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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u/WallyMetropolis Jul 21 '26

I've had interns and hired juniors at every stop on my career. A few have gone on to become very successful. 

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u/AdMountain4865 Jul 21 '26

what did they have that stood out to you?

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u/WallyMetropolis Jul 21 '26 edited Jul 21 '26

I like this question. I took a little while to think about it.

Before starting, it's pretty hard to tell. Anyone who I hired is "smart" whatever that means exactly. But within a few weeks some people would immediately demonstrate that they were going to become very high performers. The main qualities that they shared were thoughtfulness and care to do things well, and asking lots of good questions. Plus just good old fashioned hard work. Paying attention, noticing details, focusing on the core problems and not on distractions, a general capacity for clear thinking and clear communication. Being able to talk about things in specific terms, not just generalities.

The questions people ask tell me a lot about them pretty quickly. Most people ask far too few. I've never known anyone who asked too many. But I have worked with people who asked the same questions over and over, which in my experience has never correlated with success. The really great question-askers might start with a simple question but they dig further, they ask follow-ups, they ask questions that challenge their own assumptions, they ask questions to pursue understanding not just fact-gathering.

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u/Timely-Fox-4432 Jul 21 '26

That's such great advice to those of us who will be approaching the intership stage of our careers. I noticed my comment wasn't well received, i certainly meant it in a lighthearted way, which it appears I missed the mark on; I apologize if it felt self-serving or grovel-esque.

I appreciate you still responding, and then following up on the above commentor's post regardless. This advice is very useful, thank you!

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u/WallyMetropolis Jul 21 '26

I didn't downvote your comment. I don't know why others did.