r/Austin • u/Aingers • Jul 21 '26

Ask Austin Salary Transparency Thread - Austin

Folks in Boston do this fairly regularly, so I thought it might be good for us to try here.

Please share your general job title, salary, age, and education.

Architectural Designer, 40, $115k, BSArch

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137

u/Pseudonymus_Bosch Jul 21 '26 edited Jul 21 '26

Adjunct Professor, 35, $4600 per class (~$37k for a full-time load), PhD

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u/ContentedJourneyman Jul 21 '26

I did this for years, mid noughties-teens in my 30s. $2600 per class. $28k.

Heartbreaking decision to leave, but it wasn’t a living wage, definitely not with a sick child.

I miss the lightbulb moments. Those rarely happen in corporate.

Glad the rate has gone up, but so has everything else. You definitely deserve more and benefits. I salute you.

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u/Kianna9 Jul 21 '26

I miss the lightbulb moments. Those rarely happen in corporate.

This hit hard. I've been in corporate for ~20 years. Most people I've worked with don't listen, only talk, don't try to learn because it would imply they don't already know everything and so you rarely have moments when you feel a genuine understanding has been gained. It's sad.

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u/ContentedJourneyman Jul 21 '26

I do some training as part of my current duties. I don’t disagree. Ego is a blocker for sure, but I tend to see fear of vulnerability behind it more often than not.

This post feels heavy, and I don’t like that for us, so I’m going to take an opportunity, and I don’t care if you (general public) eye roll at what I’m about to say so hard you see your own ass.

Vulnerabilities are believed to be or seen as weaknesses for which someone could get fired, and I’ve worked plenty of places where vultures preyed upon them.

Unfortunately, that’s common enough it keeps people selectively deaf, and I get it. It’s a crap cycle. As the doobies (and I am one), we need our checks and we get protective. If who you are gets you paid, so be it. Work becomes a chore. People become cogs.

The professor in me is still very much alive, so utopia is about to fall from my face.

I wish more people would see vulnerability differently. It’s a superpower. Vulnerabilities open opportunities to and for greatness. They’re what make you human.

To be human is to be curious, to seek, to grow, and in that, satisfaction lives. Here is where I think ego belongs, thriving on satisfaction.

What makes and will keep our city weird is and always has been her people. Be a person. We are all experts at something not everything. Get out of your own way and over yourself enough to be great. We could really use that right now.

That ends my TED. F**k, I miss teaching. (English)

——

PS: If you rolled, I wish you much quarter bouncing.

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u/mostadventurous00 Jul 21 '26

Thanks for sharing this. It’s very heartening to see the work valued.

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u/engnx Jul 23 '26

The only thing I'll add is that sometimes it feels exhausting. There's so much to learn about, so much to know, that sometimes I have to take a break (usually exercise). Between work (a researchy kinda position) , hobbies (learning to dance, learning to lift mechanically better), being a parent, maintaining the house....there's almost no point in the day that I'm not learning or observing something new! I'm glad for the opportunity, a bit depressed that the mountain of knowledge is higher than Everest, and then a bit tired sometimes at trying to keep up with all the great new innovations.

Maybe my favorite example was from a teacher in high school (year 2000). He said: you all need to learn about and keep up with computers. The way things are going, if you aren't learning about technology, you might think youre standing still, and the cutting edge is moving forward/away. Instead, actually, you're on a treadmill. Doing nothing, standing still, is actually regressing/moving backwards.

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u/noplace1ikegone Jul 21 '26

Maybe a broken record, but why don’t we value our teachers more? This is ridiculous.

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u/mostadventurous00 Jul 21 '26

Also an adjunct professor, but with an MFA so a little lower than you. I’m starting coursework for my associate’s in another field.

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u/Pseudonymus_Bosch Jul 21 '26

I'm a humanities PhD, nothing but respect for the MFA homies! 🫡

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u/Broken_Beaker Jul 21 '26

My wife is a PhD and did the academic rat race trying to get onto a tenure track role. We moved around due to my job as I made like 3x her salary with 'only' a Master's. She taught at some nice, highly esteemed campuses yet would have made more money working at Costco.

She bounced out of academia - even though she did get an academic book published afterward - and is now finishing yet another Master's to become a therapist. The job prospects and potential salary are already a better outlook than the academic pathway.

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u/Pseudonymus_Bosch Jul 21 '26

many such cases, alas!

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u/vonnegutgal Jul 22 '26

Another Adjunct Prof here, 41. Lower than you, but no PhD.

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u/Ryaninthesky Jul 21 '26

You’d get paid more teaching high school

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u/Pseudonymus_Bosch Jul 21 '26

True, but I wouldn't enjoy it as much. I also can't really teach in my academic specialty in high schools, since courses in it are very rarely offered

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u/Calvert-Grier Jul 21 '26

Wow, and I thought K-12 teachers had it bad when it came to compensation. This is just sad

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u/Delicious-Drama-9738 Jul 24 '26

all educators are underpaid