Universities everywhere promise great jobs as a graphic designer or web designer if you go to their school. A quick browse around the web tells a different story though. E-commerce Web sites are being designed for around $100 by companies in India. Print work is going for less than that.
Do you think designers can actually make a living? Where are all the high-paying jobs that the universities talk about? Where are the premium projects?
I’ve never heard of a university offering a degree in Web design. If I did, I probably wouldn’t attend. Learn the Web as a subset of another field like programming or graphic design, but not exclusively.
Why are you free Vinnie?
Personally, I think the web design/development (actually any development) market is saturated. The way you win is by gaining trust.
It makes me sick to see some of the developers that people pay for (no offense intended at anybody). A friend paid $300 for a big job, and the code was absolutely atrocious. I found it hard to look at. It made me sick. Extra queries everywhere, queries within other query’s loops (resulting in dozens of queries), not even function based, was all procedural. Perhaps a non-technical person might not care, but I rewrote it for him (felt sorry for him) and made it go from 1.8 seconds loading to 0.01 seconds. That is really sad.
If you can gain a relationship with clients, and are trusted and proven to be good at your field, then you’ll stand a chance. I wish people would do some research before dishing out $300 for an incompetent developers.
My 2 cents.
Well, to clarify, universities are offering “Digital Media” and “Graphic Design” programs, but many of the students plan on becoming “Successful Web Designers.”
Did $300 seem like a reasonable price for the programming? What sort of programming did he do? (other than bad programming 
)
New job :o
:tup:
Universities everywhere promise great jobs as a graphic designer or web designer if you go to their school. A quick browse around the web tells a different story though. E-commerce Web sites are being designed for around $100 by companies in India. Print work is going for less than that.
Recently I saw 4 commercials right in a row from 4 different such schools, each one claiming that the “demand is high” and “wouldn’t you like to know what the salaries are for these jobs?”
An article in Sunday’s paper gives a more accurate overview of the job market here in Southern California. It says the jobs in the media and marketing fields will grow by 22.5% through 2008. That’s over 7% higher than all other occupations.
Sounds great if you stop there. However, here in Orange County, that only accounts for 1.7% of the total number of projected jobs. Additionally, the appeal of these jobs will attract a lot of job seekers, so competition will remain high (especially, I might add, if these colleges continue to crank out students at the rate they been). This confirms what I’ve been experiencing and hearing from others.
Personally, having been in the industry for nearly 10 years, I wouldn’t recommend it as a career unless you are really passionate about it and prepared for the high level of competition you will face. Also, be prepared to only make around $24-30K in an entry-level position.
As someone else pointed out, “web design” is not something you can get a degree in. You can get a degree for any of the disciplines within web design, such as graphic design, project management or programming. If you get formal training in graphic design, you will be well-rounded to do both print and web design.
Is Web design a good career choice?
My intial reponse is no.
Sure is would be a great gig, but so would being a professional golfer.
Being a professional golfer would be great - but only 1% of all golfers make enough money to feed their family. Same with web design people. While there is no professional status I would say only 1% of people who just web design can feed their families.
You would be better served to learn to code and code well.
If you look at it from the point of monetary rewards:
With up to 2 years experience and a related bachelors:
Web Designer (Internet and New Media)
Designs and constructs web pages/sites including incorporating graphic user interface (GUI) features and other techniques. Maintains and provides ongoing design of the website, promos and ad banners, seasonal content specials and custom chat launcher design for partners. May require a bachelor’s degree in a related area and at least 2 years of experience in the field or in a related area. Familiar with standard concepts, practices, and procedures within a particular field. Relies on limited experience and judgment to plan and accomplish goals. Performs a variety of tasks. Works under general supervision; typically reports to a manager. A certain degree of creativity and latitude is required.
In Miami the median is $55,000
With at least 2 years experience and a related bachelors:
Web Designer, Sr. (Internet and New Media)
Designs and constructs web pages/sites including incorporating graphic user interface (GUI) features and other techniques. Maintains and provides ongoing design of the website, promos and ad banners, seasonal content specials and custom chat launcher design for partners. May require a bachelor’s degree in a related area and at least 2 years of experience in the field or in a related area. Familiar with a variety of the field’s concepts, practices, and procedures. Relies on experience and judgment to plan and accomplish goals. Performs a variety of complicated tasks. May lead and direct the work of others. Typically reports to a project leader or manager. A wide degree of creativity and latitude is expected.
In Miami the median is $79,000
I think that you need to take into account that being a web designer does not mean that you have to have your own shop. I m sure there is a big chunk of people that work in-house mantaining company’s websites
On the other hand, I think Salary.com’s numbers are a bit too high. The web industry in South Florida is small, but I knew this guy that left a previous employer for a really good job with an internet startup and got stock options and a salary similar to the above. The problem is that this company does not exist anymore. I think $45,000 for a junior position and $69,000 for a Sr. position sounds more reasonable. Remember that the mediam means that half make more, but it also means that half make less.
I don’t think those salary numbers are very relative anymore. Those sound like boom salaries, not the current post-boom salaries. Salaries in the industry are very poor for entry level positions and high paid positions are becoming rare.
Actually, loanuniverse’s salary projections (the ones he posted as realistic, not the first set) are pretty accurate. Remember that it’s a median salary; 50% of the people surveyed make less than that figure. However, there are 50% that make more than that and it’s up to you to find companies that pay well, which is the harder part ;).
Personally, having been in the industry for nearly 10 years, I wouldn’t recommend it as a career unless you are really passionate about it and prepared for the high level of competition you will face. Also, be prepared to only make around $24-30K in an entry-level position.
24k - 30k at entry levle ? Thats pretty damn good… I’m in Ireland and you’d be looking at 18 - 22k (Euro) for entry. Thats if you’re lucky. Most need a masters to get that.
P.S the cost of living here (Dublin) is not cheap either lol. Best thing I saw was in wired a bmw x5 was like 40k us here after tax and so on its 115k euro (Cars are crazy here as no corporation tax… stealth tax and so on ;))
The biggest increase that you are going to get percentage wise in your career is going to be after the first year of being hired. Or at least it should be. Look at it from the point of view of an employer. You think you know a lot after four years of college, but you really don’t have any practical experience.
Lets take for example my line of business. We get the kids fresh of the University and we probably pay them from $28k to $32k depending on both how they present themselves and their negotiating skills. Frankly, the first six months of a career, you are unproductive. You know nothing, and what you know is academic.
Once the first year is over or the formal training is completed the 28k person moves to 32k and the 32k might move to 35k. The second year it goes down a little maybe to 5%. After that it might be wise to move around to get compensated what the market is paying.
I was unfortunate enough to have been paid below the median for my profession for the last five years. I finally had enough and moved. Now I am above, and everything is nice. Loyalty is a good trait, but sometimes things get too comfortable for your own good.
Edit: Do not confuse entry-level with Junior position. The guy making $45k by my estimate and $55k by Salary.com’s already has two years of experience. Trust me when I say that he got hired in the low $30’s. if he was lucky.
The true power of a web design degree is making your own profitable websites. It’s taken me less than 6 months of part time work to attain income from websites equal to the amount of money I made last year.
Now I’ve got pretty underpaid job and a profitable business on the side, so it all works out. I don’t do anything anymore cause I’m always working… but it’s starting to pay off.
Web design is certainly a good career. Again it is good for those who stand by the time with grit! It is not an easy industry (as far as my experience goes) and you need to be tough to survive and flourish.
It definitely needs technical and creative expertise. But, personal determination to make things happen your way is more important since competition is intense. You need to stand out.
Also, if you plan to freelance or work for yourself, you must be able to find a niche. It may sound difficult, but when you get in the grind, it all comes with it.
Best of luck and if you have decided positively, Welcome 
Regards
Abhishek
Yes it is sad, BUT sorry to say, he got what he paid for. $300 for a large e-commerce project is really bargain-basement. I mean suppose this developer spent 40 hours working on this project, that’s $7.50/hour!! I would never consider a project for this low amount.
And that’s one main problem with the design industry; too many bargain-basement “designers”. People who have pride in their design talent aren’t charging what they deserve and meanwhile, those who have little talent in design are charging “low-low” rates, because they can and people will buy. Result:The industry loses professionalism and the amount of sub-par design increases.
That is what makes ME sick.
Agreed. A lot of people these days are focused more on the amount of money that have to shell out instead of the quality of their design. In my experience, a lot of clients are just looking at design in terms of cost - they don’t have any idea what so ever the value of well-developed website. I had a client who has already paid me 50% of my fee (which was small already considering I was designing for a quasi-charity group) who pulled out when I designed a complete website already because someone offered to do it for free. Nevermind that I had the website completed and the fact that 50% payment to me is non-refundable. THey should have gone all the way. The “designer” they got couldn’t make graphics I guess, because I found out through my logs that he designed a site whose graphics were being leeched off from my domain. Sigh. I was half tempted to put pornography to replace the images that he was leeching off, but since it was a Christian website, I decided to just change the names of the images he used.
In my country, it’s very seldom that I get clients that really want websites that will enhance their business or use it as a marketing tool. They think it’s just a necessity (like paying tax) that they have to go through - that’s why their looking for people who will work cheaply. I charge a very cheap rate (compared to US designers) but they are not cheap when compared to my fellow countrymen.
Finally, I’d like to add that I’ve been getting clients lately who really don’t have an idea how hard it is to make a webiste. People expect me to finish a website in a week or two - and they think I charge too much for that time. Sorry, needed to say this because I was forced to make a proposal to a start up company who wanted it in less than 4 weeks (which was what I quoted).
Sorry for the rant. 