How long does it take to build a career as an architect? Chicago architect Susan King has constructed her career over 17 years. Her building materials included six years of design school and co-op internships and stints at three full time employers. She is now as an associate architect for Environ Inc. - with design work on numerous warehouses, manufacturing facilities and even an Arby's fast food restaurant to her credit.

Ironically, she never excelled in math - something her parents thought was a prerequisite for becoming an architect. She didn't enroll in an architectural program when she entered the University of Cincinnati, and after switching her major from interior to exterior design and graduating with a bachelor of architecture degree in 1987, she didn't pass the Architectural Registration Exam the first go-around.

Now, taking a moment to recount how she overcame those early challenges, King tells why the best path to a career designing buildings is not necessarily the straightest.

How important are great math skills to an architect?

When I say I wasn't strong in math, I mean that I sometimes earned Cs - between grades four and seven. In algebra, I got As and Bs, and I loved geometry. I also took trigonometry. My parents wanted me to skip algebra. But if you're like me and just make stupid adding mistakes, so what? We have computers for that now. And once you're working for a real company, you mostly rely on structural engineers unless you're working on small residential projects.

How much emphasis do colleges place on math?

The importance of taking the higher maths in high school should not be downplayed. Those classes will be required in order to be accepted into a college architectural program. It is just not absolutely necessary that you excel in math. If architecture is what you truly love, math should not hold you back.

This may not be true everywhere, but at the University of Cincinnati the emphasis was more on "applied" math know-how as in, say, understanding how the forces work on building structures such as a truss (a support that acts like a beam, but transfers pressure to many members rather than just its center).

Do you need a master's degree?

I'd only get it if I wanted to teach. Employers give extra weight to co-op programs, where you've alternated work and school training like I did. The Bachelor of Architecture is what you earn in such five-year programs; four-years yields a Bachelor of Science.

What's a typical project like?

Clients interview architecture firms and typically choose one that has done work similar to the project they want done. Then there are official work stages: the master plan (when the architect does a feasibility study of the potential work site); the schematic design stage (the fun part when we come up with the concept and draw "pretty" pictures); the construction documents stage (when we create the final, legal drawing of the structure to be displayed at the construction site); then if your client's the government, there's the bidding stage that could take months.

The final result is what's called a site plan, with a "footprint," or outline of the building's structure, and a "floor plan" for the inside which matches the foot print with the exception of added details like interior doors and walls.

Are the hours long?

Currently I am working, on average, a ten hour day. This is because I have a large project - $12.5 million senior living facility - under construction. Overtime in the profession tends to fluctuate with the construction season. There are periods when a typical 40 hour week is worked and other periods where the 50 hour week I describe is exceeded. On the whole as in most creative fields, overtime is a part of the profession.

What's the pay like?

College graduates can expect to make somewhere in the range of $25,000 to $29,000 at their first job. In Chicago we are currently experiencing a construction boom whic has contributed, in a positive way, to higher salaries at the lower levels in the field. For comparison, at my first job after graduation, my salary was only $17,500 plus overtime.

What inspired you to keep working your way up?

Seeing your ideas and drawings become reality. The real satisfaction for me comes from observing the construction process and, upon completion, the knowledge that the end-user is satisfied, that your work has positively touched the lives of the people who either live or work in the spaces you helped create.

The next project also inspires me, because each project presents different challenges and it is also an opportunity to do better then the time before. Ultimately, architecture is a difficult profession, the building of buildings is a complicated proposition and if you do not truly love the process, you probably should choose a different profession.