1. Employment Profile: What exactly does a Graphic Designer do? |
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 What field is your job in?
Designing Magazine layouts
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What is your job title?
Graphic Designer
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Please provide a brief description of the firm or organization that you currently work for
(size and general description of what type of organization it is)
My company produces 3 Landscape Magazines. There are about 50 people that work here. I am one of 3 graphic designers for the 3 magazines. We are run strictly by advertising, we sell subscriptions but it is rare. If you are in the landscaping field then you receive one of your magazines.
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How long have you been employed in this position?
2 years
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How many hours do you work a week on average?
40 hours
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Please provide a BRIEF description of your duties and responsibilities. (job description)
I design the layouts of the features and departments of all three magazines. I work together with a team to create 3 monthly magazines.
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What was your gross income last year? Please include any bonuses or incentives received.
60,000
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What is your expected gross income for this year? Please include any bonuses or incentives you expect to receive.
70000
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Please
list any benefits you have (Please include number of weeks vacation,
sick leave and type of health insurance, retirement plan 401k)
free medical care, and I pay for vision, dental and ciropratic.
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Do you feel you are under/well/over compensated at your current position?
under
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2. Work environment! |
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Does
your job entail you working with others on a daily basis? Is this
something you like/dislike about your job? Explain
I work with other graphic designers to create the magazines as well as Iworking with the editorial department, sales, advertising. I don't mind working with others but I have to go thru a lot of people just to get each magazine done. Sometimes I think there has to be an easier way to do thru all this.
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Do you work collaboratively with supervisors/managers?
Yes
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Do you work collaboratively with your co-workers?
Yes
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Describe
your work location (e.g., office, home, theatre, in the field) and what
you like/dislike about working in it
I work in a office. because we have grown so much in the past 5 years, half of our office is in one building and the other half is in another part of the building. I like this arrangement because the owner/boss who doesn't know how to design but thinks he does works upstairs and doesn't bother us to much in the other office.
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Please rank in order of importance from 1-8 (1- most important 8- least important) Assign each number once.
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2 Income
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3 Work Environment - co-workers
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5 Work Environment - supervisors
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6 Benefits
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1 Hours
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7 Level of responsibility
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4 The actual "work" you do at your job
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8 Job Title
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3. How should someone new to the workforce get a J-O-B like yours? |
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If someone wanted to go about getting a job similar to yours, what would you recommend for him or her to do?
go to school, get a college diploma. Work hard. Sometimes you have to start at the bottom and work a production job in order to get enough experience in to get a graphic designer position.
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What
skills do you think a person should have if they want to pursue a
position like yours? Please be specific and explain why (e.g., social
skills, organization skills, technical skills)
A good design eye
ability to work hard
ability to work with others
able to see and understand color and text
computer skills and knowledge of design programs
a love of what you do, because it doesn't alway pay well
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Do you feel that you need a certain level of education or training to be successful in your job?
experience is most important but a college degree will give you that extra edge
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What advice would you give to someone who was about to start work in your position/ line of work?
get the degree, learn the programs (such as InDesign, QuarkXPress, Photoshop, Illustrator), start at the bottom and/or do freelance work. Get the experience and learn to work with people who think they are designers but really have no clue. Everyone has a computer these days and have programs that can design but that doesn't make you a designer. Try to work under someone that is a well seasoned designer, you will learn a lot from them!
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