Following on from THIS POST on CAO points and courses for architecture. This second post gives a bit more advice and covers a few more of the other courses available.

Firstly regarding CAO and course choices:

1. Forget about what gives the most money or the most job stability. Choose something that you would enjoy doing. You’ll be working for a long time so you might as well do something that you enjoy.

2. Be prepared to change. Sometimes the reality of a job isn’t what you thought it might be. Don’t see it as a failure if you change course or direction – think of it as something positive. You have found what you don’t like which is a step closer to finding what you do want to do.

Regarding architecture related courses – maybe you don’t want to do the designing in architecture but want the technical side of the drawing and building. If so then Architectural Technology may be the course for you. This is precisely the course I am now looking for people to work for me in. I am the person that gets the jobs and then does the design work. What I do require is someone that understands the technical aspects of drawing and building to get that design on site. This is what architectural technicians or technologists excel at.

There are a whole stack of courses in Ireland for Architectural Technology – you can find them easily on the Qualifax web site

Not into buildings? Then why not design other things? Again you can search for courses on Qualifax.

• Product Design
• Graphics Design
• Computer Games Design (I have a son who has just graduated in this)
• Industrial Design
• Interior Architecture or Design
• Landscape Architecture
• Furniture Design

Think about where your talents lie. What would you enjoy doing the most? What could you spend hours doing and not think of it as work?

The world is your oyster…