I'm giving a presentation to some high school students for career day on what it's like to be an architect - but I can't decide if I should show them the cold hard numbers of how much it costs and how relatively little we earn, or if that's just TMI/too depressing?
Thoughts? I don't want to be a total buzzkill (obviously otherwise I wouldn't be trying to sell the career to kids), but I want them be able to think realistically about the financial impact of pursuing architecture.
The rest of the presentation is very positive if that helps.
Don’t kill anyone’s dreams, but don’t be unrealistic either. You can certainly say that while architects may appear glamorous and high-paid the reality is we don’t make as much money as the general public might think we do - and it’s like any other profession: there are some who excel and become well-paid and well-known but the vast majority just make a decent-enough living doing a job they mainly love but sometimes don’t.
The other aspect I would stress is that architecture school can be a starting point for all kinds of design work: the lines between design professions are becoming fuzzier as we incorporate more technology into design and more “design thinking” into other fields.
Keep your own experience out of the salary question. Instead, gather some basic salary data (from your state/country) and compare that to salaries from other fields. None of it will be super accurate, but it should be the same level of inaccurate.
Then you can talk about why we make more or less than plumbers, or teachers, etc.
Don’t kill anyone’s dreams, but don’t be unrealistic either. You can certainly say that while architects may appear glamorous and high-paid the reality is we don’t make as much money as the general public might think we do - and it’s like any other profession: there are some who excel and become well-paid and well-known but the vast majority just make a decent-enough living doing a job they mainly love but sometimes don’t.
The other aspect I would stress is that architecture school can be a starting point for all kinds of design work: the lines between design professions are becoming fuzzier as we incorporate more technology into design and more “design thinking” into other fields.
career day - how real to be?
I'm giving a presentation to some high school students for career day on what it's like to be an architect - but I can't decide if I should show them the cold hard numbers of how much it costs and how relatively little we earn, or if that's just TMI/too depressing?
Thoughts? I don't want to be a total buzzkill (obviously otherwise I wouldn't be trying to sell the career to kids), but I want them be able to think realistically about the financial impact of pursuing architecture.
The rest of the presentation is very positive if that helps.
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Keep your own experience out of the salary question. Instead, gather some basic salary data (from your state/country) and compare that to salaries from other fields. None of it will be super accurate, but it should be the same level of inaccurate.
Then you can talk about why we make more or less than plumbers, or teachers, etc.
Be as real as you want to be, part of being an architect is selling a narrative, treat them as your client :)
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