Architecture job prospects seem to be stuck in the rubble of the current economy.
Though the architecture market has seen "phenomenal growth" in the past 10 years, the economy is "a depressing concern," especially for those finishing graduate school this year, said associate director of Career Services Rachel Burk.
With graduate architecture degrees, aspiring architects first enter firms as intern architects for a few years before becoming licensed, Burk explained. Because the market has "really softened" for intern architects, graduate students are "extremely aware" of the circumstances and are "taking a proactive stand."
According to Burk, "the situation is probably very similar for undergraduates," except they have not "invested" in graduate degrees yet, allowing for "greater flexibility" in commitment to the field.
Architecture undergraduate chairman Richard Wesley agreed.
"The current economic situation is widespread," he wrote in an e-mail, "but those of our seniors who are looking for employment are casting the net much more broadly than in the recent past."
He explained that the undergraduate program's interdisciplinary nature encourages those not applying to graduate school in architecture to look at a much "broader spectrum" of career opportunities, such as public-service agencies or real-estate development.
Among strategies to buffer economic downturn - such as beginning job searches earlier, adjusting job expectations, looking abroad and social networking - graduate students in architecture are also considering alternative jobs in fields like lighting and interior design, Burk said.
College freshman Brittni Luke is very aware of the economic situation and is already considering alternatives to working in a firm.
"I would probably keep in mind working in interior design and civil engineering," she wrote in an e-mail. "Also, the military contracts architects, so that would be something to keep in mind."
The decrease in jobs will be evident at the Career Connection Day for design students this Friday, where the number of employers will be down by half, Burk said. She added that Harvard University's career fair last month saw a similar decline in design-related opportunities.
David Seok, a third-year Drexel University architecture student, stressed similar difficulties finding employers.
In Drexel's co-op for architecture, "students from their second year on are supposed to be employed, but many people in their fourth to sixth year have been laid off," he said. "The fact that I haven't gone to a single interview yet isn't suspicious [given the economy], even though it's been nine months since I was supposed to be employed."
Yet even with economic hardship hitting the architecture industry, recovery will come, and architecture at its core will always be "an enduring passion" for students, Burk said.
Luke said she would not be deterred from pursuing it as her major.
"Architecture was not a field that I chose as my major for the money, but because it is something I would enjoy doing," she wrote.
