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Diane Hoskins is co-chair of Gensler. maximum One of the world’s leading construction companies 20 years As co-CEO and co-global chair, she says her career path has never been predictable.
in Graduation Speech Hoskins spoke to graduating master’s and doctoral students at MIT’s School of Architecture and Planning on Thursday about his “off-the-rails” career. After graduating with an architecture degree from the school in 1979, Hoskins dabbled in a variety of fields, including architecture, design, business and real estate, before eventually returning to architecture.
This “off-the-rails” journey led her to become co-CEO of Gensler from 2005 to 2023, and is now the global Co-ChairsShe oversees Gensler’s global platform and day-to-day operations, which employs 6,000 people across 55 offices in more than 100 countries.
Diane Hoskins. Photo by Mark Kauzlarich/Bloomberg via Getty Images
“There’s probably never been a time in my career where anyone would say I was on the right track or had a predictable career path,” Hoskins said in his speech. “Most of the time, I was completely off track.”
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After graduating from college, Hoskins first worked for a small architecture firm in New York, which he described as his “dream job.”
The problem was, she didn’t like it.
“I felt unfulfilled and unaccomplished,” Hoskins said.
She moved back in with her parents and began working in the perfume department at a department store during the holiday season when a college classmate saw her work and told her about a large construction company hiring.
Hoskins applied and got the job.
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After working for architecture firms in Los Angeles and New York, Hoskins decided to switch to interior design. She then attended business school at UCLA and became interested in real estate. After earning her MBA, Hoskins worked for a real estate firm for three years before returning to architecture and eventually joining Gensler.
“Going from architecture to design to business to real estate and back to architecture was quite risky,” Hoskins said.
Her self-described “unconventional, off-the-rails” career has given her an advantage: “I’ve become a synthesizer of ideas,” Ms. Hoskins noted.
Hoskins said his experience showed him how design and architecture connect to the real world, which is why he ultimately became CEO of Gensler.
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Hoskins urged MIT graduates to “build careers that will make an impact” rather than worrying about “the right path.”