I'm currently working in a kitchen but I was thinking about going back to school for architectural design. I studied it for a couple of years straight out of high school and lost interest. However, my interest has been renewed recently by not wanting to cook professionally the rest of my life. There are so many ways today that architecture can help shape personal and public opinions. Plus, daylighting and other forms of sustainable design (art/engineering) never cease to hook me. Architecture, as a major takes a lot of time and commitment. I'm 27. Any comments/ideas/opinions?

If you're interested in Architecture, it couldn't hurt to go back, right? You gotta make yourself happy, first and foremost.

I started working in restaurants in 1987. Something always draws me back to the fancy side of cooking. Last time it was minimal work for a year and a half. Now I'm busting suds at a fancy/pain-in-the-ass place. I passed my current job in Dishwasher at about pg. 100.

I am a full-time employee who is only working two shifts a week. I believe school is always an option.

Skronk wrote:If you're interested in Architecture, it couldn't hurt to go back, right? You gotta make yourself happy, first and foremost.

That's an oft-championed rule of life, and I good one I feel. And generally, at this point, it's the way I feel. Sharing a classroom with twenty-year olds isn't a surefire way to happiness.

mrdfnle wrote:I started working in restaurants in 1987. Something always draws me back to the fancy side of cooking. Last time it was minimal work for a year and a half. Now I'm busting suds at a fancy/pain-in-the-ass place. I passed my current job in Dishwasher at about pg. 100.

I am a full-time employee who is only working two shifts a week. I believe school is always an option.

Yeah. I here that all of the time from cooks who try leaving kitchens. They think that cooking at home can satiate whatever drools inside of them. Then it's back to kitchens. I don't know whether that's me or not.

Take a break, get yer feet wet. Been in food service "SERIOUSLY" for 14 years now i think. had some recognition, gotten burned out, became I bike messenger, slowly worked my way back into the game, cooked incredibly seriously for 6 years, got burned out, but this time I became a Baker (always wanted to learn). If it's in yer heart you'll go back to restaurant work. I miss it. But don't miss the drudgery and the lack of life outside of the restaurant. I like being a baker. I cook more than I ever have, in some ways, definitely more honestly from my heart. I know that when I go back to a restaurant I'll be 10 times the cook I ever was.

TAKE THE RISK.

If you're a good cook and worker, you can always get work in a decent restaurant, depending on the market. I've made a living mostly in cooking for the past 30 years.

I've been out of the kitchen for about 3 years now, I still cook at home quite a bit. Last position I had was sous-chef and was going to be part-owner until the chef and I both bailed on the idea.

I miss it sometimes too, and am sure I'll wind up doing it in some capacity again. You're 27, I'm 49. You have lots of time to try other things. Check it out.

Thanks for the insight, guys. Good to see your posting here again, zom-zom. I'm going to talk to one of the department advisors before I decide on whether or not to give it a shot.

Baking was big for me in developing timing and adherence to important things like rules. I'd set a timer for the stuff coming out of the oven and then do something else and then set another one and cary that around with me. I learned that the customer is always present. And we were wholesle so it was me and my firecracker lighting boss.

They closed after 35 yrs. I would still be there.

broad tosser,
like you i studied architecture straight after high school. i was 17.
i quit architecture at uni when i was 21, 4 years into an 8 year degree (i repeated a year). despite starting the course really well, i became uninterested and lazy; getting drunk, playing in bands and doing tours and the like was more important to me.
i still cared (and care) about architecture to an extent, i just didn't care for wanting to memorise the building regulations handbook, and drawing up someone else's plans/ doing the plumbing and details instead of the cool high-level stuff for the first 10 years of being an architect.

i was at a loss for a few years, then i ended up working making video games as a game designer, turns out that the 4 years i spent studying architecture really helps (and seems to impress interviewers when i go for game design jobs). I'm 30 in a few months and I've been doing this almost 7 years, and having spoken to just a few of my university architecture friends, i seem to be less bored than them, and i genuinely like my job, and want to do it for good.

i fell into this, i'm not saying i worked hard, cos if i did, i'd probably be fed up now, it was an acident, but what i'm saying is...
a passion for the subject can be satisfied and utilised in other ways. of course, if you really want to be an architect, go for it, i think for the people who still want to do it at the nd of their study, it's obviously a good career.
the only thing that pisses me off about not finishing, genuinely, is that i don't have a degree when lots of people i know do. i know that's maybe stupid and irrational, but i'm a bit ashamed at times.

anyway, aye. sorry for going on.

fraser