An architect is a professional who organizes space,plans, designs, and supervises the construction of structures. Architects design houses, offices other buildings, skyscrapers, landscapes. They even design whole cities. They are trained in many areas and are involved in wide-ranging undertakings like historic preservation, structural engineering.

Just like medicine or engineering or any other science/arts, architecture is the art, science, and business of design and construction. However, an architect is skilled not just in the design and construction of the built environment, but also in activities like theoretical problem-solving and project management.

After getting a B.Arch/M.Arch, architects must also go through specific training to get a license to practice architecture. This is because an architect's judgments have an impact on public safety.

Job Duties of an Architect:

Draw and write

Architects are expected to make illustrations show relationships between spaces in order to explain the design to clients and to other managing authorities. 3-Dimensional models are made frequently for this purpose.Writing skills are equally important too. In addition to regular business correspondence and administrative paperwork, architects make documentation of their projects in writing, they are also required to write down the programmatic analysis and prepare written material for reports and presentations. They are also required to produce articles for professional magazines and journals.They also write the building definitions to support the drawings they made.

Plan, Design, and Develop

Planning, designing and developing are vital tasks in an architect’s daily tasks. Architects are usually required to provide predesign figures to the clients like cost analysis, how the construction is going to impact the environmental, practicality of the project and various other land and cost related issues. After a thorough analysis of all these attributes, final construction plans are shaped by them. Following this, the builders follow a step-by-step guide on how the look and details of the building will play out. Many important and necessary factors like plumbing, communication, heating, electrical, ventilation and structural systems are studied and their installation is executed.

Research and Knowledge

While creating and designing their project plans, architects do a lot of research about the same, taking into account building codes, fire regulations, and so on. If constructing a public building, architects must be aware of government laws which are dynamic so architects need to keep themselves updated on all the policies, rules and regulations that are constantly changing. Architects must be always updated on the latest techniques and styles in designing, energy-efficient ways and means of construction, building styles. They must keep doing research in these areas to make sure that their designs are on par with currently developing building structures. To achieve this, they should be taking continuous training by attending workshops, conferences, seminars and training programs and other educational courses.

Technology

Architects of today need to use a lot of technology. They must be trained and kept familiar with computer-aided drafting systems, 3-Dmodelling, and other relevant technologies. They must visualize and experiment with different construction approaches through various kinds of software. Familiarity with basic office software like word processing, accounting and using spreadsheets is very important.

Customer Service and Retention

Right from the planning stage, architects work closely with their clients. Even before drafting plans, they meet with their clients many times to learn their clients’ requirement, budget and any other essential requirement for their project. Very often, architects also work with other professionals, such as engineers, city planners, other architects, builders and interior designers. All this requires them to possess have excellent oral and written communication skills as they deal with both customers and professionals directly on a daily basis.

A range of skills/abilities to become an Architect: 

• An interest in buildings and their uses.
• Practical and Scientific skills.
• A methodical, logical and analytical approach.
• Design and CAD skills.
• Strong mathematical ability.
• A good business awareness and managerial skills.
• A strong communication and negotiating skills.
• Design talent

• Engineering ability
• Social awareness
• Business aptitude
• Legal knowledge

Architecture requires a long training period, often as long as in medicine and law and an architect's activities range from acquiring the project job, accomplishing the same after encountering various problems, solving them, estimating costs, generating the drawings and documents and calling the tenders. Reviewing the work on site from time to time is also a very important part of an architect’s job. Every project they take is different so each construction is a challenge.Coordinating a project and understanding the intricate details of the construction of that project integral to a successful design.Since Architecture is a very dynamic field, with constantly changing trends and technologies, an architect with should be always willing to learn.  Even within individual projects, there are a variety of things you will be doing from day-to-day.  One day you might be meeting with clients and working on design, while other days you’ll be visiting construction sites or researching materials.

It is a fact that the construction and manufacturing industry is highly dependent on the country’s economy.  If companies/individuals are doing well and earning money, they would venture into building offices, malls, restaurants, homes etc.  When the economy is booming, being an architect is really great.  However, if the economy is down, there would be less work for architects and layoffs are not uncommon in architecture firms. 

Architects can make a great living but there is the balance between money and happiness must be found and career in architecture has its own merits and demerits. The negatives could be challenging job profile, too much pressure, odd working hours and impractical expectations from the clients. The merits include very good salaries, excellent growth prospects, international recognition and the ability to start your own practice relatively inexpensively. The merits outweigh the demerits and are enough for an individual to choose a career in architecture and design if one is passionate. If one has no restrictions/preferences about the location of the work and are ambitious enough and willing to learn, take up challenging work and work very hard, then the job prospects in architecture field are overwhelming.