Design & creative · Creating & Designing
Architect: what the job actually is
Designing buildings that people can use, afford and be safe in, then guiding them through years of permits, drawings and changes.
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The work
What this job actually is
- Designing buildings and the spaces around them, so they work for the people who use them, meet the building code and can actually be built within a budget.
- Drawing is a small part of it. Much of the work is coordinating with engineers, clients, planners and builders, and keeping a project coherent over years.
- A design is a series of compromises: money, regulation, site, schedule and what the client believes they want. Defending choices is part of the job.
- You are accountable. A licensed architect is regulated and responsible for the work, and this is a big part of what the title means.
- It takes a long time to become one, and the training period is long before you can use the title.
A Tuesday
What a normal day looks like
Not a good day or a bad one. The ordinary version, which is what you would actually be living.
- 8:30 — Coffee and a site email: the contractor has found something under the floor that is not on the drawings.
- 9:15 — Check the original drawings against the photo. The drawings were right; the building was not.
- 10:00 — Call the structural engineer. You work out an option together.
- 11:00 — Update the plan and the sections so the change is clear to the builder.
- 12:30 — Lunch, and a look at a new project brief that has more wishes than budget.
- 13:15 — Client meeting. They love a feature you have to tell them will not meet the code.
- 14:30 — Revise the design to keep the idea and pass the code.
- 15:45 — Check a set of drawings before they go out. A door that does not open fully is the kind of error that costs money later.
- 16:45 — Log your hours and what you did, because the record counts toward your licence.
- 17:15 — Leave, still thinking about the corner of the entrance.
Honestly
Who loves this, and who should not do it
The second list is the useful one. Nearly every careers page leaves it out, which is why nearly every careers page reads like an advert.
- You care about how places feel and also how they work.
- You can draw, think in three dimensions and also read a code.
- You can defend a design to people who disagree and then change it when they are right.
- You are patient with a long training and long projects.
- You like combining creativity with rules and responsibility.
- You want to design freely. Most work is shaped by budget, code and a client.
- You are impatient. Projects take years, and so does the training before licence.
- You dislike paperwork, approvals and coordination. These are a large share of the days.
- You want to see your idea built quickly. Buildings arrive slowly.
- You would be discouraged by a long road. The route in is demanding and takes years.
The route in
How you actually get there in Ontario
Earn an accredited architecture education
The Ontario Association of Architects (OAA) says the typical path starts with an accredited architectural education or certification of academic qualifications from the Canadian Architectural Certification Board (CACB). At the University of Waterloo, for example, the pre-professional Bachelor of Architectural Studies is followed by the professional Master of Architecture, and the university says the pre-professional degree alone is not an accredited degree. Check the requirements at each school you are considering.Enrol and gain recorded experience
The OAA says to enrol as a Provisional Intern Architect or Intern Architect and to gain and record eligible architectural experience in the Canadian Experience Record Book. Every intern needs both a supervising architect and a mentor to submit hours.Pass the exams and finish the Ontario requirements
Next come the required professional examinations, the OAA Admission Course and the Ontario Practice Knowledge Self-Assessment. The OAA also says candidates must complete any other requirements that arise when applying, and that a Practice of Architecture in Canada Course applies if fewer than 940 hours of your experience are in Canada.Apply for your licence
The OAA lists submitting the application for licence to the OAA as the final step. It also describes another route, the RAIC Syllabus Program, an apprenticeship-style path, and notes that new rules affecting the path to licensure were introduced, so check its pages for the current rules.
Where this comes from: Ontario Association of Architects — Becoming an Architect · OAA — Internship in Architecture Program (IAP) · University of Waterloo — Architecture accreditation information
The money
What it pays in Ontario
Job Bank's own figures, quoted rather than summarised, with the period they describe — so you can tell how old they are and go and check them.
- $28.21
- Low (hourly)
- $41.03
- Median (hourly)
- $80.97
- High (hourly)
Ontario, NOC 21200. Reference period 2023-2024, last updated by Job Bank on 19 November 2025. Wages vary a lot by region inside Ontario and by how long you have been doing it — the low figure is roughly where you start, not what the job is worth.
Where it is heading
The outlook for the next three years
Job Bank publishes a three-year outlook for every job in every province. It is the closest thing to an honest forecast, and it moves, so read it as a weather report rather than a verdict.
Moderate3 out of 5 stars
- Employment growth will lead to a few new positions.
- A moderate number of positions will become available due to retirements.
- There are a small number of unemployed workers with recent experience in this occupation.
What that rating means: how many openings Job Bank expects in Ontario for this kind of work against how many people are likely to be looking — not whether it is a good job. A “limited” rating means more competition for each opening; it does not close the door, and it can change before you are ready to walk through it.
What is changing in this work
- Population growth, which is resulting in significant levels of new residential construction
- Opportunities expected to support the design of energy efficient new and retrofitted older buildings
- Significant public sector funding for transit-related infrastructure projects
Who hires for it
- The majority are directly employed in architectural and engineering services
- 11,500
- people work in this job in Ontario
- 36%
- are women (48% across all jobs)
- 24%
- are self-employed (15% across all jobs)
Source: Job Bank — Architects job prospects in Ontario (NOC 21200). Outlook updated by Job Bank on 10 December 2025; read by us on 5 October 2026.
Before you leave school
Things you can do now
- Take visual arts, design and technology courses, and maths and physics if you can. Check which Grade 12 courses an architecture programme requires, as some also ask for a portfolio.
- Start a sketchbook of buildings and spaces. A portfolio of drawing from life is something most schools want to see.
- Visit a building site, a heritage walk or an open-house event and ask who designed it and how it changed during construction.
- Student Associates can join the OAA for free, which the OAA says keeps you informed about the requirements for licensure in Ontario.
Test it
Do this before you decide anything
Reading about a job tells you almost nothing. This is designed to be done alone, this week, for free.
Measure and draw a room you know to scale
About 90 minutes- Measure one room in your home with a tape measure: walls, doors, windows and the main furniture. Write the numbers down.
- Draw it from above on paper to a consistent scale, then add the door swings and windows.
- Ask yourself where people actually walk, and redraw the furniture to improve that. Do not move anything heavy.
- Look at it a day later and note the first thing you want to change.
What it tells you. If the measuring and the fussing over where the door swings was satisfying, you have the patience this work asks for. If you liked designing the idea but not the measuring and checking, a design-led role in interiors or graphics may be a better match than architecture itself. If you enjoyed neither, the long training will be a hard slog.
Better than any article
Questions for somebody who does this job
Most people say yes to a teenager who asks good questions. These are the ones that get real answers rather than encouragement.
- “How long did it take you to become licensed, and what was hardest?”
- “How much of your day is drawing and how much is meetings and coordination?”
- “What do you wish you had known before starting the degree?”
- “How did you find a supervising architect and a mentor?”
- “What parts of the work do clients never see?”
- “Would you choose this path again?”
Could you own one of these?
The part other career sites never mention
Yes, and it is more common here than in most jobs: Job Bank's figures show self-employment is higher among architects than across the workforce overall. You need to be a licensed architect to practise as one, so it follows the long training. Running a practice also adds the work of finding clients and managing money.
Not sure this is the right list to be reading
Start from yourself, not from the job.
Future Finder is free, takes about ten minutes, needs no account and stores nothing. It will tell you which kinds of work you lean toward, and which of these pages are worth your time.
Parent of a teenager weighing this up? Career coaching for teens gets them talking to people who do the work, anywhere in Ontario.
If this appeals, look at these too
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Wages and training requirements change. Every figure on this page is linked to the body that publishes it, and the review date above says when we last checked. If you find something out of date, tell us and we will fix it.