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Is this you on a typical weeknight, and you are NOT in school? If it is then may I ask…why? 

In the architecture profession, it is important to constantly be asking the question “am I doing what I SHOULD be doing or am I doing what I WANT to be doing?” Furthermore, the more important question to ask yourself: “is there a difference between the two?”

The correct answer to this is: “You SHOULD be doing what you WANT to do.”

To tackle this topic that seems to be more difficult than it really should be, let’s take a look at what is actually being considered. First what you “should” be doing (This varies from person to person).

     “Should I be working for a STARchitect?”

     “Should I be making as much as the people I graduated with?”

     “Should I really be at work 12 hours a day 7 days a week?”

     “Should I be working on large important projects with big teams or smaller projects where I can shoulder more of the load?”

     “Should I move to a city large enough to be able to work on a variety of projects?”

     ”Should i take that job even though it has no health-care coverage.”

     “Should i quit even though i have only been working here for two weeks?”

     “Should I call in sick because my boss is an over-bearing dick who talks out of his ass and takes credit for my work?”

These are all questions that young architects often face early in there careers. The list goes on and on. The basic thread among these questions is that we are trying to preserve our careers, even if we hate them.

Now the question that is important is “what do you WANT to do?” This can also vary but the answers to all the questions will inevitably come from the same place…your gut. Where do you WANT to live? What typology of architecture do you WANT to gain experience in? And the beautiful part of this notion is that what you WANT to do can and will change. You probably don’t WANT to ”design” Wal-Marts for a living, so why would you? (Sadly, this is not a ridiculous notion considering that I went to school one town over from Wal-Mart headquarters and the jobs weren’t too hard to come by.)

To bring my point home, here are the things that are important to me, the things that I WANT:

     I WANT to work close to where i live…..not live close to where i work.

     I DO NOT want to be forced to work over 40 hours per week. I will if I want to or on the rare occasion that one of my projects is ACTUALLY behind on a deadline (in the profession they usually aren’t and when they are, its just an illusion… or your firm sucks and can’t get their shit together).

     I WANT an environment that will give me responsibility and not stick me in the corner.

     I WANT to work in an office that actually looks like a design professional works there..not a barnyard animal.

     I WANT to work on projects that I have an interest in…and that happens to be large scale residential communities.

     I DO NOT WANT to have to provide for my own medical benefits (Why doesn’t anyone in NYC carry eye insurance? Don’t they realize that most of us have contacts or glasses?)   

     And lastly, to be perfectly honest, I WANT to get paid what I think I am worth, not necessarily more.

Some of my peers ask me why it appears that I enjoy the jobs that I take but they tend to be miserable in theirs. The answer is that I don’t take the jobs I SHOULD take but rather the ones I WANT to take. I will take less money. I will go to the smaller less known firm if I feel that they take themselves seriously enough. And I will definitely avoid spending any time commuting and/or working excessive overtime. Because, though I am an architect, I am still much more than that and I do WANT a personal life.

What you WANT should drive all of your career decisions, even if on the surface it looks like it will be hurting your career. If you want to switch jobs, irregardless of tenure there, then do it. If you want to take a year off and travel to see architecture and cultures around the world, then type up the resignation letter and buy your plane ticket. Chances are that by exploring your passions within the field of architecture you will, in the end, be a better architect for it.