Graphic Artist
(Male, Age 24) from Portland, OR
This is a REAL-LIFE job profile written by a Male aged 24 who works as a Graphic Artist in Portland, OR. We have removed all names and personal information in order to protect privacy. This professional kindly spent a bit of their time to complete one of our job profile surveys so that prospective job seekers like you could read their insights. Please excuse any punctuation or grammatical errors in this profile.
At a Glance
Current Job
Basic data on your current job
| Job Title | Graphic Artist |
|---|---|
| Salary | $90,000 |
| Other Compensation | None Set |
| Hours/Week | 35 |
| Company Size | (not answered) |
| Location | Portland, OR |
| Years Experience | 5 years |
Career Ratings
Opinions on your CAREER overall (i.e. not just your current job)
| Years in Career | 0 |
|---|---|
| Education | (not answered) |
| Income Rating | 0 / 10 |
| Interest Rating | 0 / 10 |
| Work-Life Rating | 0 / 10 |
| Fulfilment Rating | 0 / 10 |
Current job Q&A
Describe the type of organization you work for.
Molitov is a design firm that contracts out graphic artists for other companies. It is a very small office, as most of the artists work either at home or at the company.
Describe your job role and responsibilities.
Creative design, logo concepts, pencil drawings taken to photoshop illustrator.
Please list an additional benefits (beyond compensation) that you receive.
3 weeks paid vacation, health, dental, vision, 401k and stock options
Do you feel you are under/over or well/fairly compensated at your current position?
well
Does your job entail you working with others on a daily basis? Is this something you like/dislike about your job? Please explain.
I get alot of alone time to work on ideas. I have meetings once or twice a week for new ideas, finished ideas. I enjoy working at home without any distractions.
Do you work collaboratively with supervisors/managers?
Yes
Do you work collaboratively with your co-workers?
Yes
Describe your work location (e.g., office, home, theatre, in the field) and what you like/dislike about working in it.
I do some work as a group effort, depending on if its a website, we each are assigned a certain area of web page design, which we bring to a meeting and make a good mix of all the designs
Please rate each of the following aspects of your current job on a scale of 1-10 (10 being the highest/best):
Income: 1
Benefits: 2
Hours: 4
Co-Workers: 6
Supervisors: 7
Job Title: 8
Level of Responsibility: 5
The Actual Work: 3
A day in the life of…
Please describe a typical workday for you in your current job:
| 5am to 6am | |
| 6am to 7am | |
| 7am to 8am | Wake up at 7:30, checked the drawing board for new ideas. I took a break till around 8:15. Finished cleaning the table of old work around 8:20. Set pens and computer up ready to work. |
| 8am to 9am | Put together a list of do’s and dont’s for each project and picked one to start with. Rough sketch was done around 8:45 and proceeded to play with in photoshop till 9. |
| 9am to 10am | saved the file and proceeded to do rough sketches for the rest of the projects. picked the most interesting at around 9:30 and started to refine with fine tip pens. 9:42 Dave calls and asks how the callaway project is going. Sent him a fax of the image and discussed good things and bad things till around 10. |
| 10am to 11am | Take a coffee break. Continue working on a project and proceed to do watercolours on it as a draft piece. email it out to colleuges for some advice. |
| 11am to 12pm | around 11:45 I finished the first project and saved it. continued onto the less fun design, one for a company that sells custom toilets. Start toilet designs on paper and pencil. |
| 12pm to 1pm | still working on sketches at 12:30, but ready to get chopped. |
| 1pm to 2pm | finish drawing and chopping (using photoshop and illustrator) the last piece of work for the day at 2:00 |
| 2pm to 3pm | 2:42 phone call from Dan saying more project are up. Check my email for them and they dont appear. takes 15 minutes to fix the problem and 5 new projects are emailed to me. |
| 3pm to 4pm | clear the drawing board and post it notes. start working on rough sketches for designs that are due on friday. |
| 4pm to 5pm | get rough sketches done around 4:30 and call it a day. |
| 5pm to 6pm | |
| 6pm to 7pm | |
| 7pm to 8pm | |
| 8pm to 9pm | |
| 9pm to 10pm | |
| 10pm to 11pm | |
| 11pm to 12am |
Table of Contents
How you got your job
How did you get your current job?
internet
What was the application process?
submited some of my work
Did you have to interview for your current job? If yes, what did the interview process entail?
The interview process didnt really exist. I met up with Dan, my boss, to show him the ideas I had worked on for him. Essentially its a working interview. If your work is good and consistantly good, you get a job.
If you can remember, what questions were you asked during the interview?
Can you change this, this, this and this? What can you do with this? Did you actually enjoy working on it?
Do you feel your employer properly prepared you for your job? Explain.
Its really an easy job if you enjoy spending hours working on one logo. There isnt much you need to be prepared for other than getting deadlines and fixing drawings.
Was there training for your current position? If yes, what did it entail?
No training at all. I said I knew the software, which was good enough for them.
Do you feel your educational background prepared you for your job? Explain.
I felt confident that I had the skills and the drive to succeed. I knew what i was doing and I was being asked to create somthing, do somthing someone else would be lesser at. I felt like I was in charge.
If applicable, do you feel your internship experience helped you prepare for your job?
There was no internship. We had a trial period where we didnt do much other than do creative sketches to run through to the other designers. I did get a lot of good feedback from that though.
If someone wanted to go about getting a job similar to yours, what would you recommend for him or her to do?
Take some classes at your local community college. Its the best way to get experiance of the way things work. As far as working with the software, i would suggest feeling it out on your own. Be creative, have fun with it before you get told to do somthing specific.
What skills do you think a person should have if they want to pursue a position like yours?
Being organized is important. Be at least capable of knowing where everything is, when the deadline is etc. Be creative, be willing to work on an idea you dont like, or at least manipulate it into somthing better.
Do you feel that you need a certain level of education or training to be successful in your job?
yes
What advice would you give to someone who was about to start work in your position/ line of work?
Freelance freelance freelance. Have a part time job on the side as it’s hard to get a good gig right off the bat. Build a portfolio, its the best way to keep your work ready to show off. A website dedicated to your work would be a great bonus.
Long-term career plans
Is your current employment part of your overall career plan? Why or why not?
I plan on opening up my own design firm as I believe I could do it better.
What are your current career goals?
Work another hard year so I can buy a house.
Is there anything else you would like to share about your career?
Its not a normal job. There are a lot of people who expect great things out of you and that can be hard sometimes. Bring new ideas to the table, bring as much as you can, make it look like you can go in any direction with the project as possible, people like flexability. be willing to sacrifice.
Prior work history
Please list your most recent jobs prior to this current job:
| Title | Length | Salary | Description | |
| Prior Job 1 | Graphic artist | 5 years | 80000 | Graphic artist, creative designer, web page designer. |
| Prior Job 2 | general tech | 2 years | 15000 | highschool job that paid for my college tuition, general mechanic |
Educational background
Please list your educational background:
High School GPA:3.84
| GPA | School | Degree | |
| College (Undergraduate) or Technical/Vocational |
3.5 | PSU | graphic design |
| Graduate or Professional (Masters or Doctorate) |
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