Singapore designers, how are your career progession?
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Some background info: I am a diploma holder with 2k starting salary. Hop over to a local creative studio after 1.5 years. Now coming to 2 years in current studio but salary haven’t even hit 3k
While I appreciate to have different exposure(advertising, video, branding, motion graphic) in a creative studio, the unpaid OT culture is pretty toxic.
Sometimes I wonder if its normal for a designer to have slow career progession. Hope to hear more from my fellow designers 🙂
Netizens’ comments
- I’m a degree holder and my starting pay back in 2013 was 2.2k lol. They don’t really care about your paper qualifications imo, it’s more about your portfolio.
- (OP) it’s really building portfolio and the working experience that counts. Now coming 3.5years working as designer, starting to feel burn out not gonna lie.Â
- hey i’m a fresh poly grad looking at full-time jobs for graphic design with video-editing/motion graphics, may i know what is a good monthly salary to start with?
I’ve requested for 2.7k / 2.8k per month but a lot of companies asked if it’s negotiable (to which i said yes) but haven’t received a price from them yet.
I feel that 2k is quite low imo, even for a fresh poly grad…I feel that 2.5k and above per month fits my expectations. - Unfortunately ‘unpaid OT/pitch rush’ is still a thing. And in a smaller company, designers tend to be ‘bao ka liao’. Social media, copy writing, shoots etc. you learn on the job but also many things that’s outta the jobscope. Idk about now, but my career progression happened when I job hunt. Meaning I look for a higher position with each new job because waiting for promotion in agencies feels..slow. I hope things have improved since then!
- Does having a degree in the design industry help you land roles in MNC companies?