Being a junior at Modelical: “All knowledge is shared”.
Sara del Valle and Miguel Acón are two of the seven juniors hired at Modelical. This is how they have experienced their arrival at the company.
“Nothing will come of nothing”, William Shakespeare wrote. Architect Sara del Valle is 26 years old and knows this quite well, which is why she has not given up on pursuing her passion. Sara was working and studying for a master’s degree in BIM methodology and project management at the Polytechnic University of Madrid when her opportunity came along. “I came across Modelical because several of my current coworkers were my teachers. When we were a month away from handing in our Master’s degree thesis when Modelical posted a job offer. I knew straight away that I wanted to work with them”, she says. So after completing two master’s degrees, obtaining some work experience and doing a few interviews, perseverance rewarded her: she landed her dream job.
Sara has only been working for five months with Modelical but she already feels the company has “matched” her passion for developing and facilitating the work of others. “The architect’s work takes up too much time for the result you get, so my obsession was to try to make their processes more efficient”, she says. Sara’s arrival in the company has gone “quite well”, and she thoroughly enjoys the work methodology. Since she started working in the company, she has served as support on several different projects in which she appreciates “maintaining fluid communication” with her superiors. In addition, a senior is always there to supervise all the team’s tasks.
For the technical architect, Miguel Acón, his arrival as a junior has been a challenging and fulfilling experience. After finishing his degree, Miguel had already worked for an architectural firm and a construction company. “I saw the good and the bad in both worlds, and in a moment when I didn’t know whether to go freelance or be hired, I got a call from Modelical”, he explains. Thanks to the support of his superiors, his first experience allowed him to work on a large-scale international project. “I came to a project in Qatar completely in English,” he recalls with a smile. He has now been with the company for one year and four months. Currently, the junior profile is a very sought-after profile at Modelical. Thus, in the last year and a half, the company has committed to the early training of young professionals in the skills required for their performance and the business culture.
Business culture
Although most traditional companies have a hierarchical culture, Miguel and Sara argue that their experience at Modelical is “very different” from the regular model. The company organises its employees on different categories. Juniors’s taxonomy, for example, goes from one to three. Once they have passed the final stage, they become specialists. “The main difference between a junior and a specialist is that as a specialist you can work autonomously”. Besides, Sara assures that the treatment and relationship between juniors and specialists are completely equal. For her, the explanation for this horizontality lies in the fact that Modelical is “one of the companies that demand the most knowledge” from its newcomers.
While Miguel’s focus is to specialise in the application of BIM to urban regeneration projects, Sara remains unclear. Unlike Miguel, she will not specialise in programming, as her preference is more related to group leading. Luckily, there is no rush for her. The reason? Learning never stops. On Wednesdays the company offers training and courses on various topics taught by employees. “The idea is that knowledge is shared, so the company covers the cost of training during our working schedule,” explains Sara.
This training and specialisation offer, which also includes English classes, is very enriching. “The nice thing is that everyone has multiple interests. So, even if we are not as skilled as the person who teaches the course, it is great to receive detailed information, as it allows us to experience all the knowledge that Modelical encompasses”, explains Miguel. These kinds of resources are crucial to nurturing and continuing Sara’s training. “I like many areas of my profession, so I sign up for everything I can”, she admits. On the other hand, both juniors enjoy one-to-one mentoring with their superiors to receive constant feedback. Thanks to these mentorships, both young architects can focus on strengthening the areas in which they are weaker while consolidating those in which they excel.