New Job

After the nightmare of my first job in China, I was nervous that the same issues I had with BHI I would have with this new company. I did know from my interview that they at least had a layering system for AutoCad and file naming with was a major improvement. My newest company, Valode + Pistre Architects, Shanghai Office, was not the company I wanted to work for. The fact is I turned down their offer when I was still interviewing with other firms. I felt really good after my interview with Mayho Design. I knew the interviewers, an Italian and a Brit, wanted me to be part of their design team. After waiting a week or so, I contacted one of the interviewers via email to inquire about the position. Just as my luck would have it, the company president put them on a hiring freeze for the moment which was just as much of a shock to my interviewers as it was to me. That was devastating news for me.

As I was contacting the headhunter I was using to inquire about more interviews, he advised me that Valode + Pistre Architects were still interested in hiring me even. So one month after my interview with them, I submitted another counter offer to them of 8,000 RMB per month for the first two months with an increase to 10,000 RMB per month after the two months probation. They accepted right away and I realized I could have asked for more but oh well, at least I have a new job.

The company wanted to start me in their Beijing Office for the first three months. I was excited to go to Beijing but I knew that I would not have been able to afford an apartment in Beijing and keep my lease in Shanghai so I asked them to pay my apartment in Beijing while I was there. Apparently they did not like that idea and told me to just start in the Shanghai Office.

On my first day, I took a taxi to work and took my seat, got some information regarding rules and regulations and a list of the folder system and file naming and layering system. So far so good! As the day went on, I asked where the other employees were and to my surprise I was told the five of us were the only ones in the Shanghai Office. I thought I was entering an office of forty-five. Small offices always worry me for a couple of reasons: first, the management isn't always present and employees are expected to work without management which is bad for someone just starting out as an architecture, and second, if it is a satellite office, the project architects and the company Human Resource personnel are located in the larger office which was similar to my first company here. I like to be able to talk to the project architect if I have questions about the project or what exactly they are looking for when it comes to my work. The biggest shock out of all this was the fact that I am the only non-Chinese employee at this office. All the employees knew English and seemed very nice so that calmed my nerves some.

My first week, I did absolutely nothing. It was so boring. I was already starting think my fear of little to no management was justified. So as the week went by, I would read articles and search for apartments on SmartShanghai.com, window-shop for clothes and shoes on TaoBao.com, and draw in my sketch book. OMG! I hate being bored at work.

We did get some work to do the next week but it was still fairly slow most days. It continued this way until the head of the Beijing office was going to stop by for a visit and talk about the new project we were working on. I had been working on a PowerPoint presentation which I had been given the Monday prior and told I had two weeks to work on it which was more than enough time and it was now Thursday and Olivier was going to be here on Friday. My boss came to my desk around 3pm that day and gave me a list of changes I needed to make before his boss arrived at the office the next day at 11am. Where was he with these corrections the day before or that morning?

I ended up staying 3 hours over that night to get most of the work done so there wouldn't be that much left for me to do the next day. I was not happy that I had to do overtime when I was not getting paid extra for it and that it could have been prevented by better management. My boss did seem surprised when I was not quite done with it when his boss arrived which just increased my frustration. I was done before he needed to access however.

The next week things were back to being slow. Doing this slow then rush to meet deadline then slow then rush to meet deadline is not the way to run an office. I know it will happen at times but most of the time it is avoidable with good time management by the project leader and office managers. At least I am not sick to my stomach to come into work like I was at my last office, so I figure I can deal with it for the time being.