"I don't have skills in the latest programs like Revit, let alone any 3D programs"

And these will be the least of your worries if you are starting on your own. Client babysitting will be your number one priority if you're flying solo. Hopefully you get some actual work done after midnight. 

Play it safe for now. Hold on to your 'boring' job while working hard on side gigs. Once you're ready to go solo, you will know.

After that it's all lear-jets and supermodels*! Yeah!

*taxicabs and penny hookers more likely result

Is there any chance that you recieved a raise since your previous post?
Would you consider bringing your side projects to the firm your working for?

Keep your job.  Letting a job go without 100% solid deposits/money in the bank projects is foolish and far too dangerous in this economy (or ever, really).  Make sure you've got at least 6 months living expenses saved, I'd recommend a lot more in this world.

Keep your job, ask them to help you learn new programs, get the easy stuff up to date.

Do a budget assessment, you'll be surprised how fast money disappears when you have 0 income.  

I'd just be happy and thankful you have a job, to be honest.  Just feeling stagnant is quite a luxury nowadays.  You can take your evenings to learn new programs, find a few side projects, etc.  The moment you have a signed deal, deposit (and check cleared) that is going to pay you to live for the next year, then you can walk on confidently.  

There are many here that will help you see that struggling to find ends meat is much worse than getting a pay check for being bored.  Trust me.

Serious question: Are you asking to do new tasks?

If you are not and are just taking what you are given, then it is worth a shot to ask.

Before you go out on your own, you should have an understanding of the legal aspects of the profession- or at the very least a mentor who is willing to guide you. People tend to be very lawyer jumpy.

You could start by offering to take up spec writing in addition do drafting. People typically hate writing specs and would be happy to offload it. If you can cover your ass legally through specs and drawings, you will be much better off than most.

One thing I don't understand... why wouldn't you start the process of getting licensed? With 12 years of experience you probably know your stuff. Could open more doors with your clients. The whole self employment thing from your other thread is bugging me too. Paying your own insurance? WTF

I would download a trail version of Revit 2012, and do one of your firms projects in Revit.

possibilities are endless, When your firm sees that you are taking the initiative - someone with 12 years experience that learns Revit is going to make things happen. For one thing, you wil be able to make massive changes in an instant - ex. I was making major ceiling design changes today, right up until the client walked in the door - bust out the changes, print them out and pin them up. If you are not doing design now, you will with Revit - You do the design, and Revit does the drafting automagically.

I won't comment specifically on your situation because I'm not sure we know enough details to help you make an informed decision, but I will say I've been incredibly disappointed by how un-American our response to the recession has been. I can't ever remember seeing so much fear in this country. Even after 9-11, the response was outrage, not fear.

In my view, there are two components of running a business: risk and hard work. You can't be successful with just one. If you embrace both, there isn't much that can stop you, not even a recession.

trace: "There are many here that will help you see that struggling to find ends meat "

Kinky! The guy is asking for advice not a date.

won and done: " I've been incredibly disappointed by how un-American our response to the recession has been."

Part of facing any national collapse is also questioning the very essence that made the nation great to begin with. Was it really some American-dream of hard work and riches that was in play, or was it just dumb luck right-time, right-place kind of a deal? Evidence for later seems to be mounting. 

Inspirational har-har speeches tend not to be effective when your team is 0 and 160 with 2 games left to play.

" Even after 9-11, the response was outrage, not fear"

Look closer. All I see is misplaced outrage. 

Thanks for the responses guys.

Philarch, yes I did start the whole A.R.E. process but I severely lagged after a series of life changes (marriage, kid, divorce) that I let the three exams I did pass expire. That was a rough day. I would have to start from scratch, which I am not too worried about. 

The firm that I work for is sort of a a boutique firm and the little side jobs I have now are both too small and too low-end for my firm to take on. Besides, how will I ever get the experience of running my own show if I continue to differ to a micromanaging architect?

I guess I will swallow my pride and continue to learn new programs and make myself a more valuable employee (or sole practitioner). I'm thinking of learning Sketchup, either take the LEED Associate exam, or bear down on the A.R.E.s. 

"...a series of life changes (marriage, kid, divorce) that I let the three exams I did pass expire. That was a rough day."

That sounds like the roughest day ever. Vegas?

But seriously. Don't quit your day job. You're not ready for it.

LOL. I meant the day I received the letter from the California Architects Board that said I had let the rolling clock run me over.

cyber,

I don't know what your current state of SketchUp knowledge is, but I'd recommend the free video tutorials first..they cover the basics (from the concept behind the software up to importing CAD files & creating walls, doors, and windows) pretty well. I haven't tried any of the self paced tutorials myself, but they appear to cover components,materials, etc. There is some more info Google provides about learning it here.

Good luck!

Yeah, I started playing with Sketchup a little bit yesterday and it seemed pretty straightforward. Considering that the non-pro version is free, it's pretty hard to beat in terms of price and ubiquity. 

yeah - micromanagers suck the confidence out of everyone who works for them, and if you don't get really f-ing good at a few things so that you can stick up for yourself you're going to end up feeling miserable and defeated.

I'd recommend learning on your own - check in on archinect or other forums for encouragement and positive feedback and try to get out of there as soon as you can so you can start building up your confidence again.  It's difficult  to find good bosses in our profession - which is why a lot of people keep thinking that it'll get better if only they went out on their own.

won and done, I think you are hitting this nail squarly on the head.  Todays American idea tends to not be "go it alone" to create a niche/market for the betterment of the individual but rather a sit back and join the crowd finding a job at a firm with the idea the individual can get ahead America.  Is the American dream dead?  I don't think so as long as we have people who want to come to this country, melt with it, and have that drive to succeed and create a better life for themselves.  But then again, this really was always the American dream to begin with.  Immigrants children tend to lose something in translation.

No answer to my question?

sounds like a lot of tough choices

from someone who made the jump to start own office a few years back software is not really part of my life.  i did recently learn to use rhino properly but that was more for fun (and a small side project) than because it was needed for the office.

what is useful in having an office is license contacts and a job or two lined up.  i would focus on those things and let the technical stuff go.  you can always hire someone to do that and become a micro-manager yourself. 

there are always way more people who just want a job and not think about it all than people who are comfortable taking charge. you can hire those folks anytime.

I don't have any specific advice, apart from repeating this: how you spend your days is how you spend your life. If this thought fills you with dread (as it has me),  you have to change or at least plan to change.

dia : "how you spend your days is how you spend your life."

Sounds nice if you're into human intrest stories. Gets more complicated if you appreciate statistics. If there are 90k unemployed architects in US alone, no amount of effort will get all of them back on a happy track. It's a conservative fallacy that's often touted. 

What you can do is be better (luckier) than your competition. Missing out on an opportunity sucks, but someone else will take advantage of it. It's a zero sum game. 

How you spend your days has some wiggle room, but don't expect miracles.

come on rusty - its a nice little thing that has a degree of truth. The OP, and I expect alot of people, are unhappy with architecture and hanging on out of necessity.

Is this doing them, or their employer, or architecture in general any good? Is learning Revit et al - a thing that anybody can do - really going to make a difference?

Hey dia! Did you do your NYC trip yet?

As far as your post, perhaps I misunderstood you. I agree with your last post 100%. What's this thread about again? Something about complaining about a $70k/y job, and few posters lamenting the loss of American bootstrapiness. 

World looks tiny through half shut eyelids. 

Well, yeah. I am not in or of America, so I cant comment on specifics.

It will be hard for some who are battling away to put themselves in the OP's shoes and understand his predicament, but I do to a degree. I don't intend to be pessimistic, but I think the best way to be happy is to be more, rather than necessarily do/learn more.

I have come to the conclusion that in this world it is impossible to avoid stress, but it just might be possible to pick the stress you subject yourself to.

No NY trip this year, will try next. Too much on as I transition from architecture to entrepreneurship...

pick our own stress?  that sounds like something rich people say to punish poor people for having to work for a living.

" that sounds like something rich people say to punish poor people for having to work for a living."

You sound poor :)

@jump: from someone who made the jump to start own office a few years back software is not really part of my life. 

jump - just to be fair to the OP, you do have partners, correct?

This is what I would do based in my own experience. I did all this on my own, so if you have stability its even better, take advantage of it.

+Start learning  Revit. Ask your firm to pay for the classes. There is an academy in torrance I went to, they have  three-days seminars. Like other posts say it might take you to  more design oriented tasks.

+Learn sketch up, its very easy and intuitive, practice with a small competition. there are plenty in this website. it might take you to  more design oriented tasks as well.

+ Take the LEED exam, its only one exam, fairly easy and will make you more valuable.

ask the firm to pay for it as well.

+Get licensed, do not go solo without a license. Ask your firm to pay for the classes as well, they should.

+If you feel underpaid ask your firm to pay for all or part  all of the above, it is a business write-off for them. you will improve your position in your firm, therefore you should get better pay in the future, make you more valuable and when you are done with all tests, learning etc in 2-3 years the economy will be in a better shape and you will be ready to be on your own.

best of luck.

"pick our own stress?"

Only if you're lucky.

cyber - in rereading your post, it sounds like several different (and not necessarily related) issues are going on. what i see is:

1 - you're not happy in your current job. mostly, (just my perception), this is due to what you're doing - your responsibilities and opportunities to grow. pay is a factor, but not as much.

2 - you're beginning to have potential clients come to you. there's not much explanation on how 'real' each project is, but that they're "cropping up".

everything else seems to be a function of 1 and 2. there's an option to do the side work yourself and, potentially, open your own office as a result of #2. you want to jump offices as a result of #1. etc. etc.

coincidentally or not, i left a very secure, very promising job to start my own firm (with a partner) at 35. it wasn't out of economic necessity, nor was it purely out of frustration. i just felt like there were ways of practicing that i couldn't see my employers ever embracing and i couldn't see any other way to practice long term. so, in that respect, the decision was pretty easy and something that was planned out 2-3 years in advance. i took no clients, only had 1 solid outside project that would get me through the 3 months it would take for my partner to extract himself and we had a house for his dad lined up after that. alas, my project ended, the house for dad fell through and it took a few months to get going in earnest. 7 years later, we've got 7 people in the office and we're surviving ok.

reason i bring it up: running your own firm isn't a hobby and it really isn't something to be taken lightly. personally, just from your post, i don't see the kind of raw desire you'd need to do your own thing. unhappy, yes, but talk about doing a firm sounds halfhearted at best. my recommendation is do a lot more soul searching before you even think of committing to that route. all of that is in addition to the fact that getting licensed is a major unknown in that equation.

now, by all means, do the work on the side. get that experience and income. if it goes really well, do one or two more (i'd done a half dozen side projects by the time i'd started out). you really have to commit to getting the license done - if nothing else, it would be essential to doing your own firm properly. 

i'll leave the 'how do i get my employer to pay for x,y,z' to others. operating budgets for most firms are still really low and lots of perks are still on hiatus. i don't see anything wrong with wanting to learn other programs, but if you can't get it through the office, you have to decide: am i going to suck it up and figure out how to get it done? or am i just going to let it go? that attitude alone will say a lot about your chances for success in doing your own firm...

Mid Life Crisis does not = REVIT ! get a life.....maybe they will notice your more!

Thanks for the advice Gregory. I appreciate the though out advise from someone that has done what I would like to do. 

I'm not happy here for a variety of reasons and yes, the pay and the fact that there is next to no growth possibility here. This is a one man show, and my boss does things his way. He wants what he wants and giving up even a little bit of control is simply not in his nature. So it's up to decide what I need to do.

I've had other projects bubble up because one of my buddies is a general contractor and his business is picking up. These side jobs are nothing to write home about but they give me experience and just as important, control over what I do and how I do it. Being at this office, that is something I simply don't experience. But I do pay the bills. In a way, I was thinking that IF I did leave this job, I would do so if I had one or two solid projects lined up with signed contracts in hand and retainer checks deposited. Then I would have no choice but to go all out do anything needed in order to succeed. I've already designed my logo, have my own website and email address and business cards. 

But in the meantime, since I have a somewhat steady paycheck here, I think i want to stop procrastinating and get started with the licensure process and learn a new program or two. I know that going off and starting your own firm isn't fun and games. I have a couple of friends that run their own firms and know that it is stressful, but I starting to have a nagging voice inside my head that says that I could do it too. And not only that, but that it's time. 

@rusty, no not poor now.  grew up poor though.  know better.

@tosteroven, yes.  am sure it makes a difference as you say.  but we don't have time to draft anymore.  our days are filled with finding new work and guiding staff.  staff need to learn software, maybe ;-)

3 of my 4 clients (architects) know how to use Outlook and Word. That's it. Hasn't stopped them from running successful businesses. They are far from stupid people.

It's impossible to know everything. If I were to run my own shop, I'd take 'financial management' over Revit anytime. 

i say you should do ALL the things you mentioned.

sure, it won't be easy, but... a) take the side projects--on the side.  if they're small, odds are your clients will understand that you have a job and will need to meet in the evenings or on weekends, especially if it means they get a bit of a break on the fee.  and if things snowball, well, then quit the job and take it from there.  b) get licensed, ASAP.  this is probably the most important thing, but, like most adults with responsibilities, you'll have to fit in your studying around all your other work, and won't get a chance to really focus the way you might like to.  c) software--probably the least important, but try it out.  Revit has a pretty steep learning curve but will probably help streamline your work process, and sketchup is pretty user-friendly.  if your boss is a micro-manager, then he/she might not be too impressed by your use of new software he can't understand or control, but do see if your firm is supportive...that way you can learn your software while you're on the clock, leaving you the other 16 hours of the day for side work, studying, and maybe even a little sleep here and there...

i really think this is possible without quitting your job, if you suck it up, cancel your social calendar, and throw yourself into it, knowing it's just for a limited time...give it two months and see how it goes.  no risk, no reward...

ps--on the subject of job stability vs. entrepreneurial spirit, i am pretty surprised by how many people are willing to put their lives in the hands of others rather than taking responsibility for their own future.  i can understand working for an established firm with a good track record, but--what about the jobs at 3-4-person firms that often don't offer benefits or any real stability...when you're in mid-career, the owners of these firms more-or-less resemble you.  at that point, rather than putting your livelihood in the hands of some dude whose resume looks a lot like yours, maybe it's time to take the leap yourself...

and of course, these days even the established firms may not be doing too well.

I agree with elinor, and I agree with your course of action.

One thing I'd say though is to make sure you delineate, in advance, what your plan B is, for when you do finally fly the firm nest.  Walk through all the possibilities, and know in advance what you'll do in each.  Say, for example, you get a couple of jobs, real actual jobs, but they don't pay enough to cover your expenses.  Do you cancel them and try to go back to working at a firm?  What if you can't get re-hired anywhere since the economy's so bad?  Do you work nights waiting tables?  Do you have a friend you can rent a room from and lower your housing costs?  Anything like that.  Obviously this is all much more complicated with childrens' mouths to feed.

good luck cyberpunk10

the hardest part of going it alone is bringing in the work. if you can do that then the rest will fall into place, especially after all those years experience behind you.

i would learn some business skills instead of another bit of software.  it is much more useful to a practice when you are in charge.  for drafting hire a cad-monkey or continue with what you know now.  the idea that architect = cad-jockey/renderer/designer will need to be the first things to go from your self-image.  you may even begin to understand why your boss micro-manages. when the buck stops at your feet it becomes harder to let others take decisions you will be responsible for.

"pick our own stress?  that sounds like something rich people say to punish poor people for having to work for a living."

This is, as stated, an aspiration, and I am not rich.