Overrated Career: Architect

December 11, 2008 RSS Feed Print

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The Appeal: When screenwriters give a hero a career, it's often architecture. Think Walter Pidgeon in Mrs. Miniver and Adam Sandler in Click. When Matt Dillon attempts to impress Cameron Diaz in There's Something About Mary, he pretends to be an architect.

That's not surprising. The public perceives architecture as a career for creative, free spirits who nonetheless earn good money while designing cool new buildings. Alas, as usual, there's a Grand Canyon of difference between the screen and reality.

The Reality: Architecture has many pluses. Indeed, it made it (barely) into the 2007 list of Best Careers. Now it belongs in this category. Not only is the housing decline souring the job market, but more potential clients are off-shoring architecture jobs, downloading premade blueprints developed by top architects, or having lower-cost interior/exterior designers or building contractors design their structures. Two job satisfaction surveys painted a mixed picture: One gave architecture high marks, but the other rated it very low. A major cause of low job satisfaction is that many architects don't get to design buildings but rather must produce detailed drawings of the components of other people's designs, such as the heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning system.

An Alternative: Interior designer. Halfway between an architect and an interior decorator, interior designers recommend where a wall should go as well as the color scheme.

Learn more: American Society of Interior Designers and Professional Practice for Interior Designers, 3rd Edition by Christine Piotrowski

Tags:: architecture,; careers

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As an architect with 30 plus year experience, I have forbidden my children from entering the field. The egotism creates intolerable working conditions. Firms hire and fire by the job. Most jobs last a year or two at best. It is impossible unless you own the firm = to make enough money to support a family, buy a home, buy a car, or retire. There are 3 times as many people in the profession as there are jobs. Only time you get to design anything is if you recruit the client. I agree that most architects are treated like draftsmen, and that outsourcing work has severely impacted employment. The American Institute of Architects has done everything in its power to prevent change and adapting the profession to modern times. If you want a good paying job with a future become a structural engineer. Avoid Architecture like the plague. You'd be better off long term working in a grocery store.

MNS of FL 10:27PM July 24, 2011

@Real Architecture..
you are perfectly right here.
as being an architect myself, i perfectly know. the services part is handled by the engineers/ consultants, and architects just guide them to use it better ways, so that the building/ structure and the inner building environment perform in most sustainable manner.
architects not only can deal with the building's look, but they can create the environment and a mark.
here in the article the author has written 'more potential clients are off-shoring architecture jobs, downloading premade blueprints developed by top architects, or having lower-cost interior/exterior designers or building contractors design their structures.', but what would be the quality and the kind of look it gives is known just after one can see during building stage only. its like buying fake chinese gadgets by saying that the branded ones are similar to the chinese ones.
archietcts can also perform on large scale projects like town planning, and large scale housings also. its not the scope of an interior designers understand the scale of the project.
architecture is all about creativity, technicality and creation of built environment.
so, 'Aaron', dont be dissapoinetd by this perfectly misguided article. because no large scale companies buy those 'blueprints' to built a building for them. this is all fake.
and to the author, please dont misgyide people when you even dont know 'A' of Architecture.

Harsh Anjaria 4:43AM June 15, 2011

" such as the heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning system."
Architects do not design or draw these items, their design and drawing is performed by MEP engineersts. Also the three terms listed are essentially synonymous terms in building construction like saying you draw doors, hinged entry devices, and swinging partitions in stationary walls.
In the early stages 5-10 years of an architectural career, you will be working in teams and drawing and designing elements of a building of a design that was established conceptually by a partner in the office, and then developed by the team. Modern firms are very far away from the 60s-80s atelier style firms where your boss throws a sketch on your desk and you spend the next 2 weeks staying up all night to complete it.
Then, "interior designers recommend where a wall should go as well as the color scheme". Interior designers do not recommend wear walls go, they often select materials and furnishings and are much closer to interior decorators than architects.
Everything in this article is false about describing the architectural profession and obviously written by somebody whose knowledge of the world of architecture is defined by movies and literature and not reality. I hope this blazingly erroneous essay does not dissuade anyone from a creative career in the architectural community.

Real Architecture of NY 6:35PM April 17, 2011

Overrated Career: Architect

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