Our mission is to provide aspiring architects the resources and knowledge they need to thrive in their careers

Born out of a desire to give early-career architects guidance and support in the beginning of their careers, Black Spectacles provides world-class learning materials and tools for them to build their futures.

Though we started out offering software learning to help professionals stay on top of current trends in the industry, we’re doing a whole lot more than that now—helping thousands of young architects get their license and be successful in their careers.

Our ARE test prep, ARE community, and now Spectacular Design are all designed to share the knowledge, expertise, and advice of architects who have been through this before. Our community of licensed architect coaches, students, and candidates for the ARE all work together to support each other on their journeys to licensure.

Want to come help us out? Check out our open roles below!

Our Core Values

Encourage and take calculated risks

We have big goals and are willing to take risks to meet them—but we’re also smart, careful, and thoughtful about the risks we take. We balance our confidence in our skills and knowledge with the humility to know we might make a mistake, and that’s totally fine.

Taking care of your people

We believe in, support, and help our people—whether it's a teammate or a customer, we’ll go above and beyond to make sure they get what they need to be successful.

World-class in everything we do

We hold ourselves to a pretty high standard, and work hard to make sure nothing goes out the door that doesn’t meet those standards.

Make it safe to share ideas

We work hard to create a culture of safety and trust to allow people to share any ideas without judgement.

We're proud to be recognized as a great place to work

We're a fully remote team located all over the country. Join us!

We’re lucky to say we work at an award-winning place that offers autonomy, but with friends to lean on when a little direction is needed. A place small enough to see the difference you make, but big enough to grow in your career.

ARE Community

Current Open Positions

 

Frequently asked questions

What does Black Spectacles do?

Black Spectacles provides the resources to help educate and inspire future architect to thrive in their careers. We develop study materials to help candidates pass the ARE, but we also have design tutorials and other resources to help professionals keep pace with new technologies and become licensed architects. We’re working hard to help shape the careers of the people who literally shape the world around us, and to us, there’s no better feeling than that. Come join us!

Is there room for growth?

Absolutely. We’re a pretty small company, so you can actually see the difference you make day in and day out—but we’re also growing a lot, so you can continue to advance in your career as we do.

I don’t have any experience in architecture and design. Does that matter?

We love to work with people who have a passion for architecture, and encourage former architects to join our staff. However even if you don’t have a background in architecture or design, we’ll still lean on you to use your skills and expertise to help us create an amazing experience for our customers.

What’s the management style like?

Micromanagement doesn’t exist here. We hire new people with skills we don’t have so you can do all the stuff we can’t. So it only makes sense to give you the space and autonomy to do exactly what we hired you to do.