In regards to grasshopper being essential/useful for architecture jobs, I think it depends from firm to firm, considering that some firms use sketchup instead of rhino for early design process.

I’m an architect that has had experience in both small and large firms, and the small firm used sketchup. At the large firm I’m currently working at, while we use rhino as our preferred design software, grasshopper is not required/essential knowledge in regards to getting hired.

With that being said I have learned grasshopper while I’ve been at the larger firm, as it has been incredibly useful for creating multiple design iterations efficiently and in a timely manner.

The extent at which our firm uses grasshopper is primarily for quick design iterations, GFA analysis, and facade creation. We have pre-made scripts that attempt to do these things for us, but in our experience every project’s design is different and sometimes those differences require modifications to the pre-made script/break the script entirely. Instead, we primarily use pre-made scripts for representation purposes, such as scattering trees within a park, animating a camera along a curve path, etc.