seppuku after a long and fruitless job search?


1. find a job. even if it's not in arch.
2. not really.
3. don't take an unpaid internship
4. travel? team up w/ org. like AWB/AFH? do competitions at night. hobnob w/ movers and shakers for future clients.

If you can swing it, put together a great portfolio and move overseas. If you play your cards right, you'll not only get a job, but also get paid something for your hard work.

If you can't leave the US, then I second holz to find a job in anything, but expand your search to anything related to building first. Any type of related experience helps.

spend the time looking at possible ways to make you more marketable. I'd be looking at dual degrees, classes you can take while in school, etc., and get a head start on learning. For example, if you wanted to get a MSRED/MArch, then start buying real estate development books and reading them (you should do this anyway).

If you can't get a job in architecture, then your year off is more or less just killing time (which would be a waste, imho). Look for jobs in areas that you might actually want to work in (graphics, business, construction, porn, whatever)



If you get an unpaid internship, it better offer amazing benefits (like handholding you through an entire process, not some stupid model making). That's probably not going to happen, though.

Where are you hearing that your internship opportunities are most likely going to be unpaid?

Is your school telling you this, your professors, visiting professionals who come to speak at your school, former students who have come back to visit? Or are you just hearing it from studio mates? Or are you hearing it here on Archinect, where every mention of an unpaid "internship" results in a chorus of experienced voices saying "Don't work for free"?

If your school is, in any official way, telling you to work for free, please report them to NAAB. There is NO legitimate, legal situation in which an architecture student/recent grad can work in a firm for free unless they are being paid in the form of school credit.

Don't take an unpaid internship.

As to your question, if you can find a summer internship (that pays) do a fantastic job at it and see if they will then take you on for the rest of the year. This exact scenario was my experience when I took a year off.

Move to a very big city that allows you to participate in things and rub elbows with the right people. Get an office job in a compatible industry (graphic design, marketing, real estate et cetera). Use your free time to do architecture things.

Might be easier said that done.

But non-specific office experience will let you work your way into a larger firm. Once you have enough large firm experience, you can get a job for one of the small fun and fancy boutique firms.

Good luck finding a job. I graduated college 1.5 years ago and haven't had any luck finding an arch job. I now work as a federal contractor making a decent amount more than i would if I was in arch. But ironically, I'm trying to leave this job to find an arch job. Just don't see any, espically jobs that are entry level and wanna pay you more than $40k. SMH

Quentin, not to derail, but can I ask in what capacity you work as a federal contractor - is it anything arch-related?

Nope non-arch. And the closest my company gets to arch is faclities managment and they want people with 5+ years of experience. So for me to get into arch again, I gotta leave this place.