Architecture Careers?

Question

In this field is work experience valued more than amount of education

Answer 1

It depends. Generally speaking, yes. I am an architect and I have found that college experience is great for learning things like an understanding of how a building is supposed to go together, architectural history, design skills (although if you don't have it to begin with, they really can't teach you) and organizational skills. However, when you get into the real world, each office has its own way of doing things and putting together an easily understandable set of construction documents is a lot more complicated than what you were taught in school. Codes, engineers, fire marshals, design and budget constraints and, yes, owners can throw all that you learned in college out the window. So, a person who has been in architecture for a long time and has learned the ropes in the real world but hasn't got an official architectural education has a serious advantage to the person just out of college who has no real world experience. One thing to note: if you want to be a registered architect, a college degree in architecture is a must if you want to be licensed and get your seal. An architectural degree that will allow you to get a license usually takes four to five years at an accredited college to get. Then you have a three year internship and after that a 43 hour long licensing exam to take. A two year degree from a community college will allow you to draft in an office but not seal any drawings. Using your seal to take legal responsibility for a project is what gets you a higher salary.