Advice for a troubled Designer

To OP:

Go with your initial hunch. A career in any role in banking, even ops and support, is more stable and pays better than an average designer. I can think of two reasons:

- Singapore is a very well-established banking and financial centre. While designer roles are needed in all industries, there is nothing in Singapore that particularly makes designer roles special here (in short, we are not Italy).

- People still have the idea, whether rightly or wrongly, that design tasks can easily be outsourced to other countries. For example, it is a common practice for startups to outsource screen designs of their apps to countries like Philippines, where talented freelance designers charge almost 10x lower than local ones. You should know. I bet you had classmates or even lecturers who outsourced their work. As such, the value of design work here is unfairly depressed compared with other types of work. (Programming used to suffer from this as well, but due to the Smart Nation push recently, it is enjoying some form of renaissance. Not sure when designers will get lucky.)

Everything which was said about the design industry in the previous post can be applied to banking ops and support too #sadtruth

Originally Posted by noctis

Hey everyone, first off I want to apologise in advance if I sound completely unaware, as I have a feeling that I really do not know what I am doing.

Here is the background story, I have a BA arts in Interior Design from Singapore Institure of Technology, tried to do Graphic Design for a large local MNC (will not name the company for obvious reasons) as I felt that I didn't want to pursue designing spaces in the local job market as its either not profitable enough or allows enough progression (violently against working for design and build, no offense just personal). Was hoping the stint doing Graphic Design would help me establish what was meant to be a stepping stone to reach a point where I could eventually be a Design lecturer. After close to 2 years (graduated in June 2015) am realising that I really do not believe in the company and what they do and that there is very little to almost no long term sustainable progression in the company.

Considered switching careers to either banking or something in the government sector but am worried that the lack of a degree in related fields will be a serious issue. Was actually prepared to quit my job and go take all the CPAs (1b 5 6 6a 8 8a 9 hi BCP PGI) and then make the jump but aside from a few friends who have business/finance backgrounds I really don't have any info on what to do so I do not want to jump the gun.

Am not afraid of the hard work, am only afraid I am going in blind and wasting another few years of my life. Am only 26 this year so that also explains why I am so ready to quit as I have no major commitments, and I have rainy day savings to tide me awhile.

Could anyone advise if the jump is a smart move career wise? Should I actually go back to spatial design instead? Back in my school days I actually did research on the Arts Master Plan so while searching government jobs I did try to look for those specifically but so far no responses from my applications.

Really appreciate any feedback or advice given, and I am more than willing to share more information in private or answer and questions in this thread if its not too sensitive information.

Hi, I was looking for a career switch from banking to other industries, maybe looking at design. And somehow landed on this page. WOW what an opposite. It seems like ur unhappy partly because of the company. How about try switching company but still be in the same industry first and see how it goes? Instead of completely changing industry just because of 1 company. It also seems like your motivation is on the progression and monetary value (quite opposite mine; i am jaded by the banking industry on how fast paced and stressful it is even monetary cant seem appease me anymore. Sick of chasing the money for the sake of ego). If you want to consider Banking or Govt, be sure that there are many layers of people you need to go thru, processes, red tapes that your comfortable w coz it can get draining and sian after awhile. But the money is there. So you have to decide what you prioritize

Hello, I want to share with you a not so pleasant story. I moved into a new house and the house paint job went bad.

Hello, I want to share with you a not so pleasant story. I moved into a new house and the house paint job went bad. I was very upset and didn't know what to do. Of course I wanted to paint the walls by myself, I even bought paint and got to work. But as time went on, I realized that I couldn't do it. Thank goodness a friend of mine told me about a cheap exterior painting service he used himself. Now I am the happy owner of a new colorful house. I recommend this service to you: s://.paintingservicesingapore.sg/

U can try management consulting. The design thinking concepts and framework which yiu have probably learnt and applied before is actually very useful in consulting when we have design sessions to understand what users really want to solve. Then we prescribe the tools needed to solve it and then in terms of your extra skillset you can contribute by working with the clients to come up with the user journey of eg. Using an app, or help in confirming the UI itself. Interactivity, feedback etc. All very interesting. Just look into this field, maybe it is more aligned with your skillset and what you wanna do for a career.

[DanielStone]

Instead of working for a company, why don't you try working for yourself? You can handle your own responsibilities. The only problem is finding clients, but it's a matter of time. Once you find a couple of people, you'll already have a base of clients who will come to you in the future. In addition, they can recommend you to their friends. That's how it works. I took this difficult step in my life myself. At Planner5D, you can see a list of my work.

to TS, doing design in singapore doesnt pay exactly well unless you are one of the "unicorns". meaning multi-disciplined designers, and not just within different aspects within design (like industrial design, graphic design, uiux, interior, etc) but instead, cross-discipline like with background in computing science, mechanical engineering, psychology, business, etc. a "normal" design graduate earns about 2.8k to 3.5k, the earlier mentioned bunch brings in above 5k as a fresh grad.

need to constantly upgrade yourself, picking up new skills and getting certified for them is one way to go, the other is to take on freelance projects of different nature on the side to gain experience. speaking from experience here as someone who started my freelance practice in the design field for more than 10 years. Now I'm almost mid-30s, drawing around 10 from my full-time job in a senior role, not so active doing freelance anymore. jiayou.

[Cleinad]

Originally Posted by Unregistered

To OP:

Go with your initial hunch. A career in any role in banking, even ops and support, is more stable and pays better than an average designer. I can think of two reasons:

- Singapore is a very well-established banking and financial centre. While designer roles are needed in all industries, there is nothing in Singapore that particularly makes designer roles special here (in short, we are not Italy).

- People still have the idea, whether rightly or wrongly, that design tasks can easily be outsourced to other countries. For example, it is a common practice for startups to outsource screen designs of their apps to countries like Philippines, where talented freelance designers charge almost 10x lower than local ones. You should know. I bet you had classmates or even lecturers who outsourced their work. As such, the value of design work here is unfairly depressed compared with other types of work. (Programming used to suffer from this as well, but due to the Smart Nation push recently, it is enjoying some form of renaissance. Not sure when designers will get lucky.)

lucrative careers in the banking sector = RMs = SALES

designers = craftsperson

what u are trying to achieve is totally different. designers or people in the creative field (like myself) are being squeezed left right centre. our wages are stagnant and truth be told, most of my graphic designer friends in my batch (I'm 40) ended up abandoning their graphic design jobs. why? coz u literally slog for minimal pay. it's art. not science. and beauty is in the eye of the wallet-holder. your client will, in one way or another, dictate how your art will look like else he wont pay up. also, even if u win this round, it is likely he wont engage your services or find ways to fire u (it happened to my friend recently). so, who lose big time in the end? the graphic designer leh.

the creative arts space is not appreciated in SG, unlike in say, the US or other eurpoean countries where the creative arts is thriving due to their historical and cultural appreciation for the arts. i have a cousin who is a high level ballet teacher and she is also suffering.

finally, with free design software like canva and design automation, IMHO, the path of a graphic designer is very bleak and has no future in SG.

Originally Posted by Cleinad

lucrative careers in the banking sector = RMs = SALES

designers = craftsperson

what u are trying to achieve is totally different. designers or people in the creative field (like myself) are being squeezed left right centre. our wages are stagnant and truth be told, most of my graphic designer friends in my batch (I'm 40) ended up abandoning their graphic design jobs. why? coz u literally slog for minimal pay. it's art. not science. and beauty is in the eye of the wallet-holder. your client will, in one way or another, dictate how your art will look like else he wont pay up. also, even if u win this round, it is likely he wont engage your services or find ways to fire u (it happened to my friend recently). so, who lose big time in the end? the graphic designer leh.

the creative arts space is not appreciated in SG, unlike in say, the US or other eurpoean countries where the creative arts is thriving due to their historical and cultural appreciation for the arts. i have a cousin who is a high level ballet teacher and she is also suffering.

finally, with free design software like canva and design automation, IMHO, the path of a graphic designer is very bleak and has no future in SG.

Bro here very free digging old threads haha