Advice on how to deal with feeling so disillusioned with this field? Im lucky to have a secure job but the pay and professional growth isn't there. Any freelance opportunities become crickets, ive interviewed for better jobs to never hear anything back. ive learned about companies outsourcing design overseas for cheap labor or forcing return to office. ive attended networking events and never hear anything back. what gives?

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I agree with you. Things look bleak in the job market. You are lucky to have a job at all I think. Between AI and outsourcing a lot of of us are struggling.

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Have you ever thought about moving into UX? I have found it to be much more rewarding than graphic design ever was, and I feel like the respect, pay, and job security is much better.

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Agree. Tools are ever changing. As soon as you learn one a new one is around the corner. But I would say all graphic designers should have deep experience with Photoshop and Illustrator. All of the Adobe apps are fairly standard and their base 5 apps are maybe the only tools I've not changed in 22 years.

Do personal work that doesn’t pay. Separate your work “creative” duties from your real artistic endeavors. I’ve learned that it feels the same everywhere. But you’ll grow as an artist on your own dime.

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Change is inevitable in any career avenue. I went from print design, to animating in Flash, to having to edit user generated-looking social media videos with my thumbs in IG Reels.

Always putting some personal work on my website, in my case webcomics, ironically was my saving grace through a lot of it. It breathed life and personality into my portfolio, to which the manager at one of my first jobs out of school, working with Milton Glaser’s studio, only really complimented that part of it. And as I continued to make more, it literally turned into my job, making eLearning videos with my webcomic character design at 2 leading tech startups, and short webcomics for ads as a marketing designer at another. These were my highest salaried jobs ever, plus I did one-off gigs with my comic style for Google and DigitalOcean.

I’m not saying you have to make webcomics, but “doing the technical thing that gets jobs” is probably what recruiters get really tired of seeing through hundreds of applications, so it’s like an instant turnoff.

Contrary to conventional assumption, make your portfolio a fun and human place by adding whatever hobby you personally developed, for the sole reason you enjoy it. People want to work with people, not “employees.”

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Get into CPG. I worked advertising for 13 years and didn't start making any money until I got into the consumer product world.

For advertising if you can show a high level of refinement, have a point of view, and be willing to figure it out with little to no information - you'll do alright.

Professional growth for me came from the luck of the draw on who your leaders are and if you're pushing yourself.

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Return to the office is notning but a good thing for designers. You will have more ability to show more than just design skills. Overseas hiring is definitely not good for our market. It's not just (sometimes) poor design, but it's always cheaper and companies don't understand the hype of 'UX research" that they themselves are actually promoting. UX is, of course imporant, but the app or product is still King. Dolts think a $500 logo is high but a $120,000 UX person is 'average'.

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You have to find what works for you. Unfortunately it’s not one size fits all, in my experience. I teach, others do personal projects, other folks do healthy things like meditation and exercise, etc.

In my personal experience, therapy has helped me A TON to clarify goals and has contributed to my general well-being. That’s where I started!

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