Ah interesting, I think for some reason I assumed it’d be more of an administrative career path offshoot for someone working in chemistry, but architecture does make more sense. And I know how you feel, I started my career in industrial controls because the idea of working at the interface between invisible electrical black magic and moving valves, motors, and other machinery seemed real cool.

Quickly learned that in that world, creativity and innovation are treated more like liabilities than anything else lol, and rightly so. There’s a few great, proven ways to do most things, and rarely is it wise or fruitful to develop novel approaches over one of the proven solutions. I wouldn’t want to be a chemist in a lab toting multiple new designs, lol.

I found it stifling, but could’ve tolerated it a lot better if the majority were WFH like yours!