The Irish Times

As you progress through a profession and gain a good reputation, you would hope that your days of touting hard for business are over and, in general, for architects this is true. But to land some of the really prestigious jobs it's necessary to enter a competition, however well established a firm is. In certain cases they have to compete against hundreds of international practices. While doctors don't have to submit details about how they would perform an operation or compete against many others in the hope of securing a job, the architectural profession, with its emphasis (for the dedicated) on good design, lends itself to such beauty contests.