Career transition away from architecture

[Timeforarethink121]

As it says - fully qualified and 15 years experience, mainly domestic sector these days. Every job is fight to get built, the hours are awful and pay for those hours is rubbish, way below every other comparative level of qualification.

I need to be able to support our family (DH also working, comparative level of income so not on my own,) but thinking I should give up altogether and retrain to get out of the sector. Don't have the financial option to stop work altogether and retrain, so this needs to be part time while the practice is wound down.

Does anyone have any knowledge about conversion to become a solicitor? Considering as we've bought/sold around 10 houses in our lives so far and I've been heavily involved in pushing through the conveyancing..)

Or other ideas? Definitely NOT construction law, or project management in the construction industry. Just feeling like I've worked myself into a dead end.

Sorry to hear you're frustrated - I sympathise!

Have you thought about trying to move into the Civil Service in Regeneration/Planning, or at Homes England?

Or are there any other area of design that interest you, e.g. landscape gardening, interiors etc? Or heritage conservation?

Yes, also would be really interested in regeneration and planning for the wider scope for change it would bring. I'm trying to actively look into that route too, but again may need to retrain. If there was an on the job way to step sideways and do this it would be great, and I wouldn't mind being potentially junior to younger people with more targeted planning backgrounds in the interim..

I'd sign up to alerts from Civil Service Jobs - look at Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Gov, which covers design and planning. Then there's the ALBs like Homes England and Architects' Registration Board, and of course English Heritage and Historic England.

Then there's planning within your local authority, which depending on where you are may be a hotbed of activity, or not!

OP, I was you a few months ago! Totally get what you mean about working yourself hard into a dead end. I’ve just moved into local authority, which was a decision I really wrangled with, as I had a senior role in a cool independent design studio before - which was on paper everything I’d worked to achieve. (But I hadn’t anticipated the poor pay / high stress / yada yada!)

I’m now in a much more junior role with far less creative work, which feels weird, but the hours are very good and work / life balance is much improved. My intention is to learn how things work in local authority and hopefully use the experience as a springboard into a more interesting role in regeneration / planning / something more strategic if / when that comes up.

It feels like a total career change despite being in the same sector. I’m calling it a pivot!

@jeezaluiza I think that's how most people end up in local authorities and the civil service tbh 😁

Other than the already good suggestions, perhaps you could go client side and work for a developer/contractor as a design manager?
Or if you don’t find that quickly, just moving companies is likely to get you more money? And a short term drop in workload 😅

I'd love @jeezaluiza 's idea if I could - get into a local authority and hopefully use the experience as a springboard into a more interesting role in regeneration / planning / something more strategic.

It's just trying to not feel hopeless about it right now, and not as easy as just moving jobs due to project commitments..

If you are interested in planning, have a look at the RTPI to find out about apprenticeships and opportunities for working with day release to do post grad planning qualifications. There are various Future Planner schemes and bursaries which may be Scotland only. The RTPI also shares job adverts which could be useful or at least point you in the direction of areas of work.

Other public sector eg Natural England, English Heritage, Environment Agency may be worth a look even just to discount. Or charity and third sector in terms of working to push forward on homelessness, affordable housing, delivering active places.

If you are interested in feminism in the built environment then there may be charities working on agendas that look to further inclusive, safe and accesible built environments. May East is a leading practitioner so search her and her links to charities, groups and action could also give you ideas.

Or there may be opportunities with the Planning Inspectorate - I dont know if they require planning qualifications and experience or if they look for professionals with wider experience. But may have roles as case officers, planners and Inspectors that could give you a step in to planning from a different perspective to local authority.

Good luck.

Thank you, this is really helpful!

Hi, just wondered what you ended up pursuing? Another architect here, currently on a career break and unsure of next steps!

Oh god, Dd is just getting into architecture….do I need to tell her to run? Shes halfway through her part 2 Masters so it’s maybe a bit late! 🙈

£20,000 bursary to train as a D&T teacher in 2026/7. Still a great job if you can find the right school.

https://getintoteaching.education.gov.uk/life-as-a-teacher/explore-subjects/design-and-technology

I wouldn’t discourage someone from getting into it, I enjoyed a lot of it and haven't completely ruled out returning!

the downside is that the stress to salary ratio is pretty poor, often long hours, but it’s also very rewarding. My advice to someone entering the career now is to look for a specialism, things like conservation, passivhaus or fire engineering will give her more leverage. My mistake was staying very general and now I feel like I have limited options now I have kids and need flexibility / less stress.

Thank you. She’s passionate about conservation and heritage and this is what she’s focusing on in her Masters. Her whole uni atelier has this focus and she’s done a lot of super curricular stuff based on this.

Agree with EmbracingUncertainty that a specialism helps. My husband is also an architect and his specialism helps in terms of his position in a larger practice- that being said he's not super happy either in terms of stress to salary.

I've looked quite seriously now into law and am trying to wind the practice down to the extent that I can start training for the SQE as a way into becoming a solicitor. The balance of doing that versus maintaining enough income is going to be tricky though, and savings will have to be used - it's a LOT harder then if I were an employee and could just hand in my notice and get a paralegal job to kick things off and feels like a big risk, but actually my pay has been so poor that the drop isn't as bad as it might seem.

I wonder if I'll miss the creative side of architecture too, but as that seems to be such a tiny part of what I get to do these days I suspect not. Hoping I can still practice sculpture as a hobby outlet one day. It's rather sad as when I was in under and postgrad having my own practice was a goal, and the reality has killed the dream.

Just adding that the film business is a great avenue for architects, Art Directors and their teams are usually quite architect heavy. Great money, very creative and yes there are deadlines but not the same as what you've left. Best of luck!

I imagine that’s fairly specific to certain locations though and not very family friendly in terms of working hours? Just going off a friends experience in the prop making industry.

@Timeforarethink121 that sounds exciting but also takes a lot of courage to wind up your business, I think there’s always an assumption that owning your own practice is the way to achieve work life balance but most sole practitioners I know are finding the opposite. Hope it all goes well!

I know - more know of - an architect who was worked half to death in UK and moved to Oz. Much better work/life balance apparently. Just a thought. Out of left field admittedly.

Correct on both fronts. Upside is there are usually breaks in between filming which can be a month or so. Or the very busy ones travel to locations abroad if they want to continuously work.

I have definitely day dreamed about this in the past, but with two just approaching teenage children I just can't see how that would work in current life context.

Thanks!

The work/life balance myth is definitely that - a complete myth. You end up as not just an architect but every other part of running a practice, largely unsupported. I barely get design time in between accountancy, business development, practice management, project management, etc. The practice wasn't quite as small as sole practitioner level, which paradoxically makes it harder, as you become responsible for contracted technicians and staff coordination, even though we didn't have salaried staff. It's going to take over a year to wind down, during which time my salary will only diminish, but has got to the point where I have so little of the creative role left to lose it makes the decision to change easier, I guess.

AND years of run-off insurance!

I’d try Public Practice - they’re a really good route into interesting local authority and planning roles

www.publicpractice.org.uk

I did and was turned down unfortunately..