pesky interns...

as of late there has been a sudden influx of architectural interns. this is probably because NUS is having their mid term break. boss has imposed a new policy for hiring interns instead of a proper interview / application. Now interns who are interested in working for the office only need to walk in together with their portfolio and if offered the job should just make their decision on the spot. no more going home to think about it etc. its either you take it or leave it.

i find the interns rather unhelpful and further more irritating. i know i sound pretty mean. but its rather true. everytime i was asked to assign the students a task to do, my mind goes completely blank. and with that i just ask them... 'what type of task are you capable of doing?'. they would then paused and think very hard... and then tell me... 'i can make models... but not very good at it actually.' knowing my boss when it comes to models, he wants all the models (be it just a mere study model) to always be in top quality standards in terms of workmanship quality.i always find it rather ridiculous and insensible. but boss can be quite a whacko nut.
However, at the end of the day, when the quality and workmanship of the model turns out poorly... he would blame it solely on the architect in-charge of such failure. so i always avoid making models if i know that i do not have the time and patience to do so.
back to the interns... apart from model making... they cant really do much except whine and walk around the office chatting with one another. ask them to do authority submission drawings and all i get is a blank stare in return. its not impossible for them to do... but who is going to be there to sit down with them an explain every little thing. definitely not I for sure.
another reason why i dislike these interns is their attitude towards being an intern. they dont' give me the impression that they are here to learn. ofcourse when you ask them why architecture, they can go all night talking about how passionate they are and all that crap nonsense and be all dreamy about it. but when given a task... all i hear is grumbles and they don't shy away in showing how unhappy they are and how much suffering they have to endure. and they call me a slave driver?! damn the angmoh is more of one than i am lar.
i remember when i was an intern... i only had one motive. that is to work and learn and take what ever i'm thrown at. unlike these interns i wasn't concern on being friendy with the other staffs or expecting everyone to be free and happy. in fact i remember being rather anti-social and just glued myself in front of my desk and computer screen. ofcourse perhaps i was much more fortunate to be given more exciting things to do. i had a better task giver than i am to them. well i did offered them to do some design work... but they didnt seem pretty excited anyway. nevertheless at the end of the day... who am i to judge these interns of their passion and interest. After all, they are only interns and still learning the meaning and essence of Architecture and all that bullshit stuff we architects do for a living. and perhaps i was just an exceptionally anti social intern then.

in the evening, boss came up to us and told us not to give the wrong impression of what Architecture is about to the interns. the interns are not to have the idea that the life of an architect is a bed of roses. so we should give the students more task with proper instruction and a deadline to finish the work. no doubt Architecture is indeed a busy profession. but unfortunately that is the reason why we have not the time to give the interns task with proper instructions. further more our deadlines are always pretty impossible to meet.