do, see what we can make.
Creighton: We've had a couple others, smaller. Projects that I've, um, kind of gotten to work on this summer. There's been a nice little break from it, but. Spent a lot of time on that project. That's awesome.
Skyler: So, uh, kind of going off of what you and I were kind of discussing a second ago there, with the company culture.
Skyler: What about the company culture at C& BA? How would you guys like define it? What did you like? Maybe didn't like? Um, talk, talk to me about that.
Chris: Okay, I only got really like two words, at least for the Grand Island office. Okay. Nerf guns. Nerf guns. Yes. Quite literally, everyone has, even the micro interns even have their own, uh, well, they're loaning some out for me.
Chris: But, you know, it's, it's been great. Like, we do a lot of fun things, um, which kind of, I think, take the stress away from, from us. We've done Uno, Spicy Uno. The younger, uh, members of the office try to do game nights, Creighton, we've been trying to get you to come. But, he, he leaves early on Friday because he gets sick.
Chris: He does all of his things that he needs to get done, and we usually do it on Friday nights, and, you know, it's a bit of a drive for him to come back from, from Hastings to the office, but, yeah, we try to do game nights, um, we've done Cornhole, Creighton here is the champion of almost, well, all three, all three events that we've done, like the, uh, beginning of the summer at Sioux City you won, and then you won at Jim's the gym vitational the gym vitational the opportunity the makeshift one we did in the office where we almost took out a lamp it happens that was Todd
Creighton: that's old Todd's fault
Skyler: and we do have those at the Sioux City office too I don't know about the other ones Do they ever met Spencer?
Skyler: No? Okay. And in Des Moines? That sounds like an investment.
Chuck: No,
Creighton: none
Chuck: of our
Creighton: friends in Des Moines. They're missing out. They're missing out. We'll talk to Kent. We'll talk to Kent. Yes. We'll talk to Kent. He
Chuck: just donated all of his too, and I'm like, What?! He could've donated. To the office! Aw, man.
Creighton: Missed opportunity.
Creighton: Yeah, it's not only all the games that we play and things that aren't directly related to work. Like when we're actually working, it's such a collaborative space and we all work so closely together. And if you have any concern or you hit a roadblock, you just don't know what to do anymore for this project, or you can't think of the next, I guess, how something might work.
Creighton: There's always someone that you can talk to, get ideas from. We're all about helping each other. No one person could do what we do and to keep the company growing like we are. And, um, it's just really nice to see you have like get stuck on something or I'm like, well, how would. How would that be built?
Creighton: Like, I like to think I know how some things get built. It's been a kind of a big part of my schooling, but I don't know everything. And it's just nice to go to someone and be like, Oh, well, yeah, let's do this. And we look at it and see if it'll work. It's just a collaborative space, collaborative space.
Skyler: That's good. There's another two words, Nerf guns, and then separate two collaborative space. What about you guys? Um, I know I, I see some of the stuff that like the Des Moines and the Spencer office do, but I don't see everything. How, what's, what's it like over there?
Chuck: Yeah, it's amazing. Company culture is awesome.
Chuck: A thousand percent the people. And I think that's so evident and well, I'm going to kind of take it back to one of your prior questions, kind of like going to the career fair, nervous. I had been the. Two years before, but it's like not, not freshmen friendly, not freshman
Creighton: friendly.
Chuck: I was shown pretty quickly, but, um, and then I also had some internships, um, at two firms in high school.
Chuck: Um, and it was just this sort of you walk into work and right outside the door, you know, you're kind of tightening your tie or you're, you know, you're like, and you're just adopting this, this. Professional persona. Absolutely. And then at the career fair, I walk up and Kent, of all people, is over there. And he's just like, just talking my ear off about anything but architecture.
Chuck: And it was so refreshing because I didn't feel the need to sort of be all professional and, um, Kind of prove myself. It was just sort of how does everyone interact and they really, really care about each other. They care about everyone succeeding. And I think that's truly their, you know, kind of the golden ticket to just creating an inviting space and actually doing good work because of it, you know?
Skyler: Absolutely. The people, that's our next set of two words. I like it. I like it. All right. What about, what about Spencer? What about, I, Gracie, I know that I'm from the Sioux city office and I know I put a lot of stuff together. You can be brutally honest with me. When we, when we switch over to you? Yeah. Okay.
Olivia: So in the Spencer office, I think the culture leans more towards like pulling innocent little pranks on each other. , which on my very first week, it was the funniest thing ever. It was my birthday on the Friday, and it was also going to be, was it Memorial Day? That weekend. Okay. In May. Yeah. Yeah,
Skyler: that sounds right.
Skyler: Yeah. Memorial
Olivia: Day. And so I was telling them I was planning on leaving early. And so they said, Oh, we need to have a team meeting. In the office. And Adam was all decked out in USA gear. Like he had a USA hat on and I was just like, Oh, this is interesting. I didn't know, like people celebrated Memorial Day this intensely in an office.
Olivia: Oh, that's different. And all of a sudden I see everyone running to the, to the office and. Jocelyn was carrying this huge flag like it had to have the pole was like probably seven feet long
Skyler: Really?
Olivia: And then I went no, it was so funny and then I go into the office And then they're like, okay, ready? And everybody put their hands over their hearts And I was just so confused And so I thought they were going to start saying the pledge of allegiance, but then they sang me happy birthday So yeah, it was really sweet.
Olivia: How have I not heard
Skyler: about this?
Olivia: Yes, and they like really committed to the bit there was like USA themed like cookies like Straws like everything they really went a
Skyler: while. Yeah, I hadn't heard a single thing about this My
Olivia: goodness and the craziest part was I had only mentioned to Jocelyn the day before that it was my birthday the next day
Skyler: Wow, and it
Olivia: was like 2 p.
Olivia: m. When I told her that oh my god So, they pulled that together so fast.
Creighton: Holy cow. That's amazing. Oh my gosh.
Olivia: It was definitely a very welcoming. Yeah, yeah. Welcoming party. I loved it. So. A goofy,
Skyler: goofy prank. Yes. Just kind of, but like a fun one. Oh, yeah. Not like, you know, trying to get you to like dumping something on your head or something like that.
Skyler: No, it was
Olivia: just, it was so fun. That's awesome.
Skyler: Alright, Gracie. What do you think about the Sioux city office? This is kind of nice. Cause we, aside from Omaha, we've pretty much taken care of like each one of the, we got somebody here from each of the offices and I know Parker's quietly sitting in the back.
Skyler: He just started here at our Omaha office. So he's, he's our new culture club representative here. And so he's going to be bringing all the culture and fun and everything. So yeah, write, write some notes down as you hear from these guys, Parker. All right, Gracie.
Gracie: The Sioux City office is, it's really friendly.
Gracie: I feel like a good way to describe it. It is like very family oriented, like everyone who works there is pretty much at that stage in their life where they're either have young children or have older children and just like even at the outing that we had at McCook Lake, you can kind of see, you Like how people would interact with, um, each other from outside of work and then with their significant others and children and it's just kind of nice to see like everyone bonding and having a good time.
Gracie: Um, of course there's no mercy with Nerf guns there either.
Skyler: Especially when Terry comes out of his office and he's got that giant rifle. Terry's
Gracie: got the big one,
Skyler: yeah. Yes, he's the nerf man.
Gracie: We've also got the, the jumbo nerf darts too. And then they, they throw them. Yeah! And I don't know how they get that much velocity.
Gracie: I don't know. nerf dart.
Skyler: Lee and Eric have a ridiculous amount of practice on that. And they're terrifying too because they whistle. They have like the little cuts in the, the head of the darts. Dart. And so all of a sudden, just walking across the hallway and all of a sudden,
Gracie: I think I'm usually spared some, just the quiet little intern. Did
Skyler: they get you a nerf gun? Have we gotten you one? Oh man, we got a ton of them upstairs. I'll make sure you get one. Pretty much we have like a whole shelf. We've had to buy our own. What is this? I'm going to talk to Jim. Kent is just donating his away.
Skyler: Grand Island has just no sympathy. And I've seen Jim's, Jim's also got a giant Nerf gun
Chris: too. Last summer we basically started an arms race and now we have fully armed.
Skyler: That's funny. But yes, Gracie, I will make sure that you get one before you leave, because I know we're kind of coming to the end of the internships and everything, so I want to make sure you get that chance to shoot back at Terry. I'll
Gracie: keep some targets in mind.
Skyler: Yes, yes. You've pinpointed, you've been waiting for this moment this whole summer.
Skyler: Alright, so I'll jump to the last question, because I know we're kind of like coming up on a pretty long episode here, but What would your advice be to architecture students and design students that are either in your classes or just in the future in general, and they're looking at internships and they're, you know, feeling that nervousness and that fear, what would you say to them?
Skyler: What is some either words of advice or just general like recommendation? What would you want to like tell them?
Creighton: I would say you just, you got to be curious and you got to be yourself. When you're talking to firms it is it is nerve wracking and it's really hard to calm those nerves I really think like just about the only way that you can truly calm those nerves is to buy get a real Conversation going with someone and you just forget about it when you're talking with someone who?
Creighton: Wants to learn more about you and you want to learn more about them. It's just so much easier Easier and just be yourself. Don't try to be someone that you're not. It's not gonna make anything better Because I mean if you get a job off of I mean just by telling lies or trying to be someone that you're not I mean, they're gonna realize and it's it's not gonna look good on you or the school even but just be yourself and stay curious
Chris: Chris, what do you got?
Chris: Words of wisdom. My words of wisdom is to you know, have fun and enjoy what you're doing You With the people that are around you, if, if you're, you know, overly stressed and you're not having fun at the place you're, you're, you're at, you're not going to enjoy the experience. And like, you know, for a lot of people that are like, you know, um, relocating for internships or like commuting, it's like, you know, the stress of driving every day, the stress of, you know, asking questions, you know, don't be afraid.
Chris: Cause kind of like Creighton said, it's like, honestly, Creighton kind of took mine, but, you know, um, it's like, yeah, stay curious and like. Don't be nervous around them because you know, they're probably almost as nervous to you know, make a good impression on you
Skyler: Yeah,
Chris: they should be yes They should be and that you know, they should because it's like, you know, I want to say I have not met You know a single person at CMBA that doesn't want me to succeed in this field because it's like they were in your position You know 10 20 years ago and you know, they know how it is and like They're, you know, probably stressing out about how, how do I make this the best experience for them?
Chris: You know, how do I, how do I make them, you know, break out of their shell? And that's, that was one thing for me that I really had to deal with last summer because I'm, I'm not a very overly sophisticated person, but like, you know, being with the firm has actually broken me out of my shell and so I've done, you know, talking to like, you know, the, you know, the more veteran senior members to, you know, the new hires, it's, I've learned so much and I've had fun doing it.
Chris: So that's awesome.
Skyler: That's awesome. Gracie. What do you what do you think? What's what's some good advice?
Gracie: Yeah, I mean have fun is a perfect way of putting it. I think just getting the internship It's just a really stressful experience. Yes, and I think a lot of times Like you can feel like almost your self worth is determined by like your studio professors or a firm Like when you're just getting rejection emails, like back and forth.
Skyler: It wears on you. Oh, yeah, no, definitely. But like, obviously, yeah, fine. Find those, those signs of acceptance and find somewhere that you, yeah, kind of belong and, and feel comfortable at, and also have fun with, as we've, as we've kind of said before, Olivia, what do you got?
Olivia: As a student who is trying to get an internship for the first time, honestly, like just send it, like you have one life, like you really have one life to live.
Olivia: And so like, why not go for it? Why not go for the thing you're afraid of?
Skyler: Absolutely. Like, just, just go for it. The worst they can say, you know, it's a classic. The worst they can say is no. And it does sting, especially early on. You're like, Oh, I really don't want to hear no. Just like Gracie, what you were saying.
Skyler: Just like, it sucks to have like that sort of self worth kind of determined by another person and stuff like that. But. It's not reflective on you. It's reflective on them. You know, they're the ones that said no and they're going to miss out. So it's, yeah, absolutely. Just go for it. Try, see what happens.
Skyler: And I know I can definitely attest to that. I was actually approached by CMBA for this position and I was at another company and I was more or less stable, you know, maybe not necessarily happy, but. Um, I was there and things were going pretty well. And I was like, you know what, maybe we should just jump in the water and see what happens.
Skyler: And it was so worth it. Like seriously, so worth it. So yes, I'm right there with you. Just try it out, just send that, and especially when you're in college, and you have the, the fact that you needed to get an internship anyways, you might as well, like, try it out, see what it's like, have fun. Alright, Chuck, you're last, and therefore, everything's riding on this.
Skyler: What, what parts of wisdom do you got to share with all the, all the students out there?
Chuck: Yeah, well, I second, uh, what everyone else prior said. I would say, just don't be too hard on yourself. I know that that's just so general, but seriously, find comfort in the fact that you're an intern. I think, at least right before I started, I was just sort of, Getting this heavy weight on me.
Chuck: That's like, I have to prove myself. I have to prove that I'm able to do like a nine to five jump in to the professional scene, know how to do everything. Obviously that is not possible.
Chuck: And at least under the CMBA umbrella. Everyone is so incredibly nice and wants you to succeed. So just don't be scared to ask questions and also kind of know that everyone else also knows you're there to learn. So even asking for like, you know, to kind of try different things out, see what is out there, there's just a lot of opportunity for you as an intern.
Chuck: And I think that it should just, it shouldn't be a, this pressure to make the most of it. It should just be. Be doing kind of what you want to do and yeah seeing what's out there
Skyler: Absolutely be be curious as we've said before Want to like try new things want to test the waters because at the end of the day Whether or not it's a paid internship or a non paid internship Which I think I think most people are tending to lean more towards the paid which is appreciated.
Creighton: I don't know of any unpaid internships That's a good that's definitely a good thing like
Skyler: Yes, you're there and you're getting paid to be there and to do work and stuff like that. But it's, uh, it's meant to be a learning experience for you and the company, you know, it's more or less of like, uh, we're, we're paying to hopefully get you interested in what we do and to like our company.
Skyler: And then maybe come back again. Like there's a, there's an investment aspect there, but at the end of the day, it's for you guys to learn. So don't hesitate to ask those questions. And just like you said, Chuck, jump in on those opportunities, try new things out. If you, uh, have been designing, you know, K 12 stuff or been working on a K 12 project and the opportunity opens up to try out healthcare.
Skyler: And I'm just using examples from our firm, do it, try it out and see what you think. You know, maybe there's, there's something there, whatever the case. Uh, thank you guys all for, for sitting down and chatting with me. This has been a lot of fun. I know I've learned a lot and it's fun talking with you guys.
Skyler: So seriously, thank you all for, for taking the time to. Tell me a little bit about your experiences. And I know you say a lot of nice things about CMBA and that's kind of part of why we do this, but it's also great to see like what you guys are up to, what the internship is like, and I know at CMBA, we love to like digest your guys experience and try to make our internship process a lot better based on that.
Skyler: So thank you guys so much. Really appreciate it. If you're listening and you're a student. I hope this was beneficial for you. And we'll see you guys next time on laying the foundation. If you'd like to find out more about the laying the foundation podcast, you can head over to any podcast streaming platform, such as Spotify, iTunes, Google podcasts, and others.
Skyler: You can also find out more about CMBA architects through social media, such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram. Additionally, you can head over to the CMBA website at CMBA architects. com. If you're an architecture or design professional or an intern looking for an internship within those fields, please be sure to check out our website and click on the careers tab to find out more about what opportunities we offer.
Skyler: This has been another episode of the laying the foundation podcast. We'll see you next time.
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August 22, 2024