Job Overview We all enjoy seeing nicely designed mall buildings, homes, offices, condominiums and other infrastructures for residential or home, business and office use. All these are products of what we call the professional building, home and infrastructure designers called the architects. They do the planning, designing and observing of the construction of the facilities described above for human occupancies and of other structures like cars and equipment. They do consultation with the clients and plan with them as to what kinds of layouts are suggested and desired. They prepares and propose the general design of the building as well the the techincal specifications involved in it. As employees or even freelancers, they also help thier client pick the best bids, select the best contractors and negotiate with them. They also visit the construction sites so as to ensure that all the specifications are being followed and that the work is efficiently being done. At present, there are around 129,000 architects all over the states of America.
Education, Knowledge and Trainings Required
Preparatory subjects that can be taken are as follows: Physics, Mathematics, Arts, English, and Drafting. The minimum requirement to become an architect is a possession or accomplishment of a Bachelor's degree in Architecture which is usually a five year program. Other options include taking a liberal arts degree and then continue training by way of completing a master's degree program in Architecture. In almost all countries and states in the United States, a license is a requirement.This can be successully obtained upon completion of the said educational requirements and passing of the board examination for architecture.
Skills and Abilities
Artistic skills are needed to be able to design a very atractive and beautiful building. Mathematical and analyical skills are needed as these are being used in the computation of the structures' specifications. They should be able to run programs in the computer that will aid them in construction the layout and design. Aside from computer drawings, skills in manual drafting is a must as they will also be showing pencil drawn drafts to the clients and engineers. Communication and interpersonal skills are needed so as to fluidly be able to work with the people under the project, and gain clients as well.
Duties
As they say, the most basic duty that we know about architects is to design the desired structure or buildings for their client. But aside from this, another duty sworn by licensed architect is to protect and promote public's health, safety and welfare in every project that they do.This is why they have to comply with the regulations of infrastructure and the zoning laws in the state of practice and building.
As for pleasing the client with their works, they start of by taking as much information about the likes, the purpose and the ideas of the clients of the finished product. This will be followed by making and presenting different drafted prposal for the projects. After choosing the desired plan, architects will then finalize and do the specifications of the proposed design. They also do contractor negotiation and afterwards monitor the progress of the construction.
Job Outlook and Earnings
The salary and earnings of an architect may come from two sources. These are the employment salaries and the comissions for every project done, and a separate earnings coming from the freelanced projects outside of one's employment. The range of salary starts off from 39,130 U.S. dollars per annum for the beginners and less experienced architects, to around 62,850 U.S. dollars for the moderately experienced ones. Others may go a high as 105,500 U.S. dollars or more depending on the projects they were able to finish in a year.
Paula Hiz is a researcher and a human resource specialist who helps newly graduates, job applicants and post graduate professionals be aware of their job opportunities and available trainings for skills and practice upgrading.