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Caz
Joined: 11 Nov 2008
Posts: 2
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 Posted: Tue Nov 11, 2008 3:47 pm Post subject: Job satisfaction in Architecture |
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Im about to finish slogging out 6 years of study in Architecture, having had the wonderful opportunity to study and gain work experience in both Australia and Dennmark.
But.. for the moment I am not satisfied. My heart is still unsure if this is really what I want to do. Im considering doing a pre-professional postgrad course in a totally unrelated field (medicine) but I want to really give architecure a chance
For those that have been out in the workforce for a while now:
Are you happy where you are? Does the hard work, low pay and long hours pay off, in whatever you are doing? I need to feel the reward.. please be honest.
Has anyone moved away from classic architectural office job after completing their degree, to something like, say, fashion design?
Thanks
Caz |
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davidaneff
Joined: 03 Dec 2008
Posts: 8
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| Posted: Thu Dec 04, 2008 10:02 pm Post subject: |
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I have absolutely no regrets but the payoff can be many many years after leaving school or it may never come. And by payoff I mean being in a position where you're the head designer, not the one who drafts up someone else's designs and at best inserting the occasional small personal touch. If you're leaving school expecting to be running your own firm in 5 years, that's extremely rare. I think there are a lot of unsatisfied young and not-so-young architects out there who aren't where they had hoped to be. So basically I'm saying you have to love it enough to pay your dues for a long time. That's probably true in most fields but in architecture I'd guess it takes longer than just about any other profession.
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Long Island Architects | Southampton, NY Architects | Shingle Style Architect
Last edited by davidaneff on Sun Dec 07, 2008 10:29 am; edited 1 time in total |
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sutcac
Joined: 06 Dec 2008
Posts: 16
Location: Arroyo Grande, CA, USA
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| Posted: Sat Dec 06, 2008 1:31 am Post subject: |
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If the main word you would use to describe 6 years of study in architecture is "slogging", and you have already had some work experience abroad during this time and still aren't convinced, then I suspect you may have chosen the wrong course. The first 2-3 years of study for me was a mixed bag and I almost quit but I think that was mostly due to early studies requiring a lot of dismal general education courses taught by dismal teachers.
By the time I actually got into the meat of the major, I found a loved it. Satisfaction and success can come in small doses over a long period of time, something I think you have to learn to deal with in this profession.
This recent study suggested architects to be among the happiest as regards their profession, but making a ton of money isn't typically among the top concerns I think.
Best of luck with your search for meaning.
_________________
Bryce Engstrom:Architect, A.I.A., General Building Contractor, LEED AP
www.engstromarchitecture.com
www.central-coast-project-design-planning-guides.com |
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jamess
Joined: 20 Oct 2008
Posts: 3
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| Posted: Sun Dec 07, 2008 5:51 am Post subject: Dont give up - the future of property relies on new blood |
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I must admit that it can take a while to become truly great, however we need more aspiring architects willing to bend the laws and design stunning aesethically pleasing property for the new generation. Take my favourite designer for one - Melvin Villaroel. He is very much the king of the residential developments in Spain and other areas.
He has built a development called the Mansion Club Marbella - Stunning.
www.melvinvillarroel.com
Keep at it, keep on going and dont give up |
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WalkerARCHITECTS
Joined: 25 Sep 2007
Posts: 105
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| Posted: Mon Dec 22, 2008 5:54 pm Post subject: |
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There is no doubt that architecture should be an excellent professional opportunity or that because of the business thinking established in the US it just simply is not a good profession in the United States anymore. As an employee you will never be allowed to make any money. The rule is to never pay more for an employee than you have to pay and there are a great many architecture graduates. If you want to succeed you will need much more than world class talent, you will need MONEY, and you will need OPPORTUNITY.
Unfortunately the world class talent is pointless in the US without the other two elements. US architectural firms do not pay very well, you would not be able to save enough money to start a practice of your own. So for most people graduating with degrees in architecture, the best I can tell you is take a look around the company when you interview and ask yourself where the 50 year old staff people are, ask yourself what happened to them all, why are they not in the company.... or any other company.
Age discrimination is epidemic in US architectural firms, it has been going on for quite awhile. Architectural firms are built around the milk farm model... hire yourself some interns, milk them as cheap labor until they have passed their exams, milk them a bit longer then trade the old cows for new ones. Believe it! That is exactly what they do. As a general rule architecture firms are small and do not provide good family supporting jobs. |
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ml
Joined: 10 Feb 2008
Posts: 25
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| Posted: Wed Jan 07, 2009 3:24 pm Post subject: Determine What's Missing...and How to Get It |
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It strikes me that you say (after 6 years of study and some work experience) that something is missing? What is your gut trying to tell you? Listen to it and explore what you are feeling.
Satisfaction and fullfillment are important things to have in your career, especially when you spend so many hours working at it. In my opinion, you need to take a step back and understand what your lifestyle goals are both for short and long term. Analyze both architecture and your other profession of choice and determine which fits your lifestyle best.
Architecture does require long hours and often lesser pay, but if you love to design it may all be worth it. Question: if you could have it all (your own architecture practice, etc) in an ideal world, would you then be satisfied?
Break it down. Listen to your gut. Figure out what's missing. Do you feel alive when you design or create? Although architecture often requires much sacrifice, if you love it and are talented then it may be worthwhile.
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cjpunkz
Joined: 09 Jan 2009
Posts: 7
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| Posted: Fri Jan 09, 2009 2:42 am Post subject: |
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| My friend, who has been an in-house architect of a University, also felt that he wanted to do something else after being in the job for 5 years. He is now into photography and he is loving it. But nevertheless, he said that he still love his job. |
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Arc1tectronic
Joined: 12 Jan 2009
Posts: 18
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| Posted: Mon Jan 12, 2009 11:29 am Post subject: |
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I'm not a qualified architect but have seen and heard people who have diversified into different fields such as Issey Myake the Japanese Fashion Designer or another one I remember was a restaurant owning michelin rated Chef. Like any degree you can use as a stepping stone into almost any area of professional employment. As for pay the average architect earns more than the average wage. You are more than just your job. Follow your heart and make your dreams come true. You've been studying architecture for a long time now something must have kept you on the course. Medicine is another long course do you really want to be in university for such a long time? That would be like a quarter of your life. Perhaps your unconscious is trying to say-hey you like it here,why not become an academic a theorist or lecturer?
good luck. |
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nanrehvasconez
Joined: 25 Feb 2008
Posts: 329
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| Posted: Mon Jan 12, 2009 1:12 pm Post subject: |
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"My friend, who has been an in-house architect of a University, also felt that he wanted to do something else after being in the job for 5 years. He is now into photography and he is loving it. But nevertheless, he said that he still love his job."
__________________________________________________________
I am retired now, but my profession has given me all the happiness and satisfaction I needed. Good middle class living, education for my sons and daughters, oh! by the way, I am from Latino America and have't abused the System, I pay taxes as any other American willing to work.
I do not measure happiness and success by the accumulation of dollars, or in how many houses and cars I have, or how many COUNTRY CLUB friends I had, but I have been measuring by the warmness and satisfaction I get from my profession providing me by having contributed to better world, (a miniscule 1:6billion)
My vocation was to be an "architect", I took jobs without pay, just to design and draw something, and I earned my schooling as carpenter, cabinet maker, Staff Architect, Director of Design, Partner.
Would I do differently? Yes I could master AutoCAD 20 years ago instead of ten years ago. |
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solidred
Joined: 05 Jan 2006
Posts: 727
Location: Scotland
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| Posted: Mon Jan 12, 2009 2:32 pm Post subject: |
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| I'm currently unemployed and so am spending my time working on developing music composing and production skills. And I have to say I feel a great deal more fulfilled as a human being doing this than I ever have in over a decade's-worth of architectural practice which I've found variously relaxingly non-descript, frustrating, boring and using only about 10% of my actual abilities... It would be nice, for example, if an employer would pay me to design a building, say, rather than treat me as some sort of manager/technician... |
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ElleJay
Joined: 13 Jan 2009
Posts: 1
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| Posted: Tue Jan 13, 2009 3:58 am Post subject: |
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Hey Caz
You know, architecture is actually a much broader field than most of us grasp, until we have had enough years in the game to have experienced some of it. From what I can see, most students get just too caught up in the ideology of becoming a ground breaking designer. The fact is, most of us will not. However, there is a great deal of job satisfaction to be had in this great industry you have chosen, in many differernt areas. For example:
Project Architect
Contract Admin
Design Development
Documentation
Project Coordinating
and of course, Design
Not to mention the different types of buildings you may work on, and the different scales you may work at:
Urban Planning
High Rise
Commercial
Industrial
Residential
Interiors
So dont just give up on architecture just because you are not sure. It takes many years for an architect (but lets face it, probably anyone at work these days) to reach the point that they feel the job satisfaction they seek. The pay off for us is that we are still considered a 'young' architect when we are 50! |
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nanrehvasconez
Joined: 25 Feb 2008
Posts: 329
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| Posted: Tue Jan 13, 2009 5:18 am Post subject: |
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solidred:
With all due respect, if this is your "self description" of who you are, then this is WHAT you are telling the world that you are, and if on top of it you are belong to a religion/repudiable sect or equal such ar republicans or worse, also claims to have an immortal soul, ETC. ALL THESE COHABITANTS OF THE EARTH, INCLUDING YOUR BOSS, THE CUSTOMERS, THE CLIENTS, sees you as a NON-DESCRIPT, FRUSTRAITING, BORING, USING 10% OF YOUR ACTUAL AVILITIES, then you are injuring your self, and no one will like to work with you.
"cry, and no one cries with you, laugh and the world laughs with you"
GET RID OF THE UGLY MUG YOU HAVE IN THIS POST, PUT A HAPPY ONE, MAY BE, AND JUST MAY BE SOME WORK WILL HAPPEN FOR YOU
GOOD LUCK
"non-descript, frustrating, boring and using only about 10% of my actual abilities |
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solidred
Joined: 05 Jan 2006
Posts: 727
Location: Scotland
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| Posted: Tue Jan 13, 2009 8:32 am Post subject: |
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I get your point nanrehvasconez and it's a valid one, but don't jump to the conclusion that people don't like working with me or that I wander around offices with a sour attitude. My last boss but one was almost in tears when I announced my departure and my last boss has offered to write me 'a very good reference indeed'.
But here, in moments I rather perversely consider private, I like to ba absolutely honest about the way I really feel.
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nanrehvasconez
Joined: 25 Feb 2008
Posts: 329
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| Posted: Tue Jan 13, 2009 12:22 pm Post subject: |
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solidred:
I don't mean to hurt you more, I was a boss who every body loved, but in hard times, I had to fire people that needed that paycheck badly, he was supporting 12 children (not his own) and the mother in law, but generosity and stupidity some times meet, and self preservation trumps.
It’s a bit to retain the guy that gives 120%, because he/she will always be profitable for the company, rather than the guy that gives a hard 10%, make the math, even if you bit on the horses, the choice is clear.
Self deprecating is good, keeps you sane, laughing at your self is better because you are laughing at that miserable creature that could be accidentally dead in a minute and the world will go around without you and not miss a bit.
I have my own faults: I am not greedy; I tell things the way I see them;I fired an assistant that was blond, tall, business savvy, "obese", drove a MB-500 coupe, she could bring lots of money to our company, but was fat and obnoxious, no candy for my eyes nor music to my ears.
I have my own faults: I am not greedy; I tell things the way I see them; I fired an assistant that was blond, tall, business savvy, "obese", drove a MB-500 coupe, she could bring lots of money to our company, but was fat and obnoxious, no candy for my eyes nor music to my ears.
I did not accept a 100K position because required less architecture and more politics with fat, cigar smocking southerner republicans. I like some whiskey but I love best good company. |
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solidred
Joined: 05 Jan 2006
Posts: 727
Location: Scotland
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| Posted: Tue Jan 13, 2009 3:41 pm Post subject: |
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nanrehvasconez, I appreciate your honesty. It implies integrity, which is my favourite quality in a person. But I ought to correct a mistaken impression I've made about that 10%. I would dearly love to give 110%. I would dearly love to have a chance to demonstrate the fruits of my intelligence and experience and my love of architecture since, say, aged four years old. My problem is that the jobs people give me to do simply don't allow me to use this. Perhaps I should be bolder and ask for more responsibility; ask for design work to do. But I've long figured that if a boss can't see this without me asking, he's not 'getting me' in any case and is not going to understand to what extent I can design unless I magic something up in my own time (and I've even done this... thousands of pounds-worth of free design work for a design which was accepted without demur by the client, cost the right amount of money and got planning permission. But still, there's another guy who is known to quickly knock-up some designs in sketchup so, perennially, he still gets the gigs rather than me, who tortuously works and reworks something on every level). Let's take a less complex task: a door schedule featuring, say, several thousand doors. I do it jointly with someone else. Again, I put every ounce of concentration I have in getting the right info. in; getting the quantities checked and double-checked; researching the components that go into locks of various sorts. But what do I end up spending most of my time on? Correcting mistakes made by others. This isn't a 110% intellectual power-weight exercise. It's simply problem-solving at the most basic level.
What I mean is, I've tried to expand by my own efforts and thus by hints. I've tried to make dull tasks interesting by dint of sheer thoroughness. But at the end of the day, when I compare all that to what I do with time now I have my own time back, I'm now, quite effortlessly and with some joy using all the stuff I have again.
Of course, everything could change with a different employer. Everything. Because I know that there's 110% architectural practice out there. I just have to find it and get it. |
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