The primary activity of InsideArch is creating Firm Reports. The Firm Report is designed to provide an insider's viewpoint into the professional culture at an architecture firm and to gain an understanding of the quality of the experience available to employees at the firm. We at InsideArch believe that this is the most valuable information to interns and architects considering employment at the firm.

The Firm Report consists of general 'biographical' data on a firm, an overall firm score (on a scale from 1-25), scores in 9 different sub categories called 'Key Metrics' (on a scale from 1-5), representative answers to 'Key Questions', a written summary of approximately 200 words describing the major strengths, weaknesses and other characteristics of the firm, and unedited visitor comments about the firm or its Firm Report.

InsideArch Firm Reports are generated from the responses given to an anonymous survey (the Firm Report Survey). The survey consists of multiple-choice questions in 6 categories and 6 short-answer free response questions. A final category asks general questions about the individual completing the survey such as number of years experience and number of years at the firm. Answers to questions in the final category are used only to weight the respondents answers. (See below for more information regarding your privacy and anonymity when filing a Firm Report.) The categories are as follows:

Experience What is it like to work at this firm? This is the million-dollar question. You know the ropes at this firm and what it takes to succeed.

Firm General These are the critical basic questions. What kind of work does the firm do? And what is the firm's attitude towards its work?

Development Yes, it's your career, not your boss's, but you can't prove yourself if you're never given a chance. Firm's that provide those opportunities can identify their most talented employees, and talented employees will only continue to work at firms that provide them with opportunities and challenges. Does this firm take an active role in developing its future leaders?

Employees As an employee at a firm your coworkers are your team. They're your leaders and your followers. If principals hire talented people and the firm's culture fosters team development then your coworkers will challenge you to grow and compensate for your weaknesses. Tell us about the people who work at this firm, do they bring out your best or are they dragging you down?

Environment Every office has energy, a vibe. This energy affects the attitude of everyone who works there, and affects the quality of the work. What is it like to work at this firm? Do you feel energized when you walk in the door? Or is everyone watching the clock all day? Tell us how the place feels and how it makes you feel about your work.

Management The managers of a firm are the ones steering the ship. They set policy and they set the tone. They choose which projects to pursue and when to hire more staff. Effective management means more opportunity for everyone and poor management means the firm won't get the most interesting projects and is also more likely to fail. Tell us how the management at this firm is doing and if they were listening, what would you tell them?

By sharing your experiences you are empowering yourself and your colleagues with information. If one of your fellow architects is considering employment at your firm, your information will help them determine if the firm will provide them with the quality experience they seek. For colleagues employed at other firms it will help them determine if their firm measures up, or if it's time to start looking elsewhere. And finally, for firm principals and managers, your information will help them benchmark the opportunity that their firm provides against other firms and helps them understand if they have the ability to attract the best employees.

Your responses to the multiple-choice questions on the Firm Report Survey will never be published on InsideArch or released to any third party in any personally identifiable format. Your responses to the multiple-choice questions will be weighted and combined with the responses of other users to create a score for the firm. This score and other aggregate, non-personally-identifiable data will be published on InsideArch and may be released to third party organizations for research purposes only. No personally identifiable data will ever be published or released to anyone for any purpose.

Your answers to the short-answer free response questions will be excerpted and compiled with the comments of other users to create a verbal summary for each firm. No personally identifiable data, including your username, email address, position at the firm, years spent at the firm, etc., will ever be included in this summary.

It is vital to the success of InsideArch that you are comfortable sharing your personal experience with us. You must be confident that your privacy will be protected if we expect to get a true and honest evaluation of your experience at your firm. Please contact us at admin@InsideArch.org if you have any questions or concerns about how this information will be used. For general information about InsideArch privacy policies see 'Policies and Privacy'.

We employ several different measures to ensure that fraudulent or maliciously biased information is not included in our Firm Reports. From time to time we may withhold certain Firm Reports while our editors review their content and the circumstances under which they were submitted. We reserve the right to exclude, without explanation, any information you provide about your firm. At the time you complete your Firm Report Survey it may be automatically flagged by our system for further review by a human editor. If this occurs, you will be given the opportunity to provide us with an email address where we may contact you for clarification or verification of the information you provided. You are not obligated to do so, but allowing us to contact you increases the chances that we will be able to include your responses in the Firm Report.