I am a 2nd-year architecture student at a CA community college, going into my 3rd year of undergrad. A month or so recently I developed serious doubts about my major, thinking of my future and what I want it to be like: job, daily life, place of living, finances, and social life. As of now, I am pretty much on track for a grad transfer for B.A. in Arch. at UCB: I have a solid network, a good transfer plan/plan of action, some insight into the industry, via interviews from people who work in it (intern, junior, senior,) and completion of most of my base arch. classes (1 year to go.) However, the more I keep thinking of architecture, the more I am anxious and pessimistic about it, especially grad school.
The prime and most important reason is that I no longer have the same excitement about it anymore now that I've gone through the more technical architecture classes, residential design for example. Other reasons include:
1) Worrying about my ability to climb the corporate ladder after uni. education or rather the time it takes to do so per effort.
2) Not at all ok with the dismal financial prospects of the profession.
3) A commonly reported lack of the creative aspect on the job in day-to-day life compared to other elements like legal and business inquiries. I want my job to be a good deal of collaboration, design, and business work, a nice mesh/combo of elements, none of which dominate the other two unless I wish it to. (Last bit accounts for any future endeavors I might pursue in the future: not everything can be planned.)
4) Having to switch careers at 25-26 when in actuality I want this question to be figured out by my current age so by 25-30 I settle myself into a niche within the industry. I am very grateful for my current circumstances, a family that supports my prolonged time in college and does not ask me to pay for rent. I want to take advantage of this time and opportunities, not ask for them (opportunities) again by 25-26.
5) The common reported lack of life balance within the profession, specifically after years of experinece. I definitely do not expect to have any life balance in my 20s, because my 20s is just "work." But, I do want to be able to make my job a big part of my life, but not ALL of my life: I do want to account for possible children at age 30-35, and specifically being able to afford myself and them by that time.
6) The common high debts reported on this major. I want to minimize costs and maximize my time so I can create other financial or business assets that I can leverage for any design endeavors I might want to pursue.
7) The specificity of this field. Sure, architecture is pretty general for other construction spheres and does touch upon other areas like industrial design, but I'm not sure its as general as I would like it to be.
Now, I know ux/ui and generally, product design, is a hot field right now, getting saturated with a lot of people who are just starting out, a good deal of them career-switchers. And I admit, having the life that a lot of people in these professions report sounds pretty good to me. However, I am not blind: every profession is difficult, it is its own thing, and deserves one to put effort into it. Those who are the best and employ themselves are the most satisfied and financially secure individuals because they do not give up their own power to someone else. And it is important to actually like the profession for it to hold up long-term because the pursuit of interest is what ultimately drives personal satisfaction and exterior success.
I want to actually be good at what I do, not just jump in on a hot profession for the lifestyle or money it provides. And so pursuing at least an industry of interest and an industry that fits my other life goals while in college is important to me. I know a B.A. doesn't gurantee a job, much less a related one or a good one, but I think switching my focus officially to product design and working on it by myself on the side is the best combination for my current age and situation. My family basically wants me to get a B.A. in anything, as long as it is something and affordable. Time for them does not matter, surprisingly. I think the area of interest for me now is ui design, the superficial side of product development. I like working with graphics, motion, 3D, learning new technologies, and I am definitely very excited about thinking how a user would be interacting with what I make and why: that is the core reason I pursue architecture now, just a different medium. I think ux and product design is also of major interest to me, but ui is really the field I want to zone in on.I am definitely not up for going full on computer science as a major: I want to approach ui and related fields more from design and maybe a minor in business to navigate the market.
So, here are some of my plans of action:
1) Continue architecture and graduate with a BA in it, then do a boot camp to see if product design/ux/ui is for me.
2) Abandon architecture all together and pursue product design/ux/ui, depending on what feels like the best fit.
3) Continue architecture and take a class on product design/ux/ui, depending on what feels like the best fit, and do free courses on web design-related content over winter break, so I know what I am getting into. Not full-time, but enough to get some understanding of it. (This is the current plan for spring 2020 since I can't take many classes on product design: they are either filled up or I was stupid enough to not be applicable for them since I am not a student for those colleges. Plans 1 and 2 would apply to next summer and fall 2020.)
What advice do you guys suggest?
newbie.Phronesis
Dec 12, 20 2:46 am
Rather a lot to go through... but I think your concern about excitement is valid (as a self-motivator) however your "Others" 1,3,4, 5 and 7 aren't really. You can always go for a small backwaters firm if worried about social jockeying or a work-life balance; you can also always start freelance work and do the creative work you want. For money: shouldn't really be your motivator in this profession.
I'd go with career option 3: you can always shift into ux/ui design, just need a university degree before a Master's in it. And you'll have the fallback B.Arch if that doesn't pan out. Just my two cents though, I have no knowledge on ux/ui design work. Cheers
I am a 2nd-year architecture student at a CA community college, going into my 3rd year of undergrad. A month or so recently I developed serious doubts about my major, thinking of my future and what I want it to be like: job, daily life, place of living, finances, and social life. As of now, I am pretty much on track for a grad transfer for B.A. in Arch. at UCB: I have a solid network, a good transfer plan/plan of action, some insight into the industry, via interviews from people who work in it (intern, junior, senior,) and completion of most of my base arch. classes (1 year to go.) However, the more I keep thinking of architecture, the more I am anxious and pessimistic about it, especially grad school.
The prime and most important reason is that I no longer have the same excitement about it anymore now that I've gone through the more technical architecture classes, residential design for example. Other reasons include:
1) Worrying about my ability to climb the corporate ladder after uni. education or rather the time it takes to do so per effort.
2) Not at all ok with the dismal financial prospects of the profession.
3) A commonly reported lack of the creative aspect on the job in day-to-day life compared to other elements like legal and business inquiries. I want my job to be a good deal of collaboration, design, and business work, a nice mesh/combo of elements, none of which dominate the other two unless I wish it to. (Last bit accounts for any future endeavors I might pursue in the future: not everything can be planned.)
4) Having to switch careers at 25-26 when in actuality I want this question to be figured out by my current age so by 25-30 I settle myself into a niche within the industry. I am very grateful for my current circumstances, a family that supports my prolonged time in college and does not ask me to pay for rent. I want to take advantage of this time and opportunities, not ask for them (opportunities) again by 25-26.
5) The common reported lack of life balance within the profession, specifically after years of experinece. I definitely do not expect to have any life balance in my 20s, because my 20s is just "work." But, I do want to be able to make my job a big part of my life, but not ALL of my life: I do want to account for possible children at age 30-35, and specifically being able to afford myself and them by that time.
6) The common high debts reported on this major. I want to minimize costs and maximize my time so I can create other financial or business assets that I can leverage for any design endeavors I might want to pursue.
7) The specificity of this field. Sure, architecture is pretty general for other construction spheres and does touch upon other areas like industrial design, but I'm not sure its as general as I would like it to be.
Now, I know ux/ui and generally, product design, is a hot field right now, getting saturated with a lot of people who are just starting out, a good deal of them career-switchers. And I admit, having the life that a lot of people in these professions report sounds pretty good to me. However, I am not blind: every profession is difficult, it is its own thing, and deserves one to put effort into it. Those who are the best and employ themselves are the most satisfied and financially secure individuals because they do not give up their own power to someone else. And it is important to actually like the profession for it to hold up long-term because the pursuit of interest is what ultimately drives personal satisfaction and exterior success.
I want to actually be good at what I do, not just jump in on a hot profession for the lifestyle or money it provides. And so pursuing at least an industry of interest and an industry that fits my other life goals while in college is important to me. I know a B.A. doesn't gurantee a job, much less a related one or a good one, but I think switching my focus officially to product design and working on it by myself on the side is the best combination for my current age and situation. My family basically wants me to get a B.A. in anything, as long as it is something and affordable. Time for them does not matter, surprisingly. I think the area of interest for me now is ui design, the superficial side of product development. I like working with graphics, motion, 3D, learning new technologies, and I am definitely very excited about thinking how a user would be interacting with what I make and why: that is the core reason I pursue architecture now, just a different medium. I think ux and product design is also of major interest to me, but ui is really the field I want to zone in on.I am definitely not up for going full on computer science as a major: I want to approach ui and related fields more from design and maybe a minor in business to navigate the market.
So, here are some of my plans of action:
1) Continue architecture and graduate with a BA in it, then do a boot camp to see if product design/ux/ui is for me.
2) Abandon architecture all together and pursue product design/ux/ui, depending on what feels like the best fit.
3) Continue architecture and take a class on product design/ux/ui, depending on what feels like the best fit, and do free courses on web design-related content over winter break, so I know what I am getting into. Not full-time, but enough to get some understanding of it. (This is the current plan for spring 2020 since I can't take many classes on product design: they are either filled up or I was stupid enough to not be applicable for them since I am not a student for those colleges. Plans 1 and 2 would apply to next summer and fall 2020.)
What advice do you guys suggest?
Rather a lot to go through... but I think your concern about excitement is valid (as a self-motivator) however your "Others" 1,3,4, 5 and 7 aren't really. You can always go for a small backwaters firm if worried about social jockeying or a work-life balance; you can also always start freelance work and do the creative work you want. For money: shouldn't really be your motivator in this profession.
I'd go with career option 3: you can always shift into ux/ui design, just need a university degree before a Master's in it. And you'll have the fallback B.Arch if that doesn't pan out. Just my two cents though, I have no knowledge on ux/ui design work. Cheers