I'm curious what y'all would think about this dilemma I had last summer after deciding to stay in Houston.
My history: I started with a firm at $14 and moved up to $19/hr after two years before going to grad school.
1) $10/hr, residential
2) $12.50/hr, shitty residential (taking a $1.50 paycut from my initial wages to do the same stuff for a firm whose work I had no respect for)
3) "free", cool design/branding/ex-gensler585 firm
4) $17/hr part-time afterschool gig.
I took 3 (holding my nose) which allowed me to take 4. At the end I got a $1500 "stipend" that gave me about $5/hr plus $1k from the part time gig so I cleared $2.5k for the summer. (I did get IDP points and worked with cool people which did not seem like the vibe at the first two places....)
On the other hand I have friends that worked for $500/week (X10 =$5k). Sounds good? Not when you factor in the fact that they worked 60-80 hour weeks while my bosses didn't have the balls to ask me to work long hours for free.
Your friends were working 60-80 hour weeks and only making $500/week? Is that net or gross? Either way, they weren't exactly making enough to buy that new Lexus.
It sounds like you are happy with your choice and in the end only earned $2,500 less than your friends. Over the long run an extra $2,500 really isn't going to mean a whole lot.
I thought wages in Houston were a bit better than that? Even for students. It's too bad that the best you could do is $3/hr less than what you were making before, and probably costing the firm even less by not paying benefits like health insurance. Then again, that's a different discussion.
If you want approval for your choice, I'll throw you kudos.
Well if you got IDP points then you had to have worked a minimum of 8 weeks consecutively for no less than 35 hours at that firm (that's the current minimum. It was previously a 10-week minimum.)
So $1500/ 35 hours / 8 weeks = $5.35 per hour. And if you worked more than 8 weeks or more than 35 hours per week then you were paid even less per hour.
Personally I would not do this. If intern pay is so awful in Houston then I would have taken that summer to do something else (either something better paying in Houston, or I would have moved to a sublet in some other city and then pounded the pavement there until I found an architecture job.)
I'm quite surprised though that interns have it so tough in Houston, because it seems that there is a chronic shortage there of more experienced people. Houston firms seem to recruit very heavily for people with 5 to 15 years of experience, offering higher salaries and better benefits than are found in other cities of that size.
I has not been my experience that "work for minimum at interesting firm vs. work for massive discount at crap firm" is the only scenario. I worked as an intern for more than one interesting (and well known) firms that did pay their interns the going rate for interns. Not that average intern pay is all that great either - but certainly better than $5 per hour.
Ironically, since I have been working for myself, I have had a few people randomly email me inquiring about interning for free...I must admit it's tempting, but I don't believe it is healthy for the profession.
Apr 4, 06 7:41 pm ·
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working for free or at half pay
I'm curious what y'all would think about this dilemma I had last summer after deciding to stay in Houston.
My history: I started with a firm at $14 and moved up to $19/hr after two years before going to grad school.
1) $10/hr, residential
2) $12.50/hr, shitty residential (taking a $1.50 paycut from my initial wages to do the same stuff for a firm whose work I had no respect for)
3) "free", cool design/branding/ex-gensler585 firm
4) $17/hr part-time afterschool gig.
I took 3 (holding my nose) which allowed me to take 4. At the end I got a $1500 "stipend" that gave me about $5/hr plus $1k from the part time gig so I cleared $2.5k for the summer. (I did get IDP points and worked with cool people which did not seem like the vibe at the first two places....)
On the other hand I have friends that worked for $500/week (X10 =$5k). Sounds good? Not when you factor in the fact that they worked 60-80 hour weeks while my bosses didn't have the balls to ask me to work long hours for free.
thoughts?
too many numbers this early in the morning. i'll check back later.
Your friends were working 60-80 hour weeks and only making $500/week? Is that net or gross? Either way, they weren't exactly making enough to buy that new Lexus.
It sounds like you are happy with your choice and in the end only earned $2,500 less than your friends. Over the long run an extra $2,500 really isn't going to mean a whole lot.
I thought wages in Houston were a bit better than that? Even for students. It's too bad that the best you could do is $3/hr less than what you were making before, and probably costing the firm even less by not paying benefits like health insurance. Then again, that's a different discussion.
If you want approval for your choice, I'll throw you kudos.
summer internship wages in Houston are horrendous.
anyone who works at zero pay is stupid and undermines the needs and respect of other people
that's the dilemma...work for minimum wage at an interesting firm or work for massive discount at a crap firm. what would you do?
no one in houston is cool enough to work for free....and I'm very familiar with the architecture scene there.
Well if you got IDP points then you had to have worked a minimum of 8 weeks consecutively for no less than 35 hours at that firm (that's the current minimum. It was previously a 10-week minimum.)
So $1500/ 35 hours / 8 weeks = $5.35 per hour. And if you worked more than 8 weeks or more than 35 hours per week then you were paid even less per hour.
Personally I would not do this. If intern pay is so awful in Houston then I would have taken that summer to do something else (either something better paying in Houston, or I would have moved to a sublet in some other city and then pounded the pavement there until I found an architecture job.)
I'm quite surprised though that interns have it so tough in Houston, because it seems that there is a chronic shortage there of more experienced people. Houston firms seem to recruit very heavily for people with 5 to 15 years of experience, offering higher salaries and better benefits than are found in other cities of that size.
I has not been my experience that "work for minimum at interesting firm vs. work for massive discount at crap firm" is the only scenario. I worked as an intern for more than one interesting (and well known) firms that did pay their interns the going rate for interns. Not that average intern pay is all that great either - but certainly better than $5 per hour.
I absolutely hate the idea of working for free...
Ironically, since I have been working for myself, I have had a few people randomly email me inquiring about interning for free...I must admit it's tempting, but I don't believe it is healthy for the profession.
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