since you're giving up your degrees and going back to school for an MBA, why are you getting out of architecture? what profession are you going into with your MBA? and what do you think the MBA will empower you to achieve?
Yes, time to get out if you hate what you're doing.
But "don't throw out the baby with the bathwater." (Sorry: my mom's from the midwest.) If you still enjoy architecture in some way, keep your stuff. You may find a way to marry your two professions (did someone say "real estate"?), and your portfolio may yet come in handy.
Don't become an a**hole in business school! That's their specialty!
Architecture was what I loved coming out of high school. And it motivated me back to the M.ARCH after 3 years of full time experience when I completed my b.tech. Since completing the professional program and entering the internship, its lost its luster. Younger professionals don't seem to get the opportunities. The same shit is in all the magazines. The way younger professionals are treated makes me sick. The bitching depresses me. The 'struggle' that architects endure is pathetic and self-perpetuating. I like my job, don't get me wrong, but I work far too hard and long for the compensation involved.
My friends (with far less education) are buying homes, because their jobs afford them this opportunity. They are enjoying their weekends. They are enjoying their life. I’m not willing to give up a lifestyle for architecture. The training that architecture school provided (task analysis, evaluation and problem solving) lends to a business model. Hopefully, an MBA will provide me with the opportunity to polish these skills and apply them in the business realm.
This is not to say that I won't finish the last of my exams and practice on the side. I’ve made many contacts...and the people I meet in business school will eventually need homes, so the possibilities are endless.
Basically, the MBA provides more options...in all aspects of life. Not for everyone, but I think its right for me...plus, I’d rather practice on my own terms, making decent money in the process.
what do you see as a good move with your MBA? if you're getting out of architecture, what profession would you like to be in? do you think you'll be able to assimilate the two together (development or your own firm <since you'll be lisenced> for instance)? or do you think you'll practice architecure as a hobby only while maintaining a "day job"?
i think i'm more prone to practice as a hobby...doing the type of design that i enjoy, when i enjoy it.
i wouldn't be doing it for money...and i wouldn't poach from existing firms. i see myself doing small home reno's for friends and aquaintances that i meet along the way. currently, i do this anyways...with some degree of success.
A good move would be to meld the two together. setting up firm strategy, firm pr, and using the skills gained to secure jobs and facilitate new avenues for job creation. but more than likely i won't be doing this in the architectural realm, as firms seem to know it all anyways. lol.
Setsquareboy, your comments are right on the money, so to speak. Absolutely you should get your license, yes. Then you have in your pocket the full vested rights of "architect" for whatever the future holds, and can go on to pursue the next challenge.
I came to the conclusion a few years ago that architectural practice, as normally constituted, would kill my soul. I'm currently finishing my PhD so that I can earn my living in research and teaching (architecture and cities), and do the occasional small project for fun.
setsquareboy - are you currently applying to b-school or have you been accepted already? which school? also, any advice on the application process? my biz/law friends tell me that my architecture background, work experience, and undergrad gpa will help make my b-school app stand out. any advice?
well, i have no doubt that i'll be accepted for fall 2005. my b.tech gpa was stellar, as was my M.ARCH. my 5+ years dull time work experience doesn't hurt, nor does the (hopefull) completion of my internship prior to the start of the MBA program. plus, i'll have decent reference letters.
rotman's or Ivy are the places for me. just have to wait and see.
good luck setsquareboy, i think it's a good move. it'll be a good sabbatical from the grind of architecture, and give you many more options when you're done.
It's sad for architecture that the best and brightest struggle for 10+ years through undergrad/grad/working to get to a decent living wage, when we know that if we spend 2-3 years in MBA or law we can come out and instantly make 100K+. I too have pondered this many times....
it's not just about the money...but it was sad when i recently broke up with my long term girlfriend, and we were saving for a place, then i realized that when alone, i can't afford anything...no mortgage for setsquareboy. yet, my friends with other degree have that luxury.
i would rank myself as a decent up and commer...hard working, professional and knowlegable. yet, i see no real future in architecture for myself...so i have to look elsewhere for other opportunities while i'm still young. wish the industry was different, as i do liek my job...but...
I've often thought about going for my MBA. Nearly double majored in undergrad with my BArch and Busn Admin. Probably should've stayed another year and done that but hindsight is always better.
I have many of the same gripes that SSB has. Why do I have to live some kind of pesant lifestyle just so I can be an architect? Personally I think I'd be happier if architects could start earning money like most other professionals but I don't see it happening.
Although I'm not going to run out and start taking classes this spring I have been studying for the GMAT exams just so I can take them and see where I'm at. What did you score SSB? What college are you thinking?
maybe we are the lowest paid professionals because we have pride - in that we don't want anyone to know how long it actually takes to do design, so we sell ourselves short. how many times in the office has something taken 6 hours that you thought you could do in 20 minutes? When someone sees a design for a building, they think, of course, there it is, it's right there, its that easy. But you and I know how that thing came about and it didn't just design and draw itself. Architects are great puzzlemasters, generalists, and therefore it takes a long time to gather info, get ideas, develop visions and strategies, and get these ideas all sewn together into a logical whole. When this is done, all assembled, it looks so easy that we've even fooled ourselves as to how much effort and time it took. We want to appear "professional" like we know it all, but really we are the big general coordinator - the designer, the one who makes sense out of nonsense and we have to do lots of critical thinking and research to get there or you get a silly undeveloped building. It takes it out of you, we deserve the compensation. how many of your clients think they could have done what you just did when you show them your plans. Then maybe they come up with a way to improve an area and suddenly they think they are the architect. "Switch the kitchen sink to over there", and you say, "I think you're right" and suddenly the architect is nothing but the drafter. Nobody wants to do what their lawyer or doctor does for them so they get paid, but when they get involved with architects who does all this neat stuff and shows it to them, they think "I can do this, I want to do this, and I can do it as well as the architect can, what's so hard about this?" BTW, many of my clients are smalltown simple folk who work with an architect once, maybe twice in their lives; who think architects are big ripoffs (my brother-in-law can draw a plan... and he won't charge $100,000!) Whaddya think? Are you guys allowed to talk archy in front of clients? This is huge in my firm, you don't use words more complicated than "box, view, wall" Why can't I talk in my language, even if it is over their heads? I can do both, I can use my language without making someone feel stupid, I think it would help them realize how complex design is. Maybe I would sound like a snotty bitch...
well, i agree strawbeary...we do put in a lot of time.
however, if we assume something will take 20 minutes, but it takes 6 hours...you still charge 6 hours!!!
a lawyer goes into a case without knowing all the fine details. things come up...and they bill for them. we are the stupid ones for propegating this retarded methodoligy of billing.
it's almost as if architects feel pride in undercutting themselves. it's like we view ourselves as 'artisits', and buy into the whole 'stuggling artist' mentality.
you and i (the young ones) can change this...but i dont see too many of you willing. sad.
...somehow the architectural clientel in the U.S. has to be taught the added value good architecture brings, not just for resale, but for the street/neighborhood/city/etc. .. but unfortunately, most clients are so retarded that they don't bat an eye when they give a real estate commission of 5% for 1 weeks work, yet scream like a mother fucker when after 1-2 yrs. work at 8% an architect trys to recoup additional services the client asked for........
i love working with clients, but i think we as a profession should maybe start shutting them out of the process a bit more, they've come to 'expect' to be part of the process when they really have no business. A law client wouldn't poke around in case research, a medical patient wouldn't give suggestions about where his organs should be, so why does our profession put up with and encourage this 'vested' client?
...alberto camp baeza has it right, i heard before he takes a job he makes the client sign a contract that gives him unlimited budget, and unlimited time.......would be nice to have that luxury
ssb - i know you still charge the 6 hours, but looking back, the solution is there and it should have taken you 20 minutes (yeh right), i think this is what the client sees and doesn't how that can possibly take 6 hours. Architects don't want to admit how many roads they had to go down to get to the answer.
o+ -- nice point about leaving the client out. We all know you can't get contracts signed with those conditions though.
the trail i follow is very wobbly and roundabout that I travel to come up with just about everything. Finesse and perserverence make my work great. The client doesn't want to pay for finesse and perserverence, they want to pay for the floor plan. Finesse and perserverence on my part is what makes their building work.
I think the previous generations of architects and builders did a real number on the whole business. Post war boom brought about plenty of buildings ala Mike Brady. Car washes with mansard roofs, elementary schools with mondrianesque patterns, banks that look like fallingwater, churches with constipated punched windows, dentist offices that look like rustic lodges. I have put a few additions on some of these places. So diffucult to add onto bad architecture. Anyways, they have not aged gracefully - especially the parts that were the "architect's specialty". The truth is that architect's don't always do good work. Architects may do some good, but they almost always do some degree of harm as well. Our services are there to be seen by all for quite a long ass time. Our apparant mistakes are proof that we are not as great as we want to be. Architecture is a lost art. Where did it go and how do we get it back?
Did this new superinteraction with the client have something to do with this? The dumbing down of architecture...
I personally am really disappointed with the profession as it is being handed to me. This strange martyr complex that somehow convinces us to take rotten wages and hours for years after we graduate is our own worst enemy. We scoff at every other profession for being passionless, but maybe we're the idiots because we give up EVERYTHING else. I have a passion for architecture, but I have a passion for, um, dating, being social, sleeping, hopefully having a family... We're worth more than what we get - monatarily and in our lives. But God knows that if the last generation got bad wages and broken families, then we will to, and the IDP GUARANTEES it. People might argue that we can't get paid more because the profession isn't profitable enough - but it is mostly professional disorganization that keeps us from making money. I point a BIG finger at the AIA for that one. And the IDP means that there's no escaping the shortcomings of the profession as it stands.
Anyway, as a student, I've been giving serious thought to working outside the profession for the first few years after I graduate. Something creative or related to architecture - advertising or real estate or something. I know it is absolutely absurd, but I can't see anything but misery if I start the IDP with all of my debt, and I could make about twice what I'd make during the IDP with my undergrad degree right now. Has anyone done this? Do the reasons you put up with the education enough to lure you back once you start making money?
I know many of you are scoffing with your condescending architectural martyr complexes, but nothing is worth giving up every other aspect of your life.
I just started my first year in Arch. school and I WILL NOT be part of this financial mindset.
We are architects. We have trained in a professional programme for several years. We have an impact on society, we effect individuals standard of living, we have the responsibility of creating how people live. For this power we get sqwat compared to others which have similar social responsibilities.
I am not going to stand for this and neither should any other architect!
IDP is the biggest load of crap. The only thing about it I find good for interns to do is the volunteer work, but I have at leat quadrupled the hours I need there. For heaven's sake IDP - I have a degree, I work in an architeture office and I am going to have to pass an exam, what are you good for? Of course I am doing code research and marketing. IDP wants to know how many minutes I do it each day. How condescending is that?
I think I may be "too smart" for this profession as well, StabmasterArson (what a cool moniker)
This is interesting. I graduated with a BA in architecture about two years ago, and have just recently decided to get my MBA. Regardless of what other people say, I DO have a passion for architecture. But I also have passion for visual/performance art, graphic design and fashion. That doesn't mean I'm going to become an artist or musician.
I think the discipline I learned from architecture will help me succeed in any career of my choosing. All the architects I've met in my life are hardworking, intelligent, disciplined and unfortunately not being paid enough.
I was wondering if you're thinking about getting a general MBA or specialize in any areas? Also any advice for a young apprentice following a similar career path?
nothing specialized yet. just like you, i'm heading back soon. still young myself...and truly believe that the architecture degrees (7 years) i've received will prepare me for anything a MBA program could possibly throw at me.
love fashion, love art, love the 'culture' that big city provides, love architecure, love sports...and love money. and architecture/MBA combo could afford me all of these loves.
You need to look into construction management my friend. It's a great combination of business and architecture. You are not designing directly but since you can sign off on changes/docs you will have an edge over a lot of construction managers out there. My background is in Construction Management and I wish I had the initials to sign off on drawings for example. Anyways, construction managers always seem to be in demand. You will not have to abandon your previous knowledge and it's basically a fantastic progression of your current career.
With an MBA and a M.Arch. you can certainly move into construction management but you might want to consider a M.Sc. in construction management. I think a lot of people who posted here asking you "why an MBA" are doing so because they really are a dine-a-dozen. Your studies might be perceived favorably if you get a Construction Management masters as opposed to an MBA. There are developers everywhere that need folks with good understanding of the business side of construction.
This is just my five cents . . .but mind you I have taken my own advice, work for myself and make over six figures so it has paid off for me. Also, I do love it. This is just my five cents.
Sorry to revive an old thread, but business sucks. I'm the opposite of SSB--my undergrad is a business degree in economics, and i'm aplying now for an MArch because I hate the standard approach to business (i.e. becoming a broker, analyst, salesman)--My advice: Get the MBA (or even a construction/real estate focus/degree) and combine your passion for architecture with a profitable move into business. Start a design/build firm or a developer based on your knowledge of design and the things you learn in business school. Don't forsake the Arch for a lackluster career in business.
M.ARCH on Ebay..
...i'm quiting this profession come September (getting an MBA).
Who wants my B.Tech in architectural science? Building science degrees will fetch you 40 to 60k on the open market.
better yet, who wants my portfolo and M.ARCH? this includes all 5 years full time experience, log hours completed and most exams passed!
i'm looking to sell it to the highest bidder. lol
since you're giving up your degrees and going back to school for an MBA, why are you getting out of architecture? what profession are you going into with your MBA? and what do you think the MBA will empower you to achieve?
just curious.
Yes, time to get out if you hate what you're doing.
But "don't throw out the baby with the bathwater." (Sorry: my mom's from the midwest.) If you still enjoy architecture in some way, keep your stuff. You may find a way to marry your two professions (did someone say "real estate"?), and your portfolio may yet come in handy.
Don't become an a**hole in business school! That's their specialty!
Well, I’m more business minded anyways.
Architecture was what I loved coming out of high school. And it motivated me back to the M.ARCH after 3 years of full time experience when I completed my b.tech. Since completing the professional program and entering the internship, its lost its luster. Younger professionals don't seem to get the opportunities. The same shit is in all the magazines. The way younger professionals are treated makes me sick. The bitching depresses me. The 'struggle' that architects endure is pathetic and self-perpetuating. I like my job, don't get me wrong, but I work far too hard and long for the compensation involved.
My friends (with far less education) are buying homes, because their jobs afford them this opportunity. They are enjoying their weekends. They are enjoying their life. I’m not willing to give up a lifestyle for architecture. The training that architecture school provided (task analysis, evaluation and problem solving) lends to a business model. Hopefully, an MBA will provide me with the opportunity to polish these skills and apply them in the business realm.
This is not to say that I won't finish the last of my exams and practice on the side. I’ve made many contacts...and the people I meet in business school will eventually need homes, so the possibilities are endless.
Basically, the MBA provides more options...in all aspects of life. Not for everyone, but I think its right for me...plus, I’d rather practice on my own terms, making decent money in the process.
what do you see as a good move with your MBA? if you're getting out of architecture, what profession would you like to be in? do you think you'll be able to assimilate the two together (development or your own firm <since you'll be lisenced> for instance)? or do you think you'll practice architecure as a hobby only while maintaining a "day job"?
i think i'm more prone to practice as a hobby...doing the type of design that i enjoy, when i enjoy it.
i wouldn't be doing it for money...and i wouldn't poach from existing firms. i see myself doing small home reno's for friends and aquaintances that i meet along the way. currently, i do this anyways...with some degree of success.
A good move would be to meld the two together. setting up firm strategy, firm pr, and using the skills gained to secure jobs and facilitate new avenues for job creation. but more than likely i won't be doing this in the architectural realm, as firms seem to know it all anyways. lol.
Setsquareboy, your comments are right on the money, so to speak. Absolutely you should get your license, yes. Then you have in your pocket the full vested rights of "architect" for whatever the future holds, and can go on to pursue the next challenge.
I came to the conclusion a few years ago that architectural practice, as normally constituted, would kill my soul. I'm currently finishing my PhD so that I can earn my living in research and teaching (architecture and cities), and do the occasional small project for fun.
Good luck to you!
setsquareboy - are you currently applying to b-school or have you been accepted already? which school? also, any advice on the application process? my biz/law friends tell me that my architecture background, work experience, and undergrad gpa will help make my b-school app stand out. any advice?
well, i have no doubt that i'll be accepted for fall 2005. my b.tech gpa was stellar, as was my M.ARCH. my 5+ years dull time work experience doesn't hurt, nor does the (hopefull) completion of my internship prior to the start of the MBA program. plus, i'll have decent reference letters.
rotman's or Ivy are the places for me. just have to wait and see.
dull time work experience says it all
Mention the dull time work you are currently at, then mention the dull time work in the past. - then your shoe in
good luck setsquareboy, i think it's a good move. it'll be a good sabbatical from the grind of architecture, and give you many more options when you're done.
It's sad for architecture that the best and brightest struggle for 10+ years through undergrad/grad/working to get to a decent living wage, when we know that if we spend 2-3 years in MBA or law we can come out and instantly make 100K+. I too have pondered this many times....
giv'er
it's not just about the money...but it was sad when i recently broke up with my long term girlfriend, and we were saving for a place, then i realized that when alone, i can't afford anything...no mortgage for setsquareboy. yet, my friends with other degree have that luxury.
i would rank myself as a decent up and commer...hard working, professional and knowlegable. yet, i see no real future in architecture for myself...so i have to look elsewhere for other opportunities while i'm still young. wish the industry was different, as i do liek my job...but...
why are you going the MBA route and not another route such as law, economics, finance or even a joint degree program?
...the money is not too good...(just say it, man)
timing. allthough construction law is a winner, it's a long road. and one i'm not willing to take.
I've often thought about going for my MBA. Nearly double majored in undergrad with my BArch and Busn Admin. Probably should've stayed another year and done that but hindsight is always better.
I have many of the same gripes that SSB has. Why do I have to live some kind of pesant lifestyle just so I can be an architect? Personally I think I'd be happier if architects could start earning money like most other professionals but I don't see it happening.
Although I'm not going to run out and start taking classes this spring I have been studying for the GMAT exams just so I can take them and see where I'm at. What did you score SSB? What college are you thinking?
think of it this way: why are we the lowest paid professional?
things have to change before the best and brightest leave the profession alltogether!
maybe we are the lowest paid professionals because we have pride - in that we don't want anyone to know how long it actually takes to do design, so we sell ourselves short. how many times in the office has something taken 6 hours that you thought you could do in 20 minutes? When someone sees a design for a building, they think, of course, there it is, it's right there, its that easy. But you and I know how that thing came about and it didn't just design and draw itself. Architects are great puzzlemasters, generalists, and therefore it takes a long time to gather info, get ideas, develop visions and strategies, and get these ideas all sewn together into a logical whole. When this is done, all assembled, it looks so easy that we've even fooled ourselves as to how much effort and time it took. We want to appear "professional" like we know it all, but really we are the big general coordinator - the designer, the one who makes sense out of nonsense and we have to do lots of critical thinking and research to get there or you get a silly undeveloped building. It takes it out of you, we deserve the compensation. how many of your clients think they could have done what you just did when you show them your plans. Then maybe they come up with a way to improve an area and suddenly they think they are the architect. "Switch the kitchen sink to over there", and you say, "I think you're right" and suddenly the architect is nothing but the drafter. Nobody wants to do what their lawyer or doctor does for them so they get paid, but when they get involved with architects who does all this neat stuff and shows it to them, they think "I can do this, I want to do this, and I can do it as well as the architect can, what's so hard about this?" BTW, many of my clients are smalltown simple folk who work with an architect once, maybe twice in their lives; who think architects are big ripoffs (my brother-in-law can draw a plan... and he won't charge $100,000!) Whaddya think? Are you guys allowed to talk archy in front of clients? This is huge in my firm, you don't use words more complicated than "box, view, wall" Why can't I talk in my language, even if it is over their heads? I can do both, I can use my language without making someone feel stupid, I think it would help them realize how complex design is. Maybe I would sound like a snotty bitch...
well, i agree strawbeary...we do put in a lot of time.
however, if we assume something will take 20 minutes, but it takes 6 hours...you still charge 6 hours!!!
a lawyer goes into a case without knowing all the fine details. things come up...and they bill for them. we are the stupid ones for propegating this retarded methodoligy of billing.
it's almost as if architects feel pride in undercutting themselves. it's like we view ourselves as 'artisits', and buy into the whole 'stuggling artist' mentality.
you and i (the young ones) can change this...but i dont see too many of you willing. sad.
...somehow the architectural clientel in the U.S. has to be taught the added value good architecture brings, not just for resale, but for the street/neighborhood/city/etc. .. but unfortunately, most clients are so retarded that they don't bat an eye when they give a real estate commission of 5% for 1 weeks work, yet scream like a mother fucker when after 1-2 yrs. work at 8% an architect trys to recoup additional services the client asked for........
i love working with clients, but i think we as a profession should maybe start shutting them out of the process a bit more, they've come to 'expect' to be part of the process when they really have no business. A law client wouldn't poke around in case research, a medical patient wouldn't give suggestions about where his organs should be, so why does our profession put up with and encourage this 'vested' client?
...alberto camp baeza has it right, i heard before he takes a job he makes the client sign a contract that gives him unlimited budget, and unlimited time.......would be nice to have that luxury
sorry i've gone way off topic...
ssb - i know you still charge the 6 hours, but looking back, the solution is there and it should have taken you 20 minutes (yeh right), i think this is what the client sees and doesn't how that can possibly take 6 hours. Architects don't want to admit how many roads they had to go down to get to the answer.
o+ -- nice point about leaving the client out. We all know you can't get contracts signed with those conditions though.
the trail i follow is very wobbly and roundabout that I travel to come up with just about everything. Finesse and perserverence make my work great. The client doesn't want to pay for finesse and perserverence, they want to pay for the floor plan. Finesse and perserverence on my part is what makes their building work.
I think the previous generations of architects and builders did a real number on the whole business. Post war boom brought about plenty of buildings ala Mike Brady. Car washes with mansard roofs, elementary schools with mondrianesque patterns, banks that look like fallingwater, churches with constipated punched windows, dentist offices that look like rustic lodges. I have put a few additions on some of these places. So diffucult to add onto bad architecture. Anyways, they have not aged gracefully - especially the parts that were the "architect's specialty". The truth is that architect's don't always do good work. Architects may do some good, but they almost always do some degree of harm as well. Our services are there to be seen by all for quite a long ass time. Our apparant mistakes are proof that we are not as great as we want to be. Architecture is a lost art. Where did it go and how do we get it back?
Did this new superinteraction with the client have something to do with this? The dumbing down of architecture...
...and Extreme Makeover House Edition (though my wife loves it) doesn't help one bit. Who are these people anyway?
i have an offer of 50 bucks!
I personally am really disappointed with the profession as it is being handed to me. This strange martyr complex that somehow convinces us to take rotten wages and hours for years after we graduate is our own worst enemy. We scoff at every other profession for being passionless, but maybe we're the idiots because we give up EVERYTHING else. I have a passion for architecture, but I have a passion for, um, dating, being social, sleeping, hopefully having a family... We're worth more than what we get - monatarily and in our lives. But God knows that if the last generation got bad wages and broken families, then we will to, and the IDP GUARANTEES it. People might argue that we can't get paid more because the profession isn't profitable enough - but it is mostly professional disorganization that keeps us from making money. I point a BIG finger at the AIA for that one. And the IDP means that there's no escaping the shortcomings of the profession as it stands.
Anyway, as a student, I've been giving serious thought to working outside the profession for the first few years after I graduate. Something creative or related to architecture - advertising or real estate or something. I know it is absolutely absurd, but I can't see anything but misery if I start the IDP with all of my debt, and I could make about twice what I'd make during the IDP with my undergrad degree right now. Has anyone done this? Do the reasons you put up with the education enough to lure you back once you start making money?
I know many of you are scoffing with your condescending architectural martyr complexes, but nothing is worth giving up every other aspect of your life.
I just started my first year in Arch. school and I WILL NOT be part of this financial mindset.
We are architects. We have trained in a professional programme for several years. We have an impact on society, we effect individuals standard of living, we have the responsibility of creating how people live. For this power we get sqwat compared to others which have similar social responsibilities.
I am not going to stand for this and neither should any other architect!
IDP is the biggest load of crap. The only thing about it I find good for interns to do is the volunteer work, but I have at leat quadrupled the hours I need there. For heaven's sake IDP - I have a degree, I work in an architeture office and I am going to have to pass an exam, what are you good for? Of course I am doing code research and marketing. IDP wants to know how many minutes I do it each day. How condescending is that?
I think I may be "too smart" for this profession as well, StabmasterArson (what a cool moniker)
I KNOW I'M TOO SMART FOR THIS PROFESSION!
Setsquareboy:
This is interesting. I graduated with a BA in architecture about two years ago, and have just recently decided to get my MBA. Regardless of what other people say, I DO have a passion for architecture. But I also have passion for visual/performance art, graphic design and fashion. That doesn't mean I'm going to become an artist or musician.
I think the discipline I learned from architecture will help me succeed in any career of my choosing. All the architects I've met in my life are hardworking, intelligent, disciplined and unfortunately not being paid enough.
I was wondering if you're thinking about getting a general MBA or specialize in any areas? Also any advice for a young apprentice following a similar career path?
greengoblin:
nothing specialized yet. just like you, i'm heading back soon. still young myself...and truly believe that the architecture degrees (7 years) i've received will prepare me for anything a MBA program could possibly throw at me.
love fashion, love art, love the 'culture' that big city provides, love architecure, love sports...and love money. and architecture/MBA combo could afford me all of these loves.
Setsquareboy:
You need to look into construction management my friend. It's a great combination of business and architecture. You are not designing directly but since you can sign off on changes/docs you will have an edge over a lot of construction managers out there. My background is in Construction Management and I wish I had the initials to sign off on drawings for example. Anyways, construction managers always seem to be in demand. You will not have to abandon your previous knowledge and it's basically a fantastic progression of your current career.
With an MBA and a M.Arch. you can certainly move into construction management but you might want to consider a M.Sc. in construction management. I think a lot of people who posted here asking you "why an MBA" are doing so because they really are a dine-a-dozen. Your studies might be perceived favorably if you get a Construction Management masters as opposed to an MBA. There are developers everywhere that need folks with good understanding of the business side of construction.
This is just my five cents . . .but mind you I have taken my own advice, work for myself and make over six figures so it has paid off for me. Also, I do love it. This is just my five cents.
Morgan
TEST999:
tell me more, i'm intrigued...setsquareboy@hotmail.com
i was just offered 'sex' for my M.ARCH!!!! lol. too funny missy!
Sorry to revive an old thread, but business sucks. I'm the opposite of SSB--my undergrad is a business degree in economics, and i'm aplying now for an MArch because I hate the standard approach to business (i.e. becoming a broker, analyst, salesman)--My advice: Get the MBA (or even a construction/real estate focus/degree) and combine your passion for architecture with a profitable move into business. Start a design/build firm or a developer based on your knowledge of design and the things you learn in business school. Don't forsake the Arch for a lackluster career in business.
setssquareboy,
Can I have your books?
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