Archinect
anchor

Salary Poll statistics?

Alan

Could the salary poll be used to generate statistics? I don't imagine - although don't really know - that it would be difficult for someone to write a script to average salaries by age, gender, position, office-type, location and so on.

While the information here is very interesting, it really isn't very meaningful or useful until it can be organised. Given the number of entries, it looks to be potentially a very good resourse. I assume this was thought of and planned for during the poll's inception, but when if so is it to happen??

 
May 5, 05 9:16 pm
A Center for Ants?

interesting idea. maybe i'll try to pull the info into a spreadsheet and do some quick stats... i'll update if i do...

May 5, 05 9:22 pm  · 
 · 
Alan

Within the topic of salaries, so beloved of us all, I find it curious that there is so little advancement in compensation as experience is gained and consolidated. I graduated just last summer with a BA and about five months experience. I am getting $35,000 a year, and probably could have pushed that up a little. In a few years after a MArch and practical experience I will be 300% more useful than I am now - at least. Then I will be paid around $50-60,000 if I am lucky.

Perhaps I could consolidate my question thus: how can one maximise one's marketability and consequent compensation??

In many ways, a MArch at a good 'design' school seems superfluous. The realities of most practice mean that a good enough design understanding has been developed during undergraduate years and with subsequent study of buildings when on trips and general observation and personal interest. Or so I feel - I see no particular way in which those around me are any more developed as designers per se. They can realise their ideas with technical and organisational knowledge, but as a trade off they seem more tied to precedent and much less able or inclined to experiment or question. I am not talking here of radically questioning what they are doing, it is not about blobs or surfaces or anything so extravagantly academic as that. Yes, a good degree is of personal worth, but at the end of the day I find more consolation in the people I love and warm, sunny afternoons, and to be with them, to have a family, to have a life, costs money. How can you maximise your importance within a company, maximise your income and position, and maintain a satisfactory level of fun?? Why go through the waffle of a design education, where so many have never built??

I guess this is a million dollar question. In my own thinking - I guess somewhere at the interface of design and construction. Really being of use to a firm means really being able to build. A good CA is worth at least 2 good designers.

Sorry - thinking out-loud.

May 5, 05 9:32 pm  · 
 · 
form64

design AND build it.

even a house and you can go from 50k to 250k in one year.

architecture alone will suck financially for a LONG time guys.

May 5, 05 9:47 pm  · 
 · 
kissy_face

what fresh M.Arch graduate gets 60,000 a year? Is that firm hiring?

May 5, 05 10:07 pm  · 
 · 
R.A. Rudolph

or you can go from 60k to 20k, speaking from experience... starting a business is not easy, and it takes time to make the money. the potential is there, but so is the risk... just thought I'd temper the design/build excitement a bit.

May 5, 05 10:10 pm  · 
 · 
Alan

Maybe I wasn't clear. I included a few years of experience with the MArch in that stipulation. Although, yes, you're probably looking at full qualification and about 5 years experience before you hit that, I guess??

This leads on quite well... I'm not really from around here, so forgive me if my reasoning isn't sound. I graduated from the UK, from a good school, and had intended to return to the UK to study for my diploma, before taking some exams and generally getting on with life there. In February I came to San Francisco to do 'Part I' practical training - kind of like IDP for you. After arriving, perhaps naturally, it occured to me that I might want to study here also. Maybe to return to the UK, maybe to practice here. In looking at universities and talking to people, I suppose I have become involved in the great debate that surrounds American study and practice.

Becoming involved in this debate is to realise more than in the UK quite what you are buying, or signing youself up to, for the rest of your career when you begin a programme. For me before economics were more abstract, there was never the worry of paying a semester's bill, or finding rent; government loans are easily obtainable by all, and will cover the cost of a year's living; tuition is minimal, about $2000/year, and even then 60% of the student populous need not pay this. Of course things are changing, and we are approaching a more commercialised system of education. By the time I return things will be much more costly.

Who's happy with their education, their job and their salary?? Surely not everyone in here has needed to work as a developer to get a decent wage. What exactly did you do, and where do you pin point yourself in the market?

Thanks.

May 6, 05 12:06 am  · 
 · 
sure2016

Is there anyway to search the salary poll? For example, could one search for a specific city? There are over 1300 entries now.

May 8, 05 1:02 pm  · 
 · 
vado retro

five years and an march will not get you sixty k. sorry.

May 8, 05 1:26 pm  · 
 · 
dia

What is the average American salary? [average, as in all industries/Sectors/Professions]

May 8, 05 7:35 pm  · 
 · 

average is $56,637 according to salary.com, but that is higher than most can expect. partners make $100k to $200k. $60k for licenced architect with MArch and 5 years exp. is not likely to happen in the states, Alan.

If you want to make money as an architect developing seems the way to go. Or maybe teach...

i wonder if the starchitects make any more than the corporate wonks (SOM-ers,etc)? And how much of their income comes from teaching?

May 8, 05 8:05 pm  · 
 · 
dia

I was actually wondering about the average for the average American - architects and non-architects/retail workers/cops/office slaves/pilots/slaughterhouse technicians included...

Just wanting to get a grip on how an architects salary in the US compares with averyone else.

Cheers.

May 8, 05 8:19 pm  · 
 · 
Alan

Really? Does the university one attends make much difference to salary? Of course, it is experience in the field which really defines a position, but the university attended often affects opportunities to learn, take more responsibility and advance. Things aren't so equal, as much as people might like them to be.

Do ivy grads get paid more, ON AVERAGE?

Thanks.

May 8, 05 8:31 pm  · 
 · 
evilplatypus

Pick up a hammer, and popund nails for 5 years. Then work in the estimating department of a construction firm. Dont worry about architecture education, if you got it you got it.

May 8, 05 8:36 pm  · 
 · 
Alan

Could you meaningfully expand at all?

May 8, 05 8:39 pm  · 
 · 
duke19_98

What's a good average yearly % pay raise to estimate your salary 5 years after MArch?

May 9, 05 2:37 pm  · 
 · 
Ms Beary

frels - i don't have a masters, but a bachelors, and I get 10% raises every year, which sounds pretty good, but even such after 5 years I will be getting just over 40k. I do work for a pretty low paying firm tho.

May 10, 05 11:46 am  · 
 · 
Devil Dog

strawberry, what region are you in?

May 10, 05 11:56 am  · 
 · 
Ms Beary

small city, midwest.

May 10, 05 12:06 pm  · 
 · 

Block this user


Are you sure you want to block this user and hide all related comments throughout the site?

Archinect


This is your first comment on Archinect. Your comment will be visible once approved.

  • ×Search in: