I think most comments here should be taken with salt as to what the person does and their reference to the comment isnt known.
I am a quantity surveyor, I finished my 5 year long studies with Hon degree end of last year and have been working for 3 years, 2 years partly and 1 year fully.
Now background out of the way.
1. Quantity surveyor - summary - Contracts, contracts, payments, knowing what every thing costs, good with accounting, (as clients qs) work for client and fight(not that harsh but you struggle) with every other consultant, because they work for different reasons, you work to keep the clients money in check.
2. Architect - summary - work with whole team, most projects you run the project, you design and manange every aspect of the project, every detail and problem goes through you, this does not only entail design of the buidling, you pick every toilet, every ironmongery, every problem, although you work for a client you will mostly get ideas and get them shotdown because they dont fall in with clients budget.
What to consider when choosing a carreer in either.
QS - you have to be good with money, have to know how to cut deals, be firm with contractors, and not yes much, you have to be good with balancing, know your way around construction and the processes that goes in, most importantly, you have to be able to predict what will be built without the details of it, most projects start with a feasibility and nobody gets paid until the project gets accepted so the engineer and architect gives you terrible drawings/plans and you have to predict and foresee the required construction without knowing directly.
Architect - good with knowing people, you will have to read the client and know what they want and design accordingly. You will have to be able to run a project, be the principle agent, know every detail(except the cost, cause you generally dont care) about the building. Counsel regulations, SABS regulations, fire regulations will all be known.
My knowledge of architects end there as I am not one but I work with them constantly.
Other things to note.
Studies
QS studies ussually entail a 3 year BSC and 2/1 year honours. to be in a practitioning state, practical work to be registered with the council not included.
Architect - most architect I know go for their masters to be able to be leading architects ,this entails longer studying
money
QS - because you only handle the funds, you usually get paid less than the architect per project. But you can do multiple projects based on yourself.
Architect - Better project fee, but you also usually double as project manager and have a higher workload.
Idemnity -
QS - you can only be held accountable with mistakes, and thus only financially accountable. But you have to screw up big time because you usually have a 5%- 10% leniency with end line.
Architect - because you design, you will take responsibility for designs and if you make mistakes you can be liable for third party claims due to design errors. There has been cases where the contractor built to architects spec and the court ruled that the contractor should have known that it wasnt safe, but they are few and hard to win.
If you design wood structure in a fireplace, in 99% of cases you are liable if a fire starts there.
So hope this helps a bit, you can PM for any other info.
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