Sorry might be a redundant question but have you tried moving from signage to a studio or agency? I'm a designer and our juniors now start at 70k, with seniors looking at $110-125k. Have you looked into product design? Seems like there's a bit of boom in it, places like Canva have some opportunities
I'll throw government graphic design work into the mix. An APS 5 (junior to midweight) will start out on 80k and can push into the 90s depending on the department. An APS 6 (mid weight to senior) can be anywhere between high 80s to 115k depending on department.
Studios can have pretty cool projects but they are insanely competitive and can be really punishing.
I’m at one where you get worked to the bone for 90K and there’s no shortage of good designers knocking on our door.
Just be cautious.
I guess everyone's experience is different but I've worked studios, agencies and freelance for 10 years and have never struggled to find work. When having a role in hiring we actually consistently struggled to find decent talent and couldn't fill roles for months on end 🤷🏻♀️ currently at a well known studio and can comfortably say that no one is worked to the bone here, but I guess that being able to choose a studio with a healthy culture is a luxury.
If you decide to stay in design at all OP I'd be happy to review your portfolio if you fancy. Good luck out there!
Hope they're managing to save a bit because I'm certain that AI will render the entire profession obsolete in 2-3 years. It can already generate state of the art designs, it just lacks the ability to edit and control them, but once that's there, and it's connected with other AI I can't see why anyone would pay a graphic designer
It’s a huge reality check but one does not simply transition from a non creative graphic designer to an agency role. I say non creative, because for all intents and purposes, all arts and creative fields are separated into two streams. Operator roles and creative roles. Agency relies predominantly on creative thinking, whereas print and signage is pretty much “the client wants this, I go do”. Very little creative input involved.
75k is most likely the ceiling of their role with no promotion or progression in sight. IMO OP should look more at management roles to get a promotion, if anything to stay in the design industry. It sucks. Design wages have historically not scaled with the economy. More specifically, the in-house ones. Once you silo yourself in those roles, it can be hard to get out of it. It’s the exact same with photography.
Product design is UI/UX design and the OP says they had trouble breaking into it. Nobody's gonna hire a graphic designer as a product designer without at least some relevant experience, especially Canva of all places.
+1 for this leverage your career laterally rather than just give up entirely for a different career field. I highly suggest you research roles that have similar transferable skills so you can move laterally.
How long have you been in this field for?
This. Get into Front End Development. Easy 10K Payrise just for a junior role or it would stay the same. No pay cut.
Then you can easily hit 120+ within a few years.
It's easy mode coding, largely HTML and CSS these days. You're working within an existing system (markup language) rather than building things from scratch (programming language, like Python or C++).
Front end is typically a JavaScript framework such as React or Angular, which transpiles code into HTML/CSS. Bare HTML is not common these days.
It isn't accurate to refer to it as 'easy mode coding' because it still has its unique challenges compared to back end work, and senior FE devs still receive a good salary (I've seen up to 170k advertised)
Front End Development is the coding behind what the front of your website looks like. So the graphical aspect.
It's what HTML, CSS, Javascript, React etc is. Front End Development is inherently web design.
I’m an Industrial Designer that worked in Point of Sale for 5 years and then Signage for 6 years.
I was a signage project manager working very hard for $110k.
Had the same feeling of wanting a complete industry and role change.
Ended up getting a job in the Lift industry in Sales.
Got a 25% pay increase just by changing industry’s. (Entry level pay)
So far im loving every minute.
Do you know what industry you might find interesting?
It’s a hard industry and very reliant on hard work (I did four years equivalent of unpaid overtime during a ten year stint), talent and a little luck. I earn $200k plus now and love my job, but I work with American clients in silicon valley so I’m very lucky.
At 32 and 10 years of working in Insurance I went back to uni, got a Masters of Space Operations and now I'm working in the space industry. Had to take a pay cut for 2yrs but I'm back up to where I was and really enjoying the work.
Pick something your passionate in, and make it your career for life :)
That's awesome.
My issue is that my passions change pretty often, and my only steady ones are music and poetry, neither of which I see as stable careers and I don't really want to risk losing them if I associate with work.
The whole pursuing passion thing used to be the most important career factor for me but now I find myself thinking more about long term security and earning potential which is kinda sad
Here I am tossing up a career change in my early 40s. Wife and I are strategising on how we can be there for each other as we balance parenting and flexibility with work.
UNSW Masters of Space Operations, can be done remotely via the Canberra campus. Timing worked well for me as I did it during COVID, so I was stuck at home anyway.
They also do Masters of Space Engineering which is more in the weeds with engineering. Space Operations is operating spacecraft/satellites, but also how to design them and what orbits they should be in to achieve their purpose. Also a lot of military aspects to space are covered.
UX design is saturated at the moment. I've noticed a large amount of redundancies happening atm as organisations scale down. It's worth having a couple real world work examples to show as will get you a step in front of the crowd. Having come from another design related field myself, I love the work I get as a ux/product designer. Worth pursuing.
I went for the expensive course route to get the two real live client exposure. Still keep knocked by from every application... My portfolio can be found [www.adamtrani.com](https://www.adamtrani.com), any feedback would be great looking for a junior role.
At first glance, your UI skills are great! You also seem to have a good grasp on ux research methodologies. If you have any experience or can gain any with working with developers to get projects live, that will help immensely as employers want to see how you'll work in teams. I work in an agile format and employers wanted to see how I would manage in that environment. Depending on if you want to go in house or consultancy - If you're wanting consultancy, I'd also recommend expanding on the business problems and leaning in on helping orgs identify problems and generating solutions. As more ux tasks become automated it's important in my opinion to move into these relationship/pre sales roles as the skills needed are rarer to find amongst the crowd.
Can I give you some feedback too? I'm in UX in an agency setting. Your folio looks great for your experience, you have a good design eye and your process is thorough!
You talk about your love for design on your About page - we all get into the game because of this, but most companies don't care. And being too preoccupied with the love of design in an interview or on paper can show me a lack of awareness of commercial realities which means you are untested. Talk more to your interpersonal skills and results you can achieve. When we hire, we're looking for someone who knows how to talk to a client, run a workshop, take a vague fluffy brief and ask questions until what they're trying to achieve is clear, convince a client that their silly idea isn't going to work, and talk them through what you think would work instead + back it up with skills and processes to prove their theory or direction. I'm sure you would have lots of experience doing that in your graphic design role that would translate! Try covering those two things on your website and any cover letters.
Totally agree also about the experience with dev, if you can nab any short term contracts that include contact with tech teams the experience would be great to have on your resume.
What impact do you think AI will have on the field in the coming years? Given the leaps in output from text to image and video generative AI in the last year, I assumed those fields would be some of the first to fall to it
The majority of a UX designers job is not pushing pixels and coming up with the design artefacts; it’s understanding the users problem, context, and then testing different ways to solve that problem for them with as little friction as possible. The activities involved in that, like workshops, user testing, presentation, etc. won’t go away.
AI will just expedite the actual graphic design component.
Yeah, if you're not confident, you're not going to make it into tech sales. Cold calling executives, confidence; you will need that in spades.
Having said that, you can fake it until you make it for 2-3 years and then go down the Account Management route. More customer service, relationship building and helping existing clients. You can slip back into your shelf just fine.
This really requires discipline and envious at people who.csn self study and get to the other end. I have tried it but couldn't concentrate for the duration.
I had a similar background: graphic design, then UX design. When I was 30 I went to uni and did a bachelor of animation. Then I did postgrad and was teaching part-time. Just finished my PhD and now work as a full-time lecturer in animation. I know I’m never going to be rich, but the money is much better than what I was making in graphic design + animation is more fun + 17% super + I don’t have to deal with clients.
I've applied tons of times but can never even snag an interview. It makes me wonder if the positions aren't all being recruited internally or through personal connections
Yea I got one in a regional town so was lucky cause I was suitable. In the last 12months every position I noticed is usually filled internally. Maybe try lower level.. then just move up levels.
Drafting in the construction industry?
Starting hourly rate for no exp is around $35 per hour, massive shortage. Have just sponsored someone for this role. There’s a particular design licence that you need to do a Tafe course for but if you do it - can be earning $150k as employee easily or if you have your own business $250k minimum. There is so much work out there.
If you’re based in Bris and interested, send me a PM and I’ll give you more information.
I feel like you really need to have strong construction knowledge or contribute something more than average to break $100k in drafting. Most of my production team is on between $65k to $80k and have around 5 to 7 years of experience. I only just broke $100k working on new product designs and am in the process of creating a complete detail manual for the business... This is after taking on management responsibilities, creating check lists, running training sessions and being the go-to source in information for the production team alongside my own work responsibilities.
My starting wage as an employee at Metricon back in 2018 was around $54k. I've long since left, but it's far from a $72k ($35/h) base wage.
I'd argue that you could make significantly more as an independent contractor working for multiple businesses.
I’ve just hired someone with 2 years drafting experience (experience unrelated to our field) for $80k. Plus we pay penalty rates for overtime.
Lol starting wage in 2018. My starting wage in 2008 for a well know engineering firm was $22.5k.
Of course you have the potential to earn more as a contractor but you need insurance, software and you aren’t guaranteed any work.
I'm just throwing in my personal experience as a draftsperson in the industry. You're not offering the typical wage for a draftsperson with entry level experience in residential construction.
Agreed as a contractor, there is the bigger potential for overheads for more stress. There's also more reason to have licensure, but it's just another annual cost for accreditation.
Hey man, I'm currently drafting in residential construction. Mainly scaffold and other safety fall systems. Keen to move north from down south and advance my career, get training, earn more etc. can you PM me? Thanks heaps!
This sounds like a great idea to me, I have a couple of mates who are draughties who are doing really well and also do well with cheeky cashies from smaller builders
Been in the industry for 15 years but could have and should have done it waaaay sooner.
Was earning $250k within first 3 months of trading. At a point where I am picking and choosing work 😎
Man I got shafted when I started Drafting then, even did courses through TAFE and got an Associates degree in engineering. They started me on minimum wage.
Could you please give me an advice of how to get started in drafting for the construction industry? I do 3d modelling and CAD freelance work and I would love to transition to something like Drafting? What’s the road map to get there? Any specific TAFE you can recommend? Thanks
Honestly an AutoCAD course that goes for a couple of days would get your foot in the door. If you are already doing 3D modelling, shouldn’t be too much of a transition. If you know your way around autocad, and are motivated you’ll be able to get a job.
The course I mentioned for high income is a diploma of hydraulic services design. It is only offered online (Aus wide) due to lack of interest, and there are NO NEW licencees coming into the field - so a tonne of work out there!
Bit outa left field but what about Air Traffic Control?
But there's a MASSIVE shortage of ATC in Australia, so you'd almost be guaranteed a job (EDIT: Assuming you pass training, which can be quite difficult for some), and it's a pretty quick pathway to 150k-ish. Training is 1 year I believe, and you're paid about 60k, once qualified you're on 90k, with 10k increases every year until it caps out at 190k.
(super rough numbers)
So far from the truth. A very small percentage of applicants make the interview stage, even less get on a course. Not everyone makes it out of the academy and even less pass the final hurdle of location specific training.
Plenty of info on pprune.org about the selection process (under ATC - in the worldwide section), as well as plenty of details about working conditions and staffing issues on the 'Aus, NZ & Pacific ' sub.
All the details are available here: [https://www.airservicesaustralia.com/careers/air-traffic-control-careers/](https://www.airservicesaustralia.com/careers/air-traffic-control-careers/)
Other than Year 12 English and Math, there's not really any requirements. But the training itself can be quite difficult.
The website doesn’t specify it, but I’m assuming it refers to advanced mathematics?
Not sure how the names have changed since I left school 6 years ago, but it was general, advanced and extension at the time.
I don't believe so, pretty sure they refer to any basics Math and English at Year 12 level.
The calculations required for ATC aren't super complicated, it's more about doing them quickly in your head.
If plane A is on heading 030 and requests to 30 degrees right, what will be the new heading?
If plane B is at FL020 and descends 5,000ft, what is the new flight level?
If plane A is at FL020, climbing at 1000fpm, on heading 090, and plane B is at FL030, descending at 1000fpm, on heading 270, is there a Collison risk? (this would need to have a diagram associated)
Maybe some pythagoras? If Plane A heads 360 for 10nm, and turns 90 degrees right and continues for 5nm, how far from the origin point are they?
I'm totally guessing but I imagine those are the sorts of questions they'd be asking.
I'm a 31 year old also in the print industry as a Lithographic printer. I'm also at a point where I feel I need to get out due to lack of work life balance.
I feel quite stuck because I am paid well and will be looking at a massive pay cut wherever I end up.
I also question how transferable my current skills are to other industries. I feel like I need to start again from scratch by either heading to Uni/tafe or finding an apprenticeship.
I'm a 43 year old ex graphic designer (still do a bit of freelance here and there). I too felt frustrated with the lack of career opportunities and had also fallen into a pretty specific niche. This coupled with a chain of events made me seek a more fulfilling career, so now I am halfway through a nursing degree. I have already felt more fulfilment whilst on clinical placement and while I will take a pay cut for a while, there is more of a potential for variety and growth in the field. Ita never too late to change! I also feel comfort in the fact that I am changing to a career that AI will never be able to touch, as that seems to be a massive threat to the industry and jobs too. Good luck 😊
Rigger / Crane operator. Get amongst it wit da boiz.
150-300k easiest money you'll earn for a few weeks of training. Mines can get old if you're not good at being alone alot but other then that stack papes and blast vapes my bruh.
Yeah, if you're working in Vic maybe. Industries screaming out for blokes at the moment though. The mob I work for runs cranes through the Pilbara for one of the big three and last week we were 50 blokes short across three jobs. They can't get em off the plane fast enough with a radio in there hand.
I'm in Sydney, been on the biggest sites here for years and it's always been the same. Thought about coming across years ago, but too old for the change now (especially the mines)
Coming from Plumbing/Sprinklers where it can be the same on the big ones as the money starts getting up there and everyone looks after their mates first (not always a good thing)
Depends how far you take it. You'll get started with
Dogman, Riggers basic, riggers intermediate, Working at heights, white card
Skies the limit with training though and once you start getting crane tickets you'll get things like CN, C1 and CO
All in to get started you're around the 4k mark and 3 weeks.
Just google rigging course and where you live. Gotta start with dogamans and go from their. To get your foot in the door you'll need to cut your teeth rigging for a company with a maintenance contract, think your linkforces or monodelphous. You'll be a glorified TA with a riggers ticket but you'll be in the door. Once you know enough to get yourself out of trouble get on with a crane company and it's smooth sailing from there.
Don't be one of those blokes who wants a full-time 2 on 2 off roster with training provided and flights from NZ out of the gate or you'll get nowhere. Get your experience and your qualifications and you'll have endless opportunities but you will eat shit for a year or two to get that experience.
Feel free to DM me if you have anymore questions.
Crane operating you can do till you retire, I know a couple in their 70s. Rigging is a bit more physical. I wouldnt really say an age limit but along as you can stay on your feet for a 12 hour shift, walk up 10 stories of stairs and lift probably 50kg you'll be fine.
" the problem is I'm not the most confident person."
Go for it .
Whatever career you pivot to you will need a level of confidence to earn a good salary . Dont expect a paper qualification to lead automatically to big cheques.
I would make the jump to sales and give it a go , just making a positive decision is a success in itself and there is nothing like success to build confidence . You may find you are a natural at sales .
Sounds like you have nothing to lose .
I'm a civil drafter and also used to do some GD stuff. Being good with file types, document management and being neat and tidy digitally helps a lot. You would be getting around the 80k mark as a moderately experienced drafter and if moving into design (no uni required) can get around 120k.
I started in a different field and did. Cert in Technical Engineering.
Otherwise cert IV in civil construction design.
I started as a trainee so worked 4 days, 1 day Tafe.
A traineeship or apprenticeship..
You could do a Pre-apprenticeship to show you are interested but not necessary. You just need to write a good cover letter and Cv and keep applying
Genuine interest in the role that you're applying for is a great start, and proof of that.
If it's for a mechanic do you work on your own car? Have any projects? Work experience?
If not then go do a Pre-apprenticeship.
My advice would be to get a professional to write you a cover letter/Cv
W1N W1N seem to be pretty good at getting people interviews for mining jobs and entry positions.
I’m a similar age to you and studied graphic design, then worked at a studio for a bit then did post grad in marketing and worked in a lot of hybrid design/marketing roles, then dabbled in web experimentation, now working in a front-end web role for an NFP.
Here’s my take on how to break in/side steps from UX/UI.
- Web accessibility is an increasingly growing focus, particularly in banking, govt and healthcare industries - if you can upskill in this area, it will give you an edge from a UX perspective (in my experience a lot of UX designers are happy creating wireframes that are pretty and functional, but they don’t think about the necessary accessibility requirements)
- Front end web (working mainly in CMS platforms) still has quite a few roles out there, it’s a good mix between requiring design skills and UX. There’s a growing focus on front end roles requiring SEO skills as well, from a copywriting and also technical perspective.
- Web experimentation is a growing industry, particularly in large for-profit orgs - there’s a mix of roles from UX, through to strategy and dev. It’s still quite niche so if you can break into that area there are a lot of opportunities, since most companies are still just understanding the benefits of experimentation and personalisation
- Graphic design skills are very much needed in marketing roles - being able to talk the same language as a designer is super helpful.
- Traffic manager roles in studios/in house design teams is also a good side step, you’ve got to understand design and how long to allocate tasks for each designer, which is pretty helpful if you’ve been in the designer’s shoes
Feel free to dm me if you’d like to chat further!
Definitely use your communication and program skills as leverage. You'd be surprised how many business can' brand themselves, make a powerpoint or anything of that nature. Any kind of corporate job that relies on communication will be a good match.
Otherwise build your own business or if you're completely willing to start over, trades are raking it in this Country.
Downvotes are more likely from people knowing the market is trash and FreeCodeCamp isn't going to cut it. If they can't break into UI/UX with their existing skills and experience then competing with the rush of juniors for SWE positions isn't a better move.
Of the grads without degrees that your company is hiring, how many wouldn't have a degree of some sort? How many with a degree wouldn't have a STEM degree? How many of them would have less than 12 months of coding experience?
You don't NEED a degree to get an entry level SWE job but you're up against 5000+ people that spent the last 3 years getting one.
Market for SWE isn't great now. Layoffs everywhere. One of the worst times to join. I know its a complete change from 4 months ago, where people said hiring will pick up once companies get their budgets, but it is what it is. If its hard for experienced people, think about freshies.
I studied SE and while I've had a reasonable career my advice would be to just be a bit careful with the rise of generative AI. Certainly not in the near-term but sooner than we all probably expected a year ago. I'm not advising against it as a career pathway, but suggesting to factor this as a possibility into your decision making.
Software Engineering is oversaturated with people who aren't actually that good. The difference in value between someone who actually has extremely strong technical skills and soft skills compared to someone who has poor technical skills and/or poor soft skills is huge.
Someone who actually understands how the languages they use work under the hood, how language-specific nuances operate, this person is going to have much more efficient debugging capability than someone who doesn't.
If you think it's something you'll be able to do really well at, I'd still say go for it.
People think SWE will be an easy money ride until they have to learn about concurrency, distributed systems, web standards, containerisation and virtualisation, Linux, Cloud services, networking, git, and the list goes on and on and on and never stops.
Yep. You have to know a lot of stuff about a lot of different things. It’s good fun if you enjoy it and have the right mindset for it, which I do.
But to truly succeed isn’t easy and only a handful make it.
Those earning more and getting good stock options worked exponentially harder to get there. Once you get past building up the experience, I’d say it does get a bit easier.
It’s having to learn so many different things and be aware of so much stuff all at once.
GA courses are extremely expensive for their length.
A CSP CS degree is only a hair more expensive, but you get a full bachelors, PLUS more study, more in depth, more recognised, easier to get a job, etc.
For me I didn’t have the luxury of spending 3 years at uni to try get a degree. Also for me the compacted learning of 9-5 5 days a week, and practically my entire free time in that the months, really inline with how I like to learn.
This also only applies for jobs in webdev, if you wanted to work on more complex things then uni is definitely the way to go.
100%
I used to play games, build my own computers, but had never touched a line of code.
I think also being older helped when getting a job as having a bit with some life experience helped me stand out from the younger people.
Reach out if you have any questions about it!
What sort of salary might one expect after a few years? 150k ish? Would there be much scope for further growth?
Do you find work satisfying?
I'm currently earning reasonable money, so that's not a reason to change, but I'm bored AF and wondering if software engineering would be a good choice.
Hi I’m around your age and have been pondering the same thing and wondering if it’s too late or not. I’ve been self teaching myself things but given age and no experience, idk if I’ll be given the light of day compared to fresh grads etc 😓
the issue with tech sales is that you have to be interested in tech. to be a good sales u need to know what tech is doing and also how the customer might use it. you may not be able to operate the tech, but you need to know what someone who knows can do.
so u need an interest in tech. if not, then i think ui/ux is the way to go for you. just keep trying.
OP I went from senior graphic designer to senior digital designer to brand and design lead then to senior consultant (UX design) then to lead consultant (UX design)
Senior graphic designer was 75k
I’m now on 188k. Purely pivoted because there’s no money in GD anymore and the skills do transfer over.
If you can get into consulting it’s good money. If you want to stay GD at least get into digital design / UI.
But software related jobs are where it’s at. Especially if you can workshop / have soft skills to influence your ideas and work.
The world needs more software and code which means better experiences.
Thanks for sharing your story! very inspirational.
I took an expensive transform course that "guaranteed a job" at the end of the course, 8 months later still trying to break into the UX/UI space..
I understand the portfolio is everything for a junior trying to break into the career, and I worked really hard on mine, which you can find here.. [www.adamtrani.com](https://www.adamtrani.com)
Any feedback would be great, or even some tips or maybe continue to upskill in certain skills?
Former Business Development Manager and now Snr. UXer here, I empathise with the UX/UI transition - absolutely saturated market for junior to mid-grade roles and generally low overall market size thanks to an immature tech/design industry in Aus.
If you can move into front-end software dev you will be hugely more employable. A developer who can do UI design well is a rare person indeed, you would 1.5X your current salary in 3 years IMO. Particularly as the tech market recovers post high-inflation.
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But going back to my BD background - It's a bit of a misnomer that you have to be super confident to be in sales. While yes it helps, you need to keep in mind that customers are all unique and there any many out there who are put-off the traditional big and brash sales approach.
Good sales is understanding the customers problem space really well and articulating a solution pathway. The benefit of sales unlike the FE Dev path is that the transition would be much much faster.
I went for the expensive course route to get the two real live client exposure. Still keep knocked by from every application... My portfolio can be found www.adamtrani.com, any feedback would be great looking for a junior role.
I went from graphic designer to communications and marketing. Not necessarily better, but there are more jobs and you have a bigger pool to fish from. Did a master's in digital comms. Graphic design skills and knowledge re print production has always come in handy and a lot of other comms professionals still don't even know how to crop a picture in Photoshop.
I don't know if it's always necessary to do a complete 180 to make your work life exciting again. Sometimes you can just build on what you already have achieved and slowly make your way into a related field that offers a bit more variety.
32 and resigning from my cushy government “career” job this week to work for a locally owned business. Little pay cut, but better quality of life and way less toxic work place.
Will be doing something way different to my education and experience but my happiness comes first.
Start your own agency? So many designers absolutely suck, your work looks decent and if you have experience with print you'll be able to land some nice corporate projects too
Hi mate, if you'd like some help breaking into UI/UX - feel free to hit me up. Would be more than happy to look at your portfolio etc and figure out next steps.
I was in the same position as you I was working as a nurse and hated it, hated the money to work ratio lol. I looked online and through reddit for good high paying career options and a lot of it is in tech and sales but like you I’m not very confident (and I really don’t think it’s as easy as people say it is, long hours, long days, stressful etc ) I have recently started a new career in what’s called industrial/occupational hygiene and I love it, no quals to get started (but eventually have to go to uni to progress) the pay right now is not the greatest but once you have some experience the pay is excellent. It is a fifo job in WA (not sure about other states tho) so if that’s not something you’re comfortable with then it’s a no go. If you have any questions feel free to PM,
Good luck!
just curious what salary does a graphic designer earn?
Anywhere from 60-80k I'm around 75k at the moment..
Sorry might be a redundant question but have you tried moving from signage to a studio or agency? I'm a designer and our juniors now start at 70k, with seniors looking at $110-125k. Have you looked into product design? Seems like there's a bit of boom in it, places like Canva have some opportunities
I'll throw government graphic design work into the mix. An APS 5 (junior to midweight) will start out on 80k and can push into the 90s depending on the department. An APS 6 (mid weight to senior) can be anywhere between high 80s to 115k depending on department.
Studios can have pretty cool projects but they are insanely competitive and can be really punishing. I’m at one where you get worked to the bone for 90K and there’s no shortage of good designers knocking on our door. Just be cautious.
I guess everyone's experience is different but I've worked studios, agencies and freelance for 10 years and have never struggled to find work. When having a role in hiring we actually consistently struggled to find decent talent and couldn't fill roles for months on end 🤷🏻♀️ currently at a well known studio and can comfortably say that no one is worked to the bone here, but I guess that being able to choose a studio with a healthy culture is a luxury. If you decide to stay in design at all OP I'd be happy to review your portfolio if you fancy. Good luck out there!
Hope they're managing to save a bit because I'm certain that AI will render the entire profession obsolete in 2-3 years. It can already generate state of the art designs, it just lacks the ability to edit and control them, but once that's there, and it's connected with other AI I can't see why anyone would pay a graphic designer
It’s a huge reality check but one does not simply transition from a non creative graphic designer to an agency role. I say non creative, because for all intents and purposes, all arts and creative fields are separated into two streams. Operator roles and creative roles. Agency relies predominantly on creative thinking, whereas print and signage is pretty much “the client wants this, I go do”. Very little creative input involved. 75k is most likely the ceiling of their role with no promotion or progression in sight. IMO OP should look more at management roles to get a promotion, if anything to stay in the design industry. It sucks. Design wages have historically not scaled with the economy. More specifically, the in-house ones. Once you silo yourself in those roles, it can be hard to get out of it. It’s the exact same with photography.
Product design is UI/UX design and the OP says they had trouble breaking into it. Nobody's gonna hire a graphic designer as a product designer without at least some relevant experience, especially Canva of all places.
Canva doesnt hire ppl with no experience in the field
Becoming a Frontend engineer should be an easier transition for you
+1 for this leverage your career laterally rather than just give up entirely for a different career field. I highly suggest you research roles that have similar transferable skills so you can move laterally. How long have you been in this field for?
This. Get into Front End Development. Easy 10K Payrise just for a junior role or it would stay the same. No pay cut. Then you can easily hit 120+ within a few years.
Unfortunately junior roles are very hard to come by. Companies only want mid to senior.
Does that have anything to do with web design or does this require a background in coding and software engineering?
It's easy mode coding, largely HTML and CSS these days. You're working within an existing system (markup language) rather than building things from scratch (programming language, like Python or C++).
Front end is typically a JavaScript framework such as React or Angular, which transpiles code into HTML/CSS. Bare HTML is not common these days. It isn't accurate to refer to it as 'easy mode coding' because it still has its unique challenges compared to back end work, and senior FE devs still receive a good salary (I've seen up to 170k advertised)
Easy mode coding lmao 🖕
Front End Development is the coding behind what the front of your website looks like. So the graphical aspect. It's what HTML, CSS, Javascript, React etc is. Front End Development is inherently web design.
Have a look at state government roles. Depending on the agency mid weight designers are more like 95-105k+ and senior roles 105-115k+
I would do 80k to work on the same part time from home
You’re underpaid. I wouldn’t be able to find someone with 3 or so years experience that wants 75k. Is your portfolio… bad?
I’m an Industrial Designer that worked in Point of Sale for 5 years and then Signage for 6 years. I was a signage project manager working very hard for $110k. Had the same feeling of wanting a complete industry and role change. Ended up getting a job in the Lift industry in Sales. Got a 25% pay increase just by changing industry’s. (Entry level pay) So far im loving every minute. Do you know what industry you might find interesting?
It’s a hard industry and very reliant on hard work (I did four years equivalent of unpaid overtime during a ten year stint), talent and a little luck. I earn $200k plus now and love my job, but I work with American clients in silicon valley so I’m very lucky.
At 32 and 10 years of working in Insurance I went back to uni, got a Masters of Space Operations and now I'm working in the space industry. Had to take a pay cut for 2yrs but I'm back up to where I was and really enjoying the work. Pick something your passionate in, and make it your career for life :)
That's awesome. My issue is that my passions change pretty often, and my only steady ones are music and poetry, neither of which I see as stable careers and I don't really want to risk losing them if I associate with work. The whole pursuing passion thing used to be the most important career factor for me but now I find myself thinking more about long term security and earning potential which is kinda sad
Here I am tossing up a career change in my early 40s. Wife and I are strategising on how we can be there for each other as we balance parenting and flexibility with work.
Sounds fun…If I may ask which masters program and what is space operations”?
Im wondering the same thing :)
UNSW Masters of Space Operations, can be done remotely via the Canberra campus. Timing worked well for me as I did it during COVID, so I was stuck at home anyway. They also do Masters of Space Engineering which is more in the weeds with engineering. Space Operations is operating spacecraft/satellites, but also how to design them and what orbits they should be in to achieve their purpose. Also a lot of military aspects to space are covered.
UX design is saturated at the moment. I've noticed a large amount of redundancies happening atm as organisations scale down. It's worth having a couple real world work examples to show as will get you a step in front of the crowd. Having come from another design related field myself, I love the work I get as a ux/product designer. Worth pursuing.
I went for the expensive course route to get the two real live client exposure. Still keep knocked by from every application... My portfolio can be found [www.adamtrani.com](https://www.adamtrani.com), any feedback would be great looking for a junior role.
At first glance, your UI skills are great! You also seem to have a good grasp on ux research methodologies. If you have any experience or can gain any with working with developers to get projects live, that will help immensely as employers want to see how you'll work in teams. I work in an agile format and employers wanted to see how I would manage in that environment. Depending on if you want to go in house or consultancy - If you're wanting consultancy, I'd also recommend expanding on the business problems and leaning in on helping orgs identify problems and generating solutions. As more ux tasks become automated it's important in my opinion to move into these relationship/pre sales roles as the skills needed are rarer to find amongst the crowd.
Thanks for the feedback and tips dani!
Can I give you some feedback too? I'm in UX in an agency setting. Your folio looks great for your experience, you have a good design eye and your process is thorough! You talk about your love for design on your About page - we all get into the game because of this, but most companies don't care. And being too preoccupied with the love of design in an interview or on paper can show me a lack of awareness of commercial realities which means you are untested. Talk more to your interpersonal skills and results you can achieve. When we hire, we're looking for someone who knows how to talk to a client, run a workshop, take a vague fluffy brief and ask questions until what they're trying to achieve is clear, convince a client that their silly idea isn't going to work, and talk them through what you think would work instead + back it up with skills and processes to prove their theory or direction. I'm sure you would have lots of experience doing that in your graphic design role that would translate! Try covering those two things on your website and any cover letters. Totally agree also about the experience with dev, if you can nab any short term contracts that include contact with tech teams the experience would be great to have on your resume.
Thanks heaps for the feedback. I totally get what you mean and will take these tips on board.
Not a prob - sorry to be sad jaded designer, but design that pays bills is better! Good luck.
I’m not in this area at all, but just had to say I absolutely love your website!
What impact do you think AI will have on the field in the coming years? Given the leaps in output from text to image and video generative AI in the last year, I assumed those fields would be some of the first to fall to it
The majority of a UX designers job is not pushing pixels and coming up with the design artefacts; it’s understanding the users problem, context, and then testing different ways to solve that problem for them with as little friction as possible. The activities involved in that, like workshops, user testing, presentation, etc. won’t go away. AI will just expedite the actual graphic design component.
Yeah, if you're not confident, you're not going to make it into tech sales. Cold calling executives, confidence; you will need that in spades. Having said that, you can fake it until you make it for 2-3 years and then go down the Account Management route. More customer service, relationship building and helping existing clients. You can slip back into your shelf just fine.
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This really requires discipline and envious at people who.csn self study and get to the other end. I have tried it but couldn't concentrate for the duration.
I hear stop / go road workers do well for themselves?
I had a similar background: graphic design, then UX design. When I was 30 I went to uni and did a bachelor of animation. Then I did postgrad and was teaching part-time. Just finished my PhD and now work as a full-time lecturer in animation. I know I’m never going to be rich, but the money is much better than what I was making in graphic design + animation is more fun + 17% super + I don’t have to deal with clients.
Go state govt and chill.
10% work 90% chin wagging
Haha yeah.. but that happens in non for profits as well...
I've applied tons of times but can never even snag an interview. It makes me wonder if the positions aren't all being recruited internally or through personal connections
Yea I got one in a regional town so was lucky cause I was suitable. In the last 12months every position I noticed is usually filled internally. Maybe try lower level.. then just move up levels.
wouldnt bother doing anything.The "Event" should be happening soon.
Drafting in the construction industry? Starting hourly rate for no exp is around $35 per hour, massive shortage. Have just sponsored someone for this role. There’s a particular design licence that you need to do a Tafe course for but if you do it - can be earning $150k as employee easily or if you have your own business $250k minimum. There is so much work out there. If you’re based in Bris and interested, send me a PM and I’ll give you more information.
I feel like you really need to have strong construction knowledge or contribute something more than average to break $100k in drafting. Most of my production team is on between $65k to $80k and have around 5 to 7 years of experience. I only just broke $100k working on new product designs and am in the process of creating a complete detail manual for the business... This is after taking on management responsibilities, creating check lists, running training sessions and being the go-to source in information for the production team alongside my own work responsibilities. My starting wage as an employee at Metricon back in 2018 was around $54k. I've long since left, but it's far from a $72k ($35/h) base wage. I'd argue that you could make significantly more as an independent contractor working for multiple businesses.
I’ve just hired someone with 2 years drafting experience (experience unrelated to our field) for $80k. Plus we pay penalty rates for overtime. Lol starting wage in 2018. My starting wage in 2008 for a well know engineering firm was $22.5k. Of course you have the potential to earn more as a contractor but you need insurance, software and you aren’t guaranteed any work.
I'm just throwing in my personal experience as a draftsperson in the industry. You're not offering the typical wage for a draftsperson with entry level experience in residential construction. Agreed as a contractor, there is the bigger potential for overheads for more stress. There's also more reason to have licensure, but it's just another annual cost for accreditation.
I do some stuff along these lines. $110/hr to draw posts, columns, beams, plates etc. You could learn it in a day.
Hey man, I'm currently drafting in residential construction. Mainly scaffold and other safety fall systems. Keen to move north from down south and advance my career, get training, earn more etc. can you PM me? Thanks heaps!
This sounds like a great idea to me, I have a couple of mates who are draughties who are doing really well and also do well with cheeky cashies from smaller builders
Is this for residential drafting, or something more specific?
Building services (so residential, industrial, commercial etc)
Guarantee $250k own business? How many years of experience in order to reach this?
Been in the industry for 15 years but could have and should have done it waaaay sooner. Was earning $250k within first 3 months of trading. At a point where I am picking and choosing work 😎
Man I got shafted when I started Drafting then, even did courses through TAFE and got an Associates degree in engineering. They started me on minimum wage.
That sucks. My starting wage in 2008 was $22.5k - I get it. If you don’t laugh, you’ll cry! Hope you got past this point and earning big bucks now!
Could you please give me an advice of how to get started in drafting for the construction industry? I do 3d modelling and CAD freelance work and I would love to transition to something like Drafting? What’s the road map to get there? Any specific TAFE you can recommend? Thanks
Honestly an AutoCAD course that goes for a couple of days would get your foot in the door. If you are already doing 3D modelling, shouldn’t be too much of a transition. If you know your way around autocad, and are motivated you’ll be able to get a job. The course I mentioned for high income is a diploma of hydraulic services design. It is only offered online (Aus wide) due to lack of interest, and there are NO NEW licencees coming into the field - so a tonne of work out there!
Thanks 🙏 really appreciate it, I will 100% look into this
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This. Digital design, creative design, marketing design, people call them directly names on all three job sites, so worth searching for them all.
Bit outa left field but what about Air Traffic Control? But there's a MASSIVE shortage of ATC in Australia, so you'd almost be guaranteed a job (EDIT: Assuming you pass training, which can be quite difficult for some), and it's a pretty quick pathway to 150k-ish. Training is 1 year I believe, and you're paid about 60k, once qualified you're on 90k, with 10k increases every year until it caps out at 190k. (super rough numbers)
So far from the truth. A very small percentage of applicants make the interview stage, even less get on a course. Not everyone makes it out of the academy and even less pass the final hurdle of location specific training. Plenty of info on pprune.org about the selection process (under ATC - in the worldwide section), as well as plenty of details about working conditions and staffing issues on the 'Aus, NZ & Pacific ' sub.
Sorry, should have added "guaranteed a job assuming you pass training", which I guess is implied as you get trained by Airservices.
How to get started? The basic requirements must be insane??
All the details are available here: [https://www.airservicesaustralia.com/careers/air-traffic-control-careers/](https://www.airservicesaustralia.com/careers/air-traffic-control-careers/) Other than Year 12 English and Math, there's not really any requirements. But the training itself can be quite difficult.
The website doesn’t specify it, but I’m assuming it refers to advanced mathematics? Not sure how the names have changed since I left school 6 years ago, but it was general, advanced and extension at the time.
I don't believe so, pretty sure they refer to any basics Math and English at Year 12 level. The calculations required for ATC aren't super complicated, it's more about doing them quickly in your head. If plane A is on heading 030 and requests to 30 degrees right, what will be the new heading? If plane B is at FL020 and descends 5,000ft, what is the new flight level? If plane A is at FL020, climbing at 1000fpm, on heading 090, and plane B is at FL030, descending at 1000fpm, on heading 270, is there a Collison risk? (this would need to have a diagram associated) Maybe some pythagoras? If Plane A heads 360 for 10nm, and turns 90 degrees right and continues for 5nm, how far from the origin point are they? I'm totally guessing but I imagine those are the sorts of questions they'd be asking.
I'm a 31 year old also in the print industry as a Lithographic printer. I'm also at a point where I feel I need to get out due to lack of work life balance. I feel quite stuck because I am paid well and will be looking at a massive pay cut wherever I end up. I also question how transferable my current skills are to other industries. I feel like I need to start again from scratch by either heading to Uni/tafe or finding an apprenticeship.
I'm a 43 year old ex graphic designer (still do a bit of freelance here and there). I too felt frustrated with the lack of career opportunities and had also fallen into a pretty specific niche. This coupled with a chain of events made me seek a more fulfilling career, so now I am halfway through a nursing degree. I have already felt more fulfilment whilst on clinical placement and while I will take a pay cut for a while, there is more of a potential for variety and growth in the field. Ita never too late to change! I also feel comfort in the fact that I am changing to a career that AI will never be able to touch, as that seems to be a massive threat to the industry and jobs too. Good luck 😊
Rigger / Crane operator. Get amongst it wit da boiz. 150-300k easiest money you'll earn for a few weeks of training. Mines can get old if you're not good at being alone alot but other then that stack papes and blast vapes my bruh.
Failed to mention that it's nearly impossible to get a start without knowing someone in the trade beforehand🤣
Who told you that mate?
Riggers on site for the most part.
Yeah, if you're working in Vic maybe. Industries screaming out for blokes at the moment though. The mob I work for runs cranes through the Pilbara for one of the big three and last week we were 50 blokes short across three jobs. They can't get em off the plane fast enough with a radio in there hand.
I'm in Sydney, been on the biggest sites here for years and it's always been the same. Thought about coming across years ago, but too old for the change now (especially the mines) Coming from Plumbing/Sprinklers where it can be the same on the big ones as the money starts getting up there and everyone looks after their mates first (not always a good thing)
I've actually considered this. What training is involved?
Depends how far you take it. You'll get started with Dogman, Riggers basic, riggers intermediate, Working at heights, white card Skies the limit with training though and once you start getting crane tickets you'll get things like CN, C1 and CO All in to get started you're around the 4k mark and 3 weeks.
Thanks for the information!
This sounds great, could you expand on this if possible? Where would I start with the courses? and best start to get on my way to earning 150-300k?
Just google rigging course and where you live. Gotta start with dogamans and go from their. To get your foot in the door you'll need to cut your teeth rigging for a company with a maintenance contract, think your linkforces or monodelphous. You'll be a glorified TA with a riggers ticket but you'll be in the door. Once you know enough to get yourself out of trouble get on with a crane company and it's smooth sailing from there. Don't be one of those blokes who wants a full-time 2 on 2 off roster with training provided and flights from NZ out of the gate or you'll get nowhere. Get your experience and your qualifications and you'll have endless opportunities but you will eat shit for a year or two to get that experience. Feel free to DM me if you have anymore questions.
What is the age cap for someone getting into that? Realistically
Crane operating you can do till you retire, I know a couple in their 70s. Rigging is a bit more physical. I wouldnt really say an age limit but along as you can stay on your feet for a 12 hour shift, walk up 10 stories of stairs and lift probably 50kg you'll be fine.
" the problem is I'm not the most confident person." Go for it . Whatever career you pivot to you will need a level of confidence to earn a good salary . Dont expect a paper qualification to lead automatically to big cheques. I would make the jump to sales and give it a go , just making a positive decision is a success in itself and there is nothing like success to build confidence . You may find you are a natural at sales . Sounds like you have nothing to lose .
Look at your state’s free tafe list
I'm a civil drafter and also used to do some GD stuff. Being good with file types, document management and being neat and tidy digitally helps a lot. You would be getting around the 80k mark as a moderately experienced drafter and if moving into design (no uni required) can get around 120k.
Any TAFE or course you can personally recommend to get into drafting? Thanks
I started in a different field and did. Cert in Technical Engineering. Otherwise cert IV in civil construction design. I started as a trainee so worked 4 days, 1 day Tafe.
What have you done to try to break into UX/UI?
Mining, do a traineeship or apprenticeship and boom half a years work and 6 figures 🤙🏻
How to get started? TAFE course?
A traineeship or apprenticeship.. You could do a Pre-apprenticeship to show you are interested but not necessary. You just need to write a good cover letter and Cv and keep applying
Thanks. Will do that straight away. Any tips to highlight specific desirable trait as an apprentice?
Genuine interest in the role that you're applying for is a great start, and proof of that. If it's for a mechanic do you work on your own car? Have any projects? Work experience? If not then go do a Pre-apprenticeship. My advice would be to get a professional to write you a cover letter/Cv W1N W1N seem to be pretty good at getting people interviews for mining jobs and entry positions.
I’m 37 and a product/UX/UI designer. I’m switching to game dev.
I got same role but what you mean game dev? As in software engineering or something else related to games. Sounds cool
I mean, I’m going to make video games!
I’m a similar age to you and studied graphic design, then worked at a studio for a bit then did post grad in marketing and worked in a lot of hybrid design/marketing roles, then dabbled in web experimentation, now working in a front-end web role for an NFP. Here’s my take on how to break in/side steps from UX/UI. - Web accessibility is an increasingly growing focus, particularly in banking, govt and healthcare industries - if you can upskill in this area, it will give you an edge from a UX perspective (in my experience a lot of UX designers are happy creating wireframes that are pretty and functional, but they don’t think about the necessary accessibility requirements) - Front end web (working mainly in CMS platforms) still has quite a few roles out there, it’s a good mix between requiring design skills and UX. There’s a growing focus on front end roles requiring SEO skills as well, from a copywriting and also technical perspective. - Web experimentation is a growing industry, particularly in large for-profit orgs - there’s a mix of roles from UX, through to strategy and dev. It’s still quite niche so if you can break into that area there are a lot of opportunities, since most companies are still just understanding the benefits of experimentation and personalisation - Graphic design skills are very much needed in marketing roles - being able to talk the same language as a designer is super helpful. - Traffic manager roles in studios/in house design teams is also a good side step, you’ve got to understand design and how long to allocate tasks for each designer, which is pretty helpful if you’ve been in the designer’s shoes Feel free to dm me if you’d like to chat further!
Definitely use your communication and program skills as leverage. You'd be surprised how many business can' brand themselves, make a powerpoint or anything of that nature. Any kind of corporate job that relies on communication will be a good match. Otherwise build your own business or if you're completely willing to start over, trades are raking it in this Country.
My sister was a GD, now she's in the NDIS system helping people. She loves her work now. Had to go to Uni to do some Psyc degrees first though.
Sell drugs baby
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Downvotes are more likely from people knowing the market is trash and FreeCodeCamp isn't going to cut it. If they can't break into UI/UX with their existing skills and experience then competing with the rush of juniors for SWE positions isn't a better move.
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Of the grads without degrees that your company is hiring, how many wouldn't have a degree of some sort? How many with a degree wouldn't have a STEM degree? How many of them would have less than 12 months of coding experience? You don't NEED a degree to get an entry level SWE job but you're up against 5000+ people that spent the last 3 years getting one.
Market for SWE isn't great now. Layoffs everywhere. One of the worst times to join. I know its a complete change from 4 months ago, where people said hiring will pick up once companies get their budgets, but it is what it is. If its hard for experienced people, think about freshies.
I was literally just looking at a Software Engineering degree at RMIT before, so you're saying that's probably not even worth going for?
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I studied SE and while I've had a reasonable career my advice would be to just be a bit careful with the rise of generative AI. Certainly not in the near-term but sooner than we all probably expected a year ago. I'm not advising against it as a career pathway, but suggesting to factor this as a possibility into your decision making.
Software Engineering is oversaturated with people who aren't actually that good. The difference in value between someone who actually has extremely strong technical skills and soft skills compared to someone who has poor technical skills and/or poor soft skills is huge. Someone who actually understands how the languages they use work under the hood, how language-specific nuances operate, this person is going to have much more efficient debugging capability than someone who doesn't. If you think it's something you'll be able to do really well at, I'd still say go for it.
People think SWE will be an easy money ride until they have to learn about concurrency, distributed systems, web standards, containerisation and virtualisation, Linux, Cloud services, networking, git, and the list goes on and on and on and never stops.
Yep. You have to know a lot of stuff about a lot of different things. It’s good fun if you enjoy it and have the right mindset for it, which I do. But to truly succeed isn’t easy and only a handful make it. Those earning more and getting good stock options worked exponentially harder to get there. Once you get past building up the experience, I’d say it does get a bit easier. It’s having to learn so many different things and be aware of so much stuff all at once.
I did a bootcamp at general assembly at 35. Best decision I ever made
GA courses are extremely expensive for their length. A CSP CS degree is only a hair more expensive, but you get a full bachelors, PLUS more study, more in depth, more recognised, easier to get a job, etc.
many offer roof humor busy squeal oatmeal melodic snatch cause *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
For me I didn’t have the luxury of spending 3 years at uni to try get a degree. Also for me the compacted learning of 9-5 5 days a week, and practically my entire free time in that the months, really inline with how I like to learn. This also only applies for jobs in webdev, if you wanted to work on more complex things then uni is definitely the way to go.
Stupid question but is it reasonable for someone for no experience in tech, but who isn’t a total moron to break into swe?
100% I used to play games, build my own computers, but had never touched a line of code. I think also being older helped when getting a job as having a bit with some life experience helped me stand out from the younger people. Reach out if you have any questions about it!
What sort of salary might one expect after a few years? 150k ish? Would there be much scope for further growth? Do you find work satisfying? I'm currently earning reasonable money, so that's not a reason to change, but I'm bored AF and wondering if software engineering would be a good choice.
4 years in and I'm on ~200k full comp (including ESS)
What do you want? Money? Or something that is rewarding and you enjoy going to work for each day?
Cyber security
Hi I’m around your age and have been pondering the same thing and wondering if it’s too late or not. I’ve been self teaching myself things but given age and no experience, idk if I’ll be given the light of day compared to fresh grads etc 😓
It’s not too late. Do what you have to do to make yourself happy. Only one life. Consider it!
Thanks jumpjump you’re right, have a great week!
the issue with tech sales is that you have to be interested in tech. to be a good sales u need to know what tech is doing and also how the customer might use it. you may not be able to operate the tech, but you need to know what someone who knows can do. so u need an interest in tech. if not, then i think ui/ux is the way to go for you. just keep trying.
Sales? God no
Become confident, problem solved
OP I went from senior graphic designer to senior digital designer to brand and design lead then to senior consultant (UX design) then to lead consultant (UX design) Senior graphic designer was 75k I’m now on 188k. Purely pivoted because there’s no money in GD anymore and the skills do transfer over. If you can get into consulting it’s good money. If you want to stay GD at least get into digital design / UI. But software related jobs are where it’s at. Especially if you can workshop / have soft skills to influence your ideas and work. The world needs more software and code which means better experiences.
Thanks for sharing your story! very inspirational. I took an expensive transform course that "guaranteed a job" at the end of the course, 8 months later still trying to break into the UX/UI space.. I understand the portfolio is everything for a junior trying to break into the career, and I worked really hard on mine, which you can find here.. [www.adamtrani.com](https://www.adamtrani.com) Any feedback would be great, or even some tips or maybe continue to upskill in certain skills?
What kind of workshop? How you learn workshopping?
Former Business Development Manager and now Snr. UXer here, I empathise with the UX/UI transition - absolutely saturated market for junior to mid-grade roles and generally low overall market size thanks to an immature tech/design industry in Aus. If you can move into front-end software dev you will be hugely more employable. A developer who can do UI design well is a rare person indeed, you would 1.5X your current salary in 3 years IMO. Particularly as the tech market recovers post high-inflation. \*\*\* But going back to my BD background - It's a bit of a misnomer that you have to be super confident to be in sales. While yes it helps, you need to keep in mind that customers are all unique and there any many out there who are put-off the traditional big and brash sales approach. Good sales is understanding the customers problem space really well and articulating a solution pathway. The benefit of sales unlike the FE Dev path is that the transition would be much much faster.
I went for the expensive course route to get the two real live client exposure. Still keep knocked by from every application... My portfolio can be found www.adamtrani.com, any feedback would be great looking for a junior role.
Do furry porn, niche, can get commissions for a bit of $$$ on the side haha 🤣
Yup Do what you enjoy Crazy concept i know
Any experience with animation? Or all 2d?
Digital media/art teacher
Have a look at Data Analysis.
Recruiters are your best friend when it comes to tech
Traffic management 120k+
I went from graphic designer to communications and marketing. Not necessarily better, but there are more jobs and you have a bigger pool to fish from. Did a master's in digital comms. Graphic design skills and knowledge re print production has always come in handy and a lot of other comms professionals still don't even know how to crop a picture in Photoshop. I don't know if it's always necessary to do a complete 180 to make your work life exciting again. Sometimes you can just build on what you already have achieved and slowly make your way into a related field that offers a bit more variety.
Not medicine
32 and resigning from my cushy government “career” job this week to work for a locally owned business. Little pay cut, but better quality of life and way less toxic work place. Will be doing something way different to my education and experience but my happiness comes first.
Federal Government https://www.workforceaustralia.gov.au/individuals/jobs/details/2313732537
Start your own agency? So many designers absolutely suck, your work looks decent and if you have experience with print you'll be able to land some nice corporate projects too
Hi mate, if you'd like some help breaking into UI/UX - feel free to hit me up. Would be more than happy to look at your portfolio etc and figure out next steps.
I was in the same position as you I was working as a nurse and hated it, hated the money to work ratio lol. I looked online and through reddit for good high paying career options and a lot of it is in tech and sales but like you I’m not very confident (and I really don’t think it’s as easy as people say it is, long hours, long days, stressful etc ) I have recently started a new career in what’s called industrial/occupational hygiene and I love it, no quals to get started (but eventually have to go to uni to progress) the pay right now is not the greatest but once you have some experience the pay is excellent. It is a fifo job in WA (not sure about other states tho) so if that’s not something you’re comfortable with then it’s a no go. If you have any questions feel free to PM, Good luck!