Careers in Architecture
Careers in architecture offer young professionals a life of discovery, growth and personal development. An architectural education sets in motion a life-long learning process! Architecture is a career for people who love their work and a “job” is not their goal. This is so because as a follower in the studio young architects become leaders on site where drawings are transformed into reality and in society where they have a special lean on eternity.
Salaries start low and grow with age and experience. Unlike fast-track fields, which start with high salaries and then hit a long plateau, and finally the older guys are pushed aside making way for the next generation, architects just continue to grow and to increase their quality of life. After age fifty architects form the highest paid group of self-employed professionals, often claiming fees of a Crore Rupees and above for a single commission!
Adding a post-graduate degree to the five year Bachelor of Architecture Degree is not necessary, as this is a full fledged professional degree and one is well prepared to charge into their career. A graduate may choose a career diversion into urban planning and design, project management, interior design or landscape design, but by doing this they are leaving their core field of practice. Few return to the master craft!
The need of the day in India is infrastructure design and development. This task will dominate the coming century. Architects will be leaders in creating a new India! While all new software will eventually drift into oblivion, architects will leave behind the indelible footprints of their times.
Do not study architecture if your secret agenda is to migrate to developed world under the guise of “further studies!” Studies abroad are a mere form of escapism and extending one’s childhood. After studying abroad at an exorbitant cost, one must work several years to re-pay loans and working nine to five if one is lucky enough to get the job. You are likely to end up some paltry job and you will never return! The reality is; many of the architects from developed world are two trying to find jobs in developing world for survival. The action today lies in developing world rather than developed world. What is needed after graduation is few years of studio and site work, which will create the grounding needed to become an effective practitioner.
While other professionals are narrowing their scope and specializing, architects are continually broadening their horizons, working on a multitude of projects, with a plethora of clients and supporting consultants. This profession is the meeting ground of art, technology, history, economics, social action and performance based design! This is the profession where truth succeeds and falsehood withers in the winds!
