Do you know anyone who's taken an architectural technology career program at a community college which lead to an Associate of Applied Science degree? I know you can't come out of community college and be an architect but what kind of jobs could you get with a degree like this and how much would you start off making. Thanks in advance for any thoughts and/or comments.
Sorry, I failed to mention the nature of this question. I am asking because I was thinking about trying this out next semester. I still do plan on getting my BS degree but I just thought that this could get me a job with some money in the mean time.
It depends on what they teach you. If it's all technology, you could find a job doing that, but I wouldn't put any time into their design classes (if they even have them).
Most likely drafting - which is OK as long as you can keep yourself from being pigeonholed into that role later. Could be worthwhile, though try getting a job first and tell them you are planning on getting a BS in architecutre. You may be able to learn more CAD through work.
Sorry if this is a dumb question but what is the difference between a CAD drafter, an architectural drafter, and just a drafter? I went to salary.com and saw that there were three different kinds.
I think they make that stuff up, since every architecture job i have had has been title-less, or up for debate what I wanted to be called. Until you are project manager, or project architect, or job captain, everyone seems to have different names for the same jobs. They do define their terms on that site though, so you can compare what you do to what they describe.
archichick03, i dont think you will every understand those labels=salary so why dont you tell us about your experience and what hourly rate you think you are worth [what part of the country you are going to look for employment] and we will give a thumbs / up thumbs down on it what we think. how may years were you in school, describe your cad skills[nmber and type of classes], do you have any previous office experience? what were your other job experiences that maybe you can build off of? you more than likely get a higher salary in an engineering office [structural / civil or mep]
Right now I am in community college. This is my second year. I've been getting all of my basics out of the way. I was planning on transferring to a university but then found out about this architectural technology program that takes two years. If I did this, I would be looking for a job in either DFW,Texas or St. Louis,Missouri.
with little experience [1 year college] unless you have had lots of cad and are really good at it, i think any opprotunity you might will pay lttle[if your lucky $10/hour with most of your task being split between admisistration/printing/and some cad]. it sound probably more horible than it is -- it will get you exposed to what an office is like and i think you will enjoy it. before you continue to spend your time and money at CC, go and speak to someone at a university you might transfer to where your at [i know you might move to st. louis] and talk to them about what classes and how much can transfer -- you might get some general requirements transfered [english, calc, physics[ but be careful in thinking they will take any architecture classes [i think they may only credit the cad classes if your in a 4 year BA or BS program; perhaps in a BArch program they may give 1 year studio credit for every two years of studio you had]. the texas progams may give you more credit of the tech program as they know the program but once out of state, credit is very discressionary and varies all across the board. you may find no one wants to give you credit for your CC / arch work. but you will have to show a strong portfolio of you student work [professional too]
i would try to speak to people in the school department office where you presently go to school to prehaps see of they have a list of recent grads / where they got positions, etc. many CC colleges put forth a better effort for career placement than the big guys so see if they can help you in this manor.
sounds like your are trying to accomodate lots of changed and redirections in your life which is great !! money is always a problem. if you are planning wash u, try to get up and talk to them also before you additional time in classes that they might not give you credit for.
i really think you probably shouldnt anticpated any higher pay than if you got a position on campus doing an non-architectural job.
but what is the difference between a CAD drafter, an architectural drafter, and just a drafter?
MIGHT be based on dept of labor occup names?
a 'drafter' could do structural or mechanical. those jobs are very specialized.
the 2 yr community colleges tend to run you thru ALL of the hands-on design stages FAST, and they don't slag you down with that ''fufu' art history junk. :-)
in landscape, the JOB ADS by residential design&build tend to look for sales oriented types (quick clean color sketches to sell the job). or i see ads looking for estimating and proj management (espanol preferred). i see a gew office admin ads. they'll probably run you ragged for cr@p pay; payroll, payables, receivables, etc.
If you are speaking of UTA, it is night and day different from TCCC. Due to cost differential, I would take as much as I could at TCCC. I think experience is good, but you will get that regardless once you get the B.S. During my years at UTA, one of my saving graces was the fact that my job had absolutely nothing to do with architecture. I could think about other things for a while, and it gave me some perspective. I am sure there are many people who worked in firms while going through school who enjoyed every minute of every day. It just depends on the person I guess.
Education is important, but really, its the person not the school. If you can afford to go to college, that is going to give you the best headstart and long term flexibility, but really, it is what you do and learn and what talent you have that will make the difference. I hired a young man who had gone to a community college CAD drafting program for two years. Three years later, he is designing projects, doing all of our tech stuff, doing project managment, etc. Basically, everything an architectural intern would be doing after three years. We pay him the same too. Meanwhile, I have another employee who has been out of college ( a good school, too) for 6 years, and he has been passed by this guy with community college experience. He is just a very responsible, talented, smart guy. So what I am saying is go to college if you can, but if you can't afford it, don't let it stop you from doing what you want to do. HOWEVER, if being a registered architect is important to you, rather than doing the work of an architect, then you need to go to an accredited school. Good luck, girl.
It is the person, for sure, but it's also the education. You can't learn to design by yourself, you need critics, teachers, and advisors, not to mention good classmates that you work closely with. I still look up to people that I've been friends with and went through undergrad and grad together - there simply are no better designers out there that I could learn more from.
Things to consider: as archie points out, you may be able to be an effecient production guy without any decent education, but you will (most likely) never be a very good designer. You can learn everything about architecture in practice, but not design. Not much, anyway. There are simply too many restrictions in the real world to allow you the creative freedom you need to grow. Also, any good design program will start you with abstract/spatial experiments years before you are asked to design a building.
On the flip side, you can become a decent architect (not a designer, although there are very rare exceptions) without a good design education. I know of many people that enjoy the business/management side of architecture, or even the drafting and CDs, more than the design.
To each his own, just be aware of the limitations of choosing one path over the other. My advice would be transfer to a decent University as soon as possible, but do your homework about the program and it's reputation.
On my first comment, I didn't realize that you have two years done already. Go get the degree from an University, it'll go a lot farther. There are loans that anyone can get and I think most people will immediately give more respect (and, most likely, most opportunities and money) to someone with a degree from a decent University.
And, at least from what I can recall, I don't know of anyone in any of the firms (which isn't many) that only had a community college degree.
Oct 4, 04 10:06 pm ·
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Architectural Technology
Do you know anyone who's taken an architectural technology career program at a community college which lead to an Associate of Applied Science degree? I know you can't come out of community college and be an architect but what kind of jobs could you get with a degree like this and how much would you start off making. Thanks in advance for any thoughts and/or comments.
Sorry, I failed to mention the nature of this question. I am asking because I was thinking about trying this out next semester. I still do plan on getting my BS degree but I just thought that this could get me a job with some money in the mean time.
It depends on what they teach you. If it's all technology, you could find a job doing that, but I wouldn't put any time into their design classes (if they even have them).
They have the CAD classes and some design, arch technology classes, and commercial and residential design courses.
Most likely drafting - which is OK as long as you can keep yourself from being pigeonholed into that role later. Could be worthwhile, though try getting a job first and tell them you are planning on getting a BS in architecutre. You may be able to learn more CAD through work.
Sorry if this is a dumb question but what is the difference between a CAD drafter, an architectural drafter, and just a drafter? I went to salary.com and saw that there were three different kinds.
I think they make that stuff up, since every architecture job i have had has been title-less, or up for debate what I wanted to be called. Until you are project manager, or project architect, or job captain, everyone seems to have different names for the same jobs. They do define their terms on that site though, so you can compare what you do to what they describe.
archichick03, i dont think you will every understand those labels=salary so why dont you tell us about your experience and what hourly rate you think you are worth [what part of the country you are going to look for employment] and we will give a thumbs / up thumbs down on it what we think. how may years were you in school, describe your cad skills[nmber and type of classes], do you have any previous office experience? what were your other job experiences that maybe you can build off of? you more than likely get a higher salary in an engineering office [structural / civil or mep]
Right now I am in community college. This is my second year. I've been getting all of my basics out of the way. I was planning on transferring to a university but then found out about this architectural technology program that takes two years. If I did this, I would be looking for a job in either DFW,Texas or St. Louis,Missouri.
with little experience [1 year college] unless you have had lots of cad and are really good at it, i think any opprotunity you might will pay lttle[if your lucky $10/hour with most of your task being split between admisistration/printing/and some cad]. it sound probably more horible than it is -- it will get you exposed to what an office is like and i think you will enjoy it. before you continue to spend your time and money at CC, go and speak to someone at a university you might transfer to where your at [i know you might move to st. louis] and talk to them about what classes and how much can transfer -- you might get some general requirements transfered [english, calc, physics[ but be careful in thinking they will take any architecture classes [i think they may only credit the cad classes if your in a 4 year BA or BS program; perhaps in a BArch program they may give 1 year studio credit for every two years of studio you had]. the texas progams may give you more credit of the tech program as they know the program but once out of state, credit is very discressionary and varies all across the board. you may find no one wants to give you credit for your CC / arch work. but you will have to show a strong portfolio of you student work [professional too]
i would try to speak to people in the school department office where you presently go to school to prehaps see of they have a list of recent grads / where they got positions, etc. many CC colleges put forth a better effort for career placement than the big guys so see if they can help you in this manor.
sounds like your are trying to accomodate lots of changed and redirections in your life which is great !! money is always a problem. if you are planning wash u, try to get up and talk to them also before you additional time in classes that they might not give you credit for.
i really think you probably shouldnt anticpated any higher pay than if you got a position on campus doing an non-architectural job.
Thanks for the advice everyone it has been very helpful.
Archchick03,
where are you located and what community college do you go to?
As location and community college reputation might help.
I'm in Fort Worth, Texas. I go to Tarrant County Community College.
MIGHT be based on dept of labor occup names?
a 'drafter' could do structural or mechanical. those jobs are very specialized.
the 2 yr community colleges tend to run you thru ALL of the hands-on design stages FAST, and they don't slag you down with that ''fufu' art history junk. :-)
in landscape, the JOB ADS by residential design&build tend to look for sales oriented types (quick clean color sketches to sell the job). or i see ads looking for estimating and proj management (espanol preferred). i see a gew office admin ads. they'll probably run you ragged for cr@p pay; payroll, payables, receivables, etc.
jobs for designer-only are rarely advertised.
So basically, is everyone saying that I should just go ahead and transfer to the university?
ArchChick,
If you are speaking of UTA, it is night and day different from TCCC. Due to cost differential, I would take as much as I could at TCCC. I think experience is good, but you will get that regardless once you get the B.S. During my years at UTA, one of my saving graces was the fact that my job had absolutely nothing to do with architecture. I could think about other things for a while, and it gave me some perspective. I am sure there are many people who worked in firms while going through school who enjoyed every minute of every day. It just depends on the person I guess.
Yes, I am speaking of UTA. Do you live in the DFW area?
Education is important, but really, its the person not the school. If you can afford to go to college, that is going to give you the best headstart and long term flexibility, but really, it is what you do and learn and what talent you have that will make the difference. I hired a young man who had gone to a community college CAD drafting program for two years. Three years later, he is designing projects, doing all of our tech stuff, doing project managment, etc. Basically, everything an architectural intern would be doing after three years. We pay him the same too. Meanwhile, I have another employee who has been out of college ( a good school, too) for 6 years, and he has been passed by this guy with community college experience. He is just a very responsible, talented, smart guy. So what I am saying is go to college if you can, but if you can't afford it, don't let it stop you from doing what you want to do. HOWEVER, if being a registered architect is important to you, rather than doing the work of an architect, then you need to go to an accredited school. Good luck, girl.
Thanks Archie
It is the person, for sure, but it's also the education. You can't learn to design by yourself, you need critics, teachers, and advisors, not to mention good classmates that you work closely with. I still look up to people that I've been friends with and went through undergrad and grad together - there simply are no better designers out there that I could learn more from.
Things to consider: as archie points out, you may be able to be an effecient production guy without any decent education, but you will (most likely) never be a very good designer. You can learn everything about architecture in practice, but not design. Not much, anyway. There are simply too many restrictions in the real world to allow you the creative freedom you need to grow. Also, any good design program will start you with abstract/spatial experiments years before you are asked to design a building.
On the flip side, you can become a decent architect (not a designer, although there are very rare exceptions) without a good design education. I know of many people that enjoy the business/management side of architecture, or even the drafting and CDs, more than the design.
To each his own, just be aware of the limitations of choosing one path over the other. My advice would be transfer to a decent University as soon as possible, but do your homework about the program and it's reputation.
On my first comment, I didn't realize that you have two years done already. Go get the degree from an University, it'll go a lot farther. There are loans that anyone can get and I think most people will immediately give more respect (and, most likely, most opportunities and money) to someone with a degree from a decent University.
And, at least from what I can recall, I don't know of anyone in any of the firms (which isn't many) that only had a community college degree.
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