How architecture hiring works in Europe
The short version: most studios never post jobs — they hire from speculative applications around two predictable waves. Everything on this site is built around that reality.
Where the jobs actually are
Architecture is a word-of-mouth profession everywhere in Europe: most studios never post on general job portals. They hire from speculative applications, the professional chambers' own boards (the colegios in Spain, the Ordini in Italy, the Architektenkammern in Germany, OAR in Romania…) and a handful of specialist boards. That's why the site gives you three channels:
- Jobs — the openings that are published, pulled daily from studio feeds, official sources and licensed aggregators.
- Boards — the chamber and sector boards we can't ingest, linked and annotated (language, access) for a weekly manual pass.
- Studios — a researched directory of the employers themselves, for the applications that never meet a job ad.
When studios hire: the two waves
Broadly consistent across the continent: September–October (after the summer shutdown, new projects budgeted) and January–February. August is dead — use it to prepare the portfolio and the studio shortlist, then send the first week of September. Studios come back with new budgets and empty inboxes; early applications get read.
The campaign, week by week
- 6–8 weeks out: finish the portfolio PDF (norms below) and fill in your profile. Shortlist 25–35 studios with “+ Track” — start from the 🔥 Hot right now strip and the hiring-signal badges, your regions first.
- 2–4 weeks out: open the Prep sheet and AI prompt for each shortlisted studio and tailor a paragraph per studio while everything is quiet. Check the chamber boards once a week.
- The first week of the wave: send the first 15 applications and mark them “sent” so follow-ups arm themselves.
- Weeks 2–4: 3–5 more per week, +7-day follow-ups on silence (the .ics reminders do the remembering), and jump on anything new the morning it appears.
- The month after: a second pass over the no-reply pile with a fresh angle, and widen regions — Remote & BIM services travel well.
Portfolio norms that get emails opened
One PDF under ~10 MB attached to the email (links get skipped), 8–15 pages, strongest built or academic work first, drawings over renders. File name Surname_Name_Portfolio.pdf. Subject line in the studio's language, specific — “Speculative application — architect, 3 years, Revit” beats “CV”.
Licensing — do you need the local title to get hired?
In most EU countries, professional registration is required to sign projects, not to be employed — studios routinely hire unregistered architects and a partner signs. EU degrees are generally recognized across member states under the Professional Qualifications Directive; non-EU degrees need recognition first (start that paperwork early, it takes months).
Applying in English
Studios flagged with an English website badge are safe to approach in English. For the rest, a short cover email in the studio's working language (even an imperfect, translator-assisted one) with an English portfolio works better than English-only — the portfolio does the talking. The most language-tolerant corners of the industry: international engineering consultancies, BIM roles (coordinator/manager — in demand everywhere), archviz studios, and remote work for UK/Nordic/German firms.
What the site never does
No accounts, no CV database, no tracking of who you are. Your profile, notes and tracker live in your browser only. Job data comes from employers' own feeds, the official EURES portal, licensed aggregator APIs and curated boards with public feeds — never from scraping sites that forbid it.