Hey everyone! I hope you all are doing well over there and your week is doing what it ought to. Today I’m coming to you all to chop it up about how and why I knew it was time for me to leave architecture for a bit. Before we get started, I wanted to write this blog post specifically for all those that are considering a career switch. (In short, just do it.) While I may have transitioned my career from architecture to user experience, I hope that you’ll hear something in today’s post that will resonate with you. I hope it makes you go…”Oh that’s me too” no matter what career you’re attempting to pivot into. So let’s get into it.
To be honest, it took a while for me to process that I was actually at my breaking point with architecture. I had dreamed of being an architect ever since I was seven years old so to have the stronghold I attached my identity to be questioned was unnerving for me. I probably stayed a great deal longer in architecture based on fear alone. Any who, back to the story. Here’s a list of reasons that let me know it was time to move on from architecture:
I realized I never truly loved it.
I kept adding other things to pacify my desire to leave the field.
I realized I was staying in architecture for everyone but myself.
Architecture could not afford me the lifestyle I ultimately wanted.
I’ll break down each of these quickly for you guys. So as I mentioned, I never truly loved it. Now I know when it comes to loving what you do people are split on this. There are those of us who think you don’t always get to love what you do, but you do what makes a solid income to eventually provide you with the life you want. It is then at that point that you can look for what you love. Then there are those of us who think and actually do love what they do for a living and are walking in their purpose despite the life it affords you. I see the benefits to both mindsets, but as for me I subscribe to the latter group. I want to love what I do and I believe money will always follow when you’re pursuing your passion relentlessly and pairing it with ingenuity.
Ultimately, architecture was never the love of my professional life. What I actually had was a major appreciation for it that bordered on the lines of a love hate relationship. I only “loved” architecture when the design worked at the end of the semester and it was more a sigh of relief. I’d think, “Wow, the design that I poured over and into for the last 3 months worked. Fantastic.” After that moment, I’d go back to questioning if the build up of that moment was worth working towards each and every semester. And ultimately, I could never resolve that issue for myself. Disclaimer: this is not to say architecture is totally done with me. With architecture you’re jumped into this life and you never quite jump out of it haha. I still have my moments.
Second, I kept adding things to keep me engaged. Given my love of graphic design, as long as a company offered me freedom to play around with more liberating pursuits I found that I could stick around. I had the best of both worlds this way. I had the rigidity in architecture, but the looseness of branded environments to keep me at bay. I would also stay involved in some work group or initiative at whatever firm I was apart of to keep myself engaged, but that was never enough to keep me fully vested. Architecture alone was never enough to keep me interested. I ended up job hopping towards the end to prove that to myself also.
While my third reason is self explanatory, I found that I was staying in architecture for every other reason outside of my own desire. As I mentioned before, I just knew I would be an architect from a young age and everyone knew this because I told them so. I was sticking around to prove that I wasn’t wrong, to show that things worked out the way that they should, to be a face of reference for the next generation of Black and minority architects behind me, and to take on the torch from the greats that I admired and worked with within the field. None of those reasons were good enough though. I really wanted to be able to stay for myself and love it.
Lastly, architecture didn’t come with the salary I needed to afford me the lifestyle I wanted. I am one of the millennials that took out a pretty penny in student loans to make college a possibility. Due to that, when that loan repayment kicked in I quickly saw that the life I wanted to live could not be possible with the salary I had. In general though, I always felt that we did way too much within our profession to get paid the way we did. I also remember growing up there always being a misconception amongst my friends that I was some big time architect making a large amount of money. I never gave them that idea; however, since architecture always seemed like this mythical profession to us it allowed the imagination to jump as high as you wanted it to on the salary scale :). I would eventually go on to educate them on this but in any case, financially I desired and needed more. Disclaimer: This is my own personal experience, but I still serve encouragement for the pursuit of both professions. I just serve that encouragement with a side of reality check as well.
So with all of those reasons persistently gnawing at me, I finally made the jump and I am really happy I did. I am learning something new every day, I am getting the opportunity to reimagine design often, and my team is amazing. I also know this blog post was long, but I wanted to paint the picture for you all that this moment in my life was a long time coming. It took five years to get here and while I can’t say I’ve figured it all out, I do know that I am finally answering the question I’ve always had of “Is there more?”. The answer is “yes there is” and I hope that that is the answer you all come to find whenever you get the chance to blaze whatever trail you set for yourself. It is never too late to reimagine what you want for yourself and go after it.
My best,
Kiera