Being a business owner has it's own responsibilities. Not everyone can freelance. Not everyone can manage multiple projects at once.

Anyway, if you were a business owner, would you find it fair to pay X amount for someone who's portfolio strength isn't the equivalent of your own expectation. And thinking "that's the industry standard" is not a healthy mindset either because you're only shifting blame and not looking how to improve yourself.

Well, I really find this thread useful and I hope others will continue openly sharing this information to help improve the design industry.

LOL! Some have tried forming such, but many don't want to get involved.

It's been awhile since I jumped into the threads. From my observation so far of the web industry, many graduates are jumping face first into the freelance market rather than seeking a full-time position. Thus, my questions to the designers who look at "web designer" jobs / ads...

1. What college are / were you from ?

2. What website related programming languages did you learn in college / university ?

3. Did you create an online personal portfolio before you graduated ?

4. Did you accept freelance jobs while you were studying ?

5. Did you think about your career progression ?

And lastly, arrange the list below in accordance to how you decide which company to work in:

i. Salary
ii. Location
iii. Working hours
iv. Interviewer (questions they ask you)
v. Company (number of staff, environment)
vi. Others: Your answer

The term User Experience Designer is very new in Malaysia because everyone who's a designer wants to coin themselves as 1 of the 'canggih' titles. Though how much do they really understand the role of the title is a very different story. LOL!

Here's an article (http://www.fastcodesign.com/3032719/ui-ux-who-does-what-a-designers-guide-to-the-tech-industry?amp&amp&amp) which I read that interpreted the roles of UI, UX, visual, frontend and others quite clearly. As a fellow designer who's been specializing in websites for more than 5 years, I personally lose respect of designers who coin themselves with titles which they aren't specialize in...

I believe in the field of graphic design now, there are specializations from illustrators and more.

And here's a tip of what you can do differently when answering someone who asks you, what do you do. If you love illustrations, you could maybe say... "I illustrate real life on paper".

Tell your family and friends of what you do... if you've time to do personal projects, complete them and share them on your social media accounts...

Other means online are joining websites like elance etc to bid for jobs..

There's no harm updating your online portfolio and sending out your updated resume to companies you may want to gain experience and grow further.

If you've no complaints about your current company, then consider discussing with your superior / director about the salary and responsibilities you're prepared to handle. Don't just use "X years with company" as a reason because from the business owner's view, if your tasks and responsibilities can be taken over easily by another hire then you've a weak case for negotiation.

The other view of it when you decide to change company is decide what do you want to achieve - salary / skills / personal development etc. When you have a goal in mind, it makes breaking down the decision better.

Well, that's enough rambling from me.

Of course, completing your tasks should be main priority. If you feel that you could still learn 3D/visualization from your colleagues; senior or junior, then you should probably stay and keep learning. That's your goal right there, learning more.

The other part I wrote about increasing your salary is knowing how to negotiate, by knowing your value.

If the superior / business owner thinks your value of skills to the company is only at 'this' level, then your salary will be that level. If you showed advancement or growth in needed situations, then you're silently saying "I've become better by...". When you continue doing this (regardlress of praise), you could one day use this as a negotiating chip because you know you've grown and you believe your value has increased.

But if the review says you're not ready for an increase and avoids giving a constructive answer, don't lay a smackdown. Be smarter and ask a question which questions your ability. For example; "is it because I hadn't been completing my tasks to the given deadline?" These are questions which you know the answer may not be true, but using it to your advantage to dig out the real reason of why the increase isn't being approved.

If the answer was constructive and true, then take it as a lesson and think of how you could overcome it to be even better.

There are only few paths in a company to increase your salary:

1. Take up a senior position - more tasks, manage juniors.

2. Take up a manager position - meet results, even more tasks, even more people management.

3. Head a new department - meet higher results, even much more tasks, even much more people management.

I suppose this is what we'd call climbing the corporate ladder.

Alternatively, what younguns are doing now are jumping companies just because they're too sensitive with the salary, work environment, people and some other reasons. Which in my personal opinion is not healthy because some of them don't pause to think how would a future employer view their resume later.

Well, that's enough ranting from me.

Another alternative is study design overseas where the country is educated on design. Then work there.

MCT?

Well, if the country does not embrace the importance of creative thinking and design, there will only be a handful of organizations who do. And those are the organizations which your sister would have to find out lor.

P.S: If you're looking to be highly paid (more than 10k), then you're going to have to supercede yourself being a designer - become an agency partner etc. Otherwise, you may want to consider a different profession.

Instead of looking at it with a "is this fair now" view, why not consider discussing with the employer of a promotion plan within X period. You could be honest to let them know that you appreciate the offer and you'd like to propose an alternative plan for them to develop yourself to be a much better employee in their company. This is when you could share with them that you're loooking to be X salary within X period and you understand this is based on your performance.

This way, what you're putting on the table is clear and the employer is given a counter offer to hire you. Plus, depending on how you explained this to them, they may see you've more value because you know what you're looking for and you're not afraid to work.

Half the time now, I hear friends who tell me too many graduates are only looking for the big figure when joining but aren't prepared to work for th big figure.

I suppose that's where miscommunication of expectations were made - during interview.

Here's a helpful article on getting the salary you may think you deserve and want...

https://www.themuse.com/advice/get-the-sala...how-to-find-out

Wow. That's not bad - both employment and side business.

If you don't mind me asking..

1. Is it a big organization (more than 30 staff) ?

2. What side business are you doing ?

Depends. Some companies do not require the UX designers to code. Only to research, wireframe, test and refine - working with the UI designers / developers.

It'll be more common for UI designers to know HTML/CSS if company is related to the Internet, because it's like a minimum skillset.

Then to throw in a curveball, frontend designers need to design and code html/css/javascript.

Art Director is an Exec level now?

But.. but.. I'm still very surprised it's an exec level.

It's like really saying there's no meaning anymore to having the "Director" there.

1. Payscale = from 5k
2. Glassdoor = from 6k
3. Jobstreet = from 3k until 8k

Apparently some companies have Junior or plain Art Director, then Senior Art Director..

And funnily.. some who's got 13 years experience will only earn 3k as an AD (laugh die me)

[1] http://www.payscale.com/research/MY/Job=Ar...99/Kuala-Lumpur
[2] https://www.glassdoor.com/Salaries/malaysia...N170_KO9,21.htm
[3] https://www.glassdoor.com/Salaries/malaysia...N170_KO9,21.htm

This post has been edited by etsuko: Jan 4 2017, 11:39 PM

If all designers were to keep this belief, we might as well be designing for free liao..

Real 1-leg kick master you, @destfull

What's working in a GPS like?