1. The gene pool that is your
social life will not have a lot of diversity
Architects are friends with other
architects. This is either because they are the only other people you see
because of item #3, or your interests align closely so you run into the same
people (because architects don’t stop being architects at 5:00pm). I know of
about 10 married couples where both are architects. I don’t know any lawyers
married to lawyers, or doctors married to doctors – certainly not the extent
that architect marry one another. Really, why is this?
2. The pay and benefits are not as
good as they could be
I have
not tracked this information but rather basing it on what I know from
colleagues working at other architectural firms. A majority of architectural
firms do not offer comprehensive benefit packages that would be considered
standard in other professional industries. I am talking about 401K programs,
dental and vision insurance, availability to get long term disability, flex
spending accounts, etc. I have already written about the pay structure for
architects . I am one of the lucky ones because I work at one of the rare (rare
like finding a live platypus in your toilet kind of rare) firms that offers
almost all of these things and we only have 6 full time employees. The fact
that we do it here is evidence that other firms can do it as well if they made
it a priority. There are occasions when my wife comes home and I imagine how
things could be different if I worked in a “real” industry that cared about its
employees over the long haul. Maybe that should be a post – do architectural
firms really care about their employees? As an industry, we seem to value the
experience that comes from someone who has moved around- we just don’t want to
foot the bill while training someone else’s future employee.
3. The hours you work are long and
under-valued
The
time you spend working on a project, in many regards, is proportional to the
quality of the end product. It is very difficult to separate out the desire to
create something with the business of how much time you have to create it. As a
result, architects tend to work late hours developing scheme after scheme to
evaluating possible solutions. Most of the time, so much fee is burned up
during schematic design and design development when the people with the highest
billing rates contribute, that the production period of the project is
compressed down into a calendar deadline, not a fee-based allotment of time.
The difference is that the company doesn’t pay you more for working a 8 hour
day versus a 16 hour day – but they do pay rent on the space you occupy, the
computer you use, the software on that computer, etc. If there is 200 hours of
time allocated to produce construction drawings (at your billing rate) and you
work 8 hour days – that 25 work days of time. If you work 16 hour days, that’s
slightly more than 2 weeks and all the overhead associated with a person
working in your position has just essentially been cut in half. Great for them,
sucks for you -it’s hazing for adults.
4. Your ideals don’t really matter
Your
clients hire you to give them a product that they want, not necessarily what
you want. We basically go to school to learn how to learn – architecture isn’t
a trade. As a result, you should be equipped to design projects that aren’t in
the style of architecture that you would like to do for yourself. Most projects
are developed for profit and despite the fact that good design equals good
solutions which translates into a form of measured success, everybody wants more
for less. There will be times when you are told to do something that you know
is terrible and the absolute wrong thing to do. Based on your need for the
work, or the force of your personality, you will make concessions that will
make you want to die.
5. If your ideals are important to
you, you will lose work
Because
architects are opinionated, they will argue for points that the client has
clearly stated that they do not want. You are probably thinking that a clearly
stated result, while demonstrating the error in the alternative, will win out.
It doesn’t always work that way. I have been fired by a client, while trying to
fire them, because I didn’t want my name associated with their project. They
didn’t know that I was trying to get both the husband and wife into the office
so we could give them the drawings, wish them luck, and then kick their sorry
butts out the door. So while I was trying to schedule a meeting with both of
them, the husband got mad that we “weren’t listening” when the wife said she could
handle the meeting without her husband. We really needed them both in this
particular meeting. Ironic really.
6. Not all architects have fun
jobs
Maybe
glamorous is a better word than fun. I am sure that 95% of the time you spent
in your design studios at school was about design and not about construction
detailing or project management, or communication, shop drawings, billing, etc.
Very few architects 10 years down the road into their careers are “designers”,
most are project architects. The role of project architect can be very
rewarding but there will be aspects to that job that you never imagined could
be so tedious and boring. The only analogy I can currently think of to describe
it is building a car so you can drive down the street. A lot of work goes in to
creating buildings and very little of that time is spent on design.
7. The house you live in will
depress you
This is
an easy one because what I know is far from what I can afford. I have lived in
5 houses during a 15 year stretch and have spent almost as much time
fantasizing all the things I could do to make them better as I have fantasized
about winning the lottery. The good news is that the light at the end of the
really unimaginably long tunnel is your future ability to change that situation.
It just takes patience.
8. You will live with terrible
decisions
The
nature of architecture includes, and sometimes require, experimentation. As a
result, you will make decisions that are really bad and you will have to live
with knowing that your terrible idea is ruining people’s lives all day, every
day. The good news is that buildings seem to be disposable now and it will only
be a matter of time before your mistake is corrected by someone else. Oh yeah –
the projects you do that are good will also be disposable and shortly torn down
to make way for yet another branch bank.
9. Architecture requires a lot of
work and dedication
Architects
go to school for a long time, take a lot of demanding tests, and have to work
for years to gain the experience to call themselves an “architect”. There are a
lot of other jobs that if you were to put in the same level of time and
singularly minded dedication, you would be much further along in your
development. Please note that I didn’t say that you would be making more money
because we have already rung that bell. This is about putting your time in and
paying your dues to develop the skill to practice architecture. I’d like to
think that most architects are pretty bright individuals and if they wanted to
be a doctor or a lawyer they could have. If you want to be a lawyer, go get a 4
year degree, then 3 years of law school, graduate and take a test. 7 years and
you are in! It took me 6 years and 207 degree hours to get my Bachelors degree
in Architecture and I studied abroad during that time. I worked for 6 years
before taking the Architectural Registration Exam (passed them all on the first
try btw) and was rewarded with a healthy raise of $0. Point is, you had better
really want to be an architect – I did and I knew it when I was 5 years old.
Then again, 5 year olds don’t know much yet so re-evaluate from time to time.
10. You probably won’t be a
designer
In my class, everyone thought they were
the next super-designer. I mean every single person. The truth is, almost
none-of them are now. I get to spend a lot of my time designing (in my office
of eight) but I spend a lot more time doing other things. There is one person
in our office that comes closest to meeting the definition of “designer” but
even she does more than that. I spent time working at RTKL in the mid-90’s and
there were about 120 people in that office. Out of those 120, probably 108 were
being developed as project architects and they never talked to a client. If
they were lucky, maybe they talked to a contractor but it took years to get to
that level. the remaining 12 were the designers. Those 12 were made up of 5 who
designed things that actually got built and the other 7 designed things that
sold the work that the previously mentioned 5 designed. I was one of the 12 and
I thought it was a terrible job. I never did see anything get built in person.
I didn’t have to worry about how it was going to be detailed – that was someone
else’s job. Eventually, they started putting me in front of clients because I am
pretty good at talking in front of a lot of people and can think well enough on
my feet to avoid saying something that will get us in trouble. At any rate,
aspiring to be a designer isn’t as great as you might think it is.
Source: lifeofanarchitect.com
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