Possible shift in my position? How much should a designer be expected to do?

[wienerdog]

Well, I gave my notice to the CEO of the company. I told him my decision wasn't strictly due to compensation, and it was primarily to allow me to focus on exclusively design/web design in my career. With over 5 years of experience, I'd prefer to no longer be in a position that is still seen as administrative, and I'm reminded of that every now and again. I think the only reason this is even considered an admin role is because my predecessor was an admin, and she helped out the freelancer they had designing with Quark and FrontPage (yuck!). They parted ways with the freelancer at some point, and the admin took over updating that work, until I came along.

He wanted to know if my mind was made up, and if it was worth the time to have a meeting with my supervisor to discuss whether my role could change.

We're going to explore whether there are additional projects at the company that I could be involved with that may be currently outsourced. I guess we're going to discuss if there is enough of a workload to justify removing my administrative tasks for the sales department.

I'm making a comprehensive list of tasks I perform here to figure out if there's enough of my time being attributed to the administrative tasks (archiving lots of press release pick-ups into PDFs, database maintenance, filing, faxing, copying, tracking tradeshow shipments, updating the company organization chart, etc.).

Every time I thought I was done, another one came up. This is quite the schizophrenic job description. It's actually alarming to see the list of what a general designer is expected to know these days:

Quark, Photoshop, InDesign, Illustrator, Acrobat, Dreamweaver, Flash, HTML, CSS.

That's a LOT of software, on top of the general Microsoft Office knowledge. And the people that HAVE the general MS Office knowledge often aren't compensated much less (if at ALL) than those who know all of the above! That's just sad, and speaks to either the gluttony of people entering the field and settling for less, the lack of appreciation of value of design work, or both.

[Jackimalyn]

wow, its gotta feel good that they dont want to let you go. Seems they value you over there. whatever happens I hope you come out on top! Good luck!

[budafist]

Sometimes it is super frustrating when they do try and keep you on.

My friend had been working at a job for 2 years and when she resigned to travel in South America, her boss straigtaway offered her a better job with much more pay. Her travel was booked, tickets and programme paid for so she was pretty mad. Management should move people up and offer them promotions when they deserve it. Instead of waiting for them to resign first.

[PrintDriver]

Not only do they have to justify removing your admin duties, they have to justify hiring someone else to do them.

My guess is they can't replace you for what they pay you, sad as it seems.

[D-Frag]

Thats why when I resigned at my last company I flat out told them no amount of money in the world would keep me at that job. They got the hint.

[wienerdog]

Not only do they have to justify removing your admin duties, they have to justify hiring someone else to do them.

My guess is they can't replace you for what they pay you, sad as it seems.

Yeah, that's kind of the funny thing, it may require two different kinds of people to do this job, or at least a part-timer to handle some of the tasks. I think that's why I received such a high salary increase last year (I think it was a very healthy 12%), but that's also due to the fact that I took initiative (companies love that stuff) to learn new web design skills in my free time to reduce the amount of web design work getting outsourced at $___/hr.

While I'd say my salary is above average for my experience level, the sheer number of responsibilities seem to be well above average. When you add up the hours I work and figure it out per hour, it's not as much as it sounds on an annual basis.

When it rains, it pours. I was contacted by a large health insurance company to set up a phone interview today. After so many years of toughing out difficult situations, it's nice to see some response to my resume. I'm so glad I didn't listen to the nay sayers that continuously make you question graphic design as a potentially successful career early on. I think those are almost barriers to entry to see how dedicated to the field you are as a career. If you really love it, you'll tough out the early years.

Quick funny story: I interviewed with an IT consulting firm a couple of weeks ago, and I think the person interviewing me (their Director of Marketing) said my current salary is higher than hers! Oh man, AWKWARD. When I questioned the salary range they gave me over the phone, she made it seem like this was a target budget they were hoping to get for the position, but that they had very talented people on staff now making $10k less. I didn't really know what to say to that, and thought of "So why did you bring me in here to take an hour-long test and then interview?" was in my head.

This is why I always confirm a responsibility level, or at least a specific level of experience they expect from a candidate, and as tactfully as possible, ask about the salary confirmed budgeted for the position. I don't think it's unfair to discuss this when you have an established experience level, in a similar fashion to discussing your freelance rates and your potential client's budget once you've determined that the project is your forte.

This place I interviewed with was a small IT/Web hosting company that I was told is branching into creative services. The admin staff seemed EXTREMELY young and somewhat unprofessional in their communication skills. Based on what I was told, it's a SURE sign the place doesn't value web/graphic designers, or they're cutting costs with low-end salaries to be super competitive in an area they don't have much experience with to get business. It sounded like the corporate equivalent to when a designer is right out of school with little experience, they're willing to work for peanuts to expand a portfolio.

[LeftBrain Artist]

Oooooo! You discussed pricing! Burn him! BURRRNNNN HIMMM!

[CkretAjint]

best of luck weinerdog!

I have been in your shoes before and it stinks. I have even quit jobs before in hopes they woud offer me more money... I mean no designer right out of school can live off of 15k a year!! yeesh people :)

[wienerdog]

Oooooo! You discussed pricing! Burn him! BURRRNNNN HIMMM!
Are there issues with discussing a vendor's pricing? I never mentioned anything about my own...

This was in no way motivated by a cash-grab or desire for salary jump (not that I'd discourage it). They have presented a counter-offer that I need to consider, but the compensation was only a part of the decision. I'm not in this field for strictly the money (who IS?!), but it can make a difference, with enough other aspects of the jobs being equal or better.

It has more to do with my role with the company, and whether the company is the right place for me in this stage of my career. I have significant experience with a variety of work and industries, but I still have a LOT to learn in areas I haven't had time with or exposure to. I need to decide if the best place for me is remaining in an in-house position as the sole creative services person, working with a small sales/marketing team. I would still remain responsible for all design, desktop publishing, print production, web content/design and small amounts of admin work. Would I prefer to try being a contractor with a team of creative and IT people that I can learn from, and working with people that have similar roles to my own?

The business of the company is growing, but how patient am I with it? Will there be enough time for me to focus on what I'm doing and do a good job on high-level design work? The business obviously can't take on more staff to fulfill my career needs, there needs to be a quantifiable need for that. There's no way to know when or even IF the workload would increase to the point where it would justify a promotion and bringing someone in as a production artist/admin role.

It's no easy decision by any means, which is a first in my career, and I'm a reasonable employee working with a reasonable, empathetic employer (for once).

[CkretAjint]

I dunno WD. I just wanna see some fire!!! :D

[LeftBrain Artist]

Are there issues with discussing a vendor's pricing? I never mentioned anything about my own...

I was just kidding around, but seriously, I think the whole point of avoiding discussion of prices is to avoid any appearance of collusion taking place. Any time you post hourly rates for graphic design services, whether you bought or sold those services is immaterial, you're still dancing on that line. I know I found those three digits very interesting. I aint no mod, but if I were you I'd bleep out the digits.

[tZ]

/*Difficult it is to find a decent image of fire*/

[wienerdog]

I was just kidding around, but seriously, I think the whole point of avoiding discussion of prices is to avoid any appearance of collusion taking place. Any time you post hourly rates for graphic design services, whether you bought or sold those services is immaterial, you're still dancing on that line. I know I found those three digits very interesting. I aint no mod, but if I were you I'd bleep out the digits.

Sorry about that. I'll refrain from including any specific numbers in the future.

So I received a counter offer today of a 15% salary increase, but it sounds like there wouldn't be enough design work at the company in the near future to essentially promote me beyond my admin/assistant role and bring in someone to handle the production art/admin work.

A good friend of mine gave me some advice I found interesting. He said his company has a policy of no counter-offers because they find they waste their time with them. Most don't stay even with the counter, mostly because most people are looking for a new job because they don't like the company, don't like who they work with, want a promotion they can't get where they are, or they're looking for a different kind of position, and the money is usually not the biggest factor.

This makes a lot of sense to me, and he's probably right. If you're unhappy with your current role or position, would a percentage increase change any of that? Probably not. How long will that percentage keep you there? Will you still move on to another position within a number of months anyway? If you're not challenged by your current job, the compensation increase wouldn't change that.