Do I Regret Studying Architecture?

While Architecture has been a great career for me, I know it has been a terrible disappointment to many others. I know I got where I am because I received help from older Architects and not everyone gets that. There are a lot of people who regret being architects. Don't become one of them.

This is a summary of my career in Architecture and it shows that, along the way, I received help from older Architects at crucial stages in that career. I didn't realize how important that help was until years later and I sometimes feel guilty about receiving it. I made this video so that anyone thinking about a career in Architecture will see that it isn't enough to get good grades or be a capable designer. A lot of success is based on being in the right place at the right time and knowing the right people.

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#regret

[RealLifeArchitecture]

Things to Know Before Studying Architecture

[jackludo]

Studying architecture for me has been the strangest mixture of desperately wanting to quit yet desperately wanting to become a highly competent architect. The cult-like attitude presented at university whereby one must suffer for their art and for the greater good of society, probably does not help.

[nihilistarchitect]

There isn’t a week gone by that I don’t regret my choice. I don’t even understand why architecture is still something that so many young people want to do. Well actually I do: they have no ideia of how everyday reality in practice can be. But some learn fast, as soon as they get out there in the market, they understand that there is no way they want to do that for the rest of their active life. The extra hours, the crazy plannings, problems and problems to solve ( a building is basically a miracle ), permits, contracts, excel, revit, archicad, AutoCAD, vectorworks, photoshop, illustrator, Indesign, sketchup, rhinoceros, grasshopper, word, excel again, excel a bit more, regulations bring them on, investors……………………………. Lines, hatches, thickness of the pen, BIM, clashes, IFCs, construction details, budgeting, construction site noise….huge concrete prefab facade apartament buildings… for what? For not even being able to buy a studio. I am happy for those that like and have a different more positive experience but I agree with him, I know so many people that like me regret it….

[loydmartin]

As a licensed architect and civil engineer in the USA, I can testify to this video. The profession is rough in the good times, but when an entire industry must go through a total depression at the end of every real estate cycle, it is nearly impossible for firms and individuals to survive and thrive. I recommend that architects, contractors, and engineers consider pursuing more than one business/profession that is not adversely affected by the real estate cycle.

[dagwould]

Being a junior architect: take meeting minutes, do toilet details, stair details, reflected ceiling plans. Then you can graduate to services coordination drawings, wall sections, window schedules, door schedules...all fun stuff for the first few years. Oh, room data sheets (very important in some buildings), room elevations, joinery details.
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Two challenges in architecture as a business: Few have solved the production problem. Construction documents (detail drawings) are very important, very detailed and essential, but they are all bespoke works of craft. No one wants to pay for this, because even when you think the building will click together like a meccano set, it won't and unless there is early contractor involvement, there will still be endless RFIs and variations making the architect look bad in the client's eyes. The production challenge is to develop a repetitive system to reduce the constant rework from job to job.
Second is that architecture is seen as an art and in many places eschews a systems approach to designing buildings. This makes design an expensive indulgence at best and a set of frolics at the client's expense at worse.

[curtdilger]

Thank you for sharing your story. Vitruvius said that an architectural education was a great thing for a gentleman, but not necessarily good for an architect. Two thousand years later, that still sounds about right. The regrettable thing is that architecture attracts the best young people, usually smart, conscientious, dedicated, hardworking people who want their labor to make a difference. They all get thrown onto the pile; some scatter, some burrow in. Cheers

[kemeltavares]

I’m almost 18 years into my career. Have worked in four different countries and can certainly say how hard it is to make a living as an Architect! Thanks for the great video! It somehow made me remember why I’m an Architect and even with all the hardships…. I still love it!

[michaelepp]

I opted out after 30 years and now I'm a house painter. I have no regrets, I was able to raise 2 kids and buy a house, and I poured a lot of love into the work, but eventually I ended up burned out. At the end of the day, it was all about money and status-seeking, I felt. It had little to do with actually making the world a better place.

[jolyondunn]

Thankyou for making this video. I ended up walking away from a career in architecture when i was 26, two weeks after obtaining my professional registration. It was a very difficult decision to make but in the end i had to prioritise my mental health & financial wellbeing. There's a saying in architecture- its a wonderful job but its a horrible industry, and i think that sums it up pretty well. It was a job with very high highs, (great projects, practicing overseas) but also some very low lows- unpaid overtime, famine and flood work conditions, mass firings, the wages weren't amazing. No union protections so bosses would screw over their workers. Its also an "office job"- huge amounts of boring admin and document control, the stuff you dont sign up for which is probably 80% of the job. My friends had to leave the city we lived in to find work for themselves- it broke up relationships. In the end I decided on balance it wasnt worth it. I ended up moving into healthcare, which is much more stable. I'm now able to help people more directly. I havent looked back, and financially in a way better situation. Of my graduating class, only a very small handful "made it" and those who did came from wealthy families who had lots of help. If you can find really good quality mentors, and a firm with a good office culture who nurtures their workers, you are more likely to make it, but these firms are few and far between.

[Ubermicropwned]

I stopped studying architecture to work sales jobs, consutrction and marketing, to only go back to university to finish my pursuit of architect. I’ll find a way to make it work despite everyone hating on the career, whether I succeed or die trying.

[strandedinparadise]

My experience with architecure school were so awful they shattered my confidence. I wrote an article for NZ Architecture magazine detailing them a few years after graduating and the editor gave it the title Unhappy Days! Putting aside the cult-like atmopshere things were so bad at our school that in our final year most of my class enrolled at a nearby polytech (for zero credit) so they could be taught how to do working drawings. I was so dissilusioned that I had decided to quite the profession before I had even started but then my father hooked me up with a job through his contacts a year after I graduated. I spent 5 years proving that I was correct in my first decision as I worked for three firms that were variously; tired and incompetent, bullying and cowboyish and bullying and ruthless. I then left to do my own property development and have since left the indutry altogether - but am still my own boss. A friend of my daughter's is currently at my old school and I have made sure she knows that any struggles she is having are down to the toxic personalities of her teachers and have nothing to do with her any shortcomings they say she has. It's the bare minimum I could do.

[MelvinLim]

Everyday I live in fear, hoping my kids will not choose the path of architecture, despite seeing how they have certain natural talent in design and construction. as much as I love my profession, I've always felt that being an architect is a deeply unappreciated job and that the only way we can take control of our happiness is by being a contractor. Which is why, I am working with a developer now.

[LawrenceRocca]

You've explained beautifully the sad reality of being an Architect. I'm a registered Architect that after 7 years of practising, transitioned into the tech world, I miss Architecture everyday but sadly the reality of the industry forced me to do so.... Thank you for this video and your brutal honesty. Cheers from Australia!

[robbriner]

Smells realistic, honest, and wise. The only thing to add is that every profession I can think of includes the same tradeoffs and downsides. Every one.

[NotExactlyKB]

Thank you for this video! I'm a third generation Architect married to a first generation Architect, operating our own small firm in the U.S. We both graduated near the top of a very competitive class, and both were able to pass all licensing exams on the first attempt, gaining licenses by our mid-to-late 20s. However, there are many days when I feel my life would have been far better had I heeded my father's advice and chosen another path. The profession is challenging, often thankless, and the financial reward pales in comparison to the early mornings, late nights, and weekends sacrificed with family and friends to maintain the workloads. Additionally, the cost of higher education in the U.S. is a massive burden, mostly hitting us of the Millennial generation. It is predatory, oppressive, and inescapable via bankruptcy. For the past nearly 12 years of practice, my wife and I have paid between $1, 500-$2, 100 per month to student loans, using the odd financial win-fall to pay them down, and yet we still have 2/3 of our balance remaining due to accrued interest at absurd rates (some as high as 11% APR). That alone is the difference between a very comfortable life and what is now essentially paycheck-to-paycheck. Most of my friends with lesser degrees or none at all have a far better work-life balance, similar compensation, and far more stability. In the end, success (whether it be personal, professional, critical, or financial) is dependent on a great deal of good fortune, but I definitely wish that I knew then what I know now.

[richmaniow]

I've worked on numerous projects where the client has fallen out with their architect, the main problem is that architects have to foster quite a close relationship with clients to secure the project especially if it's a "dream home" type build, this creates an expectation where clients basically expect revisions for free because they think of the architect as their new best friend which of course they're not, so when the extra invoices start coming in, things can go south very quickly..

[btbfree]

Congratulations on your success. I'm glad there is one person with a success story in architecture. My background is in the field as well. All I can say is that the word ARCHITECTURE only sounds glamorous. It has the first syllable ARCH, which is related to art, and that's why people think it's wonderful. The paycheck vs. the time and effort to produce a set of drawings doesn't correlate. You're in it because you feel it's your passion, not that you'll be filthy rich at some point in life. My philipina co-worker used to advise me to switch field and go for computer science instead. In the USA it's so awful that everyone think they can design, build without schooling, and knowledge required to produce a set of drawings. It's not a joke, but a disgrace and the disrespect for such a grueling program not to mention the ARE exam, which is an overwhelming task, to end up not being respected and appreciated for what is worth. 🙏

[aletverster]

It is so interesting to hear your experience mirroring that of so many in South Africa. Personally, I think the architecture schools have a lot to answer for. We started with 170 students in our cohort (an unusually high number) and ended with 52, 6 years later. The lecturers seemed to take pleasure in telling students “you’ll never be an architect” and “you should be choosing scatter cushions.” It broke so many spirits, gave the rest massive egos and over competitive outlooks and didn’t equip us in the least for actually working as architects.

I have also been exceptionally lucky in the way my career has taken shape, and I mostly love working as an architect, but I totally agree with you on my son becoming an architect.

[dagda]

I have a saying: the best decision of my life was to study architecture, the second best decision was to not practice it (after practicing it for over 8 years, working on projects many architects, especially young ones can only dream of). I feel that architecture gave me a very beneficial and versatile way of thinking, ranging from dry technical stuff to juicy creativity, and i can apply that in many ways. But being an actual architect qnd working with investors and all that...thats ALOT of pain sacrifice and effort for almost nothing, both financially and spiritually, because money is king...fck human life and wellbeing. This career just drains you of everything you got, and it makes you feel like you're the sacrificial lamb offered to greed qnd general human nastiness. And as you said, i couldnt join the dark side. (On top of everything i also live in a country with high corruption....you can imagine by yourself). I hope young ppl planning on pursuing architecture will see your vid and read the comments here.

[JurgenBohl-wszc]

I can relate with your experience fully. As an architect in Costa Rica, with a relatively successful career, a steady work flow, and 32 years of experience, I would never encourage my kid to pursue architectural studies. I also do most of my work myself and not hire full time help, just when the demand or the job size oblige me. I am happy with where I am right now, but it took me more than 20 years to get here. I have seen a lot of colleagues not making it. It takes more than a degree: a lot of perseverance! And loads of patience and financial control.