Careers I chose / avoided

How aphants describe steering toward, away from, or staying in particular careers — especially design-heavy fields like architecture.

What people actually say

Architecture as the test case

The bundle is dominated by a single thread of "should I (or should I not) become an architect?" Some commenters say it's a non-issue, others say it ruled the field out for them entirely.

"being an architect is definitely out of the question for me." 2016 · t1_d8fe58d ↗

"We definitely should not be an architect" 2024 · t1_lgpym8d ↗

"After learning about having aphantasia I thought one day that it is amazing that I decided not to study architecture. Imagine being an architect and learning other people can see it all in their minds." 2022 · t1_imeyyth ↗

"Yeah Im a Director of a company of surveyors and architects. I've got no visual imagination at all. Nothing. Hasn't affected me in the slightest." 2019 · t1_ezt2xq4 ↗

Already in the career, regretting it

A subset are mid-career and link aphantasia to feeling stuck or wrong-fitted, with depression and career-change tempting but costly.

"Not having a visual memory makes it really hard for me to design with any confidence as I can never come up with any references, my visual library is just plain empty." 2018 · t3_94r1sr ↗

"I am also an architect with mild aphantasia. It is definitely holding back my ability to design and do other tasks. I do a lot of 3D modeling for others so I am getting around the problem somehow. I am also considering a career change because of this." 2018 · t1_e3udri2 ↗

"I’m an architect, but I’m on the production side and have never been great at design." 2021 · t1_h8fse86 ↗

Reframing it as fit, advantage, or non-issue

Many push back hard on the "off-limits jobs" framing — either by reporting their own working lives or by arguing aphants just route around the visual step with sketches, references, and tools.

"Information security architect here. Having aphantasia means I've subconsciously got really good at drawing/using Visio to bring abstract concepts to life." 2019 · t1_ezsuzsk ↗

"I am very good at working with problems in high dimensional spaces. It has made solving many kinds of hard problems much easier to do. I will defend my PhD soon and I have a nice job working on computer simulations for making medicine using this skill." 2023 · t1_k1e9itm ↗

"100% aphant, fully missing any form of internal monologue, atrocious memory. Still managed 3 degrees and hold down an interesting well paid job." 2022 · t1_i05yxi4 ↗

"People on this sub make aphantasia sound like it’s a disability, Go get any job and you’ll be fine do what you wana do plenty of people with aphantasia have had great careers and only found out about it latter in life" 2021 · t1_gr72gja ↗

"Maybe some jobs would be easier for us"

A smaller strand wonders whether aphantasia could actually steer people toward jobs that benefit from not seeing things — half-joking, half-serious.

"I can only think if morbid stuff like.. crime scene cleaner or something.." 2020 · t1_fyqvlt5 ↗

"Actually yes, aphantasia cannot hold you back from something you want but we as people are attracted to things that are easier or natural. And I wouldn't go to a task that ask me to put a big effort on it every day." 2022 · t1_i05yxi4 ↗

Across the years

The conversation appears across 2016–2025, but it spikes sharply in 2021 (16 of 30 chunks) thanks to the "aspiring architect" thread. The substantive pattern is consistent throughout: a small minority say aphantasia ruled out a design career or made their current one painful, while the majority — including practising architects, engineers, and PhDs — argue the field is open if you adapt your process. The "jobs should seek us out" framing is a quieter undercurrent visible in 2020 and 2022.

Volume

Cross-references

• Related sub-theme: themes/discovery_first_realisation.md (career-stage discovery often triggers reappraisal of the chosen path)