10 excuses for not taking the ARE…yet
After giving two presentations at a regional level, I want to talk about something in the emerging professional world of the utmost importance: your license. Or rather, your current lack of it. So I decided to put together a list of the 10 excuses for not taking the ARE yet.
Licensure is a step in the path, but it’s important to hit that step. In the process of meeting and chatting with students and emerging professionals, I hear their stories and their struggles. I see them working through hardship, multiple jobs, and family health issues to get licensed. They’re inspiring people and I know you can be too. So let’s jump into this list and get you there.
10 excuses for not taking the ARE
10. Time
Yes, time is valuable. It truly is precious. I constantly battle with allotting my time properly…mostly to the detriment of my personal health or fun because I’m pushing myself or my business to the next thing. Don’t do that…but don’t waste your time. Like your retirement savings, your career will grow exponentially…if you put in the effort. A piece of that effort pie is your license. Take the time to do that and you will be paid dividends down the road.
9. Money
Just as your time post-testing will pay out in dividends, so will your salary (on average). Think about how raises work and how much of a jump you get once you’re licensed. This is location-specific due to economies and cost of living, but on average you get a raise. So if you get licensed aafter being paid 46,000, you get bumped to salary. This is typically a 10-20% raise. So say you jump to salary at 55,000/year (this doesn’t include retirement benefits, profit sharing, etc). At an average raise of 5% every year, after 5 years you’ve made: 303,910, with your 5th year salary being 66,853.
But…if you don’t get licensed and you stay at 46,000, after 5 years you’ve made: 266,888 with your 5th year salary being 58,709. That’s a difference of 37k and you don’t hit licensure salary until year 4. Think about what that looks like at 10 years…or 30. Mind you, this also doesn’t take into account bonuses, which are typically a factored percentage of your raise and position in the company.
So yeah, the tests aren’t cheap, but can you afford not to take them? Don’t cheapen your career by being cheap about testing.
8. Interest
This is similar to the time thing, but you will find that you’re like an ADD kid in a toy store when you sit down to study for your tests. EVERYTHING ELSE will seem way more interesting…even new hobbies you never cared about before. You can focus on them, with your increased money, when you’re done testing. Just put your phone on airplane mode and study.
7. Fun Factor
Similar to interest, the tests aren’t fun. They aren’t supposed to be. They’re making sure you know how to design a building that won’t harm people. But if you choose the fun thing now, it delays licensure, which isn’t fun for your future.
6. Lack of Resources
Just as the tests aren’t cheap, the study materials can be costly too. I thought a LOT about that when I was pricing my book because I was so close to being done with testing that I remember those wallet pains. But one of the many benefits of the google machine (outside of fail videos) is all sorts of resources at your fingertips. There’s young architect, the ARE Google+ community, ARE Hacks, and many others. Your local AIA chapter or library might have a copy of the study materials too. Dive in.
5. Fear
I’ve talked about fear on the blog before. It sucks. And something that you can fail so quickly at makes it even bigger. But taking steps like setting aside time, finding resources, and putting in the effort take the teeth out of fear. I know you can do it.
4. Lack of Will Power
Put down your phone. Seriously…close the web browser, stop reading this, and start studying. As much as it might be more fun to just watch one more episode of Stranger Things on Neftlix, cut it out. Being a professional means taking responsibility. So hit pause and go study. Study for a set amount of time. If you can make it through that, then reward yourself with an episode. Increase the study time on the next round. Take back your will power and put yourself, and your career, first.
3. Family Obligations
This one’s hard because screaming babies or sick parents obviously deserve our attention. But when you sign yourself up for going to your second cousin’s birthday out of state, you’re looking for excuses – not living into your family. Consider the inverse: how does not being licensed (and the lack of pay and career pathing) help your family in the long run? How do you teach your future son or daughter the lesson of perseverance when you didn’t finish the steps towards being an Architect? Take care of your kids, but when they nap – you study.
2. Don’t know the process
Don’t get me wrong, starting isn’t easy. But just like the resources have become more readily available online, so has information about the process. NCARB is finally getting their act together and making their website a legible forum of information as to where to start based on your state – this is leaps and bounds better than when I started thinking about testing. More than that, most of the online forums have people talking about their path and process – which takes out 70% of the mystery. Read up. Talk to co-workers or peers testing. Take the first step.
1. [Fill in the blank]
The point is, there will always be an excuse if you let there be. Or you could be an awesome architect making the world better. Don’t let 10 excuses for not taking the ARE, or any others, keep you from success. These are just some of the variety of excuses I’ve seen, heard, and given myself. Please stop letting them run your life. We need you here in the world of architecture, continuing the path, picking up the reins from past generations as we all move through our careers. We need young, passionate professionals who aren’t afraid of a littler work and want to live into helping their community.
Join us.
