I AM, the Intern…?
It’s not a title that anyone likes having.
Intern makes me sound like an unpaid coffee bitch. I mean seriously. I spent 5-6 years of sleepless nights in the battlefield that is called architecture school and when I come out the other end I get the title of intern? Talk about a slap in the face.
“So what is this whole intern situation you’re so fired up about?”, you may ask. Let me break it down for you. Architects are actually a lot like other highly professional fields, i.e. doctors and lawyers. We have to go through 5-6 years of architecture school for either a 5 year Bachelor of Architecture degree or a 4 year Bachelors degree + 2 year Master of Architecture degree (this is what I did). Then there’s the internship. Three long years of working your way up from the bottom, getting on the job training.
When you’ve finished your requirements for your internship, you get to start taking the dreaded ARE exam. The ARE or Architect Registration Exam is a 7 part test (you heard right!) that includes multiple choice and graphic vignette sections on most of the tests. It’s no easy task to pass the 7 deadly exams. In my informal poll of people I know who’ve taken the tests, as long as you study hard, you shouldn’t have to retake more than one or two of them. Once you pass all the tests, congratulations, you’re a licensed architect!! Don’t get too comfortable though. You do have to have 24 hours of continuing education a year to keep your license (in Illinois, at least). This part’s pretty easy though. If you sit in on a couple lunch presentations from product manufacturers and go to a conference or two every year, you’ll be covered. Whew. I know, right?
And…
So what’s my beef? Intern is such a derogatory word. When I hear it, I think of summer interns, kids who don’t have a formal education in a given field gaining experience over the summer. You’re lumping me, a highly educated person, in with someone who has no education whatsoever. Eff off. Don’t even get me started on unpaid internships. One of the circles of hell is reserved for people who have unpaid internships for college graduates. I am working for you, hence YOU PAY ME NOW!
Personally, I wish they’d call us apprentices. That fits the job description a little better. We’re getting on the job training, not rubbing elbows with professionals to see if we want to go into a certain career. To become a licensed plumber (and many other similar trades), you go through an apprenticeship. The apprenticeship usually lasts 4-5 years and includes a set amount of classroom training as well. After you have enough experience, you can take an exam to become a licensed plumber. So in a field that requires no formal education, you get to go from apprentice to licensed professional. Nowhere in that process do you have to introduce yourself with a title that makes you sound like an useless peon.
What about those other professional fields? Doctors get a 4 year bachelors degree, followed by 4 years of medical school, then have 3-7 years of residency depending on their specialty. After that, they can go into a very specialized field which can take an additional 1-3 years called a fellowship. Even with all this education, doctors, like architects, get stuck with a period of time that people can call them interns. The first year or their residency is usually referred to as their internship and they can be called either an intern or resident. If I were a first year resident, I would never call myself an intern and I wonder if it bothers them as much as it bothers me… Oh, that also leaves out all the various tests and boards needed to pass to become a practicing physician or the fact that you have to continue to pass boards throughout your career. If anyone has the right to be annoyed about being called an intern, it’s doctors.
Lawyers go through a 4 year Bachelor’s degree, 3 years of law school followed by the 2 day long bar exam (dun dun duuuuuuh). Like doctor’s, you can continue your education to have a specialty, but after you pass the bar exam, you’re a big time law practicin’ man. Guess what, no interns! You go from student to licensed professional. Yipeee!
What have we learned? No one, other than those high school summer helpers, should have to go by the title of interns. It just sucks, man. It’s not cool. And if you have unpaid internships, you are a bad bad person.
So what do you think? Are there interns in your profession?
Big thanks to Bryan and Annie for clarification on what it takes to become a doctor and lawyer.
Annie
November 16, 2011
I love how fired up you are over this!
You didn’t ask me about continuing education – lawyers have to have so many hours per year to keep their license too, but don’t ask me how many because I have no clue and no energy to figure it out (running on 3.5 hours of sleep b/c I’m trying to crank out a 25 page legal analysis paper).
But yes, I’m glad they don’t call law grads interns. As if it isn’t degrading enough to be called a lawyer. Jokes, debt, no jobs. = awesome.
I’d call you an apprentice. I think this is what our education needs to get back to. MAYBE 2 years of liberal arts in college and then on to apprenticeships. I think we’d learn more and be better prepared to jump in once we’re licensed. (the wording on your poll confused me, so I didn’t answer)
And I also agree that unpaid internships for grad students are evil, horrible, terrible, no good very bad things. Amen.
benjamin dockter
November 19, 2011
Thanks for the info. I’m just getting warmed up. I’ll be taking shots at quite a few things over the coming months…It won’t all be negative though. I have some more informative post coming up as well.
mek
January 4, 2012
man, if i had a nickle for every time I had to explain what my position as an architectural intern meant…
I share your frustration. Having a masters of architecture and given the lovely title of intern makes no sense. This is a cool graph that illustrates what each state can call an unlicensed architect: http://info.aia.org/aiarchitect/thisweek09/0522/0522rc_eptitling2_b.jpg
from my personal experience, ive never heard a ‘doctor’ call themselves anything but doctor…even as a resident.
I’m not licensed yet but from what I can see is that all architectural interns want to be called architects and all architects want them not to be called architects. At the same time, just search the term ‘architect’ in job posts, so many other job fields have essentially stolen the term ‘architect’ and are free to use it as they please.
I guess the only thing left to do is pass those tests as soon as possible.
benjamin dockter
January 4, 2012
That’s a pretty cool picture. It bugs me that we let it slide when everyone else calls themselves architects (software architect, etc.), but if we don’t put “intern” in front of our title, we get vilified.
Brinn Miracle (@simplybrinn)
January 11, 2012
I completely agree that something needs to be done about the title issue. A simple browse through the dictionary reveals that we are indeed architects, regardless of legal restrictions (they may want to revise their laws to match the English language definition). However, due to the beauracratic dictatorship, we won’t get far. If registered architects are the ones in charge of protecting their titles, you can bet they won’t be sympathetic to allowing the ‘interns’ to claim their rightful titles after all the BS they had to go through to be called an architect. I wrote a post about the topic a while back that breaks it down into the problem and possible solution: http://bit.ly/jkoMeY – Loved the graphic on titles, btw.
benjamin dockter
January 11, 2012
That’s the crux of it. I’ll read your article when I get off work, but it looks to be full of all sorts of tasty information. Thanks!
Andrew Noble
January 11, 2012
We just call them NUGs (New Useless Guy) -just kidding, hold your fire!
I remember back to my dissatisfaction with the title “intern” and don’t really think that “apprentice” is any better; they both indicate “noob” status in the field regardless of experience and training. Engineers have “EIT”s which are “Engineers in Training” so you can commiserate with them too; although, I have heard that they may have changed their titles so that EVERYONE can call themselves an Engineer now, regardless of licensed status (H’oboy!). Just grind through it, the three years will pass quicker than you realize, and get past the ARE Exam.
THEN you can continue to complain about everybody misappropriating the title “Architect” and the disparity of professional risk vs. reward in the industry. It doesn’t get any fairer on the other side of the title, in fact, in many ways it gets worse.
mek
January 11, 2012
I see your point. So why don’t us ‘architects’ protect our name better not allow anyone else to use the term Architect unless you are a Licensed Architect. It seems to me that architects are more concerned with architectural interns using the ther ‘architect’ than software and computer ‘architects’.
Also if the term ‘Architect’ is such a strong word that means you’re licensed, why do we as architects feel so inclined to have to further prove we are licensed by including AIA, or RA in our signatures. Yes those can prove you are licensed, but if the word Architect can only be used for a licensed architect, it only seems redundant.
However, I agree completely that once you are licensed it probably just gets worse.
benjamin dockter
January 11, 2012
Ouch. Yeah, I think the apprentice thing is my mind trying to find a compromise. I can see both sides of the argument, but I lean in favor of the “interns”. I get the need to protect the title from outsiders, but I don’t see why we can’t all go by architect. It will be obvious very quickly whether someone is licensed or not, so if we all have the same degree, it shouldn’t be such a big deal.
WhatsOnTheARE
January 12, 2012
Aspiring Architect would be the best title for an unlicensed architect. It tells a story of what that person is to become in the future.
benjamin dockter
January 12, 2012
I think that’s still too ambiguous. Anyone can aspire to something. An 8th grader could call themself an aspiring architect. I think Brinn has the best idea. If you have your degree, you’re an architect or unlicensed architect. If you are licensed, you are a licensed architect. Makes the most sense, and there’s no ambiguity. You should read her blog about the topic. It’s much better than mine… http://architangent.com/2011/06/war-of-the-words/
Michelle
February 22, 2012
Using the term “intern” the way that architecture does devalues the profession. If we don’t value our own labor, why should anyone else? In what other profession are you considered “young” until you’re 40?
benjamin dockter
February 24, 2012
You’re right. I’ve had a lot of great discussion with people since writing this post on the negative effects of how we treat young people in the profession. There’s kind of a mentality that until you become licensed and have been practicing for X amount of years, you have little to offer. Of course there are people who are working on reversing this, but it’s still a problem.