I graduated with a Bachelor's of Architecture in 2007 with $60,000 in student loans. Since then I have worked for:
-1 architecture firm for 3 months
-1 builder/contractor as an in house designer- 1 yr.
-Another contractor as a construction estimator- 6 months
-For a Telecom company as a junior project manager(assisting on telecom projects)- 6 months
-1 architecture firm for 3 months
-1 kitchen design company as a drafter(current) -3 months
In the middle of that and along the way, I have worked as a hostess and/or server, and night auditor at a hotel to compensate for the months in between architecture/construction jobs or low salaries. In total, I have only been unemployed for 4 months since graduation. My student loan payments are $750 per month(recently lowered from $850/mo thanks to Obama's Education plan) and I have only used 6 months of my forbearance for my loans.
I have been applying to jobs with architecture firms, but the last one was only willing to pay $38,000/yr and I live in California! At this rate, it seems like I will consistently need to have a second job for at least the next 5 years if I stay in architecture.
I am trying to decide if I should go back for my Master's in Public Policy or do a dual degree Master's in Public Policy/MBA. My goal is to focus on Public Policy for Urban Planning/ Building Materials and/or International trade. The programs I am looking at are $25,000 per year at 3 yrs and the average salary fresh out of college is $90,000. After 3 years the salary jumps to $115,000.
I love architecture but have not been excited about the fact that while working for architecture firms was denied my 10 minute breaks and felt as though I was treated poorly. This marketplace is insane right now! I thought that if you took a position with a firm at $38,000 a year that they would at least take you onto a whole bunch of job sites and take you to more meetings, give you more help with IDP. Instead, I just felt like a slave and was stuck in the office all day and was reminded by my bosses at least twice a month that there were over 100 people who applied for my position and that they continue to get more resumes.
Have I just been working in the wrong offices? I don't want to sell out on my passion(architecture) due to a higher income, however I am beginning to think that a career in business/public policy might be a better option because I can then use the extra income to build/design whatever I want in my spare time.
I am also considering jumping ship and trying to find full time work in Canada where salaries are closer to $60,000-$70,000 for Junior Architects.
sadly i'm having the same dilemma....been out of school with a B.Arch over a year now and have a job paying me less then 30,000....i work around 60-80 hours per week and horrible working conditions....i barely have time to eat and breaks are not even an option..i feel like i'm in boot camp or something! i'm not even sure if this is legal!
again, i considered moving overseas but it seems like there are no jobs for those with less then 3-5 yrs experience...I really don't know what to do...should i continue working under these conditions or just quit and go to graduate school???
Every case is different, so careful with statements like there are no jobs for those with less then 3-5 yrs experience. With 3 yrs experience, when the recession hit, I took off to Spain, one of the worst economies at the moment. I taught English and looked for architecture jobs wherever I could. Two years later, I'm finishing a MArch II in Madrid and I have an internship at a high profile studio. Still teaching English to make ends meet. The internship is temporary, so I'll be looking for work soon (not in Spain). But it was a good way to expand my portfolio and add another work experience to the cv. Actually, with all I have done in Spain, my cv looks much better than before.
I say all of this because I'm a big supporter of changing your surrounding when it seems like your current situation is tapped out. Grad school is not always the answer, considering it often benefits those who intend on staying in the given area when they finish their studies. Appart from obtaining another degree, many people use it to make connections and strengthen work possibilities. It's also a great debt generator. If you can find a way to diversify your experience and not get too much further in debt, grad school would make more sense.
As far as work goes, asia is really the safest bet. Singapore, Seul, Shanghai.. all booming cities. Germany is also doing well. If architecture is your passion, and continuing to work in interesting conditions is your priority, you may have to consider such a radical change, or continue on in the rat race like the rest of us in the western countries. But the emerging economies will have more work in the next decade.
If you're looking to move someplace a bit warmer and different than Canada, but not so different, Australia is a good bet. No shortage of work down here. Will help to have a couple years work experience and some Revit skills though.
Vato, do you have any friends working in Singapore right now? Wondering about work conditions there compared to say, China. (sorry if I'm derailing this thread a bit)
Arch6, I think if you're not willing to move around a bit (or a lot) to look for work, it's not going to be any easier to get consistent work experience in the US for a long while. Make sure that if you go back to school you've got an excellent chance of landing a well-paid job. Really agree with Vato's points about school not always being the answer.
i think going to grad school is a great idea. public policy? i think your approach would allow you to create more options for yourself. the only problem i see is compounding $75,000 to your existing debt of $60,000. make sure you take a look at the interest rates for those loans too. debt could be following you around for many years to come my friend. best of luck in whatever it is you decide to do.
I don't know about grad school. I can't say buying more of something that doesn't generate income or satisfaction sounds like a good idea or not. What I can do is attempt to explain only one thing to you.
There is a term in economics which I can not recall but the premise is along the lines of emerging fields take time to settle into predictable and competitive models. Architectural services are predictable and competitive by comparison. Things have already been figured out for the most part. For example an apartment from the 1890s-1920s. The plan is a double loaded corridor with apartments on both sides making it symmetrical about the corridor and mostly about the other axis. Once you get 1/4 of the plan drawn it is all the same from there. That is about where the fee for a building is at. You have enough money and time to do about that much and you can take a healthy profit, work 8 hour days and so on. Work for a firm that has that approach and you can make good professional pay. If you want to work for someone that redesigns throughout the project that has budgetary repercussions. It takes more time & money to break out of the status quo, conventional wisdom paradigm. Doing so is to some extent something you and the firm elect to do. And why wouldn't you want to? it gets stale otherwise.
As for having a second income. F.L.R. sold Japanese paintings and figured out how to get people to pay him to work for him. Sorry to bring up a cliche example it almost sounded like WWJD. It may be a reality for most people in this profession who require more income. The a fore mentioned apartment building is still around and we won't need another building until we experience economic demand. You are in a growth based field with more supply than demand and only in 1 year in 10 is that not the case.
"After 3 years the salary jumps to $115,000." 3 years out of architecture school as an independent contractor you can make $40/hr and that times 2080hr = $83,200. If the firms can't stay hard then take matters into your own hands.
"You have been told incorrectly. You will need 6-10 years of work experience to get to that range in Canada."
Rusty,
What is your background? Do you work in Canada? If so, what city? By any chance are you in a position where you get to dictate the salaries of those that are hired or are you basing your knowledge off of your own experience? Or, perhaps are you looking at wages that people are posting on Archinect?
I will tell you this Rusty, I see that positions in Canada are paying more or candidates with only 3 years experience because I actually am looking up the ads online and see the salaries listed! So, I do believe that they are willing to pay more. The nice thing about Architecture schools in other countries is that there aren't as many of them, which mean that there are less graduates. In Canada for example, I notice that there is more of a supply of technical drafting school graduates which adds value to my Bachelor's of Architecture when I am applying against other people in their marketplace. In addition, it is very cold in the winters where I am looking at applying, so there are not a lot of people that want to move there.
A lot of people have been saying that China is a good place to look for work, but all of the positions that I see are for people with a license or at least 10 yrs. of experience, or require that you know Mandarin. Does anyone know of any firms that are willing to hire Junior Architects from the States?
As a side note, I wanted to comment that I have met two architectural fellows and they both treated their employees poorly! What is the AIA doing to improve treatment of architectural employees? I have worked directly under architects and you know what? They are willing to falsely sign off on things that I have not accomplished for my IDP because they do not have time or want to spend the money investing in training me in whatever area that I am lacking experience in. In the mean time, they get to use the excuse that there are 100 other candidates looking for the same position when I am negotiating salary, thus tying me to a lower wage. What is the AIA doing to fix this problem? Why do we have to endure poor salaries and we cannot even get the proper training we need to get licensed. We are in a slow economy where architects are dropping out like flies, if more people cannot make it to licensing, what will happen to our profession?
I have learned the following from this economy:
-that because I live in an at will employment state that an architecture firm can treat me poorly and if they feel that I don't smile enough(from their poor treatment) that they can randomly excuse me for no reason at all.
- I have also learned that due to the poor economy that no matter how poorly I am being treated or how little I am being paid that I cannot quit and then claim unemployment(from the funds that I have been paying into for the past 12 years of my life). However, if I want to jump ship in a recession and throw myself to the wolves after quitting and hope that I bounce into another job right away in a field where unemployment is more then 30%, that I am welcome to.
arch6 - there is a lot of "soft" data for graduate employment because of this recession. just make sure to do your research if you go back to school and add more debt. if the debt is leveraged correctly, it can be very advantageous (no matter what other people will tell you on this forum). big debt for an art (arch) degree, is admittedly not a great idea. BUT an MD, MBA, even JD (if it's a top school, lawyers are in over-supply too) are all VERY safe bets, and worth a relatively large debt load. the same goes for most engineering and science degrees (though you don't need a masters for many of those job tracks).
liberal arts/social science degrees have really been hit hard, but technical degrees not so much. i honestly think that's why architects have felt so much pain - too many "artists" flocked to arch schools, and were allowed to graduate without doing well in structures, building systems, etc. (this is another conversation, but it is related). now architecture, although a very technically-based field (at least it has the potential to be) has been relegated to an "art" degree. so, long story short - be careful, and try to make sure that the data you are using is accurate (look for sources, reporting %, all that) and make sure NOT to be an average or below average student so you can hit those targets!
I think there is another side of the question here for the folks in IDP purgatory you need to look at two things, how long can you appear to be unemployed before your chances are ruined for a job once the economy start’s to recover at a pace that can absorb the unemployed and the new workers out there. And you need to decide if this new career is an addendum to your life’s work up to this point, or a clean slate.
IF the answer is, I have been out of the game too long, then maybe another degree can reset the clock on how long you have been out of the work force. Ask yourself what skills can a firm use besides another Revit Monkey, do they need a speck writer, a landscaper, a Planner, or someone who can balance the books or land new jobs?
Maybe a clean slate is the way to go just forget the last few years and do something else, this depends on how disillusioned you are with architecture and how you want to live, if Architecture lacks the capacity to provide the lifestyle you want then maybe jumping ship is the way to go. Cut and run or know when to fold them.
I think 2 things need to be done to make yourself “employable” in architecture today
1 Look like you are working, if you are designing a deck or a small garden, or chicken coop then call it design call it professional work, freelancing whatever. Use the royal we. Have a friend record your away message on your phone so it sounds like you have a secretary. Make up a firm name my name and associates for example. Don’t lie but don’t think that what you do is not design. Be careful not to use architecture if you are not a registered architect. If you did the work for free or next to nothing I would try not to reveal that when you get to an interview, you are a talented designer with valuable skills, remember that. Employers want to hire people who are working, they want to steal the investment another firm has put into you in training and other skills networks and so on. They want skills that they don’t have to pay to develop, they want a network that can yield clients, and they want someone who will solve their existing problems and not create any new ones they want you to make them money.
2 Accomplish something every 6-9 months, LEED AP, CSI certification, passing and ARE section, Becoming an officer in a professional organization, exhibiting your work, or learning a new software program, keep the career moving forward. Adding another degree is also an option if it makes sense. Even so try to keep up with the 6-9 month sequence of achieving something
"I am trying to decide if I should go back for my Master's in Public Policy or do a dual degree Master's in Public Policy/MBA. My goal is to focus on Public Policy for Urban Planning/ Building Materials and/or International trade. The programs I am looking at are $25,000 per year at 3 yrs and the average salary fresh out of college is $90,000. After 3 years the salary jumps to $115,000"
First, I wouldn't take for granted any prospective salary in any profession. Architecture is not the only prof. where salaries are exaggerated in any statistical study (especially those coming from universities trying to recruit students $$$). I would do a research rather than just taking a look at payscale/uni websites. $90k for a fresh-bachelor in Public Policy (!) seems very high to me (not been in Finance, some specific Engineering, or some Gov. agency, etc.)
I had a job in 2008 at a high profile frm in Boston but had a BSc in architecture so went to grad school in London to get an M.Arch. I finsihed the degree in February and now am applying for jobs in the US but am facing similar diffifulty in terms of debt and salaries. I ahve been doing freelance work and teaching here in London, but have heard that despite being an internationally renowned institution, the school I got my M.Arch from does not mean much in the US. I specialized in Sustainable Environmental Design for my degree so I am hoping that will give me a little bit of an edge, but I would seriously consider both the professional and financial pros and cons of grad school before applying. I assumed that getting an M.Arch would make me a better candidate for a job and I would have no trouble finding work, but there are so many over-qualified people out there, that Grad school is not a definite fixer. I think PJN26 has some pretty good advice.
I also think most people, including myself, have extremely high expectations for jobs and salary and like to compare architecture to other professions. However, I think that people like to use numbers out of context and to their own advantage, so really look into the data and sources before writing architecture off.
good luck!
May 31, 11 9:52 am ·
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Do I go back to grad school in another field or jump ship and try to find better work outside the the country?
I graduated with a Bachelor's of Architecture in 2007 with $60,000 in student loans. Since then I have worked for:
-1 architecture firm for 3 months
-1 builder/contractor as an in house designer- 1 yr.
-Another contractor as a construction estimator- 6 months
-For a Telecom company as a junior project manager(assisting on telecom projects)- 6 months
-1 architecture firm for 3 months
-1 kitchen design company as a drafter(current) -3 months
In the middle of that and along the way, I have worked as a hostess and/or server, and night auditor at a hotel to compensate for the months in between architecture/construction jobs or low salaries. In total, I have only been unemployed for 4 months since graduation. My student loan payments are $750 per month(recently lowered from $850/mo thanks to Obama's Education plan) and I have only used 6 months of my forbearance for my loans.
I have been applying to jobs with architecture firms, but the last one was only willing to pay $38,000/yr and I live in California! At this rate, it seems like I will consistently need to have a second job for at least the next 5 years if I stay in architecture.
I am trying to decide if I should go back for my Master's in Public Policy or do a dual degree Master's in Public Policy/MBA. My goal is to focus on Public Policy for Urban Planning/ Building Materials and/or International trade. The programs I am looking at are $25,000 per year at 3 yrs and the average salary fresh out of college is $90,000. After 3 years the salary jumps to $115,000.
I love architecture but have not been excited about the fact that while working for architecture firms was denied my 10 minute breaks and felt as though I was treated poorly. This marketplace is insane right now! I thought that if you took a position with a firm at $38,000 a year that they would at least take you onto a whole bunch of job sites and take you to more meetings, give you more help with IDP. Instead, I just felt like a slave and was stuck in the office all day and was reminded by my bosses at least twice a month that there were over 100 people who applied for my position and that they continue to get more resumes.
Have I just been working in the wrong offices? I don't want to sell out on my passion(architecture) due to a higher income, however I am beginning to think that a career in business/public policy might be a better option because I can then use the extra income to build/design whatever I want in my spare time.
I am also considering jumping ship and trying to find full time work in Canada where salaries are closer to $60,000-$70,000 for Junior Architects.
sadly i'm having the same dilemma....been out of school with a B.Arch over a year now and have a job paying me less then 30,000....i work around 60-80 hours per week and horrible working conditions....i barely have time to eat and breaks are not even an option..i feel like i'm in boot camp or something! i'm not even sure if this is legal!
again, i considered moving overseas but it seems like there are no jobs for those with less then 3-5 yrs experience...I really don't know what to do...should i continue working under these conditions or just quit and go to graduate school???
Every case is different, so careful with statements like there are no jobs for those with less then 3-5 yrs experience. With 3 yrs experience, when the recession hit, I took off to Spain, one of the worst economies at the moment. I taught English and looked for architecture jobs wherever I could. Two years later, I'm finishing a MArch II in Madrid and I have an internship at a high profile studio. Still teaching English to make ends meet. The internship is temporary, so I'll be looking for work soon (not in Spain). But it was a good way to expand my portfolio and add another work experience to the cv. Actually, with all I have done in Spain, my cv looks much better than before.
I say all of this because I'm a big supporter of changing your surrounding when it seems like your current situation is tapped out. Grad school is not always the answer, considering it often benefits those who intend on staying in the given area when they finish their studies. Appart from obtaining another degree, many people use it to make connections and strengthen work possibilities. It's also a great debt generator. If you can find a way to diversify your experience and not get too much further in debt, grad school would make more sense.
As far as work goes, asia is really the safest bet. Singapore, Seul, Shanghai.. all booming cities. Germany is also doing well. If architecture is your passion, and continuing to work in interesting conditions is your priority, you may have to consider such a radical change, or continue on in the rat race like the rest of us in the western countries. But the emerging economies will have more work in the next decade.
If you're looking to move someplace a bit warmer and different than Canada, but not so different, Australia is a good bet. No shortage of work down here. Will help to have a couple years work experience and some Revit skills though.
Vato, do you have any friends working in Singapore right now? Wondering about work conditions there compared to say, China. (sorry if I'm derailing this thread a bit)
Arch6, I think if you're not willing to move around a bit (or a lot) to look for work, it's not going to be any easier to get consistent work experience in the US for a long while. Make sure that if you go back to school you've got an excellent chance of landing a well-paid job. Really agree with Vato's points about school not always being the answer.
"I am also considering jumping ship and trying to find full time work in Canada where salaries are closer to $60,000-$70,000 for Junior Architects"
You have been told incorrectly. You will need 6-10 years of work experience to get to that range in Canada.
@ arch6:
i think going to grad school is a great idea. public policy? i think your approach would allow you to create more options for yourself. the only problem i see is compounding $75,000 to your existing debt of $60,000. make sure you take a look at the interest rates for those loans too. debt could be following you around for many years to come my friend. best of luck in whatever it is you decide to do.
Does anybody miss the good old days where doing good in college meant you didn't have to work 2 jobs to make ends meet?
I don't know about grad school. I can't say buying more of something that doesn't generate income or satisfaction sounds like a good idea or not. What I can do is attempt to explain only one thing to you.
There is a term in economics which I can not recall but the premise is along the lines of emerging fields take time to settle into predictable and competitive models. Architectural services are predictable and competitive by comparison. Things have already been figured out for the most part. For example an apartment from the 1890s-1920s. The plan is a double loaded corridor with apartments on both sides making it symmetrical about the corridor and mostly about the other axis. Once you get 1/4 of the plan drawn it is all the same from there. That is about where the fee for a building is at. You have enough money and time to do about that much and you can take a healthy profit, work 8 hour days and so on. Work for a firm that has that approach and you can make good professional pay. If you want to work for someone that redesigns throughout the project that has budgetary repercussions. It takes more time & money to break out of the status quo, conventional wisdom paradigm. Doing so is to some extent something you and the firm elect to do. And why wouldn't you want to? it gets stale otherwise.
As for having a second income. F.L.R. sold Japanese paintings and figured out how to get people to pay him to work for him. Sorry to bring up a cliche example it almost sounded like WWJD. It may be a reality for most people in this profession who require more income. The a fore mentioned apartment building is still around and we won't need another building until we experience economic demand. You are in a growth based field with more supply than demand and only in 1 year in 10 is that not the case.
"After 3 years the salary jumps to $115,000." 3 years out of architecture school as an independent contractor you can make $40/hr and that times 2080hr = $83,200. If the firms can't stay hard then take matters into your own hands.
I think that you all have great advice to offer.
At Rusty:
"You have been told incorrectly. You will need 6-10 years of work experience to get to that range in Canada."
Rusty,
What is your background? Do you work in Canada? If so, what city? By any chance are you in a position where you get to dictate the salaries of those that are hired or are you basing your knowledge off of your own experience? Or, perhaps are you looking at wages that people are posting on Archinect?
I will tell you this Rusty, I see that positions in Canada are paying more or candidates with only 3 years experience because I actually am looking up the ads online and see the salaries listed! So, I do believe that they are willing to pay more. The nice thing about Architecture schools in other countries is that there aren't as many of them, which mean that there are less graduates. In Canada for example, I notice that there is more of a supply of technical drafting school graduates which adds value to my Bachelor's of Architecture when I am applying against other people in their marketplace. In addition, it is very cold in the winters where I am looking at applying, so there are not a lot of people that want to move there.
A lot of people have been saying that China is a good place to look for work, but all of the positions that I see are for people with a license or at least 10 yrs. of experience, or require that you know Mandarin. Does anyone know of any firms that are willing to hire Junior Architects from the States?
As a side note, I wanted to comment that I have met two architectural fellows and they both treated their employees poorly! What is the AIA doing to improve treatment of architectural employees? I have worked directly under architects and you know what? They are willing to falsely sign off on things that I have not accomplished for my IDP because they do not have time or want to spend the money investing in training me in whatever area that I am lacking experience in. In the mean time, they get to use the excuse that there are 100 other candidates looking for the same position when I am negotiating salary, thus tying me to a lower wage. What is the AIA doing to fix this problem? Why do we have to endure poor salaries and we cannot even get the proper training we need to get licensed. We are in a slow economy where architects are dropping out like flies, if more people cannot make it to licensing, what will happen to our profession?
I have learned the following from this economy:
-that because I live in an at will employment state that an architecture firm can treat me poorly and if they feel that I don't smile enough(from their poor treatment) that they can randomly excuse me for no reason at all.
- I have also learned that due to the poor economy that no matter how poorly I am being treated or how little I am being paid that I cannot quit and then claim unemployment(from the funds that I have been paying into for the past 12 years of my life). However, if I want to jump ship in a recession and throw myself to the wolves after quitting and hope that I bounce into another job right away in a field where unemployment is more then 30%, that I am welcome to.
There is something wrong with this process...
arch6 - there is a lot of "soft" data for graduate employment because of this recession. just make sure to do your research if you go back to school and add more debt. if the debt is leveraged correctly, it can be very advantageous (no matter what other people will tell you on this forum). big debt for an art (arch) degree, is admittedly not a great idea. BUT an MD, MBA, even JD (if it's a top school, lawyers are in over-supply too) are all VERY safe bets, and worth a relatively large debt load. the same goes for most engineering and science degrees (though you don't need a masters for many of those job tracks).
liberal arts/social science degrees have really been hit hard, but technical degrees not so much. i honestly think that's why architects have felt so much pain - too many "artists" flocked to arch schools, and were allowed to graduate without doing well in structures, building systems, etc. (this is another conversation, but it is related). now architecture, although a very technically-based field (at least it has the potential to be) has been relegated to an "art" degree. so, long story short - be careful, and try to make sure that the data you are using is accurate (look for sources, reporting %, all that) and make sure NOT to be an average or below average student so you can hit those targets!
good luck
I think there is another side of the question here for the folks in IDP purgatory you need to look at two things, how long can you appear to be unemployed before your chances are ruined for a job once the economy start’s to recover at a pace that can absorb the unemployed and the new workers out there. And you need to decide if this new career is an addendum to your life’s work up to this point, or a clean slate.
IF the answer is, I have been out of the game too long, then maybe another degree can reset the clock on how long you have been out of the work force. Ask yourself what skills can a firm use besides another Revit Monkey, do they need a speck writer, a landscaper, a Planner, or someone who can balance the books or land new jobs?
Maybe a clean slate is the way to go just forget the last few years and do something else, this depends on how disillusioned you are with architecture and how you want to live, if Architecture lacks the capacity to provide the lifestyle you want then maybe jumping ship is the way to go. Cut and run or know when to fold them.
I think 2 things need to be done to make yourself “employable” in architecture today
1 Look like you are working, if you are designing a deck or a small garden, or chicken coop then call it design call it professional work, freelancing whatever. Use the royal we. Have a friend record your away message on your phone so it sounds like you have a secretary. Make up a firm name my name and associates for example. Don’t lie but don’t think that what you do is not design. Be careful not to use architecture if you are not a registered architect. If you did the work for free or next to nothing I would try not to reveal that when you get to an interview, you are a talented designer with valuable skills, remember that. Employers want to hire people who are working, they want to steal the investment another firm has put into you in training and other skills networks and so on. They want skills that they don’t have to pay to develop, they want a network that can yield clients, and they want someone who will solve their existing problems and not create any new ones they want you to make them money.
2 Accomplish something every 6-9 months, LEED AP, CSI certification, passing and ARE section, Becoming an officer in a professional organization, exhibiting your work, or learning a new software program, keep the career moving forward. Adding another degree is also an option if it makes sense. Even so try to keep up with the 6-9 month sequence of achieving something
How would one really quantify the economics of certs -v- grad school? Hmm... I know some Excel but I can;t savvy the charts on that one.
I like your way of thinking PJN26!
"I am trying to decide if I should go back for my Master's in Public Policy or do a dual degree Master's in Public Policy/MBA. My goal is to focus on Public Policy for Urban Planning/ Building Materials and/or International trade. The programs I am looking at are $25,000 per year at 3 yrs and the average salary fresh out of college is $90,000. After 3 years the salary jumps to $115,000"
First, I wouldn't take for granted any prospective salary in any profession. Architecture is not the only prof. where salaries are exaggerated in any statistical study (especially those coming from universities trying to recruit students $$$). I would do a research rather than just taking a look at payscale/uni websites. $90k for a fresh-bachelor in Public Policy (!) seems very high to me (not been in Finance, some specific Engineering, or some Gov. agency, etc.)
I'm in similar shoes at the OP. But at least you got some experience in an arch office, I haven't gotten any since graduating in 2009 :( FML
I had a job in 2008 at a high profile frm in Boston but had a BSc in architecture so went to grad school in London to get an M.Arch. I finsihed the degree in February and now am applying for jobs in the US but am facing similar diffifulty in terms of debt and salaries. I ahve been doing freelance work and teaching here in London, but have heard that despite being an internationally renowned institution, the school I got my M.Arch from does not mean much in the US. I specialized in Sustainable Environmental Design for my degree so I am hoping that will give me a little bit of an edge, but I would seriously consider both the professional and financial pros and cons of grad school before applying. I assumed that getting an M.Arch would make me a better candidate for a job and I would have no trouble finding work, but there are so many over-qualified people out there, that Grad school is not a definite fixer. I think PJN26 has some pretty good advice.
I also think most people, including myself, have extremely high expectations for jobs and salary and like to compare architecture to other professions. However, I think that people like to use numbers out of context and to their own advantage, so really look into the data and sources before writing architecture off.
good luck!
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