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Career · Building and installation

Architect

Designs buildings and spaces by bringing together people's needs, expressive form and the practical limits of a project.

What a day looks like

Imagine a day at an architecture practice designing a small library. This is an illustrative example, rather than every company's timetable. In the morning, you read the client's comments: the building needs a quiet area, space for group activities and an entrance that is easy to find. Before drawing an attractive facade, you clarify how many people will use the rooms and how they will move between them. You mark routes, windows and connections on the plan.

Next, you compare two layouts: one offers more daylight, while the other makes it easier to arrange the books. Neither works perfectly straight away. In a computer model, you check dimensions and views from different positions. The drawings and model must describe the same building; a pleasing image is not a complete design. After lunch, you meet the structural and building services engineers. They explain the positions of supporting elements and equipment, and you adjust the layout. Sometimes an exciting idea must change because of safety, accessibility or the budget.

You prepare a clear presentation explaining the changes and unanswered questions. A colleague spots a mismatch between a plan and a section, so you correct both. Before leaving, you save a dated set of files and a list of revisions. The work involves discussions, constraints, documentation and repeated adjustments. It suits someone who wants to create useful spaces and patiently develop a coordinated design.

Try it yourself this week

  • 30 minutes

    Measure your room and draw a plan with the furniture

    1. Take a tape measure and measure the walls of the room and the width of the window and door.
    2. Draw a plan to scale on squared paper: one square equals a length you choose in advance.
    3. Measure the furniture and add it to the plan at the same scale.
    4. Try moving the furniture around on paper and find the most comfortable layout.

    What you'll learn about yourself: Whether you like working with exact measurements and picturing in your head how everything will fit.

  • 40 minutes

    Work out the cost of redoing your room, on paper

    1. Use a tape measure to measure the length and width of the walls and write the sizes in a notebook.
    2. Think about what you'd change: paint the walls, replace the floor, add shelves.
    3. Make a table: what you need, how much, and roughly what price range you'd look for in a shop or online. Don't buy anything.
    4. Check you haven't forgotten anything: tools, preparing the walls, cleaning up after the work.

    What you'll learn about yourself: Whether you like planning and calculating in advance, or would rather get straight to work.

What you can do next

  1. Next 3 months

    • Draw a plan of a familiar room

      Complete t08 with an adult's permission. Measure only distances accessible from the floor, mark the furniture and use one consistent scale.

    • Find out who finds the room comfortable

      Ask two people you know where the room feels cramped or inconvenient. Record the space's needs without names or personal information.

  2. In six months

    • Prepare two layout options

      Draw two furniture arrangements on paper. Compare routes, light and convenience; you do not need to move real furniture.

    • Build a tabletop model

      Make a paper and cardboard model with ordinary school materials. Mark doors and windows and check it against the plan.

    • Present the design and record feedback

      Explain your layout to a friend in three minutes. Record two comments and resolve one problem in the next version.

  3. In a year

    • Assemble a small portfolio

      Keep the plan, model and comparison. Describe the task, constraints and changes made after checking each piece.

    • Compare education programmes

      With a parent or school adviser, explore two universities' official programmes. List questions about drawing, design and current admission rules.

What it pays

Pay varies by region, experience and employer. The figures below are approximate ranges from public sources.

United States

  • All levelsstatistics

    99,280 $ per year

    before tax · data: May 2025 · checked: October 2026

    Median employee pay for architects, excluding landscape and naval architects, in the United States in May 2025. This is neither entry-level pay nor an estimate for Kazakhstan.

    Source: bls.gov (opens in a new tab)

Where to study

Universities

You apply after grade 11, based on your UNT results.

How to get into college

College gets you a profession faster than university. You can apply after grade 9 or after grade 11.

  • Colleges accept students both after grade 9 and after grade 11. After grade 9 you study longer — about 3 years 10 months; after grade 11, about 2 years 10 months. The exact length depends on the college and the specialty.
    Source: kchk.edu.kz (opens in a new tab)
  • About 80% of students admitted to colleges in the 2024/25 school year study on a state order, which means in state-funded places (in 2023/24 it was about 70%). But each college and each specialty has its own number of state-funded places.
    Source: inbusiness.kz (opens in a new tab)
  • There are also paid colleges. For example, training as a nurse at ADILMED costs 450,000 ₸ per year. Check the price and conditions on the college's website.
    Source: adilmed.kz (opens in a new tab)
UNT: which subjects to take for university

The UNT (Unified National Testing) is Kazakhstan's national university entrance test. You need it to get into university after grade 11.

  • The UNT 2026 has three compulsory subjects: History of Kazakhstan, Reading Literacy and Mathematical Literacy. On top of these, you take two profile subjects, chosen to match your specialty.
    Source: testcenter.kz (opens in a new tab)
  • In total, the test has 120 questions (maximum 140 points) and you get 4 hours. The format is the same as in 2025.
    Source: testcenter.kz (opens in a new tab)
  • Profile subjects depend on the group of specialties. For example: information technology — Mathematics and Computer Science; nursing and veterinary medicine — Biology and Chemistry; electrical engineering — Mathematics and Physics; law — World History and Fundamentals of Law. The full list is published by the National Testing Center.
    Source: testcenter.kz (opens in a new tab)
  • For creative specialties (for example, media and design), you take History of Kazakhstan and Reading Literacy through the UNT, and two creative exams at the university itself.
    Source: testcenter.kz (opens in a new tab)
  • Some universities have their own admission rules. Nazarbayev University, for example, requires a UNT score of at least 85, a GPA of 4.0 and English at IELTS 6.0 level.
    Source: nu.edu.kz (opens in a new tab)

Courses and opportunities

Opportunities near this field

Can you work before you turn 18?

Under Kazakhstan's Labour Code, teenagers can work, but with limits.

History of the career

One way to explore the history of the modern profession is through its professional organisations. In 1857, thirteen architects in New York founded the American Institute of Architects, or AIA. Such organisations provide a place to discuss design quality, professional practice and architecture's role in society. This was not the beginning of architecture: buildings existed long before the institute.

Today, AIA connects architectural work with resilience and healthy, equitable environments. The example shows how a profession develops through shared knowledge and expectations, as well as individual creativity. Even when an architect becomes famous, a building remains the outcome of collaboration across different specialisms.

Source: aia.org (opens in a new tab)

Well-known people in this field

Article sources

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