<p>Depending on your talent and skill architecture can be either a great profession, or a very tough way to make a living. I thought I would just put some facts down as I know them. My firm does fairly large commercial and institutional projects, and I think we are pretty typical for firms our size in this area.</p>
<p>Starting salary straight out of school with a professional degree; $45,000. You are eligible for a 10% bonus. </p>
<p>We put between 8%to 12% of your annual salary into your 401K, some matching and some end of year lump sum.</p>
<p>Full health and dental, we don’t pay for your dependent coverage, but we subsidize it.</p>
<p>40 hours of training a year. Company pays for your time, offers many in-house courses and gives you a budget of about $1,500. The budget is higher as you gain experience.</p>
<p>We have four junior principals in the office. They have between 10 to 15 years of experience. Salary of around $100k, with a 30% bonus eligibility and a $9,000 a year car allowance. Two are managers, one is a designer, and one is in business development. They have all been with us over 10 years.</p>
<p>We are always looking for design talent. We visit perhaps 6 schools a year, interview 200 kids, make 8 to 10 offers, get perhaps five who accept. Many of these will make design contributions, but perhaps one out of ten will have the ability to be a ‘clean sheet designer’ (start with a clean sheet and a program). That does not mean they will not have a great career, rise to a leadership position and be well compensated. Most come to recognize where their real skills lay, others will bounce around a while before they figure it out.</p>
<p>This is not investment banking, but overall I don’t think it is a bad way to make a living. </p>
<p>Regards,
rick</p>