Not sure where to begin on this topic so please bear with me. It’s been awhile since I’ve been on here but I’m glad to see some familiar names still posting. I figure you all might have some helpful advice.
I’m approaching a big step in my life in a few weeks. I’ll be leaving a job I’ve been at for the last 6 years. I’m moving half way across the country to the New England area with my long term girl friend. She’s going back to school to become a Physician’s Assistant and I am switching over from Healthcare Architecture to Retail and Hospitality Architecture.
The job I’m leaving has been a great experience where I’ve learned a lot about myself, what I like and dislike, how to lead small project teams, work with clients directly, manage projects and all of the other aspects of the design and construction processes. It’s been a good job. With that said, I’ve been extremely bored of the work.
I’ve been on auto-pilot for the last few years due a variety of things and have really let my career aspirations slip. Not sure if this is just part of getting older, or making due with my situation. I’ve been wanting to switch jobs/careers for the last few years. Just when I was about to leave the area my mom developed breast cancer, then my cousin developed brain cancer. I’m not close with the majority of my extended family, but these two I’m extremely close with. Needless to say, I put parts of my life on hold to deal with these situations. Once those situations were resolved, my GF started applying to schools around the country and that leads us to the move in a few weeks.
I’ve always been extremely intrigued by design in all aspects. I’ve been fascinated with the design of toys, products, furniture, interiors, architecture, transportation, etc… I love design on the human scale. Architecture has always pushed the size limit of what I’m interested in designing.
I’m excited about the job I’m moving to. I will be working on some smaller scale architecture projects as they mainly deal in national retail chain design, branding, restaurants and other smaller scale architectural design. I’ll be leading a small team and getting to deal with clients on a one to one basis to help them understand their needs, guide them through the design process, and create a solution that gives them the best space possible for their needs.
What I’ve found I love from working in architecture to date:
- Working with clients to create solutions for their needs
- Teaching coworkers process improvements
- Leading projects
- Helping people visualize solutions
- Creating holistic design solutions
- Design Reseach
There is a whole other list of stuff I don’t like, but I’ll save that for another day.
With this upcoming life change, I’ve had a little bit of a reawakening with trying to figure out what exactly it is that I want to do with my career. I should have said this earlier, but I have a Masters in Interior Architecture and Product Design. The main emphasis of my education was on the architecture and furniture side of my degree and less so on the product design side. As I said earlier, I love design on a human scale. I’ve really been considering trying to start a path to move over to the furniture or product design side and more away from architecture. I’ve seen some smaller design firms where they do both architecture and industrial design, but those firms are few and far between. The more I’ve thought about my future I feel that working for a design consultancy would probably bring me the most intellectual and creative happiness. The combination of design, business & branding is pretty intriguing to me.
This leads me to my current list of questions and concerns.
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Do I need more schooling in order to get my foot in the door somewhere? Living the north east part of the US brings a ton of opportunities for great design schools compared to living in KS. Not sure if more debt would be worth it though. I have considered at some point going for a PhD in order to open up teaching as a late career option. I’ve been guest lecturing and filling in some at my Alma Mater to keep my foot in design education.
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My sketching skills have slipped due to lack of use. I need to concentrate on this skill set no matter what. Tempted to take local art classes or get training videos to help with technique.
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Should I still work on getting licensed as an architect (a year of studying and testing) even though I am tempted to change career paths?
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Would an Art degree or MBA be beneficial at all?
Basically at this point I have two years to try and figure something out. I just need to get going on something. I’ll gladly listen to any and all advice. Heck, if you are in the Hartford, CT area, I’ll gladly buy you a drink/coffee to sit down and chat.