I'm in residential design, and I have mixed feelings about this one.
I absolutely love what I do and can't imagine not having creativity and design as part of my life. But would I recommend it to someone younger? Yes, with a very honest conversation first.
You need the mental toughness of a rhinoceros, the love of puzzles, and sometimes the skills of a counselor.
The creative side is incredibly rewarding, but there's so much more to the profession than designing beautiful homes. You're balancing client dreams with budgets, building codes, engineering, site constraints, contractors, permitting, deadlines, and sometimes competing priorities between everyone involved. A large part of the job is actually communication and problem solving.
But then you get to see something that once existed only as an idea become someone's home. That's pretty hard to beat.
So yes, I'd encourage the next generation to consider it. I'd just make sure they understood the whole profession, not only the beautiful finished product.
