Once again I am cursing myself for my choice of career path. Well, maybe not the actual career, but my timing of getting into it. I loved playing and designing on computers back in the late '80s, early '90s. Why didn't I do something about it then? Oh, yeah, I was paying off my 6-year mistake of a Bachelor Degree in music education. Once that was mostly paid off, I made two-year mistake of getting an associates in computer technology.
When I started Platt on June 17, 2002, I was told the entry-level salary for a graphic designer was $32,000-$35,000/yr. I can handle that, thought I. Well, here I am just four years later out trying to find another job in the field and these places won't even pay $30K if you have gobs of experience. Entry level jobs are paying $10-12/hr and you can't live and that in Denver while trying to pay off student loans. Why so low? While on
Craigslist today , someone posted a link to a blog post called
The Pricing Wormhole that pretty much sums up exactly what happened.
There are several moving targets to point fingers at. First, the flood of new designers has upset the balance of supply and demand in the industry. Every graduate is looking for a job, either full-time or freelance. To get a job, they need to build their portfolio. To build the portfolio, they go onto Elance and slave away at a few design jobs for pennies on the dollar.
Second, the economy in general. The recently laid-off designer that has experience but can’t get a job. Desperate to eat, she creates an account at ContractedWork and becomes exploited talent, developing a killer website or brochure or identity program for a fraction of her usual price.
Third, globalization. Visit either site and you’ll notice one thing: the majority of the suppliers are from India or Eastern Europe. The recent trend of offshore outsourcing has come to roost in the design industry, and the lower cost of living outside the United States and Western Europe allows these companies to offer prices previously unheard of.
If I had known the situation out there was this bleak, I may have had second thoughts about telling my boss I was job hunting. Maybe I should've found a way to suck it up to get the magical "one year" of experience at a single company (apparently two 7 month stints don't count). I had grandiose visions of freelancing that came tumbling down yesterday. Even though I knew better, I commited to do a logo for a guy for $100. Here it is 10 weeks later and he keeps dragging his feet and it is not done. Someone put me in touch with a guy that wanted a couple of "simple" changes to his web site, but he has no idea how to get into the server on which it is hosted. I wasted 90 minutes on the phone with this guy yesterday and still no job. He was supposed to call me this morning with that info if he could get it. Since I haven't heard squat from him, I guess he can't get in. With the foul mood I've been in the last couple of days, I'm not going to harass him to make $25.
Platt College is more or less a nursing school now. I heard rumors that they may phase out the graphic design program altogether. You can't get students when they can only make $25k a year to start (if there is even a job to be had when they graduate).
I'm not giving up. I'm just frustrated. This is hard to swallow, but I used to make more than $25K a year when I was a full time pizza delivery driver--a job that requires no special training whatsoever. It's a good thing that gas prices soared or I would've gone back already.
Name: LaDonna
