maybe i should just be a waitress...

I've been reading an amusing blog of a waiter, and a theme of several of his entries revolve around home much one should tip a waiter. His bottomline is that 20% of the bill is the way to go.

I remember I was discussing real estate with a couple of people and when they asked me how much an architect charges for his or he services, they were shocked when I told them the standard (although hasn't been followed because of hard times) is 20% of the estimated construction cost.

How different is paying 20% of a restaurant bill for the waiter or waitress who served you, as compared to paying an architect 20% for a structure where you and your family would live for years and years to come?

Donald Trump himself has realized that architects earn peanuts.

I've been working on this residential project and you know how much I'm charging for coming out with schematics? A maximum of 1.5% of the estimated construction cost! Yeah, probably peanuts for my client. But I already struggled to come out with that percentage as a former colleague of mine has even advised me to just charge 0.3%! Gracious!

I know, I'm not yet a master in my field, but one could reason that I would have fresher ideas than one who's been in the business for decades. Clients should go for the creative ones anyways since they have engineers to help out on the technical side of it.

But anyways, I know that this is just the beginning. A happy client could recommend me to his friends and so on. Sometimes you have to establish a name to have the right to charge higher. How sad how our society works.

But till then, I'll just go back being under-paid for my ideas and time.