Transiting from Architecture to RE with a Non-Traditional Background
Hey WSO
I'm 30 and have been working in the architecture realm for the past ~12 years (part-time through out college & ~6 years full-time post-college). Crazy thing is that this was never my intended career. Started as an internship in high school, graduated college with a BS in Finance & Economics, wasn't that interested in my job options post-graduation, and decided to keep on designing buildings. That said, it's been an amazing experience given that I've had no formal training and have gone on to have the opportunity to design everything but hospitals and hotels basically.
However, I'm at a crossroads. The pay is frustrating in this line of work and in the long-term I want to possibly scratch my entrepreneurial itch and possibly have my own development/investment/construction firm. So it seems like a great idea to me to switch over to the owner side of the business and learn the ropes. I'm still very interested in finance and business, I like the tangible aspect of working with real estate, and I have a ton to offer with my zoning, permitting, project management, and site & building design experience. I even have a good bit of construction experience to boot. Also in the intervening time, I've consulted for a few entry level single-family and small multi-family investors analyzing deals. However, they're more interested in folks with capital (of which I have none) to partner with and aren't in the multi-family or commercial space that I want to be in.
I've been applying to positions on LinkedIn and the like for the past year and have gotten a few hits, but no offers. So I have a few questions for those of you already in the business...
-Am I'm crazy for thinking that I'm a fit for a development associate or junior project manager type position?
-Is my lack of a formal degree in Architecture or a Masters in Real Estate combined with my nontraditional background too much of a hill to climb?
-Would you recommend a Masters in Real Estate or any other formal education? I've always felt like hands-on experience is better, but I could be wrong...
-I know I need to network better so that I'm not just a name in a stack of resumes. How can I do this outside of blindly contacting people on LinkedIn? (I'm in the DMV area if that helps)
-Should I just forget all of this, exit the industry, and start anew?
Let me know what you guys think and thanks in advance!
Also happy to answer any questions you have about the architecture business!
tangible
You are already speaking like the pros. Jokes aside, I think you are have more of a shot than you think. Start networking, reaching out and applying and see how it goes. You should have solid results and if you don't I'd shalk that up to the current economic situation (not the best time to be switching careers or even jobs). Only if you face absolute failure for an extended period of time should you consider a serious investment like a masters degree. I'm sure someone could recommend you some solid certifications you can do while working anyways.
Good to know that this part of the business is also full of buzzwords lol.
I've have been pondering if there's any certifications that would solidify my experience or make myself more appealing. I've seen Argus as a suggestion, not sure how much that is used. Also have been looking into a few of the online real estate certificates like the one MIT has. Just can't get a good sense if things such as that matter to people. Given the current environment, probably going to be a great time to work on it as you mentioned, unfortunately...
Does anybody have any insight about certifications and programs?
Architecture is a great background for development, wish I had that background myself and I see how valuable it is during pre-dev.
But how do you work as an architect without an architecture degree? If I were looking at a resume like yours I would probably discount your architecture experience somewhat, without knowing more about it.
You don’t have an impossible hill to climb and it wouldn’t surprise me if you got an offer but the odds are not necessarily in your favor. If you want to improve your odds, I’d say an msred or mba would certainly help. Even then, there’s no guarantee. Plenty of msred grads end up working for lenders, either doing traditional mortgages and construction lending or working at a debt fund. But developers like architects so you’d be well positioned to get a Development role after graduating. Extell’s development team is almost all former architects, for example.
Ah, that's good to hear! I see so many job postings looking for MBAs and MREDs that it has made me question if people even want to hire folks with Architecture backgrounds. I can only see it as a plus, but I also understand how atypical my background is. Definitely would like to avoid more student loan debt, but if that's what takes, I'll find a way. It's just hard to get a sense if my job experience is worth anything to people. Or if I get tossed out the pile because I don't have a Master's.
In MD and most other areas as far as I know, only the owner of an architectural firm needs to be licensed. While most of my coworkers over the years have had some sort of architectural education, few actually went through the licensing process. You have to have documented work experience before you can sit for the exam as I recall.
Residential work doesn't even require a stamp from a licensed architect (provided you pay an engineer to either provide or review and stamp the structural design, generally) which is where I started with a residential designer. Got lucky enough to get some commercial experience along the way then you're doing apartment buildings and restaurants.
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