BEING
ARCHITECT
The Angry Architect presents 10 facts of life which they don’t teach you in
architecture school.
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Sleep remains a beautiful, precious, and rare commodity
It’s 4am, the last deadline of your degree is fast approaching, and your vision is getting blurrier by
the second… Still, after pinning up your drawings for the final time, at least you won’t haven’t to
suffer through any more soul-crushing all-nighters, right? Well, that may well depend on where you
work. Believe it or not, if you land a job in a large commercial firm, your life may just be that little
bit easier: studios with plenty of staff can better shift resources to meet the demands of a major deadline.
However, if you sign up with a small practice, be prepared to stock up on coffee and Red Bull. It is likely that
you will have to stretch your time and energy thinly, working on a number of smaller commissions.
You will be a jack-of-all-trades, master of… hopefully at least one
Okay, so you’ve got design nailed. Now, become a master at project management, marketing,
networking, business, economics, law, and while you’re at it, learn how to draw a real construction
detail! There’s an old saying that goes something like this: “Architects know a little about almost
everything and an engineer knows a lot about almost nothing.” If it’s true, then I envy those
engineers. Do your best with every aspect of the job, but try to hone your greatest strength as well.
It’s not what you know…
We spend years accumulating all manner of knowledge in relation to architecture, from history
to technology, socio-economics to law. But what you may not realiSe is that none of these will be
the key to career progression. No, the path to success is building your relationships with people:
clients, colleagues who will support you in the studio, and your bosses, who have the capability to
give you the experience you need… and a sweet reference when your next employer comes calling. So, when a
client changes their mind for the thousandth time, or your boss gives you yet another hilariously impossible
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