Mistress of the Dorkness: AUGIWorld Magazine

Showing posts with label AUGIWorld Magazine. Show all posts

2026-07-01

Salary Survey: My Announcement

Some of you may have noticed that the AUGI Annual Salary Survey is currently underway. See the image below for a summary of current industry representation.

I began running this survey in it's 3rd year (2004), and in every year since (plus the year I did 3 regional Salary Reports around the world), which makes this year my 25th Salary Survey report.

I figured that's a good year to go out on, so this will be my final salary survey. The board was notified a few weeks ago, so they can begin planning who will replace me, and hopefully bring a new vision to this unique resource.

Feel free to check out the AECO Salary Survey Archives to see past reports.

Thank you everyone who has contributed to this survey over the years, and consistently made the September issue of AUGIWorld Magazine the single most popular issue (yes, even over the New Features issues) every time.

The survey will be open through July 13th, so please participate (and encourage your colleagues to do so as well. https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/2026AUGISurvey

Also? If you're interested in how Owners are using BIM deliverables post-occupancy, please join myself and my boss for this webcast on July 15th.

EDIT: On Demand Viewing available here: https://resources.imaginit.com/facilities-management/aligning-revit-deliverables-with-owner-expectations?utm_campaign=2607_Revit_Deliverables_Owners

2023-07-11

AUGI Survey Reminders

The majority of responses to the AUGI Annual Survey do come as a direct result of our email blasts (if you are an AUGI member, please check your settings to ensure you receive AUGI Bulletins, which is any news from AUGI, separate from ads).

Just for fun, I thought I would post some of the content from the email blasts that we send out. Yes, they are primarily a call to action, but I also try to include information, in the form of charts from last year, or a snapshot of the current year's survey, that our members might find interesting.

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/2023AUGISurvey

WIB - Women in BIM is also conducting a survey right now, not affiliated with AUGI, but as long as you're in a mood to take surveys, feel free to jump into theirs

The Global Work Survey: BIM and digital roles across the built environment (surveymonkey.co.uk)

Salary Survey Launch Email

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. Our Hot Topic page has questions that might vary from year to year, in order to explore how (and how quickly) our work is changing.

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 (anonymously, data 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 have recently been laid off, furloughed, or have had reduced hours please take the time to participate (with your most recent full time job details), and indicate your change in employment, because we would like to know that, too.

Reminder Email

Below is a chart of industry representation in the survey so far. Is your field well represented? Please share the survey link with your coworkers and other colleagues and urge them to add to the dataset, which will increase the accuracy of the results.

If you are logged in, you can download results of past surveys here: AUGI Salary Survey Archives. In addition to the Survey review from Melanie Stone, the 2022 download also includes advice from Mark Kiker on justifying staffing increases, and KaDe King on how to negotiate pay raises or starting salaries.

Here are the Top 5 Hottest Jobs last year:

And these are the Top 10 Most Appreciated Jobs last year:

Here are the Top 10 highest paying design discipline specialties in 2022:

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 resources to help you in negotiating salary: Find Your Price and Use the Numbers.

Even if you have recently been laid off, furloughed, or have had reduced hours please take the time to participate (with your most recent full time job details), and indicate your change in employment in those respective questions, because we would like to know that, too.

The encouraging news is that, from responses so far, only 1% of the industry is reporting a reduction in hours, furlough or layoff in 2023! That is an improvement over recent years.

For those affected, please remember to network online to get connected with those companies still hiring, the AUGI careers page, the AUGI forums or our LinkedIn group. You can also list yourself on the AUGI Resource Directory.

Final 2023 Survey Reminder

Voice your company’s experiences with business expansion or contraction, or your own gauge of job security and layoffs. Which markets does your company serve and how do those specialties affect wages and job security. Is AI having an impact? How are staffing concerns and remote work adoption?

In closing, the below images provide a look back over past survey results. at the average salary* for Designers (our most popular job title), as well as the industries who reported the largest raises last year.

2023-06-12

AUGI 2023 Annual Survey

It's that time of year again, folks! The running of the AUGI Annual Survey. Where YOU get to reveal how the industry is really faring.

How secure is your job? How busy is your company? Are you using AI? Are you back to office?

Take the Survey

Open until July 18th!

(5 minutes, anonymous, results in the September issue of AUGIWorld Magazine)

If you have not taken the survey, please feel free to watch this video where I took the survey and you can hear my dulcet tones talking through my thoughts on how I answered some of the questions.

YouTube walkthrough of AUGI Salary Survey

This image is a snapshot from the 2022 survey, showing average page, and highlighting a couple of facts. Feel free to check the salary survey archives to see past surveys in full.

This is a snapshot of our survey results so far in 2023. Civil/Surveying/GIS has a pretty good lead on participation. If you'd like to see more representation of your industry, please share the survey link with your coworkers and colleagues.

Finally, this is a snapshot of the most common markets served (industry served).

2021-06-25

What a Facility Owner wants you to know

I cannot count how many times I have spoken to the AEC industry on a perspective from the Owner's side. It is so important to have our voice heard, for design teams to learn from us as we learn from them and we meet together to create a sustainable lifecycle for our buildings and data.

But with the last team who approached me, I was not sure what to present on, and the organizer, Karen Kensak, suggested something like Digital Twins. I was like, UGH not another shiny technology, when people do not even deliver what they are contracted for most of the time.

So... that became the topic of my conversation. They do not record their presentations, so I decided to record my own and post it, because it is a really important discussion.

Behind every technical analysis I have responded with over the years, is a disappointment that most design teams are not consistently meeting contracted requirements.

Yes, I lay plenty of blame on the Owner's side, from the PMs not understanding or caring to Finance closing out books and sending out final payments before requirements have been met... but just because someone lets you get away with something, does not mean you should.

If you do not care to watch an entire video, and prefer podcasts instead, I did touch on some of the same topics (although a little less forthrightly) on an episode of BIMThoughts last year. After hearing the playback of that interview, I felt I should make a presentation addressing how I always dance around the real issue for us owners, but did not get around to it... until today.

We have such passion and energy in our industry, among those of us who share knowledge. But not everyone is like us. They do not understand or do not care or have too many time pressures, whatever the issue is, if we close the loop, it will benefit all of us.

if you do not see a video embedded here, try switching your browser to "View Web Version" or click directly on this YouTube link.

Not only will it make the next renovation easier, faster, and cheaper for all parties involved, it should help our economy as a whole. As I refer back to (yet again) the NIST study that shows that there are billions of dollars of lost information in our industry every year, most of which is borne by the capital facilities portion, aka, our clients.

I also mentioned in my talk, the article I wrote about the 'alphabet soup' of acronyms for FM, so here is the link: TLA/FLAs for FIM/IWMS

Facilities Management Q&A forum: https://www.augi.com/forums/forumdisp... Salary Survey 2021 https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/2021AUGIsurvey Are you looking for a new job? https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/2021JobSearch

2014-12-28

2014 Polls and Surveys Roundup

At the end of the year, I reflect on the events I've attended and the work I've done. One of my favorite side projects is my monthly column in HotNews (orange button in the righthand column), which are inspired by the Polls and Surveys run on the AUGI site. Thank you to all of the members who have taken the time to contribute data for the community!

Review of the 2012 polls and surveys

http://www.augi.com/library/2012-surveys-in-review

Review of the 2013 polls and surveys

http://www.augi.com/library/poll-2013-surveys-in-review

January

When did you join AUGI?

http://www.augi.com/library/homepage-poll-when-did-you-join-augi

February

Job searches and talent retention

http://www.augi.com/library/homepage-poll-are-you-job-searching

March

Poll: Are you, or will you be soon, conducting a search for a new job?

(Annual poll, containing historic data.)

http://www.augi.com/library/job-search-poll-2014

April

Poll: Have you ever drafted by hand?

http://www.augi.com/library/board-drafting-poll

June

Survey: Industry & Product Communities, with a focus on Marine industries

http://www.augi.com/library/survey-communities-with-a-focus-on-marine-industries

July

Poll: Do you participate in the AUGI Annual Survey? (If not, why?)

http://www.augi.com/library/salary-survey-participation

August

Survey: The average AUGI member

http://www.augi.com/library/meet-your-typical-augi-member

September

Poll: Are you attending Autodesk University 2014?

http://www.augi.com/library/autodesk-university-2014-attendance

Survey: Annual Survey

Demographics, salary, job security, job satisfaction, workplace mobility, disciplines, markets served, cloud adoption and connectivity

http://www.augi.com/images/uploads/surveys/SalarySurvey2014.pdf

October

Survey: Salary Survey Supplement

(historical data, pay by job title)

http://www.augi.com/library/salary-survey-supplement

November

Poll: Is your boss older than you?

http://www.augi.com/library/poll-is-your-boss-older-than-you

December

Poll: Do you have a fear of speaking in public?

http://www.augi.com/library/poll-do-you-have-a-fear-of-public-speaking

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.

http://www.augi.com/surveys/current-survey/current-survey

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:

http://www.augi.com/surveys/salary-surveys/previous-salary-surveys/

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.

2013-06-14

Dork Side Tips: Selection Selection

I recently wrote an article, for AUGIWorld Magazine, called Tips from the Dork Side. It can be found in it's complete form in the AUGIWorld Archives, and in the AUGI Library. Hehe, don't you love the article image? Debbie Gwaltney, the layout artist on this issue, found this picture and thought it was just too perfect. It makes me smile every time I see it.

At any rate, my favorite tips for AutoCAD are almost always short and sweet, so, I'm going to post them here in little bite-sized chunks.

Selection Selection

There are a few different ways to go about selecting entities to examine or modify, depending on your specific needs at the time. If you were to select every single entity in a drawing, when you bring up the Properties palette, you notice that some properties are not available for editing. That is because different entity types do not all have the same properties. You have to filter out dissimilar entities, so that you can access the controls you need. The following paragraphs contain four different ways of creating selection sets, select your favorite!

One of the easier ways to get a group of objects together for mass editing would be through the Isolate command, available on the Layers panel of the Home tab. You select an object or objects on the layers you want to see, and this command will hide the remainder of the layers for you. You can also start and reverse the command by typing in LAYISO and LAYUNISO.

A more precise method for selecting objects is Quick Select. You can find this command on your right-click menu, on the top of the Properties palette, or by typing QSELECT. In the command’s dialog box, you see that you’ve got a couple more options to get more specific in your object selection. You can control what portion of your drawing the selection will draw from, which types of entities are included in your selection set, which properties the desired objects have, and what values you want to include or exclude. Say, I want to grab all Polyline entities whose layer color is <> not equal to BYLAYER. I might not want to grab all entities in the drawing and set them all to bylayer, because I might have some annotation in the drawing that needs to remain a distinct color for some temporary reason. Or, perhaps I want to grab all Text on layer A-Rm-Num that is less than 9” tall, I can quickly and easily do that here.

If you use the Filter command, bringing up the Object Selection Filters dialog, you see how precise you can be in selecting objects, and you can even save the filter criteria for future use.

Another, more recent, addition is the Select Similar command. It has been available in vertical products for many years, and I was thrilled when it was finally added to vanilla AutoCAD. If you’re using release 2010 or earlier, you can find lisp routines which will provide this functionality. There is code available in the forums and on myMistress of the Dorkness blog, along with instructions on adding it to your right-click menu. I like the way it works, being a part of your shortcut menu, because you don’t have to interrupt your workflow by using a dialog box or moving out of the drawing area to click a button. Type SELECTSIMILAR then SE to access the Select Similar Settings dialog box and dictate which criteria you prefer to gather your selection by.

Venmo tip jar:

2013-05-31

Almost that time again... salary survey time

I will be posting the Salary Survey again soon (it is published in the September issue of AUGIWorld Magazine, so I like to take August to calculate the results, and run it for 6-8 weeks).

At any rate, as I mentioned in this post ( http://mistressofthedorkness.blogspot.com/2012/07/augi-2012-salary-survey-is-revamped.html ). Previously, I had between 10-15 questions, primarily focusing on salary, but, now:

This year's survey consists of 25 questions, roughly broken down into four areas:

Your demographic

Your role

Your company demographic

Your industry's state

As always, prior to launching the survey, I go back through all of the emails I've received regarding the survey for inspiration. BUT! if you take a look at the 2012 survey results and come up with any suggestions, now is the time to send them in to me (remember the FAQs, too).

And, don't forget, some of the other authors like to throw in additional information and advice on salaries and management cares. Have something specific you'd like to see in your favorite AUGIWorld column? Contact one of the Content Managers to make a suggestion. They have an 'editorial calendar' that gives them a specific theme to follow each month, but, for September, they and their authors can come up with their own ideas.

Oh, and a refresher on the questions (remember, it's always anonymous, in no way connected to your username):
Demographic

What is your gender?
What is your age?
Where are you located?
Where is your workplace located?
What is the highest level of education you have completed?
How many years have you worked in the industry?
What is your annual salary? best estimate of your base pay, plus any normal bonuses, commissions and overtime.
How has your salary changed in the past year?
Have you experienced a change in employment in the past 12 months?

Job

Job Title
Industry
Markets Served / Specialties (if applicable, multiple selections allowed)
What is your overall level of Job Satisfaction?
How Secure do you feel your job is?

Company

How many years have you worked for your current employer?
How many people does your company employ?
What is the average number of hours you work per week?
What employee benefits are available to you?
How did you find your current role?

Industry

Has your company done any of the following in the past 12 months?
If you are thinking about quitting your job, what factors played a role in your decision?
Do you run CAD / BIM in the Cloud?
(if applicable) What percentage of your company's projects are BIM?
If you are using BIM, why?
How connected are you? new question for 2013

I look forward to examining our industry with you, please remember how valuable your information is and take part in the survey once it is live!

2012-07-12

AUGI 2012 Salary Survey is Revamped!

As promised last year, I decided to take a fresh look at the AUGI Salary Survey this time around. The questions hadn't changed much from the original format I inherited when I started with the 3rd survey, so the whole thing was pretty much scrapped, and we've started with a clean slate.
I appreciate all of the input from fellow AUGI members, as well as my instructors and professors at SLU.

This year's survey consists of 24 questions, roughly broken down into four areas:
Your demographic
Your role
Your company demographic
Your industry's state

As always, this is an anonymous survey. I am the only one who will ever have access to the database of individual entries, the answers cannot be tied back to you or your company in any way, and the information will only be reported in broad groups.

I did bring back some popular questions that will enable us to trend back for a couple of years. But, there will also be some new questions to help focus on the state of our industries.

Did you receive an increase or decrease in pay? Are you thinking about leaving your job? If so, why?
What market does your company serve or how do they specialize? Has your workload increased or decreased this year? Has your outsourcing increased or decreased this year? Have you let subscriptions lapse or purchased new software and hardware? What percentage of your projects are BIM, and, if you are doing BIM, why? Is cloud computing a go or no-go? How did you find your current role, through networking or advertising?

The AUGI Annual Salary Survey is about so much more than just salaries.
BUT! Of course, we all need to participate in order to have data from which we can draw valid conclusions about which industries are performing the best, which have the happiest and most secure employees and so much more.

Application Engineers, Programmers, Architects, Designers, Managers and Coordinators (CAD/BIM/Project, etc), Drafters, Trainers, Interns, etc... speak and be heard!

The survey ends August 4th, get your answers in now and see the results in the September 2012 issue of AUGIWorld Magazine!!!

(wordle mashup of markets served and specialties)

2011-09-22

2011 AUGI Salary Survey - Additional Salary Resources

It's that time again... the AUGI Annual Salary Survey.

2011 marks the 10th anniversary of the survey!

If you would like to see how much drafters, designers, architects, engineers, project managers, bim managers, cad managers and more earn, check out pages 6-13 of the September 2011 issue of AUGIWorld Magazine.

Additionally, some of you might want to check out the Revit API column in this month's issue. Elizabeth Connor did some research and conducted interviews to put together some insightful commentary on how BIM has affected job prospects and pay in the architectural field in her article "Up Next: Your Architecture Career, 3.0."

Additional resources:

As always, I encourage everyone to use multiple resources when determining their professional worth. What is a good hourly wage? What is a respectable salary? How does the pay vary between industries, locations, job levels, company sizes and other factors? No one single source is going to give you all of the answers you're looking for, and a single source might not convince your superiors during review time, so, go in well armed with plenty of information.

Just for CAD/BIM types:
AUGI Salary Survey - trade organization polls it's members annually on their current pay and other factors

CAD Manager's Survey - annual survey of CAD Managers conducted by Robert Green and published by CADalyst magazine

General Salary Information:
Indeed - job posting search engine estimates salaries based upon current job advertisements

NACE Salary Calculator - Uses filtering technologies, based on information from the US government sources such as the DOL, BLS, Census, etc.

PayScale Cost of Living Calculator - that one is pretty self-explanatory

Salary.com - I don't tend to like the job titles offered for comparison to my search terms, but, it is a well-known site

CareerBliss - user-submitted salary results by company and job title

Wolfram Alpha - a computational engine that has an answer for just about anything

Seek - "the Great Australian Paycheck Report"

Industry-specific:
EETimes Global Salary and Opinion Survey - annual poll of electronics design engineers, design managers, technologists and business leaders

Architect Annual Salary Survey - magazine of the AIA

Facility Management Salary Database - FacilitiesNet salary filtering for CAFM-related professions

Do you have some industry-specific sources of salary information? Please share them...

Venmo tip jar:

2011-08-18

We can do better, folks - Salary Survey closes August 19th

http://www.augi.com/surveys/take-the-current-survey/salary-survey-2011/

http://www.augi.com/surveys/salary-survey-results/salary-survey-questions-and-faqs/

As it stands right now, here are the Salary Survey response numbers for the past 10 years.

I realize some participation has probably dropped off due to layoffs, but, with so many AUGI members out there (and people who haven't yet joined), we can surely drum up some more responses before the survey closes tomorrow night.
This has always been a community effort folks, and the 10's of thousands of people who will download these survey results should be participating. As always, results are collected without being connected to usernames, and I am the only person who ever touches the raw data, data will be published in broad groups only.

Here is a snapshot of replies so far, is your industry underrepresented?

Mine is... when I realized how badly, I hit the Facilities Management discussion forums and shot off a few emails, encouraging my peers to take part.

The 10th Annual AUGI Salary Survey closes tomorrow. Please take the survey by tomorrow night (August 19th, 2011) and encourage your peers to do the same.

Thank you for contributing to the community! The results will be printed in AUGIworld Magazine next month.

2011-08-01

10th Annual AUGI Salary Survey

It's already that time again (and I, for one, cannot believe it). The AUGI Annual Salary Survey... and not just any annual... but, our 10th run!

Drafters, Designers, Architects, Engineers, Trainers, Surveyors, etc from all industries can volunteer a little bit of information to give the AUGI community meaningful data for an idea of salaries (pay/wages/rates), benefits, job satisfaction and more.

As reported at the top of the survey form, the results of this survey will be published in the September issue of AUGIWorld Magazine.
If you'd like to know more, please read the AUGI Salary Survey Frequently Asked Questions page.

Click here to take the 2011 survey (sorry, you do need to be logged in, so that we can make sure folks aren't skewing the results by answering multiple times).

Here is a snapshot from the 2010 AUGI Annual Salary Survey , which shows the type of users who participated. Don't think your industry is very well-represented? Please share the link with some colleagues and ask them to take part.

A couple of fast stats from the 2010 survey:

The number of BIM Managers doubled from 2009 to 2010
Sadly enough, the number of members receiving a reduction in pay quintupled
The highest paying industry was Petroleum/Gas/Biofuels
74% of respondents felt their job was Secure
Women make up 16.5% of respondents

2011-05-22

Recent Random AUGI resources

Alright, you all know I love AUGI and all of it's talented volunteers, right?

Well, just in case you're not a big dork, and do not follow me on Twitter, here is a list of resources I recently shared there, just to ensure that everyone gets to see them. Have a scroll through and see if someone has shared some news or tips for the products you use.

Hot Forum Topics:

Navisworks: setting up object enablers http://forums.augi.com/showthread.php?t=85131

CAD Management: CAD vs. Creativity http://forums.augi.com/showthread.php?t=18562

CAD Management: working with laptop users http://forums.augi.com/showthread.php?t=128352

BIM Management: startup costs for #Revit http://forums.augi.com/showthread.php?t=129552

BIM Management: job descriptions? http://forums.augi.com/showthread.php?t=97134

CAD Standards: NCS in contract requirements http://forums.augi.com/showthread.php?t=125587

Training: New users vs. old users #CAD #BIM http://forums.augi.com/showthread.php?t=84092

AutoCAD MEP: changing conduit bends http://forums.augi.com/showthread.php?t=129194

Discussion @AUGI #AutoCAD Architecture: 2012 release discussion http://forums.augi.com/showthread.php?t=128699

Revit Architecture: 2012 Stability http://forums.augi.com/showthread.php?t=129259

Revit MEP: relinquishing issues http://forums.augi.com/showthread.php?t=83117 #RMEP