International Architects working abroad

We’re going to transport you to another location and 12 sites, a lab and not long now. Only a few more seconds. All right. All right. All right, here we go.

Hello, LinkedIn, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, wherever you are. It’s priding. Let’s get a beer out. I’m pretty born. Actually. I’m going to have a warm up. I promise you my B is on the way. It’s a Friday afternoon special. It’s a global special, and I’m joined here by a fantastic guy. Architect Russell, AKA Russell Anderson, AKA TikTok

How are you doing Russell? You’re right. Yeah.

Architect Russell:

Good. Thanks. Just finish work about an hour ago. So relaxed now.

Amazing. And you are all the way from Tanzania right now. The connection’s going really well. And that kind of brings us on through a little bit of our topic today. Isn’t it about relocating moving away because you are an ARP architect, but maybe for anyone that hasn’t seen you on tech talk yet, do you want to tell us a little bit about yourself then?

Architect Russell:

Yeah. So, uh, I become registered around the global recession time 2008. That is, uh, I think with, uh, within a month of getting registered as an architect, I studied in Huddersfield the UK, I think within a month I left the country and, uh,exactly, uh, I’ve always wanted to work abroad and, uh, Big fan of the UK, really? Um, it’s all right. Just, you know, you didn’t live there 35 years or whatever it was, uh, just get bored of it after a while. So I always wanted to work and live abroad. So I kind of, I got a, like a holiday visa working holiday visa for Australia.

So, um, so I left. I went via, uh, Egypt and then stopped off at Thailand. And then I ended up working in Thailand for two and a half years in Bangkok. So I got a job there. I kind of just, I was just on the, I was just there for a couple of weeks on the way to Australia and applied for a job and got it as an architect, a small interior design work.

So I ended up there for a couple of years. Then I went to Australia. I was there for a couple of years and then. Now I’m here in Tanzania. Uh, Tara Salaam been here for about eight years, I think. And get back to you. Haven’t been back to UK since like 12 years, I think.

Yeah. Wow. Well, I’ll tell you what, because I’ve seen a little bit.

Of where you are as well. But I was just thinking now while we’re talking, because a lot of what you do is very visual, I guess, if, as long as you’re happy with it and you don’t copy right in fringe, me, I would love to put some YouTube videos that you’ve done in the background without sound, so that people can see a little bit about what you’ve done without PRI just on promise.

It’s not the copyright infringed me. I’ve had one of them before and, uh,

All right. Yeah. It’s on YouTube as well. Doesn’t it?

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And then YouTube will be like, oh, but as long as you don’t mind and they will show everyone a little bit about what we’re talking about. And so here’s your YouTube channel narrower.

So, and we can see a better Tanzania as well. So here’s one of the, I was watching this earlier actually, and I was talking to you about it. So I’m going to wind back, but this is you the other day, checking out. A fancy hotel in Tanzania. So we got you in the background here. Let me turn off the subtitles, but Ben, so there’s quite a bit of fancy background, but so what’s it like in Tanzania, first of all, cause I’ve never been there.

I want to go. And the pandemic is kind of slowly down a bit, but I might have a chance to come. That’s

Architect Russell:

In that video was in Zanzibar. Uh, that’s. That’s really nice island. Not far from here. It’s like an hour on the Bates. I live in Dar Es Salaam, which is like, it’s not the Capitol it’s, but it’s kind of the capitalist, like the biggest city.

Uh, it’s like a coastal town. Um, sounds about more of a tourist place that has some of the best beaches in the world. And, uh, other touristy stuff. There’s the safaris up in the north Serengeti, Ngorongoro crater and they they’re the two main things and Mount Kilimanjaro is famous, totally smelt in any Africa.

So they’re the kind of the main tourist areas. But I live in Doris Ceylon, which isn’t sorry. See, it’s all really, um,

I said, yeah, we’ll look at

there’s one. That, that one, the second from the left. There’s one. Yeah. That’s Doris alarm. Um, that’s that’s alarm there.

So it’s a totally different world. Isn’t it?

Compared to what I’m used to with London, with, you know, all the London isms and all that. But also I can imagine that it’s quite liberating. So in terms of when you I’d love to know, what was it like first of all, going from, you know, UK building regulations and all the stuff you’ve learned in your part free course to jumping in, into Tanzania, was it a bit of a culture shock or did you fit right in like.

Architect Russell:

Um, yeah, you get a bit of a shock of like, like I remember when I first arrived, it was like lack of roads. There was like a lot of the roads were just dirt tracks really. And like you’re going over bumps and everything. Stephen, even in the city here. I mean, I’ve been driving to work for like eight years and they’ve just.

Put a new road down later, a few months ago. So I’ve been literally driving on dirt tracks to work in the last, uh, years. So it’s one of the most fastest developing cities in the world. It’s in the top 10 of Africa, but yeah, things that shocked. Yeah. You probably know about the regulations, this. Building regs really like code building rec say I kind of use the British ones and now I’m like an expert on British because there’s no one here to ask you don’t get building control.

You don’t get an approved inspector or anything for advice. It’s up to you. Like fire regulations, all that stuff. You have to learn yourself. Cause there’s no one else to advise you on that. It’s pretty scary. Um, I had, my first few years here, I had a, my boss was an Australian architect, so he was, he’d been here a year before me or something or six months.

So he was kind of my mentor for the first few years. And, uh, so that helped me a lot. Well, we decided our company decided to use the British building ranks instead of the Australia ones. Cause I needed Australian regs a bit as well, but they’re very similar. So yeah, it’s quite challenging. You have to really, it’s quite scary because.

God, you know, the building regs and let you read them. And if there’s no one to ask, just read in like one clause and a hundred times trying to understand it, it doesn’t make sense sometimes, especially with fire regulations of that, uh, difficult to understand

it’s an ongoing topic. Yeah. But I love that.

So you kind of brought your own regulations with you. So I guess that part free did come in handy then. So. I mean, that’s, that’s definitely a good thing. We’ve already got comments coming in Russell. So Michael, who I’m actually gonna have a chat with later in the day has said, loves your tech talk. And we will come on a little bit to take talk later, but also Gregory says it’s a great topic.

He reached to the, in Australia. And would that help in terms of the M

Architect Russell:

oh, I try to, I tried to register in, oh my God. That’s one of the reasons why I left Australia. I was there. I think was it two years or less than two years? I had a migration visa that was going to stay there before this job came up. I was trying to get registered.

I, I pro I applied to the Australian Australia enough accreditation council or something like AACA or something it’s called, oh my God. It was a nightmare. It’s like, they really did everything to not allow me to register there. I had to, first of all, I had to send like seven. I think it was more than that.

It was like 10 copies, hard copies of my portfolio to Canberra. And then they like review them and then, um, fill the mill, these forms. And then they invited me to a interview with, um, the AIA, they, Australian architects. I had the interview room with them and it was based on my, the way I registered. It was based on my education.

So they were, they were reviewing my register, my education to see if. UK education was equivalent to Australian education, but these projects I’ve done like 10, like five years ago or eight years ago at the time. And I five years ago, I think it was, I couldn’t remember. Some of them were like part two and stuff.

So I couldn’t remember the projects. They asked me questions on projects. I did like 10 years ago. So I didn’t pass the, uh, interview. So from these, they said that my work wasn’t equivalent to an education. Yeah. So then I made an appeal, right? I said, how can you say that? Uh, someone who’s registered as UK architect, their education’s not, I wrote this big letter and they accepted my opinion.

And then they said, send another nother, like 14 copies of portfolio to camera getting

another interview.

I left

Stephen:

after that. Yeah. I don’t blame you. That sounds quite exhaustive. It’s like, you’ve qualified one.

Even if I, I, even if I pass that interview and they said it was okay, I would still have to take the exam.

Architect Russell:

The Australian exam for registration. So I was willing to do that. Like I was willing to study and do the exam, but, um, yeah, I left. Um, but now I’ve noticed if I ever go back to Australia, there’s also another way of registering. You can register through your work experience now. So if I ever go back now, I have like a good 15 years work experience.

As I’ve been here, you can submit that. So if I do it again, I’ll probably. Do it pretty work experience, not my education. So they’ve added otherwise now.

Stephen:

Brilliant. Well, look, it’s really interesting. I’d love to know as well. So that’s an important part of the story. Gregory says happy Friday. And I’m going to bring app one more Gregory’s comments before I’ve got a burning question to ask you after this.

Nostril vacation. U K our son simulate difficult from Australia to UK. Yes. Gregory. Very good point because yeah, the UK we’d like to make it difficult over here. Isn’t it? You’ve got these always some and I like that. The podcast is recent. You got overseas Arctic, super, super qualified. And, uh, the, uh, the ARB and the RBA, you know, it’s a whole different matter to become qualified in the UK.

But what I was gonna say. Go on Russell.

Architect Russell:

Yeah, didn’t they, um, there was something like, I think it was six months ago, ER B we’re announcing that they’re going to make it easier for foreign occupants coming into the UK to register their. Correct.

Stephen:

And we have to see how that goes. Cause you know, it’s one thing to say yet.

And then we’ve got to you kind of green stamp it. I know

that the, the Brexit and stuff,

I think, well, this is AI architecture, architects, and architectural systems and architectural technicians are on the skill shortage list, which is good. But you still have to get an employer who wants to offer you a job.

So it’s this whole hoo ha. And what happens Russell is that most companies can do it, but they get scared. So I think it’s educate in the companies that it’s, it’s not that difficult, but, uh, I don’t, I’m sure with all of your qualifications, you maybe don’t even need a CV anymore. You’ll just show someone your tech talk and your, or your YouTube, right.

Because you can see how many buildings you’ve built. Right? Come on. Hi. No,

Architect Russell:

I wouldn’t put, I wouldn’t, that’s the thing. I was looking at some other UT, but he’s an architect and he was given advice for his CV and he was saying. Oh, I put all my social deeper. He was putting his social media on his CV, like saying I would never do that.

Like if I applied for a job for my CV, I wouldn’t put my station, me just stuff on other ads. I wouldn’t stay that. Like,

it’s difficult. I remember. And I’m going to put this one in the background because this is another one I watched for our soul. And she’s important. Cause we’re talking about what it’s like to be there, but yeah, we need to see the face of the culture.

Stephen:

Everyone likes to be architects like a drink. So we’ll put it in the background. I have a quick little look, but what I was going to say is, um, oh my God, I’ve forgotten what I was going to say now. Oh, we were just talking about, we were talking about, I can’t remember B has come up and I totally, I lost I’ve lost track of what I was thinking.

I know, I know, I know what I was going to bid in the ask you, there must have been someone that planted the seed in particular for you to come to Tanzania. Was there a job offer or was there someone said, come on, get your, get your bags packed and come off.

Architect Russell:

Uh, came from, you know, where it came from LinkedIn.

Steven:

Oh, LinkedIn of all places.

Architect Russell:

So, uh, I was working in Australia and like, I got a message on LinkedIn. I probably had, I was probably headhunted, you know what I mean, free agency. And they said, would you be interested in working in Tanzania? And I was like, uh, I mean, Tasmania. ’cause, you know, I was in that station and I was checking on the map with Tanzania and let’s check and then like, and then I said, and that’s the, oh yeah, I’ll be interested in.

I said, yes, because. Uh, be interested in Tanzania, but I wouldn’t be interested in Tasmania. I don’t think because people in Australia said it wasn’t very nice, really? Um, um, I said, yes. And then when they called me, I said, you mean Tanzania? Don’t you don’t mean Tasmania? They said yes, Tanzania. That’s it.

Okay. Yeah, I’ll be interested. So then,

Stephen:

um, and what was it like walking up then? Russell, did you just, you just arrive in the airport and someone said, Turn up on the Monday or?

Architect Russell:

Yeah, I had an interview in the guy was in a, when I was in Australia, I did interview like a real interview. Uh, and then they offered me the job and, um, so sold my car.

I still, I had all I had was a bloody, uh, second secondhand car and yeah. Then I went on the. The job sounded fantastic as well, but the only difficult decision was I kind of gave up my immigration visa for Australia. It’s supposed to be there two years to keep my visa, but I was only there for like a year and three quarters.

So I’m not sure if I’ll get it back again if I went back. So I’ll figure that out anyway. Yeah. So I got on the plane and then, uh, And that was,

Stephen:

yeah, you didn’t look back now. Now some people will be familiar with you if you’ve ever loaded uptechtalk as you’re quite prominent on tech stock. Right. So what point during your career, did you start playing around with Tik TOK?

Cause I imagine you’ve been in Tanzania for a while. And again, where did that idea just pop in when you’re playing around with tech talk.

Architect Russell:

So I was doing for about one year. I did a, I did a, um, almost a video every week for nearly a year on YouTube. I did like travel blogs and steps. I built up my, uh, video skills on that bit.

Um, and then, uh, uh, people were on Tik TOK, and then I’ve been reading about it. Everyone says, get on there cause you can get more. Yeah. You want me to do a video? You want people to see you. Thank you. So like tick-tock was the place to see your video. So I started doing that and I was like, whoa, I’m getting lazy people.

Laser people are watching my stuff. And then, uh, so that was about two and a half years ago. I started, I think two, just over two years ago I started, so then I started really getting into it and then like, people like Gary V was saying like, it’s going to be, uh, It’s young audience now it’s going to mature.

So it’s already like older people getting on it now. So it’s going to mature over the, over the years. Um, so, um, it’s a good kind of, they’ll see the same, this kind of good investment if you’re gonna go on social media to use that. So I went for it and I almost did the video. Every, I try to do video every day.

Like I did almost did the video every day. So. A good year. Um, yeah, so at the beginning, I didn’t know what to do and I think it got, I got doing niche or something and I had no option. Really.

I love it. And I quite like your sense of humor. We were talking just before this popped on and. I’ll go back to a second and do some call outs the second. But we were talking a bit before about having a sense of humor. And I do think a lot of the architecture content out there while informative can be boring, right.

Uh, that’s my personal opinion. And I quite like your sense of humor and we’re not gonna buy anything derogatory or anything, but you’ve got to have a bit of a laugh with things. So maybe tech talk in that way is quite a nice outlet for. Um, but what, what do you think about it? Where, so when you were doing you take talks, did you kind of.

To have a little bit of a sense of humor with it, or is there a particular town you were going for?

Yeah, I didn’t want to be like poor in, you know, informative. Uh, yeah, but like, um, I couldn’t see any architecture videos that like. Enjoyable.

It’s like some of them it’s like watching paint dry, isn’t it?

It’s just like, oh

yeah. And I couldn’t really watch, I don’t want to go to work, come home and watch something about architecture. It’s boring. It’s not worth doing that all day. I want to be entertained or something. You know what I mean? So I’m kind of mixing it up a little bit. Um, and I, I got to the point, like I came to Tanzania and I thought, oh God, no, one’s going to.

No, one’s going to know who I am. I’m just another architect. I’ve put myself out there a bit and not give a shit anymore. You know, I just did it. I don’t care what people think, you know? Um,

I think that’s the way, cause I think everyone sometimes overly worries about these things and yes, it’s scary doing a live stream and yes, it’s scary sometimes, but now a tech talk.

You know, there’s two ends of the scale. I think that one, as long as it comes from a good place in your heart, you know, you, people generally understands. And also in, in these modern worlds, it’s, yesterday’s news in a week’s time, Russell, you know, no one cares anymore.

Exactly. So it’s just like, you might get.

And if you do it, like as often as I do, like once a day, every day, then like, it becomes a happy, you don’t really care like this. You have one video, people like. Stop saying bad things. He cares. You find that time. You’ve done about 10 more,

10, 10, say, you’re sorry, me. And move plumbing on. It’s not the end of the world and I’m mistakes.

I can see, we got a few people in the audience. So we got the old Jason boils here, listening in. W Jason’s one of the reasons that we know HR cause last year kind of clubhouses pop and then, and you can definitely track out all the chases and stuff as well. But as well as Jason we’ve got here, Neil and Neil is just become a fellow of the NRA PA so well done.

I’m going to get my claps here. So you’re going to get my claps. You hear that? Does it work in my sound? So no, it’s all. All right. All right. I’ve got more sounds. You’re going to, you can review my soundboard in a bit. I’ve got anime noises. I don’t know how to weave that into architecture. So maybe you can, you can help me with that.

Um, and as well as that we go, we got one to two things yet. What do you think about these? What do you think about means as a take talk guy? You know, what do you think about. I got one. I’ve got an architecture.

I’ve got, I’ve got this one.

No, no. Get the tumbleweed noise in the second.

No, I didn’t see it. I didn’t see it. I didn’t see it. Didn’t see

anything. All right. I will look at the screen again

for one second then.

All right. Let’s look at this. All right, so let’s get an architecture meme, right? I’ve got one here. Frank Gehry. Uh,

yeah.

You know, Frank Gehry.

Perfect. No,

yeah. I left the tough

crowd, tough crowd. A

couple of people I follow on Instagram. Listen, funny means out there architecture means there’s a couple of ones that I follow that are really good. There are some good ones out there, but they’re quite. Yeah, this is really rude as well. Like a couple on Instagram.

I follow they actually, some of them are hilarious. Some of them are beyond me. And I understand

w well, I tell you what, I’ll put it back on topic. Cause I kind of, maybe it’s Friday, I’ve kind of, I kind of meander. That’s my problem, Russell. I need to stay on the straight and narrow. Tell me about where do you see social media going at this rate?

Do you think more architects are going to get into tech talk or do you think that it’s quite crowded already or actually that there’s no one on that.

Yeah. And it’s still, there’s a few more architects have popped up the last six months. Um, but it’s still pretty on saturated. Um, architects, um, there’s a few kept popping up.

There’s more professionals popping up. There’s like lawyers and stuff on there. Teachers, um, pilots, uh, just about everything now on that. Um, you also there’s like videographers there’s every profession. There’s one, uh, There’s people on there and they’ve got a hell of a following, some of them. Um, so it’s pretty good.

Um, they’re doing, uh, so they’re just doing 10 minute videos on Tik TOK. Now you can

do 10 minutes. Wow. That’s like YouTube. The lens. I got

verified by tick-tock as well last year. So, um, contacted me. They, they contacted me and said they liked my staff then. Uh, they gave me verification, which is quite nice to have them here.

So you’ve

got to like the blue tech is out. Is that right?

Yeah. Yeah.

It’s going to be a long way since, since to, to, to like get verified. Cause I kind of did a little bit and then I gave up, but it’s like everything else, right? I mean, how many years have you done the tech talk for now?

Yeah, two years. The team.

That’s the thing people think. So social media is, uh, yeah, I think, I dunno what the metaverse and stuff, but I think the government, even if the metaverse does, when it does take off all social media is like, take talk, Instagram, they’ll help, but they’ll probably have their own world inside the metaverse.

You know what I mean? So they’ll probably be like a Tik TOK headquarters where you can meet all your. Uh, influences there and things like that. It’s probably the future. That’s probably a long way away, but they’re saying like, carry these, like Satan, like tick-box like, like, you know, the new MTV at the moment.

It’s, it’s pretty big. Um,

yeah. Carry P I,

I know. No one’s seen anything like that.

I think, well, he’s on the something, I mean, NFTs and metaverse, and I’ve kind of covered that a lot and that’s a very spicy topic, Russell, because you want to get the pitch folks out. If you bring up the matter, this, everyone has an opinion.

I know we’ve already done it. Don’t worry about it. I wish we could mention anything we want here because I just don’t care. It’s fine. But yeah, Memphis is a very divisive topic, you know, sustainability, the future, you know, is this the right way? Architects are not registered that does it matter? Yes, no, very divisive, but I think it’s the way everything’s going.

Yeah, I think another thing, um, I think, um, education is going to change a lot as well. Um, you know, like, uh, what not, Staley’s doing the like influences are gonna start teaching more. Um, so they, you might, you might go to like a, if you want to be, uh, like you might, like, if you want to study architecture, you might.

Learn from an influencer, who’s got a, like a education course or something like that. That could be the feature as well, because I, cause I dunno about education nowadays. A lot of, unless you’re a professional, like an engineer architect, lawyer or something, you don’t really need to go to university there.

Use it’s all on social media,

everything. Well, I tell you, um, cause I did architecture. Then I went into recruitment and sales and inside. If you can wear a suit and you can speak, you’re hired, you know, it doesn’t mean you’ll be good at the job, but it’s like, you turned up to the interview and you can talk, you can dress yourself.

You’re hired. Whereas in architecture, it’s five years, you’ve spent a lot of money. You get a two, one, and then you’re looking for a job for 10 months, you know, it’s crazy.

I just wondered whether there’s a way of. Setting up, uh, a school, you know, architecture school and then getting instead, it might be a way of doing that, but instead of getting, without getting involved,

the, um, there’s a, the London school of architecture Niro is pretty cool.

Uh, I don’t understand all the mechanics, but they were a new school. And what’s quite interesting is that they don’t have a building. They involve architectural practices and then the lessons are done in different architectural practices for out the, for the London area or sometimes out of London as well.

So that, that kind of the built environment is actually the classroom. And I quite liked that mentality. So it’s, um, it’s a good one for you to check out, but I think. They got qualified and I know they do really good stuff, but yeah, we need more of that. But on that note though, Russ, so you mentioned Skillshare, so I’m going to end the video of the monkey here.

Now, as much as I love the beach. And it is pretty cool to see let’s bring up your skills shag, cause that’s probably a nice segue into it. And I tell us about why you felt that you needed to kind of do something different and build a skill Shane.

Yeah, just trying to be on this. Platforms as I can, like the divest defying me, I just try different platforms like that.

One might do another one scene. Yeah. That was about the rib eye. Cause there was something I didn’t bloody understand when I was younger and I felt it would help people. I never our IBA stages. They always baffled me. And like I always thought our IPA made everything complicated and actually is then.

It’s not that difficult. Uh, I tried to explain it a bit simply so anyone can understand it. Um, cause I certainly didn’t understand it when I was a student. So that’s kind of the reason why I did it.

Yeah. Nice for fair play. I think it’s very cool. The other stress, an interesting one. I tell you what I need to do, but I have no time to do is I’d been thinking about doing CVS and portfolio talks because that’s how a lot of what I do.

And so I’m tempted to get in and work on that, but like everything else, it takes time. I mean, how much time went into the Skillshare or was it quite easy to do.

Yeah. Sometimes you get obsessed with the quality of it. Think of it. Be careful you don’t get obsessed with the quality of it, but I always spend that it’s audio.

That doesn’t mean audio always. Oh my time, like getting your API, right? Like there’s a bit where I’m standing that bit there when I’m standing on the roof of my building and there’s so much wind and, uh, go on and come back and it’s like loads of wind and you have to feel my gang and, oh, that’s the cages.

But like Trump, I like filming outside to make it more interesting. But you get all these people just sit at their desk speaking. That’s it? I mean, I don’t want to do that. Like if I want to do that, You can, you can probably film it quite quickly. Yeah. Maybe I

should do that. That’s what I’m guilty of.

Right? This is why I quite liked the live stream because you can just, you whack it out. It’s gone out live. Okay. It might not be perfect. But it’s done. And then however it doesn’t have that from this. And my, I think what, what I love about your tech though, is that quality because it’s seamless and you even got it down where you do, you know, the last bit of the tech talk loops with the original bed and it all, that’s a lot of work where I saw, but you can see the quality.

So I dunno if you lose that, you might lose your magic. If you go, whatever.

Yeah. I mean, sometimes I do one sitting at my desk. They never do very well. Like sometimes I make, uh, sometimes when I do a talk like this, I film it and then find a clip and I stick it on and stuff like that. Yeah.

You get the little 30 seconds.

Well, Raquesh in a sense, what episode the Simpsons was that with Gary? I don’t know truthfully where cash I’ll have to. I saw it when I was. And if you Google the Simpsons episode, you’ll definitely find that I’m a catcher. I owe you a phone call, so I will call you after this, but I can’t call you live.

I’ve had people ring me life though. Russ destiny. I have a problem with live streams. I’ve had Amazon delivery, man’s cab, you know, I’ve had the, my parents tried to call me, you know, I’ve had a computer crash. Uh, your, your internet can die. So maybe there is, it is a little bit. Doing a live stream, you know, as sorry, doing a tech talk, because once you beautifully done it, then you put it out for the views, right?

Yeah. Well, life’s, life’s different.

Isn’t it? It’s a different beast. It’s a different piece. Well, I need to keep focus and we can tell it’s Friday afternoon, because I’m all over the place, but I wanted to bring up your website. Cause I think that’s kind of like a really nice way to maybe visualize some of the work you’ve done.

And then after. Maybe you can ask me any questions and we can talk about where people can find you, but here’s some of the actual work that you’ve done in Tanzania and the website. I’m just going to put the link up for everyone so that they can find you, is

that Russell. Yeah,

let’s bring it up on the screen as well.

So everyone’s check it out. A nice website. It’s also got all the links to find you.

So that second picture. That was my first project in Tanzania. The second picture.

This one here.

Yeah, it’s building. I like this.

Yeah, it’s really nice. It’s very cool. There’s um, there’s quite a lot here. So if I click through.

So here we go.

I like this. It’s a bit of funky little landscaping. Yeah. Hi,

that’s that’s fake grass. Actually,

it will survive, but you still doing sketches and stuff. That’s pretty cool. Oh yeah.

Yeah. I’m trying to show

I look at this. Oh, that’s pretty. That’s that’s Berry architectural. That is. I like that. Very cool. So you got your work here or you’ve got more stuff.

Fair enough. Well, all right. Well, what we can do now is, so the here I’ve, I’ve got a bunch of links that I’m going to put down here. All right. But I think. It’s good to find you on the architect Russell’s website. You’ve got your own tech talk. If you type in Arctic Russel, generally you can find you right Russell on these different platforms.

Is that correct? Yeah,

everywhere. Really? Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter. I don’t really use that much, but most of the ones that are, uh, Instagram and take talk and one, three.

Well, I tell you what, it’s not fair for our conversation to be one way. Um, do you, while we’re here, guys in the audience is last chance to ask Russell a question or Russell, do you have any questions for me at all?

Or burning topics? Like you’d like to bring up. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. You’re a recruiter. So I was just wondered like what you might know, what countries do you think are hot at the moment? There are architects that work in like internationally.

Um, it’s quite strange. So currently in the, in the it, because we just came for the pandemic, actually the UK is absolutely crazily looking for architects.

There’s a massive shortage and that’s partly because of Brexit. So I’m quite understandably, not everyone feels quite welcomed here. We have made it that good. I know Rebbe says, you know, welcome, but the government says we’ve gone for Brexit. Right? So, and as well as that, you’ve had the logistics of the pandemic.

So people haven’t been able to travel. And so Buddhists, like in Australia, they were totally closed for ages. So, but like before you’d have like, like amazing like Australian New Zealand architect, so all different countries right now. So there’s been the prior to that, there’s so much work here. So I’ve been really, really busy.

Um, but to answer your question before the pandemic and during there’s always been a demand for architects, um, in the UAE, you know, it was always in Dubai. Oh my gosh. I’d always see briefs of architects going to the buy and that’s slowed down a little bit because of the current demands. But I often see you mentioned earlier, like Australia or, you know, there’s all that you’ve got lots of.

Um, international offices of UK practices in companies like Australia. And they’re always looking for people, but interested in the I’m working with one or two companies in the UK, from America who were opening up a law offices. So it’s kind of a mixture. Generally. It’s quite busy everywhere, and there’s a lot of demands across.

Across the globe. That’s the way it feels to me. But actually, while you’re here in Tanzania, do you feel exits demand then for, for architects, if anyone’s listening, is that a roles for them working alongside you or in your community? Russell? Uh,

not many British occupant, not many British, like the peaks here.

I don’t know, getting a job abroad is kind of a lot of luck involved. Um, there’s a couple of ways to do it. I mean, um, uh, there’s either. I always go, I go to the country and on holiday or something and then apply for a job or apply for a job, then say, you’ll be there for a couple. If you have an interview, it’s very difficult to apply.

If you want to let a lot of people, UK say, oh, I want to work abroad, but they just stay in the UK. And like for years, and they keep saying that they never do anything, but you can lie. I remember I did it