Becoming a design manager in this field requires years of training and even more years of experience. You have to have good knowledge of current building methods and show that you can come up with solid future designs. It's a very aggressive market and unless you stand out from the crowd you will not succeed. That being said it's also a good idea not to show all of your ideas at once.
This ensures that you still have ideas to contribute later when your career path is at its peak. The first step on this long and competitive path is to go to school. Regardless of your age you can always attend school and enhance your education. However for the architectural field it is a requirement. This isn't a field that a simple associate's degree is going to help in either.
In order to land the high paying architecture jobs you need to be very well educated. This field requires an extensive understanding of math, geometry, algebra, and in some cases physics. The architecture design field is a very important field and not just anyone can work in it. After all you're going to be designing and supervising construction of buildings.
You can't do this haphazardly and it requires someone with foresight to triple check the design for any problems. You also have to be able to predict how the design of your structure or statue will fare under the worst of conditions. Not to mention its tolerance to earthquakes and other natural disasters. As you can see this is not for the faint of heart, or those with poor constitution.
After acquiring your bachelor's or master's degree you will spend many long hours working in the field at entry level design positions. As you work hard and show your worth promotions will be forthcoming. Eventually you will reach the design manager position if you keep up the pace. Just remember that the work load only gets harder from here on in.
Architect jobs can be some of the most profound and impacting on society. They are far from a new field and all one needs to do is look at the ancient ruins and surviving buildings to be inspired. Having a good grasp of architecture design is important when you design a new building, but it's also important to review what has been done before you. Many of the world's greatest living architects were inspired by the works of their ancient forefathers.
Although designing modern buildings can be fun at times it can also be frustrating. Remember to take a breather every once in a while and look at the old stone and brick buildings that have weathered thousands of years of time for inspiration. It's hard work to get here and even harder to stay here, but it is most definitely worth it.
