Hi all! As the title suggests, is there anyone out there who jumped ship from architecture to tech? what was your journey like?
After 4.5 years of professional experience, I realized that I love design, but not architecture. I thought that if I worked for a firm that I like, has great work and great benefits, that it would change my feelings about being an architect. I've come to accept that I don't think architecture is for me. However, what I do love about architecture is being able to think critically and designing solutions. I've always been really interested in learning how to code and seeing how my skills can translate in other facets of design. Thoughts on Web Development? Product Design? UX Design? I'm thinking of joining a bootcamp and I would love to have more insight from anyone who has made this career switch!
Chad Miller
Aug 12, 22 3:56 pm
You're going to need a degree in the areas you're interested in
I don't think you'll have much success in getting work with just boot camp type training.
Chad Miller
Aug 12, 22 4:08 pm
Now if you're doing the boot camp to see if you'd like any of those areas . . . that could be a good idea.
SneakyPete
Aug 12, 22 4:41 pm
My good friend left architecture and did a boot camp, got a job in tech immediately thereafter. It certainly wasn't with Apple or Google or whatever, but it's possible to jump over there without another degree or the punishing financial and time investments required.
Chad Miller
Aug 12, 22 5:05 pm
How is the long term stability and growth looking for your friend?
SneakyPete
Aug 12, 22 6:42 pm
Aside from the regret of making the jump? Seems pretty solid.
przemula
Aug 15, 22 5:33 pm
Absolutely last thing you need in tech industry is a degree. I have few friends who made the jump, one is product designer, another one UI/UX, then another is strictly UX. I myself prototyped few apps & did little bit of coding when I was laid off in 2020, and I think it's a cool option but ultimately not for me. Do the bootcamp, create a portfolio and hit the market - do not go to any school for that, that would be waste of time & resources.
przemula
Aug 15, 22 5:48 pm
PS. Not to mention that my brother has been in that industry for over 15 years & went through a lot of roles, from web developer to software engineer, etc. Large corporations to small start ups, and have never been asked about a degree (he graduated from mathematics in foreign country). It's good to have any type of degree and architecture will definitely make good impression. I just realized that another 2-3 of my college friends also moved to IT, so I know probably 5-6 people that did that, and all follow the same path: did the bootcamp or some tutorials, made the portfolio and started applying.
Chad Miller
Aug 15, 22 6:59 pm
przemula wrote:
"Absolutely last thing you need in tech industry is a degree."
Correct. Although your 'friends' already had a degree in architecture so . . . For IT / corporate type work it's rather helpful to have a degree.
starkkitect
Aug 12, 22 3:57 pm
Same thoughts here.
But no one really seemed to care to give much insight towards this.
gual
Aug 12, 22 4:30 pm
You do not need a degree. You might need to work at a less-than-ideal first job, maybe a low pay-long hours startup thing for a year or two but after that you can jump around. I worked in tech and arch and for lifestyle reasons was going to go right back into tech but ended up in a computational designer role. That is also an option but they are fragile roles (get laid off quickly) if you are attached to an arch firm. The better roles are attached to eng firms etc, which will require you to have real programming chops.
Archinect
Aug 12, 22 5:22 pm
Archinect's Working out of the Box interviews architects that have found success it other fields, including many that moved into tech.
zonker
Aug 13, 22 5:28 pm
w/o a lot of depth of knowledge of systems architecture, a boot camp will set you up for quick obsolescence, without further study, you will get laid off and nobody will hire you until you recycle yourself with the latest knowledge. It's like Architecture, similar academic sequence of classes for depth of knowledge, not some python bootcamp - I used to be in tech, then went into architecture - give it a go, you can at the very least, take your computer science bootcamp training and go into computational design with Dynamo and Grasshopper - thats what I'm doing
nahomsisay
Feb 25, 24 4:28 am
i am also Architect based in Ethiopia,Addis Ababa thinking and starting about carrier shift and learning to code! need advice too..
Hi all! As the title suggests, is there anyone out there who jumped ship from architecture to tech? what was your journey like?
After 4.5 years of professional experience, I realized that I love design, but not architecture. I thought that if I worked for a firm that I like, has great work and great benefits, that it would change my feelings about being an architect. I've come to accept that I don't think architecture is for me. However, what I do love about architecture is being able to think critically and designing solutions. I've always been really interested in learning how to code and seeing how my skills can translate in other facets of design. Thoughts on Web Development? Product Design? UX Design? I'm thinking of joining a bootcamp and I would love to have more insight from anyone who has made this career switch!
You're going to need a degree in the areas you're interested in
I don't think you'll have much success in getting work with just boot camp type training.
Now if you're doing the boot camp to see if you'd like any of those areas . . . that could be a good idea.
My good friend left architecture and did a boot camp, got a job in tech immediately thereafter. It certainly wasn't with Apple or Google or whatever, but it's possible to jump over there without another degree or the punishing financial and time investments required.
How is the long term stability and growth looking for your friend?
Aside from the regret of making the jump? Seems pretty solid.
Absolutely last thing you need in tech industry is a degree. I have few friends who made the jump, one is product designer, another one UI/UX, then another is strictly UX. I myself prototyped few apps & did little bit of coding when I was laid off in 2020, and I think it's a cool option but ultimately not for me. Do the bootcamp, create a portfolio and hit the market - do not go to any school for that, that would be waste of time & resources.
PS. Not to mention that my brother has been in that industry for over 15 years & went through a lot of roles, from web developer to software engineer, etc. Large corporations to small start ups, and have never been asked about a degree (he graduated from mathematics in foreign country). It's good to have any type of degree and architecture will definitely make good impression. I just realized that another 2-3 of my college friends also moved to IT, so I know probably 5-6 people that did that, and all follow the same path: did the bootcamp or some tutorials, made the portfolio and started applying.
przemula wrote:
"Absolutely last thing you need in tech industry is a degree."
Correct. Although your 'friends' already had a degree in architecture so . . . For IT / corporate type work it's rather helpful to have a degree.
Same thoughts here.
But no one really seemed to care to give much insight towards this.
You do not need a degree. You might need to work at a less-than-ideal first job, maybe a low pay-long hours startup thing for a year or two but after that you can jump around. I worked in tech and arch and for lifestyle reasons was going to go right back into tech but ended up in a computational designer role. That is also an option but they are fragile roles (get laid off quickly) if you are attached to an arch firm. The better roles are attached to eng firms etc, which will require you to have real programming chops.
Archinect's Working out of the Box interviews architects that have found success it other fields, including many that moved into tech.
w/o a lot of depth of knowledge of systems architecture, a boot camp will set you up for quick obsolescence, without further study, you will get laid off and nobody will hire you until you recycle yourself with the latest knowledge. It's like Architecture, similar academic sequence of classes for depth of knowledge, not some python bootcamp - I used to be in tech, then went into architecture - give it a go, you can at the very least, take your computer science bootcamp training and go into computational design with Dynamo and Grasshopper - thats what I'm doing
i am also Architect based in Ethiopia,Addis Ababa thinking and starting about carrier shift and learning to code! need advice too..
does it pay well