My contention has always been that architecture is appealing as a career because it is depicted so positively in movies (like every romantic comedy you've ever seen). The male lead saunters through a construction site with a hard hat and a set of plans under his arm or stands for 3 minutes at a drafting table in a window-filled high-rise office and then is free to go about the rest of the movie without ever doing anything. Easy upper middle class lifestyle with no responsibility.

The reality is that it takes YEARS to make any money as an architect and then only if you strike out on your own. The early years aren't much more than glorified internships. And the work is full of headaches, though maybe no more than other jobs that are filled with creeping budgets, demanding clients, shifting deadlines, and municipal government hand-holding.