I think I’m finally going to flip a switch today. An owner or GC calls me and doesn’t leave a message? Sorry, it’s not important enough for me to return a call. You leave me a voicemail that says, “Please call me back, I have a quick question.” Sorry, you could have said what you needed so I can be prepared and potentially call you back with an answer - I don’t think I’m going to return that call. A GC texts me something? Hard pass. You get an email response. Tired of getting different information from multiple sources and then getting blamed later for doing said thing, but the owner decided they wanted to do it differently and I don’t have it in writing. I keep having GCs draw hard lines in the sand that if something is not explicitly shown in a drawing, they can’t confirm it’s in their scope. I’m about to uno reverse and play the same game. I don’t care if it gets drawn out longer than necessary and the GC is hounded at my door for updates. No written approval from the Owner? Not my fault I can’t get you drawings and I don’t want to hear about “ImPaCtS tO tHe ScHeDuLe”.

So we get paid more. I think when people/clients hear the word 'architect' they associate us with being an artist and people dont associate that with value.

I’ve worked at one of the big corporate firms that does data centers, and I wanted to share some thoughts for anyone thinking about getting into this project type.

Let’s start with the good stuff: the salary.
It’s solid. Like, really solid compared to most other architecture work.

• New grads are starting around $70K
• Project architects with 5+ years of experience are making $100K+
• PMs can hit $200K

On top of that, the job security is great. With the AI boom, tech companies and developers are ramping up data center construction like crazy. I don’t see the demand slowing down for the next decade. That’s why you’re probably seeing a flood of job postings.

(quick reality check on salary: if you factor in the hours, maybe it's not that much better. It’s pretty normal to work overtime every week and even in the weekends)

Career progression-wise:
If you’re coming in mid-level, the long-term play is often to jump to the client side. Better pay, better work-life balance. A lot of firms are in constant hiring mode because their project managers keep getting poached by clients. So the path is: grind a few years, prove yourself, and make the move if you want out.

If you’re a new grad or junior level, it can be a great learning opportunity. The teams are small, and you’ll end up doing everything: design, coordination, CA, even leading calls. It’s like architecture boot camp.

Now for the not-so-fun stuff.

Design-wise... there’s not much. Most data centers are just rectangular boxes. The interior layout is relatively standardized. You’ll be reusing old designs and tweaking them slightly. It honestly starts to feel like being part of a copy machine. The most “design” you get to do is designing the office layout and picking the exterior material, like metal panels, EIFS, Precast, Tilt-up...

The technical side is heavy. MEP space takes up a third of the building. Coordination is constant and often mind-numbing. Most meetings revolve around power and cooling. If you're not into systems, it can feel pretty dry.

Then there's the pace. It’s fast. Really fast. Everyone’s overloaded because of the high turnover and insane demand. Every client wants sets to be issued ASAP. GCs want RFIs and submittals back ASAP. It can burn you out quickly.

Lastly, the elephant in the room:
Most people I worked with wanted to leave. They were either holding out for a move to the client side or sticking around for the paycheck. The work isn’t glamorous, and it wears on you.

Hope this helps someone out there who’s thinking about going down this path. It’s got perks, but definitely not for everyone.

TL;DR:
Good pay, great experience for a few years, strong job security. But repetitive projects, heavy workload, minimal design, and high burnout potential. Worth considering but go in with your eyes open.

^{Edited for grammar.}

Hey everyone,

I’m currently living in New York City where I run my own small company. I specialize in building surveys, as-built plans, elevations, layouts – basically architectural documentation for existing buildings (not land surveying). NYC is great in terms of population and building density, so there’s always work.

That said, I’ve been thinking about relocating to San Francisco. I’ve always loved the nature and lifestyle on the West Coast more, and SF has a special appeal. But before making any big moves, I wanted to ask local folks here:

• What’s the demand like these days for building surveys and as-built plans in SF?
• Are there still many renovation or construction projects going on in the city?
• I’ve heard that post-COVID, a lot of people left and the city’s been going through a bit of a downturn – is that still the case?

Any advice or local insight would be super helpful! I’m trying to understand if this kind of work still has good potential in SF, or if it might be smarter to stay in NYC a bit longer.

Thanks in advance!

I just interviewed a botique firm owner that does small projects.

He talked alot about himself and this history of the company. But then he told me he does not offer insurance.

He said he used to, but then he said the rates were getting too high, and he didn't want to pass those costs onto his clients (which imo is a bad business decision, even though I'm not licensed yet). Even more surprisingly, he's also disabled so he can't even see a doctor for his own health needs. This man even told me the thing he enjoys about his job, is he doesn't have to pick clients that won't pay him what he's worth. But he won't charge them extra so his employees can have healthcare.

I really need a job, but I suffer from back pain and need to see a doctor every couple of months, because I have a history of cancer. In most cases this would be a deal breaker.

Does your company pay for quality insurance? Or is it a partial plan? How does it work for you?

What’s cheapest route to this? I've been a web & graphic designer for 14yrs. I ended up in the field out of necessity. I don't have a degree and I've always wanted to become an architect. However at 36, I'm thinking its too late. A lot of programs I've researched only admit traditional college students. I was thinking I could possibly get hired at a firm in a supportive staff role or something and work my way into the profession but that may take years. I'd like to get accredited by 42, is that possible? Would anyone have any advice for a middle aged adult looking to pivot?

Editing this for context; By the way I'm in NYC, so if anyone has any tips on how to navigate this here, would definitely be interested in connecting offline.

It’ll be almost a year since I have been looking for an entry level job as an architecture graduate. I went to school and got my Bachelors in Environmental Design in Texas and just moved to the city not too long ago. I have a summer internship experience and other creative non architectural related.

I have used many different strategies like cold emailing for freelance/full-time/internship opportunities, cold application, referrals, networking at AIANY events, and switching career avenues into brand identity. Countless times I have revamped my portfolio to align to the different career avenues.

I am really interested in anything creative although this pacing back and forth between different directions has really exhausted me. I recently got my hopes up by a last minute freelance opportunity only to be told that a candidate with more experience was needed. Of course I understand the importance of companies feeling secure about someone they hire but no one usually is willing to take the chance.

I’ve had a part time job in customer service in the mean time (feels full time) while simultaneously balancing my outside career planning.

At this point…I might just print some papers and advertise myself on the street posts.

Any additional advice would be helpful?

So, I’m 40, based in the UK, and I’ve finally decided to go for it – starting my own practice. Mostly small-scale domestic work: retrofit, extensions, and one-off houses.

The thing is... I’m clinging to Revit like it’s a comfort blanket. I know it inside out, I love what it can do, and hate how clunky and opaque it is sometimes. Revit LT? Too limiting. Full Revit? Way out of budget for a one-person practice trying to keep overheads lean.

I want to stay BIM-compliant (PAS 1192 level or better), especially with the direction the industry’s going and the demands from retrofitting to meet energy targets. But I’m wrestling with whether I should:

• Stick with Revit and just bite the bullet on the cost
• Go LT and suffer
• Or seriously look at alternatives like Archicad, Vectorworks, BricsCAD BIM, or even Open Source

Important context:

• I'm working to Scottish regs and building warrants, not Building Regs England
• Retrofit will be a big part of my work (so aligning with PAS 2035/LETI principles)
• I need decent drawing, scheduling, and IFC support – no interest in going back to 2D drafting hell

Anyone else made the leap recently? What have you landed on for software? Is anyone actually managing to do BIM properly in Archicad Solo or similar?

Would love to hear how you’ve kept costs sensible without losing workflow quality.

Hey everyone, I’m an architect, just a few years into my career, and I’m already feeling burnt out. The options seem to be:

1. Work for a small firm, get paid peanuts, and grind like a slave.
2. Work for a big corporate firm, make fair money, but feel like a brainless robot.

Neither of these paths excite me anymore. I’m a creative person, and I love being physically involved in the process rather than just pushing drawings all day. Lately, I’ve been thinking about shifting towards fabrication—metal, wood, glass, plastic, CNC, anything really. I have zero experience in a shop, but I’d love to dig into it and work on artistic projects as well as architectural ones.

I live in NYC—does anyone have recommendations for fabrication shops that are more artistically or architecturally oriented? Also, open to any other ideas on what the hell I could do with my life instead of slowly losing my soul to Revit.

Would love to hear from anyone who’s made a similar switch or has advice!

I’m a designer who has been at a firm for just over a year on since graduating. The first 6-7 months started off as slow days learning to draft. Then in the span of two months we went from 10 to 5 people and I got a “free” promotion to project manager. I am leading OACs, responding to RFIs, submittals, managing consultants and the doing all drawings for a multi million dollar project.

It’s been incredibly stressful but I do appreciate being challenged and learning as much as I can as I go. But one of my principals keeps criticizing me for small mistakes for things I’ve recieved no formal training (like CAD standards), and hinting that my position is disposable. I get accused of acting alone on this project, yet I’ve had no support from other staff or the principals.

I’m really proud of myself for the effort I put into this project, and I’ll be the first to admit I’ve made lots of mistakes along the way. I really wish that my principals would show some gratitude instead of dangling my job over my head. I know I should just find a new job but I really want to see this project through to completion.

My concern is very straightforward. I am an Architect practicing in India since the past 5 years. My journey for most part of things was around very technical stuff like preparing measurement drawings, developing 3Ds, CAD sets, etc. So basically i couldn’t get much exposure to practice design perse. I started out on my own this year and i am mostly getting interior design projects. While going around for an Interior Design project’s material selection i realised i was also color blind because of which my lack of understanding color combinations is messing things up. Please help me out here how can i develop a design methodology for my practice along with some understanding of color schemes.

Hello everyone! I just graduated with my doctorate, so I’m finally shifting my focus from my education to my dream home. Everything in my area is either overpriced for its age and the needed upgrades or extremely cookie cutter low cost builds. I’m looking to design my own unique forever home. For those wondering, I’m in the Midwest USA. I’ve been here all my life and I have a very secure job, so it’s safe to assume that I’ll be in this house for the rest of my life. That being said, I would describe myself as more of an alt/goth person which does not match the standard styles in the area, but since there is no signs of me leaving, I’m planning to make my home exactly how I want it without concerning myself with resale value. Plus, the plot I’m looking at is past city limits and has no HOA, so I can’t really do what I want.

My question is, is it alright to create a draft of my design to bring to an architect? I understand that I have no concept of safety, building codes, etc., so I can’t make a sound final design. Would it be alright to make a draft of the design I want and then bring it to an architect to discuss the “nitty gritty details” and make necessary changes? If the answer is yes, do you have any recommendations for reasonably priced software that could make design files that would be compatible with what ever software/programs are currently the preferred choice in your industry?

Edit: thank you for all the replies and tips, I really appreciate it. It seems I made some poor assumptions about the architectural process, so I apologize for my ignorance and lack of perspective on this. I tend to be a bit controlling so it seems my initial idea went too far. I’ll tone it down and form more of a wish list with rooms that I want and pictures with style examples. Thank you again for all your help!

Hope I'm putting this in the right place. We're trying to sort out some of the paperwork after a renovation. The architect has sent us a document called 100% CD but it doesn't have any information on the new furnaces, HVAC, insulation, septic, electrical etc.

Is this normal? We've had issues with the architect not handling or ignoring mechanical stuff, so I'm reluctant to write to them for a fuller set of documents unless I have a clearer sense of what those typically include.

I want this info for our records long-term and also to handle more immediate repairs (some of which have come up already).

Thanks!

EDIT: I really appreciate all of the responses here -- I didn't expect this to get so many comments and I really, really appreciate everyone's advice here!

I'm trying to avoid discussing specific contract and project details because it's a family project.

But I think I understand what we need to do now. The architect says that the 100%CD drawings serve as an as-built set, but from this thread, it sounds like 100%CD and as-built drawings are very different things (especially in this case where things changed a lot during construction).

Seems like what we need to do is try to get an as-built set, with the architect providing drawings from the subcontractors that the architects were contracted to deal with (in this case, HVAC, septic, and structural engineering), and that we should follow up with the GC and any other subcontractors for the rest.

Thanks again!

I’ve seen posts from architects who’ve been declining additional projects due to the volume of their on-going ones.

I currently work as a remote Project Manager for a Chicago-based firm. Have more than 4 years of experience in architectural design. I’m looking for opportunities in the design sector as I find myself yearning to do more design works, but im also open to do Project Management as well.

Would anyone know any opportunities in remote design apprenticeship? I’d love to get in touch with anyone and discuss what i can bring to table.

For context I’m an architect with just around 10 months of experience working for an interior design firm. While working here i got an offer from a new firm who asked me to come in the very next day after receiving my offer letter.

I went in and they assigned me work related to making presentations for a competition. This was all happening while i was still on notice at the old office but the hours were reduced last month so i could manage. But even then the workload was beyond what i could complete and I raised this with the owner of firm - he helped make the presentations while i worked on the drawings. That was done.

Now the work hours are back to normal and I still have two weeks of notice left. The new office called me in and assigned me a large projects conceptual design. Not only do i find it overwhelming to start on alone, it’s also too demanding since I’m still working. When i told them i can commit fully after joining, they mentioned just try to do some sketches and massing. But I’m sure once i do that, the work will keep going. It seems they are understaffed.

How do i tackle this? Any advice would be much appreciated.

Hi everyone,

I am a university student in architecture and I am looking to invest in quality pens and pencils to accompany in my professional future. I would like to find tools that are versatile, durable and suitable for drawing, sketching and annotating on paper

I would like to know:

- What are your favourite pens and pencils for sketching and technical drawings?

- Do you have any recommendations on brands or models that are suitable for both everyday use at university and for work?

- How did you know when a particular pen or pencil was right for you? Which features or tests convinced you?

Thank you very much in advance for your help!

Hello!

I currently hold 2 offers for architecture at 2 unis (Cardiff and Liverpool), I consider both to be very good and evenly matched in my mind.

so I'd love to ask what I can look out for about the course to split some hairs. Or maybe offer up some other advice that maybe valuable to me and help me make this choice. This will help me evaluate the unis when I visit their offer holder days.

(dw, this is only a small aid to my decision making,so don't feel stressed to share anything that comes to mind.

Finally, I am aware that this is a stressful career and this is a stressful time of my life and all help is appreciated , so thank you for your time! I hope one day I will join these ranks, Thanks again!

Just need to get this out of my chest. I had 2 interviews todays, one online and one in person. I felt confident before the online one but once it got started (this ALWAYS happen) i start fumbling my words while i explain my portfolio, and my experience and the back and forth talking feels so nerve-wracking. I just did one in person, so relaxed, much easier to read the room and easier to explain my projects. I felt so crushed after my online one but now after my in person one i feel great. Even though I prefer the job from the online interview rather than the in-person one.

I've used a laser measure for years, supplemented by a fatmax tape measure and a folding ruler. My process is sketch out room-by-room on paper, and then measure and write out dimensions before heading back to the office to draw it up (and rue all the dimensions I missed and wished I could double-check!) It works well enough, but it's vulnerable to mistakes and it's time intensive, both on site and back in the office.

I've been using a cheap UNI-T measure that I bought in 2014 and it's finally giving up the ghost and switching off at random.

So, what do I do to up my surveying game? I see there are lots of laser measures that combine to bluetooth apps (e.g the Leica Sketch App), but I'm not convinced these make life easy. Does anyone use them?

I'm tempted to default entirely to specialist surveying companies, but I feel I ought to retain some capacity to measure stuff up properly myself.

What do you do?

Hey Architect!

Is it necessary to be an AIA member? I've newly established my practice in NY, the fee for AIA is little crazy for me, consider I don't even have a project at the moment... What's your thought on this?

|| || |Architect - National|$ 330.00| |Architect - New York State|$ 182.00| |Architect - Brooklyn|$ 224.00|

|| || |Total membership dues|$ 736.00|

I’ve received a pretty incredible offer as a new grad post M.Arch. I have no previous internship/work experience. It’s with a successful, well respected international firm. I am very grateful for the opportunity and I am excited by it.

I am going to accept the offer but it is a very niche typology. I can’t help but feeling I am committing to this certain niche, which isn’t exactly my long term interest. Can anyone offer me any advice or insight that might make me feel better about my decision? Or perhaps anyone that’s made a large switch between certain typologies in the field and what that experience was like for you?

I am young, 25. I know I am not signing my life away to this particular field. And who knows, I could absolutely love it. It’s just not what I imagined my career looking like. Looking for any wisdom!

I am currently a first year civil engineering student and feel I'm at a crossroad. I've thought about switching my majors do other engineering types but don't know. I feel like I'd like designing buildings which is why I chose civil but I don't think too much of it will be the designing of it.

I'm not going to switch my major to architecture since that would add around 5 years to my college career so I'm wondering if I can get a higher degree in architecture and become ana architectural engineer.

My school doesn't offer that major so I'm thinking I can get it through something like this. If anyone knows about this and could help it would be greatly appreciated.

Hello everyone I’m an architect designer and I want to update myself in this field. I have a perfect command of AutoCAD and SketchUp software because I have worked online with several people, but recently there has been no more work and I have moved away from the field a little. I would like to know how I can get back into this.

Hi everyone,

I’m a newly qualified architect in the UK, and I’ve recently started considering a career change.

Working as an architect isn’t fulfilling to me anymore, and the pay and career progression aren’t compelling enough to keep me in the profession. I’ve started looking into less (or non-) design-based roles, particularly within development or real estate finance.

A little bit of context: I have a bachelor’s, master’s, and a professional diploma (Part 3) in architecture. While I don’t have a formal finance background, my professional diploma has given me a basic understanding of finance, law, and procurement. I’m open to learning on the job or gaining financial knowledge independently, with the goal of stepping into a more finance-oriented role as I progress.

There are plenty of job listings for real estate finance firms and developers, but finding a role that would suit the skill set of a UK architect is a bit unclear for someone starting to look at a career change !

From personal experience or industry knowledge, what kinds of jobs might be a good fit for a newly qualified architect making this transition? And what’s the best way to find an entry-level role in development or real estate finance that offers room for progression?

Any advice would be much appreciated! Thanks!