I couldn't agree more. There is a weird phobia in my place of business about discussing this sort of thing that I have not seen elsewhere. I started right out of school as a consultant at a botique systems integrator, and we all knew what one another made - it was like the #1 popular topic over drinks after work. It was funny to see how much better one guy's offer was just because the HR director and him knew the same girl in college or whatever. And that was in 1999 when salaries in IT would go up whenever the clock chimed. I was hired one month for $48,000 and then 5 months later I got a good friend the same job at my same company and his opening offer was $54,000. Go figure.
I left that firm to do independent consulting for about a year and a half after 9/11. Just due to dumb luck of timing and a great client, I made an absolute killing, as a lot of my colleagues did around that time. I pulled down over $150/hr and plenty of hours over 40. Unfortunately for my nest egg, I burned out on travel and decided to settle down for a while.
Now that I'm in corporate-land, it's like salaries are suddenly a taboo discussion topic. I make a good amount of money ($117000/yr base) for what I do (Sr. Software & Integration Architect reporting to a Director at an $8Bil multi-national company) - it's a huge step down from contracting rates, but there are compensations - health insurance & vacation to name the obvious. But I have no clue what anyone else on my floor makes - not even my direct team members.
I'd be interested to see what other architects out there are making, especially at larger firms. Of course, "architect" means so many different things at so many places that it may not end up being a useful metric of measure, but I'm still curious.
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I couldn't agree more. There is a weird phobia in my place of business about discussing this sort of thing that I have not seen elsewhere. I started right out of school as a consultant at a botique systems integrator, and we all knew what one another made - it was like the #1 popular topic over drinks after work. It was funny to see how much better one guy's offer was just because the HR director and him knew the same girl in college or whatever. And that was in 1999 when salaries in IT would go up whenever the clock chimed. I was hired one month for $48,000 and then 5 months later I got a good friend the same job at my same company and his opening offer was $54,000. Go figure.
I left that firm to do independent consulting for about a year and a half after 9/11. Just due to dumb luck of timing and a great client, I made an absolute killing, as a lot of my colleagues did around that time. I pulled down over $150/hr and plenty of hours over 40. Unfortunately for my nest egg, I burned out on travel and decided to settle down for a while.
Now that I'm in corporate-land, it's like salaries are suddenly a taboo discussion topic. I make a good amount of money ($117000/yr base) for what I do (Sr. Software & Integration Architect reporting to a Director at an $8Bil multi-national company) - it's a huge step down from contracting rates, but there are compensations - health insurance & vacation to name the obvious. But I have no clue what anyone else on my floor makes - not even my direct team members.
I'd be interested to see what other architects out there are making, especially at larger firms. Of course, "architect" means so many different things at so many places that it may not end up being a useful metric of measure, but I'm still curious.