Friday, August 17, 2012

Careers with architecture degree

By Akin Solanke


While you study architecture, you'd be developing the kind of core skills that are going to make you a very attractive candidate once you've gained your degree. Obviously you'd appeal to architectural firms, but many of those skills you'd have developed both in and out of the classroom would be considered useful by other kinds of employers as well.

When it comes to a job interview, though, there's going to have to be more to your application than your architecture degree: what else have you done that you can use as ammunition in the hunt for your perfect job? What kind of relevant paid work have you done? Are you a member of some kind of architecture-related society, the kind that would impress the interview panel across the table from you? Have you done any kind of volunteer work that made use of what you'd learned at uni? How can you show potential employers that you've got initiative - and can use it? How can you convince them that you're motivated, reliable and hard working?

The skills you'd acquire would include design and drawing, project management, working within a team and the ability to look at problems logically, analyse them and get them solved. You'd also have strong written and verbal communication abilities, plus, of course a good grounding in IT, especially in computer-aided design. You'd have good research skills and be numerate, adaptable, flexible and able to make good decisions.

So what kind of employment prospects are there for someone who's studied architecture? A lot depends on whether you want to work in the public or the private sector. Local authorities and housing associations are always on the lookout for architecture graduates, while in the private sector big companies like supermarkets and banks have their own architects and architectural teams operating in-house. A look through websites like ConstructionSkills and the Chartered Institute of Architectural Technologists will give you some idea of the vacancies on offer. You'd definitely need an architecture degree to begin a career as an architect, architectural technologist or an interior or spatial designer.

But you're not strictly limited to an architectural role once your studies are over: you could find a position in surveying, town planning, landscape architecture, planning and development and, of course, conservation.




About the Author:



No comments:

Post a Comment