"Explain your work clearly" - Robert Goodwin, Perkins+Will

Filmed at the World Architecture Festival in 2016, Robert Goodwin, Design Director at Perkins+Will, talks to Bespoke Careers to tell us what he'd like to see in a candidate's CV, what makes a good first impression, what skills are valued and the best thing about working at Perkins+Will.

What do you want to see in a candidate’s CV?

If someone is applying straight out of school and has just graduated, then what I’d like to see is both the work they have done in school and also any work that they’ve done during school in practice to get a sense of what they are capable of.

Often people will have CVs with a lot of information on them and that shows a great deal of creativity but I’m also looking for a way that they can make decisions and that they will highlight the things that are most important and try to show that creativity in a way that carries the message very clearly to me so I understand what that’s about.

What makes a good first impression?

A combination of how someone greets you – some of that traditional stuff like looking you in the eye and shaking your hand – it always seems to appeal to me.

I think that the combination of what I see in the portfolio and the quality of that design work and how the person explains that is probably the most important thing for me. I want those things to go together well and they are able to explain the work clearly. Because really that’s almost a smaller scale version of working with the client and I like to see how someone can do that.

What skills do you value in a candidate?

I’m really looking for the creativity and the ability to make things. I think there’s always a value in building models, making furniture, things like that, so that it’s not all just on a screen: there’s a really tactile, hands-on approach to design as well. So the balance of those things is very important. And lastly, I would say don’t forget about communication skills. Ultimately the value of someone working in a firm comes down to how well they can explain things or talk about things. 

What is the best thing about working in your practice?

I think we have a very open and collaborative practice. It’s not hierarchical. We are very comprehensive so we have skills everywhere from urban design all the way through branding and architecture, interior design, planning and all of those things in between. So we can bring a lot of different points of view to a project and having all of those aspects really makes it an exciting and collaborative place to be.