This content was created by Christopher Parsons. This content was uploaded by Christopher Parsons. This is a YouTube video titled "Reimagining AEC Career Development for a New Generation" (created 2026-01-23) containing an English conversation between Christopher Parsons and another participant (labeled Speaker B). They discuss shifts in career development for architecture/engineering/construction professionals — arguing the traditional apprenticeship model is breaking down, emerging professionals' higher expectations and ambition, the need for flexible upskilling and knowledge-on-demand (versus long-term osmosis), challenges managers face in managing expectations and mentoring, and broader cultural drivers like immediacy/Instagram culture and work–life balance.
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One of the things that I think that I'm hearing in that quote is that people were starting to recognize back then that the traditional apprenticeship model was starting to run into some problems in terms of just one project at a time, somebody over my shoulder. Now I've done a bathroom detail over the course of 20 years. I've seen enough of everything that I become a well rounded architect. And from the complexity, speed thing we just talked about, I think what people. And then obviously there was the pandemic and then there was hybrid and now there's kind of like people in slack or teams and that kind of thing a lot and in zoom. So there's that piece of it. But I'm also wondering just the sheer knowledge that somebody needs to master if they were coming out of school right now that what you'll ask them to learn over five years versus 20 years ago, what they had to learn over five years. And if even the goal anymore is I'm going to kind of see a little bit of everything, we're going to accelerate that and I'll have it all in my memory and my hardware in my brain. Or is it more like we need to teach people to be really flexible, to find the right information on demand to apply to the problem that they're going to come across. I'm thinking we talked about that idea of landmark foundations or essentials. Right. And then Carrie talked about a level above that. So maybe we'll call that 101. Maybe a 201 is like upskilling into healthcare, upscaling into ambulatory care centers, or upskilling into whatever the building type is. If I've only ever worked on higher ed projects and now I get put on a healthcare project, it seems to me like part of what I feel like you're building, I'm thinking about the matrix, right. Where they plug the knowledge pack into somebody's brain. Right. And now they know how to fly a helicopter, but they don't need that six months from now. So it's being flexible and knowing where to acquire the knowledge on demand that you need versus I've just gone through enough of these sessions that I've through osmosis, gotten everything I need to know. That was a very long winded question. I acknowledge that. Kind of feels like that's a thread that's in our conversation a little bit.
Yeah. First of all, I'm going to say that your first part, the apprenticeship model, in my mind, that is dead. That's just. It's not going to work. First of all, with a lot of the emerging professional groups coming out now, we have conversations with a person who's out of school for six months and they're like, how come I'm not going to interviews? How come I'm not in every single meeting? How come I'm not? So the expectations of this group coming out are way higher. I never would have dared have a conversation like that. When I started my career, I knew that I had to sit and learn and do stairs for a while and then do the exterior wall sections and details and things like that. That was just part of the apprenticeship program. That is not in anybody's mindset anymore. I want to be as important to the project as possible right now. And I get it. I get it.
Where do you think that comes from? Like, do you think that's because some people would say this generation super entitled. I hear that. And I'm kind of like, it may be that they're super ambitious. What's the sense that you get about that?
I would say twofold. The super ambition thing is a big part of it. Right. It's an Instagram culture. Everybody wants to be as important and as visible as possible right away. And that's not just online. That's in the firm. Right. I want to look and be important, and I want people to seek me out. I want people to want me to work on their.
They're trying to build a personal brand for themselves within the firm. Yeah, but.
But I think it's also the immediate gratification of everybody, not just the emerging professionals. I can go on Amazon right now and I can order anything I want, and it shows up at my house the next day. It's that immediate gratification thread that everybody has. So it's that and the immediacy of everything that I want to be as important. So, okay, we can change. Try. Let's try this. Let's figure this out, see if we can. So we try to. Those conversations are kind of weird when you. When you have to have it with an emerging professional who is saying, why aren't I at the interview? How come I'm not going to every client meeting? Why aren't I the one running the construction meeting?
What's weird?
Because when you're talking to them, it's hard to say you're not leading the conversation because you don't have the expertise. We don't take you to the interview because we only take people to the interview who are contributing. The presenters are going, this is not a place where you sit in the Background and listen and learn type of thing. Some people are really good at that kind of stuff, and that's what they want to do. When I say. Yeah, when I say weird, Chris, I think what I mean more is those are difficult conversations for a person in my position.
Right.
Or maybe the project manager or the principal to have with them because, you know, one disappoint them. Yeah. And one of the things that I always talk about with leadership and with the project manager group is you want to be the person that your teams want to work for. People want to work for people who support them. People want to work for people who on their projects that they deem as this person is going to support my career and help me advance. And so having those conversations they see as counter productive to that.
Right. By having to like, manage expectations. They don't want to have to. And I think many people don't want to do that. Well, I had to do it this way, so you have to too. You know, this kind of like hazing ritual kind of thing. I don't know, maybe you have some of that in your.
You're hitting on something that I just hate. I despise that. I'm sure I've told Kerry before, I hate it when people say, that's the way we've always done it. No, you have to do it this way because I have to do it this way again. I'm going to use my son as a reference. But during COVID I was upset and I was at the dinner table and I'm like, if people would just put another couple hours into their week. And I said I had to work 65, 70 hours a week just to get noticed at the firm. And my son didn't even look up from his food. And he said, so because it sucked for you, it has to suck for everybody.
Perfect.
And it stuck with me. And then I was like. It was kind of a revelatory moment. I was like, oh, my God. Yeah, he's totally right.
Yeah.
You know, so. So that's another thing that we started talking about is how can we break that cycle of we expect you to work 65, 70 hours. First of all, it's not going to happen. We're getting 40 period. People want work life balance now. And I get it. I wish I would have had more of that when I was younger in my career as well. That's kind of where we're going with that. I don't want people to have to experience what I experienced when I was early in my career.
