I graduated about 6 months ago with my Master's in Architecture and for the past year, I've been trying to get some kind of grasp on where I want to take my career. Originally when I went into Architecture school I had the intentions of getting an internship once I got out and working towards getting my license. But after learning about the long process and learning that professionally I might have to start back at square 1 in terms of career wise, I've become quite unsure about getting licensed and instead of getting an internship right out of college I accepted a job outside of the architecture field. While in school picked up valuable experience in construction and residential structural design. I was a project manager at a construction company for 1 year, a residential structural floor system designer for a year, and a cost estimator with a lumber company for 4 years. Not to sound like I'm above my peers, but I feel with the experience I've gained from the jobs I held while in college, I should be looking for a more advanced line of work than an internship in the design field. Another thing that also has deterred me from entering into an internship is a number of money interns make isn't really worth wild and what I feel is not at a good starting point for someone with a Master's degree. I had a few interviews with a few architecture firms after graduating with my Master's degree, but ultimately I accepted a job opportunity working as a structural floor and roof system designer with a company that offers me about 65,000 a year in comparison to my peers who received internships and are making between 40,000 - 45,000 a year. I'm pretty content with where I am at now, but ultimately I'm looking at the bigger picture and where I want to be career wise and weighing my options. I'm not sure if I want to stay in the line of work I am in now, even though, there is a high demand for residential structural designers. What I'm looking for is people who were in a similar situation after receiving their masters and what were the options they considered and went with. One of the things I wouldn't mind doing it getting into urban designing, but I don't know exactly how to break into that sector of the job field. Ultimately I want to end up with on a career path, whether it is the one I am in or another, where I'm making good money and love the job that I am doing.
Your background can be very useful to an architecture firm. But you've got to find one that values that experience and not all of them will weigh it equally. A residential focused or possiblly A/E firm would. For example, AECOM has construction management in house alongside architects, interns etc. You don't need to start at the bottom with those who have no AEC experience. If you want to get your license you can do so whilst working as a PM at an arch or multidisciplinary firm. That's assuming you want the license. What was your undergrad in?
Is architecture a second career? If so, a step backwards to move forwards is to be expected. Are these years of experience before grad school full-time? Even if it's a yes, 6 yrs isn't too long.
Best advice I got in grad school was to plan ahead short and long term, check your job choices based on how much they help you accomplish the long term goals. Most people entering graduate programs tend to have some varied experience that is helpful to the 'end goal'. Being a competent architect requires a lot of varied knowledge, and like most professions it often take a lot of experience to be able to navigate the wide range of knowledge and at the same time develop specializations. The way to curate one's career is to leverage your experience while obtaining others (filling gaps while making use of your most advanced skills).
Based on the salaries you're posting, I assume you're in a very modest cost-of-living area, so the salary range may be tighter. The salary range of my peer group out of grad school was $40ks to $80ks - those at the bottom tended to have fewer immediately useful skill set, wanted to work for the 'hot' design firms, were in non-profit/public sector, and were in more modest parts of the country; the higher salaries were those with some experience, were top of the class in terms of graphic skills, had some specialized skills (photography, construction, marketing), and in bigger markets (NYC, LA, SF, Chicago, Boston).
Smaller architectural firms will giver you much better experience and variety than large firms but at the sacrifice of less money. I would try one of each. Large firms will give you the opportunity of urban design but you will generally be a cad monkey for a lot of the time. The main queston to ask is what do you really want to do and of you dont know spend a few years trying different jobs to find out. Do you want a creative job or money? Do you want to start running jobs or just detail larger jobs? In my experience though you can spend years working for large firms and get nowhere whereas if you start small you will really start learning. But a heck of a lot depends on the quality of the boss of the firm as well and what experiences they are willing to offer you. That would be the first question I would ask them.
Just to add a caveat, while generally yes smaller firms pay less you can definitely find ones that pay pretty well too. I know people at ones that pay peanuts and ones that pay somewhat on par with some of the bigger firms, and some that are in between.
I totally agreed with Pete and Nats. I'm on a similar situation and so far I have had more chances to get interviews as an architectural designer rather than as an intern or even as a drafter. In my case I don't even have a master and my BsA is from a foreign country but like you I have some years of experience. I'm pretty sure that is the reason I haven get a single call from any of the drafters positions I've being applying because for them I'm overqualified even thought I'm more than willing to make a few dollars less than what I'm currently doing. Regarding the license like others were saying it depends on what you are planing to become in the future. Even thought having your own seal doesn't to much about how good architect you are it has become more and more like a requirement to get a job. our problem is that we need to gather experience to even take the ARE test and if you don't have experience you can't get a job to meet that requirement. If you can't get a job to complete your AXP to take the ARE exam you can now present a portfolio to prove years of experience so you might be able to keep your current position and not to relay on a low payed position. I would recommend to check the NCARD web site to see what are your options.
Recently graduated and trying to plan my career
I graduated about 6 months ago with my Master's in Architecture and for the past year, I've been trying to get some kind of grasp on where I want to take my career. Originally when I went into Architecture school I had the intentions of getting an internship once I got out and working towards getting my license. But after learning about the long process and learning that professionally I might have to start back at square 1 in terms of career wise, I've become quite unsure about getting licensed and instead of getting an internship right out of college I accepted a job outside of the architecture field. While in school picked up valuable experience in construction and residential structural design. I was a project manager at a construction company for 1 year, a residential structural floor system designer for a year, and a cost estimator with a lumber company for 4 years. Not to sound like I'm above my peers, but I feel with the experience I've gained from the jobs I held while in college, I should be looking for a more advanced line of work than an internship in the design field. Another thing that also has deterred me from entering into an internship is a number of money interns make isn't really worth wild and what I feel is not at a good starting point for someone with a Master's degree. I had a few interviews with a few architecture firms after graduating with my Master's degree, but ultimately I accepted a job opportunity working as a structural floor and roof system designer with a company that offers me about 65,000 a year in comparison to my peers who received internships and are making between 40,000 - 45,000 a year. I'm pretty content with where I am at now, but ultimately I'm looking at the bigger picture and where I want to be career wise and weighing my options. I'm not sure if I want to stay in the line of work I am in now, even though, there is a high demand for residential structural designers. What I'm looking for is people who were in a similar situation after receiving their masters and what were the options they considered and went with. One of the things I wouldn't mind doing it getting into urban designing, but I don't know exactly how to break into that sector of the job field. Ultimately I want to end up with on a career path, whether it is the one I am in or another, where I'm making good money and love the job that I am doing.
Is architecture a second career? If so, a step backwards to move forwards is to be expected. Are these years of experience before grad school full-time? Even if it's a yes, 6 yrs isn't too long.
Best advice I got in grad school was to plan ahead short and long term, check your job choices based on how much they help you accomplish the long term goals. Most people entering graduate programs tend to have some varied experience that is helpful to the 'end goal'. Being a competent architect requires a lot of varied knowledge, and like most professions it often take a lot of experience to be able to navigate the wide range of knowledge and at the same time develop specializations. The way to curate one's career is to leverage your experience while obtaining others (filling gaps while making use of your most advanced skills).
Based on the salaries you're posting, I assume you're in a very modest cost-of-living area, so the salary range may be tighter. The salary range of my peer group out of grad school was $40ks to $80ks - those at the bottom tended to have fewer immediately useful skill set, wanted to work for the 'hot' design firms, were in non-profit/public sector, and were in more modest parts of the country; the higher salaries were those with some experience, were top of the class in terms of graphic skills, had some specialized skills (photography, construction, marketing), and in bigger markets (NYC, LA, SF, Chicago, Boston).
Don't focus so much on the word Intern. Get a job at the level for which you are qualified, and don't go looking for internships.
Smaller architectural firms will giver you much better experience and variety than large firms but at the sacrifice of less money. I would try one of each. Large firms will give you the opportunity of urban design but you will generally be a cad monkey for a lot of the time. The main queston to ask is what do you really want to do and of you dont know spend a few years trying different jobs to find out. Do you want a creative job or money? Do you want to start running jobs or just detail larger jobs? In my experience though you can spend years working for large firms and get nowhere whereas if you start small you will really start learning. But a heck of a lot depends on the quality of the boss of the firm as well and what experiences they are willing to offer you. That would be the first question I would ask them.
Just to add a caveat, while generally yes smaller firms pay less you can definitely find ones that pay pretty well too. I know people at ones that pay peanuts and ones that pay somewhat on par with some of the bigger firms, and some that are in between.
I totally agreed with Pete and Nats. I'm on a similar situation and so far I have had more chances to get interviews as an architectural designer rather than as an intern or even as a drafter. In my case I don't even have a master and my BsA is from a foreign country but like you I have some years of experience. I'm pretty sure that is the reason I haven get a single call from any of the drafters positions I've being applying because for them I'm overqualified even thought I'm more than willing to make a few dollars less than what I'm currently doing. Regarding the license like others were saying it depends on what you are planing to become in the future. Even thought having your own seal doesn't to much about how good architect you are it has become more and more like a requirement to get a job. our problem is that we need to gather experience to even take the ARE test and if you don't have experience you can't get a job to meet that requirement. If you can't get a job to complete your AXP to take the ARE exam you can now present a portfolio to prove years of experience so you might be able to keep your current position and not to relay on a low payed position. I would recommend to check the NCARD web site to see what are your options.
Read the thread above about the guy burned out at 56. Read and avoid the situation he now finds himself in.
Block this user
Are you sure you want to block this user and hide all related comments throughout the site?
Archinect
This is your first comment on Archinect. Your comment will be visible once approved.