Architecture: So Last Year

Thirteen months ago, “US News & World Report” declared that being an architect is hot. How does it fare in 2008?

Thirteen months ago, US News & World Report declared that being an architect is hot: the magazine that loves best-of lists included architecture as one of the most desirable careers for 2007. But in the 2008 list, published last month, the editors have not only dropped the profession from the best-jobs pantheon—they’ve demoted it to a list of 13 overrated careers, occupations judged to have “a mystique that exceeds reality.”

As an alternative, US News recommends becoming an interior designer, which is described as “halfway between an architect and an interior decorator.” (Something tells us the ASID won’t love that characterization.) And apparently landscape architecture and urban planning don’t suffer from the same blinding mystique as architecture: both jobs made the best-careers list, with high marks in salary, prestige, and job satisfaction.

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