no experience i think you did pretty well for yourself. most firms want to pay in the $15/hr range for interns like yourself. perhaps you could have gotten more out of them, but in the end if you're happy with the job and you're making enough to live, who cares what the intern down the street is being paid. happiness is all relative...

relax ... you did fine ... the 2005 aia compensation survey shows the median entry level intern is paid $17.45 / hour and the average is $16.44 ... that's for graduates with a professional degree from an accedited school, so i'd say you're in darn good shape.

oh ... by the way, those are california figures

$15/hr no way!! i was offered $15/hr at a firm i was interning during high school and that was like 5 years ago. it's shocking how wages haven't increased

oh my god ... another "architects aren't paid enough" rant

shocking? welcome to architecture. nothing against you, but you'll be costing firms more than you're worth. most firms have no interest in paying someone with your experience level all that much.

not rant...just surprised.

zink,

that's a good wage compared to $15/hr, what i'm getting now and i'm going broke but i just can't pass up all the things my boss is willing to teach me here...when i was hired a year ago i just received my b.arch and didn't have an hour of experience...

in what city will you be working?

"shocking? welcome to architecture. nothing against you, but you'll be costing firms more than you're worth. most firms have no interest in paying someone with your experience level all that much."

...hmm that is quite true. even heard and read about interns working for free at big firms too

marin

i was just going to write that before i read your last post. most name firms offer a stipend...i mean we're talking about $500/week. the rest of your "salary" comes from knowing that you're working for [insert starchitect here].

Unfortunately I can't pay the PG&E with just the "salary" above what i'd get at a firm like [insert starchitect here]'s.

I'm in SF taking home slightly above what Zink asked for, with NO arch school but about 2 years drafting/design experience at the time of my hire.

It definitely depends on the type/size of the firm.

Zink, how big is the firm in Marin?

What is this thing in the profession about employers asking you for a salary proposal, for entry level positions? I got asked the same question today. Are they trying to get us to lower the salary ranges by forcing us to bid against ourselves? Cheapshot.

perhaps zink can expound, but our firm routinely asks employment candidates their economic expectations - our view is that no individual job in architecture has a fixed price - it's always a combination of the work required and the capabilities of the individual performing the work. we find it helpful to have some idea of what the candidate has in mind before we get too far down the road in the discussion. sometimes we work to the number the candidate provides / sometimes we don't. as often as not, we will make an offer above what the candidates states, if we feel that our existing compensation structure supports a higher number. but, we also will make an offer below the candidate's number if we don't feel the candidate can contribute at that level.

we respect a candidate's right to set a price for his/her services - sometimes we accept that number / sometimes we don't.

the compensation conversation has many important uses - it helps both parties understand the other's expectations - it also helps clarify issues that may not be entirely obvious when just a raw number is presented - for example, we pay younger professional staff for overtime - some comparable firms in our community do not pay for ot - when we work through the numbers with a candidate, we often find that even though our base salary offer may be lower than some of the competition, the candidate's total W-2 income at our firm is likely to be higher and the candidate may not be required to work the same number of hours that would be required at the competing firm