Brian Jones, pre-guatemala
So, recently the big news around town has been that “emerging design professionals” aren’t doing so well when in the job market. In fact, it happens to be that now more than ever, architects are getting laid off in HUGE numbers left and right, making finding a job a task that is almost impossible as a) no one is hiring or b) those firms who ARE hiring, have literally thousands of other people applying for the same positions…
A good portion of our friends who graduated with us are out of work (less than 25% still have jobs)… one of our good friends, Brian Jones, has recently peaced out to Guatemala to live with a family in antigua and is taking time to learn the Spanish language and is treking around working with local architects, or just enjoying the different local architecture, culture, and ambiance that is a much needed change than one’s life style in New York City. During one of our nights out on the town of NY (when he was still employed) we joked about him moving to Guatemala to be a gardener and live a much more peaceful and harmonious life…. the joking around got more convincing and seemed to develop a seed in Jone’s thoughts that sprouted in full force when in fact he did get laid off… Later that month, we made plan and moved him to Guatemala and he has been there since.
Architectural Record recently published an article here and had this to say: “Brian Jones, who was laid off in November, heard horror stories from friends about huge lay-offs at their corporate firms while simultaneously being inundated with resumes from talented designers. Instead of joining the fray, he moved to Guatemala. “Having no real ties or large responsibilities, I decided that now would be the best time to do something like this. I felt that it was much more important to do something that I was interested in rather than ‘settle for a job’,” he explains. Brian, who is documenting his adventures on his blog is living with a Guatemalan family while perfecting his Spanish and plans to eventually work in an architecture firm in South America. “Under different circumstances, I may not have taken the risk,” Brian contends.”
You can see brian jones blog here: www.patchesweaver.com