What is a Good Graphic Design Job?
Should you look for a high salary? Creative Freedom? High-profile brands?
What are the most important attributes of an organization to look for when you’re searching for a new Graphic Design Job? It seems obvious that you’d like to work for a place that produces excellent work and is excited about moving forward with design trends. You might even be enticed by bring-your-dog-to-work days, in-house massages, walks in the park, or any number of trendy benefits that companies, both big and small, are offering to their employees lately.
But how do you see through these offerings and make decisions that will positively affect your design career? Is there a correlation between Google-like company perks and personal development during your tenure? Let’s take a look at the characteristics of an organization that will help you advance in your career as a designer and how to identify them as you’re searching for a job.
Good Communication
The cornerstone for any job that’s worth your time and energy is good communication throughout the organization. Without communication, you’ll spend almost every day in the office feeling frustrated, defeated, and unmotivated. When people with an organization communicate effectively, they foster harmony and productivity.
It might be a bit hard to see as you’re skimming through a job posting, but you’ll begin to learn very quickly how well the members of an organization communicate as you go through the application process. Even through email, you can start to search for tell-tale signs of good, or bad, communication. Here are two things you can look for as you evaluate communication in a potential new job:
- Ask vs. tell: As you email your hiring manager and talk on the phone or in person with members from the organization, pay attention to how they share information with you. Do the key people throughout this process ask you questions, or do they tell you how it is? It’s natural, of course, for a new employer to explain their organization and expectations to you, but pay attention to how they approach the conversation. If they don’t take time to understand you and to dig deeper into your application, they might be looking for someone to tell what to do, rather than an artist that will improve their team. Likewise, you should make a point to ask questions and to learn about the people you’ll be working with. It’s all about creating a connection.
- Do as I say, not as I do: As you’re applying for a job, it’s imperative that you remain formal, courteous, and highly professional. You’re making lasting first impressions, and your future with each new employer may rest on the first moments of their interactions with you. The expectation to be professional, however, doesn’t lay solely on you. Remember that your employer is asking you to give your time and talent every day of the week for the foreseeable future. For that reason, you should expect professional, courteous communication from the key participants in your hiring process. If your hiring manager communicates unprofessionally or treats you disrespectfully during the hiring process, things are not likely to improve when you report for work.
Pay close attention to communication as you apply to and interview for a job. You should be receptive to new information and willing to learn, but you should be wary when the same courtesy is not offered to you. Remember, you’re developing a relationship that will affect your life from nine to five, five days per week.
Consistency
Consistency is key, as they say. In the world of business, consistency is something of a double-edged sword. A company that consistently underperforms is likely to be entrenched in bad habits and will require significant work to move on to a path toward success. On the other edge of our sword, however, a business that consistently innovates, evaluates itself, and learns from its past (and its competition) is likely to be destined for success if it’s not there already.
So when you’re evaluating an organization for consistency, look for common threads throughout the resources that are available to you. Read through their website in detail, follow social media streams, and become familiar with their products or services. Do they create new content that pushes the boundaries and develops their brand, or do they rely on two or three heavy-hitters that they’ve presented from every possible angle across their content?
Also, try to figure out how long the organization has been operating. If it’s a startup, where did the founding members come from and what is their background?
The goal here is to gauge whether or not you will be part of a team that has developed a forward-thinking culture and consistently pushes themselves to become better.
You’ll be able to determine whether an organization’s consistency serves them well or not by taking a look at their results, which we’ll move on to now.
Results
Always, always, always ask to see results. If your new employer can’t clearly define the results that their products or services provide to their customers, hit the road. You don’t want to work for anyone who can’t explicitly tell you how they provide value to their customers. As you’re looking for common threads throughout an organization’s products, services, and content, pay close attention to how they present their results.
If you’re applying to work for a marketing firm, for example, look for case studies on their websites. A great firm will provide written reports describing the performance of their content and campaigns. In this case-study, written by a firm in the city where I did my undergraduate degree, the authors detail a campaign that failed to provide results for their customer along with the strategies they used to fix the problem they created. As a matter of fact, if you scroll through their articles, you’ll see that almost all of their content is results-oriented. They don’t show off their fancy services or leading-edge office space; they’re committed to creating solutions that provide results for their customers. And they’re good at it.
Every organization has their differentiating factor — the thing that sets them apart from the competition. For you, those factors might include benefits packages, flexible hours, a cool office, etc. Be sure not to forget that results should be at the top of that list. In addition to how they serve their clients, ask about their results with employees. How long is the average tenure in their company? Do they promote from within?
If you find that an organization’s employees are achieving the career goals that you’ve set for yourself, put everything you’ve got into getting that job. If, on the other hand, you begin to learn that their communication is ineffective, their work is inconsistent, and their results are lacking, it may be time to look elsewhere.
Follow-Through
When you’re evaluating a new employer for follow-through, you’re asking whether they finish what they start. It might be hard to gauge this based solely on the information available to you online because they’re going to put their best foot forward through their website and social media.
Instead, view this as a synthesis of their communication, consistency, and results. If it seems like everything is coming together and this really is a top-quality establishment, the follow-through test will either confirm what you’ve learned so far or show their true colors. Here’s what you should look for:
- Clear action items: Throughout the hiring process, an organization that is committed to follow-through, or finishing what they start, will give you clear action items and reasonable expectations. The job application will state exactly which qualifications they would like to see, how to submit your resume and portfolio, and to whom to address your cover letter and references. Initial contact will be professional, personally addressed, and will end with the next steps for you to take during the application process. Finally, the interview will be thorough, and you will be told what to expect regarding the timeline for their hiring decision.
- Reasonable expectations: Along with action items, a great employer will set reasonable expectations for you during the application process. It is your right to know what your pay will be, what your expected work hours will be, and what responsibilities the job does and does not require of you. If your interviewer or hiring manager is unclear about any of these critical issues, that may be a warning sign to you. I remember interviewing for a job shortly after college that was going to lead me into new territories for my career. When I asked the owner of the company what the work hours were, he said that they tend to come in when its comfortable in the morning and work until the day’s responsibilities are done, then head home. It sounded like a fun, flexible position, but I learned later that the day’s responsibilities could quickly become longer than its hours of light. I spent too many evenings and weekends in the office as a result of my “flexible” schedule.
Don’t forget that throughout this process, your new employer will be looking for the same attributes in their new employee as you’re looking for in a good job. When you combine professional communication, consistency, a results-oriented mindset, and follow-through, you’ll position yourself as an ideal candidate and align yourself with the expectations that executives and hiring managers bring to the table when they’re looking for good employees.
Now you can define an excellent graphic design, and you know what to expect from employers who will treat you well. The next step is to update your resume and portfolio to show potential employers that you’re a results-oriented designer. Designed Academy offers a free course, 3 Steps to a Powerful Portfolio that will get you well on your way. Learn what it’s all about here.
