Teach and open a practice on the side.

just make sure you get all your IDP hours logged...then is really is a which would you rather situation

if it were me i'd stay in school. you will have the time to practice on the side, in the ways you want to

assuming you finished idp or can finish w/o having to work under an architect, don't take the job! finish your exams, get a license, and practice on your own.

Teaching jobs are not necessarily any "safer" than those in practice.

Tenured faculty are the safest: i.e., hardest to fire.

Tenure-track (probationary) faculty are "safe" for a few years, after which the fiery gauntlet of the tenure process may or may not go your way. If not: hit the road.

Contract positions are generally the least safe, since most serve at the pleasure of the dean or department chair. Political whims or fiscal crises can shake things up on short notice, and contract instructors and be canned easily... just like in private firms.

I say this not to discourage you from teaching, but to give you more information about job security, or lack thereof.

Good luck!

"...the fiery gauntlet of the tenure process..."

a colleague at an area university says that in his department, the junior faculty quip, "...just remember, tenure is granted, not earned..."

ie, very much a political game most of the time

Can you get work outside of teaching? If you get your license and can attract work like a car salesman keep the teaching job. If you intend on opening your own practice just go ahead and do it now. Working at a firm that has established its clientele and has a decent infrastructure does not really help you much when you go out on your own unless you can get same clientele. In other words if you work 20 years at SOM doing high rises and then open your own practice without getting SOM clients you are starting over anyway...so jump into the fire like metallica would say

being adjunct prof or similar is a good position if you want to practice.

if you want to switch full time teaching and go for tenure then i would give up becoming an architect who practices as well...unless you don't mind no sleep.

tenure is becoming much harder to get in any case. you may need a phd to be competitive, either that or some serious research and publications behind you. even in the usa, from what i am hearing.


phd is minimal requirement where i work, plus a license and/or several years of practice. which i bring up only to underline the fact that teaching is not any easier or certain than any job in architecture. it's just hard and uncertain in different ways.

the contract job at university does have pretty big downside as citizen points out. i am on year to year contract myself and paid well for my hard work at university, but the prospect of being dropped is always there. not in an abstract way either. my uni is facing massive cuts right now, so who knows what jobs will be here next months. i don't mind this because i also run an office, but i think i am in the minority on that point. and truth be told it is tough times in the archi-biz too. dog eat dog is not even the start of it.

not that I'm putting you on the spot, Kite, but just what do you think you could teach anyone at this point? you just graduated ?

I will say if you feel comfortable go ahead and ride out this recession teaching, because right now you have to do what you have to do, even if it means not practicing in an office, right now it is as cut throat as it has ever been in offices, they will let you go first sign of a dip in the economy. you should count your blessings you have 2 jobs to pick from.

Can't you do both? I'm assuming with your Arch Viz degree you are doing renderings for the firm? Considering you've worked with them in the past and you must be in good standing for them to call you back, do you really have to be present to produce the renderings? Maybe you can talk them into letting you continue to teach and still work with them on the side, especially since it sounds like they're shaky about having enough projects to give you for a full work week. Maybe they'd understand.

teaching won't give you all the IDP units you need. I'm stuck with needing 'bout 2 months between CDs and CA - this has been the situation for 3+ years. Almost at the point where I might just drop my NCARB and AIA memberships.

Teaching can be very rewarding, but its tough and you need to be very organized - no boss telling you what and when (as you've probably found out).

TEACH! this situation you're describing is my ideal. It's what I'm going to attempt to do eventually.

imho the best route to teaching IS to practice. if you can build a name for yourself, even locally, as a great practitioner then the university will have a much higher level of respect for you. they will want you to teach, and they will let you teach whatever you want.

Like others, my eyes bugged a bit at your assertion that teaching would be a more stable gig. It is definitely *not* a stable gig - and not just on the adjunct side, on the tenure-track side as well. Not to say not to go for it - but don't consider it a safe bet by any means. There are far fewer teaching posts than there are qualified candidates who want them - and far fewer dollars in the education pipeline than you'd think. It's a great gig but you definitely have to live with a lot of uncertainty. Remember that in the academic world your job is counted semester by semester - and a semester is shorter than most construction projects, so in a way there is more frequent potential to be culled from the herd (so to speak) than on the professional side (where layoffs generally follow project-to-project time-frames).

A lot of Arch, and other programs save for nursing and accounting, are being cut right now.

It's tough out there!

to thrive in the ivory tower requires having a unique research niche, the ability to teach a wide range of classes, and knack for getting published. is that you?

I would go with your intuition on this one. Take the path that seems most interesting and in line with your career goals. I do not think the salary difference should be a deciding factor. Your salary will increase as you gain experience no matter what route you choose.

Of course the salary should be an issue! 50% more pay is a massive difference.

My thoughts (although much good advice above I won't repeat):

Ask yourself how 'real' this teaching position is - are you competing with 10 other guys for it?


Personally, I'd go for the teaching if you really will make that much more. OR at least make sure that the firm job will be teaching you what you want to learn (and not just making you do renderings, which is fine, but if you are good you should be getting TONS more than that).


Is it just me, or does 60k seem like a pretty sweet salary for someone that just graduated? In this economy, I know plenty of experienced and talented guys that would fight you for that!

There are many opportunities with firms (typically), there are few opportunities with academia.

And also, the school probably wants you because you're a recent graduate up to date on the most current software. The further you get from graduation, the more obsolete you become in this area as more recent graduates with more recent knowledge take your place. If you think you want to teach now or in the future in this aspect of practice, I would take the teaching job so you continue to remain current in the lastest trends. Some firm that is barely holding on to its employees probably isn't making it a priority to stay cutting edge on all its software. Plus, even if the contract ends after just a semester, that's a whole semester to look for a position with a local firm. For all you know, your old firm could hire and fire you again in that time.