Architect Resume Guide

Architecture hiring asks three questions in order: are you licensed, what have you built, and which phases can you actually run. A resume answering all three quickly gets shortlisted.

Licensure status, precisely

Under your contact details, whatever stage you are at.

If licensed:

Licensure: Registered Architect, Colorado, 2021 · NCARB certified · LEED AP BD+C

If not yet:

Licensure progress: 5 of 6 examination divisions passed · experience hours complete and submitted · anticipated registration Q3 2026

The second version is a strong statement and most candidates write something vaguer. Practices hire at every stage of the path, and knowing where you are lets them place you and price you.

Registration is administered by state boards and coordinated nationally through the National Council of Architectural Registration Boards, so state your jurisdiction and note NCARB certification if you hold it, since it affects reciprocity.

The project list

The heart of an architect’s resume. Five components per project.

Brennan Ochoa Architects · Project Architect · Denver, CO · 2021 to present

• Cascadia Health Clinic, 34,000 sf outpatient facility, $18m construction value. Project architect from SD through CA. Led the coordination of MEP and medical equipment, and ran the OSHPD-equivalent state review submissions.
• Halstead Mixed-Use, 120 residential units over 18,000 sf retail, $42m. DD and CD phases. Produced the envelope details and led the consultant coordination.
• Kestrel Elementary School addition, 22,000 sf, $9m. Full phases including construction administration, roughly 40 site visits.

What each element does: the type tells a practice whether you know their sector, the size and value calibrate you, the phases say what you can be given, and the specific contribution shows depth.

Do not just list project names. A list of buildings with no role or phase attached is the most common weak pattern in this field.

Phase experience is the real filter

The part generic resume advice never mentions, and what practices actually screen on.

Name your experience across schematic design, design development, construction documents, permitting and entitlement, bidding, and construction administration.

Construction administration experience in particular is disproportionately valuable and frequently missing. Plenty of architects can produce drawings; fewer have run a job site, handled RFIs and submittals, and dealt with a contractor. If you have, make it prominent with numbers: site visits, RFIs processed, submittals reviewed.

Similarly, permitting and entitlement experience with a specific jurisdiction is worth stating, because local process knowledge saves a practice real time.

Sector matters

Practices specialise, and prior sector experience is a strong preference.

Healthcare, education, multifamily residential, single-family residential, commercial office, retail, hospitality, civic and government, industrial, laboratory, adaptive reuse and historic.

Name the sector for each project and lead with the one matching the practice. Regulated sectors such as healthcare and laboratory work carry code and review requirements that take real time to learn, so that experience is valued highly.

Software, named specifically

A hard filter, and version and depth both matter.

Software: Revit (advanced, including family creation and worksharing), AutoCAD, Rhino with Grasshopper, Enscape, Bluebeam, Adobe Creative Suite, Navisworks

Revit depth is worth being specific about, since there is a large difference between modelling in someone else’s template and setting up a project, managing worksets and building families. If you have done BIM coordination or been a model manager, say so plainly.

Also worth listing: energy modelling tools, clash detection, and any code analysis software.

The O*NET profile for architects is a cross-check on standard vocabulary.

The portfolio question

Practices expect one. Two rules.

Send it as a separate file or a link. Never embed images in the resume, which breaks parsing and produces a document that reads as blank to a screening system. See ATS resume templates.

Keep the resume plain. This is the one field where the temptation to design the resume is strongest and it should still be resisted for anything uploaded. Your portfolio is where the design judgement is assessed. If you want a designed resume for direct submission, maintain two files. See the creative resume guide.

A short link near your contact details, and a portfolio under whatever file size the practice specified.

Format

One page early career, two once you have a substantial project list. Plain, single column, conservative typography.

Use a professional template and check the document against a specific posting in the resume checker, since larger practices and any firm working with government clients screen through applicant systems.

Check the BLS wage statistics for your metro area before negotiating, where the spread by practice size and sector is wide.

Related

For design fields generally, see the graphic designer resume guide and the creative resume guide. For adjacent technical roles, see the software engineer resume guide. For senior positions, see the executive resume guide. For the same treatment applied to other jobs, see resume examples by role.

Browse the professional templates or build one free.