2014-08-05

AUGI Survey 2014

I've been so busy recently that I've completely spaced on blogging about the annual survey! (Though I'm sure you've relished the silence.)

Luckily, I HAVE remembered to repeatedly harass the membership with some emailed reminders. ;)

At any rate, I'm giving you one last chance to increase the accuracy and data for your industry (yeah, I'm looking at you FM folks, there's more than 85 of you out there...).

http://surveymonkey.com/s/augi2014 

I'm closing this survey as soon as I get home from work tomorrow, roughly 5pm central time.

Here are some charts and resources I put together for those emails I mentioned:

Thank you, once again, to everyone who has participated in the Annual AUGI Survey! Members everywhere love seeing this annual report on the state of our industries, and you are the ones who make this happen year after year. Thank you.

To those who have not participated yet, this is one final reminder that you can chime in with some data to represent your industry. Voice your company's experiences with business expansion or contraction, or your own gauge of job security and satisfaction. Which markets does your company serve and how has education affected wages?

And, of course, the (anonymous) salary component. Reporting on your wages gives all users a fair chance to gauge the value of specialties and experience (and all employers a reminder to evaluate the salaries they attach to job titles).

In the last email, I shared advice on requesting a raise, but, don't just take it from me, Forbes and other publications have plenty of advice on when and how to ask for a pay (or benefits) increase:
How To Ask For A Raise -- And Get It
How to Ask for a Raise
If you are more interested in 'Finding a Design Job' in the first place, how about listening to some advice from CAD Manager Mark Kiker on networking, personal branding and job searching, in this six-part podcast series? (mp3 format)

In closing, here is a look back over past survey results, at the average salary for Designers (our most popular job title) from 2003-2013:



We have the expected questions about pay and benefits, but, there is also a chance to share information on what markets your company serves or what specialty services they offer. Do you use the cloud? Why or why not? Have you increased or decreased outsourcing, opened or closed offices, hired or fired staff this year?

So that this year's review can provide measurable and meaningful data, it is important that all AUGI members volunteer a couple of minutes of their time and a little bit of information (which is not in any way connected to your user account and will only be reported in broad groups), so that everyone can get an idea of the current state of their industry.

Even if you've been recently laid off, please take the time to participate (with your most recent job details), and indicate your change in employment because we'd like to know that, too.

If you have any questions, please first refer to the FAQ.

Watch for the results in the September Issue of AUGIWorld.

I wanted to say Thank You! to everyone who has taken the time to contribute to the AUGI Annual Survey, and to remind those who have not, that they still have a couple more weeks to take part. Our responses are looking pretty good, but, we could still use your help to increase the accuracy of the results.


The survey closes on August 6th, so be sure to chime in before then. Results will appear in the September issue of AUGIWorld Magazine.

I hope you caught my HotNews column this month, where the results of our current homepage poll, on annual survey participation, are discussed. Oh, you didn’t? Check it out here:http://www.augi.com/library/salary-survey-participation In addition to discussing the length and anonymity of the survey, there is also a chart of industry participation thus far. Is your discipline underrepresented? Please share the survey link with your coworkers and other colleagues and urge them to help flesh out the dataset, which will increase the accuracy of the results.

If you are logged in, you can download results of past surveys here:

Here are some highlights from the 2013 Annual Survey:



And, finally, after you have taken this year’s survey, you might want to get ready to request a raise from your employer, so here are some tips to help you prepare:http://www.augi.com/library/poll-what-data-have-you-gathered-for-your-end-of-year-review

Thank you, once again, to the members of our community, for always being so willing to share with one another, for the benefit of all.