As a recent Graduate How much $ am I worth

Hello to All,
I have a degree in Industrial Design from one of the top school’s in the USA and have been working at a job that is just ok for the past 6 months. I Know that all of my roommates are making at least twice as much $ as myself. So does anyone have a range of Salary and benefits info that I could us to compare. Thanks for all the feed back. Best of luck in the New Year :idea:
I know that location has alot to do with the question. I live in Chicago,IL

I can’t give you a good answer but I’m sure that most would require more info to help answer your question a little better.

  1. You might want to list what type of design your in, product, gd, POP, etc. * I personally don’t think what school you went to matters (good and bad students at every school), what matters is portfolio and resume but it seems you are trying to stay anonymous.

  2. You might want to list how much intern exp you had

  3. how much/what type computer experience you have

Those would prob help others w/ more time in design guage better what you’re worth. What are your roomates doing? Not design? Design?

Just remember. If you’re at a firm and your young (22-23) it’s better to be were you are gaining diverse exp working on different project then making a lot of money. I hope you start getting answers.

I have experience working with a design consulting firm for four years while I was in College. And have a very open eye to design. I also have experience studying in Germany. My portfolio is growing but with my new job I spend more time managing projects and doing paper work rather than actually designing and using the great thinking skills that I have developed over the years. Re: My roommates are also designers and in the same position that I was in they just had some better contacts to the industry when we graduated from school. I have looked on www.salary.com but I am not sure how accurate these figures are. $37,000- 50,000. I agree I would rather have the experience over the pay but in the current position I feel that I have reached a point that could be the peak that my boss is interested. I need to be in a position that I have other designers to look up to. Any other responses would be helpful- Thanks

Check out Aquent and AIGA’s white papers. They did a surveyof design salaries that includes ID.


The AIGA/Aquent Survey of Design Salaries 2003:
http://marcom.aquent.com/AboutUs/whitepapers.html

about this much. . . .

There is also an IDSA compensation guide published annually if you are an IDer.

Also, sharpie, you know those americans don’t take those canadian pennies, so quit tryin’ to give them out!