Questions About a Career in Architecture

Recently, my nephew asked if I could answer some questions about my profession for a school project. Of course I agreed, and it gave me an opportunity to reflect on what I do for a living. I thought it would be helpful to share my responses for people interested in becoming an architect or engineer or who are interested in what we do day-to-day.

What does a typical day look like in your job?

There really isn’t a “typical” day, but it might include some of the following items. For context, I am a licensed architect and the owner of a small (8 person) architecture and engineering firm.

Get to the office and grab a cup of coffee.

Review the tasks that I need to take care of today or during the week.

Meet with members of the staff to review the projects that they are working on and answer questions.

At the early stages of a project, I may draw sketches to come up with design ideas for the building’s form, layout, or appearance. Then I provide the sketches to staff members who start to draw them using computer software (CAD or BIM).

Review architectural drawing sets at various levels of completion (30%, 60%, etc) and provide comments on the drawings. This is called making “redlines” because we use red ink (or text) to make the comments.

Meet with clients to discuss the design drawings and give updates on our progress.

Work with staff to submit the project for a building permit and respond to comments from the jurisdiction.

Visit construction sites to review the progress of the building construction. Answer questions from contractors.

Meet with potential clients and contractors to learn about new projects.

Write proposals for our services for new projects.

Review company financial and business info with the Director of Operations.

What do you like most about architecture?

I like the fact that you can never stop learning in this profession. There are many different ways to design and build a building, and technology, materials, and techniques are always changing. You need to be knowledgeable in many different areas including drawing/creativity, math/engineering, communications, finance, building code and legal issues. I like to learn many different types of skills so this profession suits me.

What do you dislike the most about architecture?

Architecture and construction are project-based industries. That means that you can go from having way too much work to not enough very quickly. Since you are dependent on the size and number of projects coming into the office the workload can go up or down a lot. Also our industry is very sensitive to the economy and economic downturns can have a big impact on architects. 

What else do you think that I should know about being an architect?

Architecture is a very broad profession and there is room for people with all kinds of different skills. Some architects are very design-oriented and work on high-end, showy buildings. Others are more technical and are interested in the details that are needed to make a building function properly. There are lots of different paths that an architect can take depending on their interests.