Hi! I definitely agree that some of the jobs listed are quite difficult. But US News should be advocating for reforms that would give more support to professionals in these jobs. Instead, their advice is geared towards the individual at the expense of societal wellbeing. Don’t want to slave away managing a nonprofit? Just go into i-banking! Don’t like teaching in schools with inadequate services for students? Teach in a private school instead!

To hear US News tell it, our society will be just fine without nonprofit managers, public school teachers, doctors, and other professionals trying to make the world a better place.

Well, avoiding being an advertising exec and choosing social marketing is a good thing for society, selling environmentallly-friendly products rather than real estate seems like a good thing…. I haven’t looked at the complete list, but it struck me that it’s a similar issue to when people ask Ms. Theologian questions and I often have to decide if my advice is advice to help the individual or if it’s advice to help society…..

Ms T: The lowdown on architects (of which I am, licensed in the state of Colorado), reads like so much bulls**t. The gist of the reality is partly true: you don’t spend that much time designing beautiful buildings as much as you do detailing them, drawing them and specifying materials in order to make them affordable. However, architects don’t design HVAC and plumbing systems–it’s unethical, and we’re untrained to do it. And interior designers are not licensed to move load-bearing walls without having a structural engineer review their work and stamp and sign it.

While being an interior designer might be a little more recession-proof than being an architect, I am just as qualified legally to pick colors and finishes, especially if I’ve had some experience with finishes in ther first place. I’ve met and worked with some interior designers who were good at it, thoughtful about the implications of moving walls, but I’ve met others who were no more than glorified interior decorators.

Likewise, I don’t think THAT many architecture firms have sent their redlines out to India. Architects generally work face-to-face with their interns (folks just out of school or only a few years out of school but no yet licensed) in order to teach them as well as to control the quality of what gets drawn. I also think this assessment makes it sound like all architects do is houses. I do hospitals, and I have friends that do commercial work, or multi-family housing, or schools and colleges, or…you get the picture.

Does an economic slowdown affect architects? Yes, across the board, but it can affect interior designers just as much. The biggest difference is that interior designers don’t require as much school, as much training, or as thorough a licensure process (they’re not even required to be NCIDQ licensed in some states). So along with Shelby, I wonder if they’re not advising some people to take the easy way out. On the other hand, architecture is NOT for wimps. It’s a tough major and a tough profession. While I don’t design HVAC systems or the structure for a building, I sure have to know a fair amount about those systems so I can work with my consultants to do a good job. As long as folks going into my profession understand that they are gonna be drawing glorious sweeping buildings 24/7, then I think they’ll be okay. One does eventually have to draw the toilet rooms, and that’s a necessary part of putting a building together.

My apologies if this commentary seemed overkill. My colleagues and I make notes about how architects are represented in movies. In “There’s Something About Mary”, for example, Matt Dillon actually pretends to be a child development researcher–it’s her friend with the curly hair who’s actually a pizza delivery guy that pretends to be an architect and speaks with a fake British accent. (The only tough architect in movies is Charles Bronson in the “Death Wish” movies.)

I think you guys should write to U.S. News with your thoughts coz these are good thoughts, but I feel a bit helpless.

For a while, it seemed “advertising exec” was the default job of yuppies in mainstream Hollywood movies. You would think all they did was make “pitches” every few weeks that were going to make or break them. I’ve never met a real life ad exec (that I know of), but I hold them responsible for a lot of crap. =)

My favorite movie architect is the one played by Jeff Bridges in “Fearless.”