Remote Designer 2.5YOE ($75k) feeling stagnant. Time to move on?
I’m the only designer at a small dev agency. I love my team and they’re very supportive of my growth but I have no design mentors here to learn from and it seems like this company doesn’t really value or prioritize good user experience. (I’ve been there about 2yrs)
I barely put in a fraction of full time hours, but working remote means I can use the extra time to self teach, take classes, or get other part time remote jobs. I’ve been doing a part time SDE bootcamp to fill my time and boost my skills. (Company is paying for this!)
I wanted to use the remote work + too much free time opportunity to travel and live abroad but pandemic is still making that difficult.
What’s my best shot at doubling my TC?? What skills should I be self-teaching? What kind of mentors should I be looking for? Should I explore additional part time roles or is it time to ditch this company and move on? Should I travel first and then look for new work? HELP!
Age: 25
YOE: 2.5
Net worth: $127k
TC: $75k
#design #ui/ux #uxdesigner #productdesign #remote #remotework #travel #designcareer
comments
Find a design team you can work with. Designers should never work alone.
Here’s what I recommend:
- position yourself as a Product Designer (learn the business and product strategy side)
- do side projects that require coding
- become a Product Designer Who Codes (a unicorn)
How to decide what to focus on: practice doing all aspects of the PD and PM roles. Write PRDs, write research plans, write research interview questions, write product road maps, write information architecture outlines. Make customer journey maps. Read about research methodologies. Make wireframes. Do the craft of visual pixel design.
Read about accessibility. Read about usability (Nielsen Norman Group). Learn how to code accessibility into products, e.g. ARIA tags. Research, accessibility and usability must drive design.
After you have tried all aspects, select the ones you enjoy doing most.
Pair programming is a great way to work, either you as designer paired with an engineer to build something in real time, or two eng, or two designers.
As a product designer at Uber, my TC peaked at $360. Not exactly proud that I worked at two “evil corporations” (FB, Uber), but I learned a lot about what it means to be productive and to be professional. I’m currently taking a risk on a startup as design director.
It’s a good secret skill to have. i.e. don’t mention it when interviewing. Once you’re in, start fixing neglected bugs in the front end. People are like 👀
You need more experience to double your comp. So, maybe move to an enterprise type of company to gain the experience needed to start doubling your income.
I didn’t see large increases in comp til I hit 4-5 years plus.
We don’t do any research here, we execute on first drafts, and largely just implement exactly what clients tells us to do. (Government products be like that). Fingers crossed that we’ll get some new contracts which might allow us to do better product work but not guaranteed. Even if that’s the case, I’m a design team of one. My front-end-development manager is the only one who was willing to do any UX exercises with me. Honestly I just feel like this job is way too large for one person and advocating for a better design process has been a losing battle from day one.
Is this holding me back? Am I not gaining the experience I need to move up later?
You’re definitely doing many people’s jobs, which are roles I avoid entirely. The worst are that ask for you to be a dev, UI designer, UX designer, visual designer, researcher, director and / or VP.
See how you can influence the team to get more serious about user experience, though you’re at the helm of the client. That’s why I work on that side versus agency. That involves influencing stakeholders, etc. which is a senior plus skillet generally speaking that one acquires from learning, failing, etc. That’s life.
Those are some of the skills that would help double your TC.
To answer your last question: I’m not sure. I don’t know your background enough to know, but try connecting with folks who you’d want to work under on LinkedIn, etc.
I will say that you trying to double your TC with < 5-years experience isn’t the norm. Again, plenty of title inflation out there.
My concern is that I’m not getting a lot of support in the UX space, but we’ve got a lot of smart engineers and product people who are helping me learn more about that side of things which can’t hurt. You think if I start to take on some more front-end css library work at this company, it’ll be relevant experience when looking for my next UX role?