Who Should Become An Architect?

If you want to become an architect, you should ask yourself a few pertinent questions. Am I really suited to be an architect? What does it take to get through architecture school? Who should become an architect? People interested in becoming architects should be self-disciplined, observant, responsible, and intelligent. They should have an eye for detail and be able to communicate well with a variety of people both orally and in writing. Every architect should be able to handle constructive criticism well. Although great artistic ability is not necessary in becoming an architect, candidates should be able to solve technical problems and visualize spatial relationships. All aspirants to architecture school should have above average mathematical skills and possess organizational abilities, leadership abilities and be able to work well with others.

One of the first things that an aspiring architectural students needs to do when exploring the field of architecture is to visit some architectural firms and see what happens there on a daily basis. Many firms will allow prospective architecture students to visit their offices, where the students can get on the job experience of the type of work that is done by an architecture firm. Often, these firms offer summer internships for bright high school students who want to become architects.

There are currently 102,000 architects working in the United States. Most are employed in firms, but three out of ten work for themselves, which is a dream for most people. There are a few architects working in related fields: graphic design, interior design, or as a product specialist. Other architects work in unusual fields such as theater, film, museums, materials manufacturing, and display firms. A very small number of architects are employed by the Departments of Defense, Housing and Urban Development, Interior, and the General Services Administration.

After you graduate from architecture school, you will have to work as in intern in an architecture firm. Interns assist the architect with a variety of tasks while learning the business, including preparing construction documents and drawings and coordinating craftsmen on a project. Interns can also be required to gather construction materials, research building codes, and write specifications for the architect. Some architecture graduates decide, instead of becoming an intern at an architecture firm, they would rather go into a related field, such as construction, interior design, landscape architecture, real estate development, or engineering.

The average salary for an intern is $27,000. In 2000, according to the U.S. Department of Labor, the median salary for a licensed architect was $52,510. The lowest ten percent of architects earned around $32,000 and the highest ten percent earned more than $85,000. However, those figure increased dramatically for partners in very large firms or those who own their own firms, somewhere in the range of $132,000 a year.

The chance for advancement as an architect is very good. As you work your way up, you are likely to be given increasingly more complex jobs with greater responsibility. Some architects advance very quickly to managerial positions because they possess good leadership qualities. Some architects work their way into partnerships at established architectural firms, while others go out on their own and establish their own practices.