what will you be teaching?
I say take it and find ways to stay involved in architecture on the side.
I think this kind of experience is really great, I wished I would qualify for this program.

Do it x100. Seriously, don't hesitate, don't look back. 2 years in your career is nothing, and it absolutely will not hold you back from getting an architecture job. In my opinion, it should help. Good luck and congratulations, TfA is an outstanding opportunity.

lost boy - as the guy doing the hiring, i'll only add this: hiring 2 years from now will entirely depend on how much of a market there is for our services. personally, i don't think taking the job would be any kind of detriment on your record. my main factors in hiring people are: what is your ethic about - design wise, work wise, personality wise? second, what types of skillsets do you bring to the office and what is the alignment of them vs. what we have needs for? lastly, how much of an entrepreneurial mindset do you have? this last one has been weighing much more on my mind the last couple of years. i've personally had to think much more creatively about positioning our office to keep/gain work and i want the staff to bring that kind of thinking to our projects and clients.

This is an interesting inquiry and leads me think about some things I saw happening when we came out of the last major recession.

Of necessity, right now many people are being forced outside their chosen field to find paying jobs. In some cases, individuals will settle into these "temporary" jobs and actually do quite well. But, having been trained in architecture, eventually the desire to practice becomes overwhelming and they will decide to give the profession another shot.

I remember witnessing some heartbreaking situations some years back when a few candidates cruised through our office looking for work. Typically, they had good college portfolios, obvious talent and ambition. They also had demonstrated the ability to hold a job and fulfill responsibilities. But, these particular candidates had three major problems:

a) they had no architectural experience whatsoever 5-years after graduation, and

b) they were accustomed to higher wages than were typical in architecture at that time, and

c) they had acquired fairly expensive lifestyles they weren't willing to modify or give up.

In the end, they were trapped. On the one hand, they wanted to practice architecture. But. on the other hand, they could not afford (or were not willing) to work for the wages we could offer. And, we could not justify paying them out-of-norm wages given their lack of architectural experience, even though they offered solid long term potential.

I offer this observation only as a cautionary tale. It's not pointed at anybody in particular. However, it's a side of the coin that's worth considering. The people I reference above were very unhappy with their situations and recognized that there was no easy solution to their dilemma.

Just food for thought.

quizzical's advice is sound - there WILL be job opportunities for you in two years, however be aware that your two years of professional experience in teaching do not supplant 2 years in an office - so be prepared to look for those "starting-out" positions, while many of your peers might be a majority of the way through internship (and making higher salaries).

If I was in a position to hire people, I would want to know what one did during the "great recession". I think TFA is an EXCELLENT choice if you are going to divert from architecture for a while. Two years from now, when you are competing with other newbie interns for that job, you can say that you travelled, taught and interacted with a diversity of professionals while the other candidate, i don't know, worked at a gas station or something. TFA will say positive things about your character, your ability to collaborate and give back professionally.

Also, to reiterate what others said, all the better if you can do "side" things that give you design experience during this time - enter a competition, volunteer, teach yourself software, etc. to further expand your portfolio.

the opportunity sounds great, might even help you teach grad school if that ever comes up. Are you going to be teaching autocad or something like that?

hey yall,

thanks for all the positive encouragement and honest advice. i know at some point, i will still have to pay my dues as an Intern Architect. But I am happy that the road looks less murky.



i will be teaching math at either middle school or high school. its not confirmed yet. No autocad there, unfortunately. might have been cool to learn math through that lens.