Courtney Ward (MArch’24, left) and Macarena (Mackie) de la Piedra (MSD-AAD’21, right) represented Erdy McHenry Architecture. Ward returned to Penn after graduating with her MArch last May. “I actually came to the Career Fair last year and talked to Mackie about getting this job,” she says, “So it feels like a really full-circle moment.” (Photo Eric Sucar)
On a recent February afternoon on Penn’s campus, puffy coats collect in the lobby of Houston Hall. After shedding their outer layers, Weitzman students stream into the 2025 Design Career Fair, where the room is buzzing with conversation.
The Penn network is on full display here, with many recruiters around the room sporting a nametag emblazed with “ALUMNI.” 60 employers are represented, including architecture, historic preservation, landscape, and planning firms, as well as nonprofits and city agencies. A virtual fair scheduled for the following week will allow 21 employers to meet with students remotely for 30-minute group sessions and 15-minute individual conversations.
The atmosphere makes clear that employers are eager to recruit Penn students, and having the Fair in February opens doors for summer internships and full-time work for students who will graduate in May, says Marianne Lipa, an associate director with Penn’s Career Services, the event’s lead organizer.
“It allows students to have conversations with employers that they might not otherwise have an opportunity for,” Lipa says. “The Fair allows those connections to take place, as opposed to just applying for a job on a website without having spoken to somebody form the firm.”
L-R: Mandi Fung, Kyle Johnson (MLA’23), and Satchel Williams of David Rubin Land Collective meet Weitzman students. (Photo Eric Sucar)
At the booth for David Rubin Land Collective, a landscape architecture and urban design studio with offices in Philadelphia and Indianapolis, the team of three is all smiles. Kyle Johnson, a designer who earned his Master of Landscape Architecture degree from Weitzman in 2023, is flanked by Mandi Fung, a principal, and Satchel Williams, an administrator. The firm makes attendance at the Fair an annual habit. Williams says, they’re here to “keep a finger on the pulse of new talent in the city.”
“We met someone in their first year,” says Fung, confirming that the event isn’t limited to graduating students. “They have more time ahead of them in school but it’s nice to meet them now, see where they’re at.”
Johnson jumps in: “She was asking, ‘What is out there for me to connect to my schoolwork?’” Williams adds, “They need more time to finish their education, but they’re thinking bigger. It encourages us."
In the weeks leading up to the Fair, Kali Meeks, Weitzman’s director of professional development and leadership, works hard to help students prepare their “elevator pitch,” and communicate their work to prospective employers. A popular program is a portfolio review organized in partnership with the Penn Weitzman Alumni Association (PWAA).
Says Meeks, “I hope the students that participated in the reviews gained a stronger understanding of how to present their work effectively—both visually and in how they talk about their design process.”
Mojtaba Saffarian (MSHP’24) discusses his portfolio with Lisa Yergovich and Gabrielle Goldstein (MSHP’21) of Architectural Resources Group’s San Francisco office. (Photo Eric Sucar)
Several employers noted their appreciation for the opportunity to meet face-to-face, that it brings a candidate to life. Mackie de la Piedra (MSD-AAD’22), an architectural designer with Erdy McHenry Architecture, describes her strategy for learning about students through their work. “I always ask those questions: What do you like about it? Tell me what’s your favorite part?”
But there’s no one-size-fits-all approach to the job search or the Fair. Sallishah Ali, a Master of Science in Historic Preservation student from New York City who expects to graduate this year, doesn’t showcase straightforward design work in her portfolio. As someone with several years of construction management experience in façade restoration, she uses the portfolio to illustrate where her work has taken her physically, and what she brings professionally.
“It's like saying, ‘You can trust me on a construction site, because I've done it 15 stories up in the coldest of the cold, the hottest of the hot, on a hanging scaffold, working with the foreman and being in conversation with the construction team.’”
Ali recognizes that for graduates who are just beginning their design career, there is a learning curve for navigating how to connect their different interests professionally. For her, that means thinking about façades beyond two dimensions and materials, from the layers of history underlying their construction, to the types of people involved in their restoration and future use.
Ali sees the Fair as a way to explore the opportunities for people with experience like hers, and she’s encouraged by the turnout. “We have [employers] coming in who are literally looking for their next hire. Maybe that could be me!”
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