<p>As I look at these posts and read the thoughts of many of you, I am coming to the scary conclusion that the best times in an architects professional life are as a student. It seems like the education of an architect is nothing like that of the practical real life of modern day architect. High unemployment rates and low compensation seem to dominate the profession today. I read with utter fear for some of these high school students here who are so star struck about a "name" school and are willing to go into debt of 6 figures for the "name" school. I was once an architecture student, and have kept up with my friends who finished the program and are licensed architects. There experiences seem to bear this out. It almost seems to me that Architecture is a great profession as long as one doesn't have to feed a family or go into any sort of debt to do it. Im just curious to know what those of you who are in the real world think about this. I think the study of architecture is fascinating and I have immense respect for those of you doing it. Are today's high school students 100% aware of the grim realties that await them? Not only in poor compensation, but unreal expectations of what a professional architect does AFTER school finishes. Am I interpreting this wrong?</p>
<p>i think you’re right to some extent but people who get their licenses don’t necessarily puruse architecture but a lot of other fields that are relevant/semi-relevant to the major. i actually read a survey that ranked architects as #1 job where “people love what they do” so… idk !</p>
<p>Yeah. I have been reading all these posts and news articles about how architects are having a bad time now. But I think the people in other professions are also suffering because of the economic depression, not just architects. And I also heard from a lot of people that new architects don’t do a lot of the designing work, they do more of the technical stuff like doing the renderings. I’m also applying to architecture schools and my parents told me just do what i want to do, but don’t quit later on when I can’t handle the workload because architects work ALOT.
Now I’m just hoping that the economy will get better by the time I graduate from college and I’ll be able to get a stable job and get a decent salary (maybe 50,000 per year? Is that realistic?)</p>
<p>No doubt these are very difficult times, with many recent graduates facing diminished expectations for their careers. The reality of the profession is that there are always a series of ups and downs, but this has been a once in a lifetime experience. However when I talk with my classmates, they are still in the profession, have managed to raise nice families, and seem to have had a rewarding career. I have not found a lot of bitterness and disillusionment among them. Perhaps we just graduated at the right time.</p>
<p>I graduated with very low financial expectations, married another architect, and assumed we would be poor but happy. The profession has been much kinder to us that we could have imagined, and I cannot see anything else that I would rather be doing (well… perhaps a Formula 1 driver). Most architects are making less money than we did three years ago, but most of the ones that I know are still employed and have no plans to do something else.</p>
<p>I was told by an industrial psychologist that most engineers when they get a promotion will identify with that new position, and when asked what they do will say ‘vice president of services’, etc. He said however that architects, even if they rise to very high positions, when asked what they do will almost always say ‘architect’. This how strongly we identify with our profession.</p>
<p>rick</p>
<p>Arch is not the only profession taking a hit. My guess is that all service-based businesses are taking a hit. I own a marketing and PR firm and we are all working harder and making less than three years ago. Conventional wisdom has told young peple not to go into public relations because the media industry is struggling…but guess what, businesses still need to market and communicate to their targeted customers…the only thing that is changing is the tools and the methods we use to communicate. They are more streamlined and more focused…many intially thought that our profession would be decimated but what we are all learning is that the new tools and methods require as much skill, if not more to be effective. Good communicators will always be communicators.</p>
<p>I think the same thing is happening in architecture…the need for design is not going away, however the manner in how it happens is evolving, alebeit slowly. People are looking towards new business models to save money and still get their projects done. As a result there is confusion in the marketplace which presents a good opportunity for innovative architecture entrepreneurs. Good architects will always be good architects…and there will always be work for people who can reinvent themselves as the market changes.</p>
<p>BTW - most people these days are working harder for less money…but if you can survive the downturn, chances are that you will do well once the economy bouces back a bit.</p>
<p>This advice has been [shared</a> in this forum before](<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/1060400891-post29.html]shared”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/1060400891-post29.html) in response to the question ‘Will there be too many Architects in the future?’.</p>
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<p>Every student, regardless of major, should sign-up for a personal finance class while in college to learn how to leverage the specialized insight of their major(s) in long-term (not get rich quick) investments. This is a strategy advocated by famed investor [Peter</a> Lynch](<a href=“http://www.investingator.org/peter-lynch/]Peter”>http://www.investingator.org/peter-lynch/). So, by all means, follow your bliss with your heart, but use your mind to figure out a path to self-sufficiency that does not depend on income from just employment.</p>
<p>Related: [The</a> Millionaire Next Door](<a href=“http://wikisummaries.org/The_Millionaire_Next_Door]The”>The Millionaire Next Door - WikiSummaries)</p>