Clay Moody Joins CDFL
1. What drew you to this profession?
I was always drawn to the profession. As a kid, I would always be creating and building something, whether it be Legos or Tinker Toys, always trying to find the next problem to solve to complete my Build. As the years went on, I slowly followed in my father’s footsteps. He was an architectural draftsman for most of my childhood before he retired when I was going into college. I remember always going to his office after school, sitting next to him, drawing my little houses while he finished up his drawings for the day. Those memories, looking back, tell me to know that I was always going to find my way into Architecture one way or another.
2. What’s your happy place outside of work?
My happy place is back home in Carthage, MS, although I grew up in New Orleans. The home my family settled in has become a place where I can sit down, relax, and watch my dogs play up and down the rolling hills of our property. Where I have been able to see my niece grow up. Where I can challenge myself to new hobbies like woodworking. It has really become my place of peace these past few years, and I’m glad I’m close to home to enjoy it more.
3. If you weren’t in this role/industry, what’s your alternate dream job?
During high school, I switched to a computer science focus because I wanted to design worlds and characters for video games or movies using programs like Blender, After Effects, and more. Although I enjoyed the challenge, after a year of working through it, I decided that path was not for me and focused on my path back to architecture.
4. What’s one piece of advice you’d give your younger self?
My one piece of advice to myself would be to trust the process and have patience with your successes in life. I think, like most people, we want the next steps of our career and life to happen right away, but I’ve learned that if your patience and you trust your process, you stop prolonging your success by worrying and create meaningful steps towards what you want in life.
5. What’s the most interesting place you’ve traveled to?
I have been Fortunate to travel to some amazing places; in eighth grade we went to Washington DC, Jamestown, and Mount Vernon, and more. During college, my class visited Houston, New York, and Boston, three places I will be going back to. Lastly was this summer I went to comic con San Deigo and got the experience to travel to Los Angeles Aswell. My goal is to try and travel to all 50 states and maybe one day to most of the counties. Hopefully my time here at CDFL will help me with my goal.
6. Where should we go for lunch if you get to pick?
Coming from New Orleans, I would bring everyone to Two Sisters po’boy and for dessert some beignets at café du monde. I know that will be a drive just for some lunch, but if anyone in the office finds themselves in the French Quarter, that is the spot to be!
7. If you have a week off starting tomorrow, where are you going?
I fall into two camps Id either travel to a city like Chicago, Miami, and San Fransico or I might just disappear into nature for the week and travel to the Grand Canion, Yellow Stone, and the mountains of Colorado. Although I don’t have a destination, wherever I go will be filled with adventure.
8. What’s a TV show you could rewatch forever?
Parks and Rec
9. What's something people are surprised to learn about you?
That I build computers. I’ve built 5 computers and will be building number 6, hopefully in a few months.
10. What are you looking forward to most in your new role?
I’m looking forward to being able to both learn and grow within my career and seeing where my knowledge and curiosity of architecture will take me. Because this is the first large firm I have worked for, the experience of working closely with so many different people has gotten me excited for what’s to come.