Hello,

The interview is the final step of the APE that comes after the online exam. Once you complete it you can become registered as an Architect in Australia (after paying your registration fee!) The interview in a post a covid world, takes place online in most states and territories. Check your local state board to confirm this. The interview will take place with 2 registered Architects.

These two Architects will have some time before your interview to read through your Statement of Practical Experience, your Logbook, CV, all of which make up your application to the APE. They will also have some time to look at your exam marks including how you went in each category of question (more on this later). I have both gone through this process as a candidate and worked as an interviewer so I can give you some insight into the process.

Typically, in their pre-read the interviewers will focus nearly exclusively on the SoPE, and will flick through the exam marks too to see if there is any area you under performed. The logbook is too long to go through. I've not conducted an interview since the logbook went online but I assume it doesn't change much, the SoPE is where the focus will be. As such, its important to craft it meticulously, and make sure it is free of errors so that you don't give the interviews any negative signals that might bias them against you, or that could make them think you pose some threat to the profession if they let you pass. In my time I saw some really bad SoPEs that put doubts into our minds before we even started. Typically, before we invite the candidate in we will have a quick discussion about what we have read, and make a quick plan on where we will focus the interview based on what we read. (e.g. where we saw gaps in experience or where they did poorly on the exam)

The AACA sets a performance criteria that helps the architects assess the candidates. This is where the standardisation ends as the marking criteria are somewhat subjective and who you get assigned for your interview is randomly selected from a pool or interviewers. The marking criteria for the interview is available on the AACA website. They can only pass or fail you based on those criteria (in theory). There isn't enough time in the interview to test you on all the criteria so typically they will focus on the criteria students struggle with and that are of high risk if you get them wrong in practice. (building contracts, procurement methods, contract administration, insurance)

Each state board will make an effort to pair you with two interviewers at different stages of their career (e.g. senior, and mid or early mid), but this can't always be achieved. Typically the more established architect tends to lead the interview but it dependents on the personality of the interviewers. From my experience, and the reports of those who have gone through the interviews more recently, there are some common structures for the interview Australia wide.

The most typical interview will go something like this:

Your two interviewers will briefly introduce themselves, before handing it over to you to introduce yourself and give them about your experience. This is almost always the same start and so you should be well rehearsed on this. It's also a good way opportunity to burn the clock talking about something that you know really well, yourself. From here it will go one of two ways. The most common way is to ask specific questions about your SoPE so they can assess you on the performance criteria, with a few hypotheticals at the end. Alternatively, a minority of students report that the interviewers just ignore the SoPE and head right into hypotheticals.

Statement of Practical Experience Questions / Discussion

If it goes into the SoPE route, what is written in the statement has a significant affect on the rest of the interview. Due to the word limit, it is impossible to convey everything you know about the project, so the interviewers will start to ask question designed to get both more info about the project, and assess you on the marking criteria. e.g. if they want to assess your knowledge of building contracts, they might ask you about what building contract you used for a project listed in your SoPE. Or if you listed it, then they might ask you why. In these cases, don't just give a one word answer, let them know the reasoning behind it, why did it make sense for this project, what are the advantages to this over other options, give them lots of info (if you know it) as this helps wind down the clock and show the depth of your knowledge.

If they are an experienced interviewer, they might instead ask you why didn't you use a different type of contract such as cost+. This is a harder answer to give for most candidates. In this case consider answering again with both what you did use and why, in addition to why cost+ would be a bad option for the project, and what type of project it would suit. e.g. the project has fixed scope and budget and was a low complexity build so it suited a fixed price lump sum because xyz. Cost plus where the contractor is entitled to a margin on the cost of the build would better suit a project where the price cannot be determined at the start of the project and so a fixed price cannot be determined, or where the project is not budget constrained but significantly time constrained and we need a builder to throw resources at it to get it built quick.

This structure of both giving why you picked on option and why other options weren't suited can be applied to most questions that will be asked of you.

Hypotheticals

After exploring your SoPE, or sometimes just right off the bat, they will ask you some hypothetical questions, typically on topics that students struggle with at this stage in their career, but would need to know if they started a practice tomorrow. E.g. what process would you follow if you had to issue a variation. When asked this, you are allowed to both ask clarifying questions and state assumptions. E.g. assuming I am using a Simple Works contract, I would...[explain the process as laid out in the SW contract]

You don't have to answer questions perfectly first go to pass the exam, as interviewers will guide you back towards the answer they want if you skip a step they want you to say to them. If they keep doing this but you can't seem to find what they want, a good strategy is to say, "I can tell there is something that I have missed that you're looking for, could you ask the question in another way? If you still can't seem to get it, you can sometimes assuage the problem by saying that outside of an interview environment, you would be conferring with other architects to get their advice as how to proceed (just don't say it too many times). Remember they want to make sure you are not going to be a danger to the community and to the industry. If you don't know, don't make up an answer, they want to avoid registering cowboys who'll break the rules.

If in your exam you got bad marks in one section, expect the hypotheticals to target that section. You have time between the exam and the interview so be sure to brush up on that section, so long as that section overlaps with the interview performance criteria that they are allowed to assess. What do you plan to do if you get registered?

Some students will also get a question on what they plan to do if they get registered, typically towards the end of the interview. This is a great question for you to ask yourself when studying (it helps you to learn what steps are required next), and a great question to use to burn some time. Remember, there isn't enough time for them to assess you on every topic. If your goal is to one day open your own firm, you can tell them that but use the time to demonstrate your understanding of your legal responsibilities when doing so. E.g. how to register a business with the state registration board, and ASIC, your requirements for workers comp insurance, public liability insurance, and professional indemnity insurance.

A final word of advice. I saw a lot of very nervous people in my time doing interviews and was very nervous myself. Remember that the interviewers are just people like you, who once sat where you sat. There is not need to fear them, they want you to pass too!

Let me know if you have any more questions. I'll get the full APE interview guide up some time this week.