It is tough like shit.  

You are gonna work more than any other people you can imagine all the time until you become 50 years old.

Don't forget you are gonna get shitty salary or not at all unless you can work in the major firm.

you are gonna face constant competition between your colleague, yourself, your professor, and some architects you have never seen before.  

Generally(not all of them but mostly) all architects are super hyper arrogant douche bags  or bitches tried to find any of your mistakes or flaws whenever they have a chance.

They are gonna say something positive thing about your work only in front of you(if you are famous though) or after you died.

How can you handle this?

You must love the architecture more than you love your first love, your girl friend, your dad, your brother, sister, mom, god or anything you can think of.

You need to be a heartless fuck to be tougher or stronger than those people.

If you cannot do those things, you gonna end up some kind of mediocre firm without weekend with salary like cat pee.  But you will not be able to quit it because you've come too far.

Try to go to the architecture school first.  If you cannot enjoy it and love it so much until 3rd year, you should get the fuck out of there ASAP because it will not be changed in the professional field.

Well....  It's a lifelong career, if you love it and can find work then it could be a good match.  But..  Employment isn't certain, especially now.  Pay isn't as good as other fields with a similar amount of school.  No matter how people hype up certain Uni's, don't get sucked into paying more than you feel comfortable with; it'll bite you in the end.

Ask yourself, is this the only thing I can do as a career and be passionate about?  Because if you're thinking of other options too... they might be more attainable.

I'll stick to my old saying, especially these days:  "If you are not 100%  certain that you can't live without architecture (even at your age), then it ain't for you".  There are many other creative professions out there that take significantly less school, allow you time to have a social life and are, generally speaking, far more rewarding.

Qualities to be an a good architect:  Honestly, the field of architecture is incredibly diverse.  Architects are sort of on a sliding scale between an artist and an engineer.  Some of us are incredibly artistic and talented, but lack technical abilities.   Others are the opposite.  And some consider themselves a jack of all trades. You really can have success anywhere in between.

Salary is just fine.  You're not going to be bragging to your buddies on your yacht one day, but there's nothing to be really afraid of.  (Hopefully the current doom and gloom will pass once you graduate school.)

How can a person become successful?  Do what you want to do.  Do what interests you.  You will put in twice the effort and succeed twice as much if you pursue these things.

Course of action: Take art classes if you can.  Anything, drawing, painting, photography.

What information must you know?  Well, I don't think there's a really a limit or direction you should try and go in.  I mean, there's nothing that really isn't worth knowing unless your not interested in it.  I would just try and push yourself in whatever direction interests you.  Go for it.

It can be a rewarding career.  And it doesn't have to be a drain.  There are a lot of different ways to practice architecture.  I work in a planning and project management department at a University.  It's a more calm and less demanding atmosphere than private practice, although less rewarding financially (depending on economic times) and less productive artistically speaking.  But for me, it's the place to be right now.  I have a wife and two young sons, and the easier work load allows me to take part in their lives like I want to.  I look forward one day to having my own firm, but this is a great intermediate place to be.  All that to say, you can make it what you want.  

I'd look for a school that will supply a good deal of technical education along with artistic education.  I personally think my grad school sucked on the technical aspects, and I feel like I'm having to teach myself too much.  But to get into school, they all want to see a good portfolio.  Any kind of art work will do, so long as you show you are a creative person.

God bless your efforts...

If you decide to go into architecture - join the Marines first -and acquire the necessary toughness to make it through architecture school and the profession itself - only the few.

j814won, architects have well over a 20% unemployment rate right now which is a numerical fact based on gov't figures (It could very well be significantly higher).   I would suggest you try to get a summer intern position in a local firm to see the profession from the inside and make an informed decision on your higher education major.

Keep in mind that apparently, the downturn in employment for architects happens about every 10 years. I've heard from people working in the field for 30, 40, 50 years that this is part of a Boom-Bust cycle, which tends to coincde with wars. For example, there was a big recession in the 70's (vietnam), not just for architects, but for everyone. Then in the 80's, a big boom, right until the early 90's (desert storm) which lasted till about 1995. 95 - 2007, another boom, albeit an artificial boom proped up by subprime mortgages and bad derivitives, followed by the current bust (Wars in Iraq, Afganistan, Libya, Pakistan...). If history is any indicator, the economy will be puttering along for another 5-7 years. This is something to consider before making a career choice, having a source of work that is consistent and reliable is more important than just doing something you like.

keep in mind, too, that this economic condition is not going to turn around anytime soon, meanwhile there are a lot of out of work architects and each year 6,000 more graduate, most of whom are not finding jobs right now.  So: 1) if a change in economic conditions to reabsorb all of the displaced architects is not likely in the next 3-5 years (or longer); 2) you will face an incredible amount of competition even just to get a bad job in architecture.  How much competition?  See quote and links from a recent Compensation Survey below.  Of course, many are leaving the field permanently.  And some of the lost jobs were other staff.  Still, the extent of industry contraction over such a short duration is difficult to fathom.  For this reason, the competition will remain insane for quite a while.  It will also likely continue to stagnate wages and benefits because there is much more supply than demand.

"Payroll employment at U.S. architecture firms was in excess of 240,000 at the end of 2007. By the end of 2010, firm employment levels fell to under 156,000, according to the U.S. Department of Labor, producing more than a 25 percent decline in payroll positions over this period." --- 156,000/240,000 is almost a 40% decline --- http://www.aia.org/practicing/AIAB090533

also keep in mind that these numbers don't even begin to address all of the under-employment, "employed architects" on reduced hours, pay, or furloughed, or those who have "opened their own practice" as a result of having been let go but who do not actually have any work or are picking up very minor things but are not really earning a liveable wage. 

some of the comments above may seem as though they are overstating how bad the market is but they are not.  So do consider the sacrifices you'll have to make.

if you want a great quality of life and to be an architect, you have to find a niche, get lucky, or be prepared to work overseas

Now I'm shifting away from architecture based on the mostly negative comments.  What fields of engineering involving buildings and structures currently has the most employment rate or lowest unemployment rate.  And what is its salary.

How's civil engineering?  CNN lists it in 2011 as one of the top jobs.  Really, I'm interested in many forms of engineering ranging from computer engineering to civil engineering.  I know computer engineers are in high demand though and my research tells me that most people who end up in the field never even studied programming in HS based on one site.

So computer engineer and relate jobs are on ym list.  Civil engineering and other types are too.

CNN Money lists Structural Engineers and Civil Engineeriing in their top 20 Best Jobs in 2011.

Personally, I think an interesting area is related to the energy performance of buildings, both new and existing.  I have no idea what schools/programs are addressing this field.  But I am looking at performing Energy Star Audits for some commercial properties:

http://www.energystar.gov/index.cfm?c=eligibility.bus_portfoliomanager_eligibility

so much for being bright eyed and bushy tailed... is the grass always greener?... i wonder what people would say on a civil engineering forum would say.  civil engineering, computer science, and architecture are vastly different fields, i think someone had a good piece of advice earlier... try and intern or shadow for local architects and engineers... 

yeah, the interning idea is a great idea, no matter which professions you want to explore. 

you might look at robotics and mechanical engineering as well -- robotics b/c there are at least some (including bill gates) who speculate that robotics will be over the next 30 years what the development of computers and software has been for the previous 40 years --- a long-term, high-growth, expanding sector --- you can get at robotics from any number of majors, including mech eng, computer eng, computer science, electrical eng, systems eng, math, natural sciences, software development, etc --- and mechanical engineering b/c it is so versatile and you could go into anything from vehicles to aircraft to ships to robotics to all manner of consumer and industrial devices, and of course building systems as well. 

if you really want to work with buildings in a high-growth field, look into being a building commissioning agent and maybe try to get an internship with one.  they are usually licensed engineers who go into practice making sure buildings perform as per their design specification, or they problem solve to improve the performance of existing buildings. 

also, my point was not to completely dissuade you from architecture...just to make sure you are realistic about the challenge you take upon yourself. 

I'm considering

Architecture, Structural Engineering, Civil Engineering, Computer Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Software Developer,

It seems like you're not quite sure about anything, which is perfectly fine.  In fact, I think it's better that you're not settled on architecture (or anything else).  You're young. Don't be scared by naysayers and the like.  Try it all.  If you love it, keep doing it.  If you don't, get out as soon as you can.  The worst thing that can happen is that you end up unhappy and in a situation you can't get out of.  You would be doing yourself a disfavor, and saturating the field with warm bodies that don't belong.

Truth of the matter is that architecture is difficult, and it's not for everyone.  However, I would argue that whatever field you go into, it shouldn't be easy if you're going to work hard and do cool shit.

If you are considering architecture and engineering - then Structural Engineering would worth looking into -

If you are considering architecture and engineering - then Structural Engineering would worth looking into -

Thanks Codename,  I'll try to keep that in mind.

Suverk, I am considering structural engineering.

I'm also strongly considering computer progrmaming or engineer.  I like working on computers.  I don't have any programming skills but Collegeboard said one fact is that most people who end up in teh field never learned programming in HS.

In 7 years, is the economy expected to improve enough so that hiring for engineers and architects goes up?

I'd be cautious about the "do it if you love" moniker.  It sounds nice, but the reality is that you can't really know how it'll be until you are doing it (school was a blast, the professional world of architecture not so much, but I couldn't know that until I was there...7+ years of school later!).

Weigh all of the factors.  You might romantically say "money is not that important" and at your age, that's fine, but again reality is reality, it does matter.  If you like computers I would look at something there, growing fields/demand, very interesting possiblities/creativity, compensation far greater than architecture.

Hiring - no one knows, you can't rely on any that claims to know, either, 'cause they are full of shit.  Will it be better?  It was supposed to be better 2 years ago.  We are in a "new normal" (as the wise folk at Pimco famously proclaimed), meaning that no one really knows if/when things will go back to the way it goes.

Look above at the numbers schools are graduating.  It is staggering considering the high unemployment numbers in the field.  

Historically, cycles go up/down.  So, in 7 years, we should be right about smack dab in the middle of another recession!!  Now there's something to look forward to ('cause as they say, we are not, technically, still in a recession)

Most of the architects that I know that have managed to keep their jobs during this recession have taken about a 20% pay cut...actually they were given a 20% pay cut, which they chose to accept instead of losing their jobs.

You could make a good living as an architecture firm owner, but not so much when you work for an architecture firm.

.....still wouldn't trade it in for anything else, even if I won the lottery.

Sure, if I won the lottery it would be greatest profession!  

There are plenty of firms (in many professions) that folded and lost everything.  Having your own business is only great when you have tons of clients, no clients no pay, no health insurance or paid vacations....not to be more of a downer, just things people should be aware of (the 'owning' is the easy part).

Great job here.  I really enjoyed what you had to say.  Keep going because you definitely bring a new voice to this subject.  Not many people would say what you’ve said and still make it interesting.  Well, at least I’m interested.  Can’t wait to see more of this from you.

Logo design Packages

i know a few architecture students going to grad school for packaging science.  apparently, packaging science is a field exploding with opportunity right now.  seemingly, there are not enough people in the field. also, i shared an office last year with a master of science student in packaging science who received as much to start right out of school as a mid-career architect makes and the company covered all of her moving fees to relocate. 

"There are many other creative professions out there that take significantly less school, allow you time to have a social life and are, generally speaking, far more rewarding."

I've been in the profession for over 10 years now and am disgusted by how difficult it is to be creative.  What other creative professions are out there that one could go from architecture to, without going back to school?

There isn't a lot of creative opportunity in architecture. The creative part is maybe 5% of the total work involved. And at the lower levels, the creative part is nill. If you are just entering the field, you will not be asked to make creative contributions.

Jefferson, one of them certainly is software development.  I have worked as an "information architect" in the past, and I was surprised how similar they are.  UI and UX design are interesting areas and guess what, someone has to design all those user interfaces we use!

Your second question scares me. This should not be your second question. Sorry. 

j814wong:

Your questions are just fine (ignore those who avoid the money question - especially architects, considering that perhaps the majority of us are discontent with our quite average earnings with such an important profession). Great career, creative + challenging work, fantastic office environments, average pay as a whole.

Being only in high school - you're perhaps already ahead of the curve by searching and inquiring for answers:

My advice (and advice I wish I would have had) is to simply just get your hands on all kinds of architecture material - absorb, absorb ... books, magazines, archdaily.com, dezeen.com, archpaper.com,  etc -  get invigorated and inspired by the great work out there. The more you see, the better critic of good work you'll become, and eventually your trained eye will improve upon your own work in the future. Good luck.

I thought this was going to be a thread about doors