What is Ted Mosby's profession for much of the series?

Ted Mosby is an architect for much of How I Met Your Mother. His profession is central to his identity, his ambitions, and several major storylines across the series.

Ted studied architecture at Wesleyan University and moves to New York City to pursue the field. Early in the show, he works at an architecture firm and dreams of designing a major skyscraper. That ambition leads to the Goliath National Bank headquarters project, one of the most important professional challenges in his career.

The series occasionally complicates the answer because Ted later becomes a professor of architecture at Columbia University. He also starts his own unsuccessful firm, Möbius Designs, and takes other temporary professional steps. These developments do not change the standard quiz answer: architecture is his principal vocation throughout most of the story.

The phrase “Ted Mosby, Architect” even becomes a running joke. Barney Stinson uses Ted’s name and profession as an exaggerated pickup line, turning Ted’s earnest career into one of the show’s recurring comic references.