The Role and Responsibilities of an Architect

The responsibilities of an architect have changed over the years, but only slightly. Their main role remains the same. They create construction projects using blueprints, and in some cases they are tasked with supervising those projects and making sure that everything goes according to plan. In some cases they will do landscaping, or even civil engineering. Thanks to modern technology however, their job has become a little bit easier over the years. The advent of computers has brought about many things, and one of them is the huge program known as AutoCAD. For a computer program, AutoCAD is a little expensive; being somewhere around $4000, but for architects this price is well worth it, considering what it can do.

AutoCAD is used far and wide by many architects all over the world. It can help you to design houses and other structures right on the computer, and then it is able to print out the schematics on a blue-print sized paper. There are special blue-print printers developed and employed just for this purpose. This saves a person the trouble of actually having to draw the blue-print by hand, and those who are not able to draw at all will have absolutely no problem being an architect.

Other levels of responsibilities may involve supervising others, depending on how experienced the architect is. Sometimes architects may actually own their own business and hire their own employees rather than working for a company. This makes sense because architects are in high demand. After all, a lot of people need a house built these days and believe it or not, AutoCAD is hard to operate.



Becoming an architect is not easy by any means. Like any other career path it requires experience and training. The first thing that you will need is a five-year Bachelor's degree in architecture. That is hard in itself, but to get your license you may need to do an internship with an architectural firm. You can do that either in college, or after you graduate, but chances are you will have to do it at some point or other. To actually become licensed you'll have to sit before the National Architecture Accrediting Board, or NAAB and take the exam. It may sound fairly simple, but remember that there are more people than you who have decided being an architect is their lifelong dream.

If you want to be an architect then you should go for it, while the field is affected by the economy, you'll still be expected to average about $60,000 annually, which isn't a bad paycheck at all. The majority of people in this field work for themselves, so imagine being your own boss! You can get up when you want, work when you want, and you won't have to answer to anyone. Of course you'll have to motivate yourself, but if you managed to get through five years of college that shouldn't really be an issue.

All in all this is a great career choice, and one that you should really look into, because not only is it bound to be rewarding and exciting, you'll also get to see your designs come to life as they are constructed in the real world. And you can be happy that you're not one of the people putting it together.