Hi guys. This is my first time posting here and I'm genuinely looking for some advice from people who have been in the practice for while. I got a master degree in architecture in 2017 and worked for 2 years in residential. Early on I was interested in public architecture and public spaces due to my background in landscape. I did got offered a job at BIG but I chose a firm in Chicago instead. At my last job in architecture, I worked in a boutique studio in San Francisco on high-end house. I felt burnt out from drafting elevation drawings for 3 months straight and I was really unhappy and depressed. I think I suffered from the gap between my creative education and the technical requirement of the practice - I felt like I knew nothing about construction after 7 years of education. I was paid below average pay to live in San Francisco. Being so close to startup culture, I made a leap in 7 weeks and landed on a job in tech company as a product designer. Now I have experimented about 1 year in tech. During that, I've learned a lot more about consumer, business and market in the past year being in tech. I have been in general more happy and have a better mental stability, but I also really miss the challenges in architecture, the interesting problems, design-build aspect, and more so I have been away from focusing on one area to create deep expertise. I still identify as an architectural designer. I'm deciding what areas I should go into for the next step in my career. I'm passionate about design impact and transferring the built environment, and I value creativity largely. What advice would you offer to me? Really appreciated your suggestions!
So you worked from 2017 to 2019 in Chicago, then SF, on residential projects, but you were initially interested in public spaces?
Then in the last year you made the leap to tech product design? Was this digital product design, or industrial design of physical products?
I'm not surprised you burnt out doing residential if your love was public spaces with a large impact. This profession involves plenty of drudgery regardless of the project or program, so believing in what you are working on is really important. Also, don't feel bad that you didn't understand construction - most schools are awful at teaching the technicals of the profession, and it takes many years to learn via mentorship, error, and time on the jobsite.
Have you considered working for something like Sidewalk Labs/ Alphabet on urban planning/ urban experience information products?
Or if you came to love residential, working for someone like Honeywell, Nest (via Google of course) or Samsung on their smart home applications?
Trimble, McNeal, or Autodesk could also be interesting avenues - there are many digital product designers in companies like that who have a huge impact on the tools we use to design spaces, and thus the spaces themselves.
Even UNSTUDIO now has a digital design/ information technology offshoot, or there is the research arm of OMA, AMO.
Lastly, I imagine that most tech companies have internal planning and design staff to manage architects and contractors, and do smaller projects internally - you could always consider re-entering architecture through an avenue like that.
Jun 26, 20 7:27 pm ·
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Confused architect grad seeking advice
Hi guys. This is my first time posting here and I'm genuinely looking for some advice from people who have been in the practice for while. I got a master degree in architecture in 2017 and worked for 2 years in residential. Early on I was interested in public architecture and public spaces due to my background in landscape. I did got offered a job at BIG but I chose a firm in Chicago instead. At my last job in architecture, I worked in a boutique studio in San Francisco on high-end house. I felt burnt out from drafting elevation drawings for 3 months straight and I was really unhappy and depressed. I think I suffered from the gap between my creative education and the technical requirement of the practice - I felt like I knew nothing about construction after 7 years of education. I was paid below average pay to live in San Francisco. Being so close to startup culture, I made a leap in 7 weeks and landed on a job in tech company as a product designer. Now I have experimented about 1 year in tech. During that, I've learned a lot more about consumer, business and market in the past year being in tech. I have been in general more happy and have a better mental stability, but I also really miss the challenges in architecture, the interesting problems, design-build aspect, and more so I have been away from focusing on one area to create deep expertise. I still identify as an architectural designer. I'm deciding what areas I should go into for the next step in my career. I'm passionate about design impact and transferring the built environment, and I value creativity largely. What advice would you offer to me? Really appreciated your suggestions!
So you worked from 2017 to 2019 in Chicago, then SF, on residential projects, but you were initially interested in public spaces?
Then in the last year you made the leap to tech product design? Was this digital product design, or industrial design of physical products?
I'm not surprised you burnt out doing residential if your love was public spaces with a large impact. This profession involves plenty of drudgery regardless of the project or program, so believing in what you are working on is really important. Also, don't feel bad that you didn't understand construction - most schools are awful at teaching the technicals of the profession, and it takes many years to learn via mentorship, error, and time on the jobsite.
Have you considered working for something like Sidewalk Labs/ Alphabet on urban planning/ urban experience information products?
Or if you came to love residential, working for someone like Honeywell, Nest (via Google of course) or Samsung on their smart home applications?
Trimble, McNeal, or Autodesk could also be interesting avenues - there are many digital product designers in companies like that who have a huge impact on the tools we use to design spaces, and thus the spaces themselves.
Even UNSTUDIO now has a digital design/ information technology offshoot, or there is the research arm of OMA, AMO.
Lastly, I imagine that most tech companies have internal planning and design staff to manage architects and contractors, and do smaller projects internally - you could always consider re-entering architecture through an avenue like that.
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