This week’s post is inspired by Spencer Glenn and Todd Durboraw, and I feel a little bit bad for them because they talked about some really interesting design work they are doing at Brooks… I was particularly interested in how their designs for their brand had applications across so many platforms: web, print, environments, design on the products themselves, and more. Getting to do so many kinds of design sounds like lots of fun and super interesting. I suppose that I’d thought of being an in-house designer as perhaps a little more boring because you’re working on just one brand, but this talk definitely got me to think about how in-house design could actually allow a designer to create applications across all kinds of materials and environments in a way that someone who works in a web design or advertising firm might not. I’d like to think about this more, and it’s definitely increased my interest in doing in-house work… however, instead, Todd and Spencer were pulled into a discussion about the pros and cons of contract work and agency work, so here are my thoughts on some of that:
Full-time work: This kind of work feels the most “standard” to me. This is when a company directly hires you to do a job for a salary or wage, working typically about 35-40 hours per week. This kind of job comes with benefits such as vacation, holiday, & sick time, partial or full health insurance coverage, and often options for 401k plans. In terms of taxes, the company pays a portion, and the employee also pays a portion, and the company holds liability coverage as well as ownership rights over the work. In Washington, if your salary is below a certain amount, you are eligible for overtime pay, but if your salary is higher, you may be expected to work overtime for no additional pay depending on how your position is categorized. Full-time work is stable in that income is steady on a per-week/per-month/per-year time period. When working full-time, the company usually finds its own clients or has its own in-house work; this provides some security because the designer doesn’t have to go out seeking work constantly, but also may have drawbacks as the designer might not always have the option to say no to work that isn’t desirable. Full-time workers are also entitled to some federal/state level job protections such as FMLA or Washington State PFML.
Part-time work: Part-time work is essentially the same as full-time work, just with less hours per week. In Washington, as long as the worker is working more than 20 hours per week, they are still entitled to benefits like healthcare coverage, PFML and FMLA, etc. The major drawback of part-time work as opposed to full-time work is that you get paid for less hours, so there is less total income, and if you drop below 20 hours/week, you might lose eligibility for some benefits. Part-time work can be a great solution for people who have a lot of life in their life outside of work, such as taking care of family members, personal projects, other freelance work, and so on. Working part-time can also allow someone to maintain multiple jobs if they like mixing it up.
Agency contract work: Agency work is when you are hired by an agency not to work at the agency itself, but to work for different companies that the agency contracts with. The agency is like a middle-man who brings the employer and the employee together. Typically when you work for an agency, the agency receives a high rate of pay from the company, and you get a cut of that. Then, your benefits fall to the agency to provide, so you’d be on their holiday schedule, healthcare schedule, etc. If your position ends, then the agency can try to find you another placement. This can provide more job security than freelancing but less than working full- or part-time.
Freelance work: Freelance work is when you are essentially your own business. You gather your clients, manage the finances, do the work, and pay yourself. If you make enough, you will need a business license. You have to fully fund your own benefits and taxes, and a company would pay you the rates that you charge them (or negotiate with them) under a contract. Freelance work can be very… well, free, in the sense that you get to determine your own hours, type of work, and quantity of work, but you must also hustle to find enough work and to gather clients on your own as well as managing the business of the company in addition to doing the design work itself.
For myself, I’d most prefer to work in a full-time or part-time design position at a company. I’m quite open to in-house vs. creative agency work, but I like the stability of having a steady job and not having to market myself constantly. In the beginning, I may need to take some agency contract work or some freelance work, but my goal would be to find that steady position. In addition to finding steady work, I’d like to find myself at design agency or on an in-house team that is at least medium-sized with a range of experienced designers around me because I think, at least at first, it is super helpful to have folks to go to for mentoring. I also find that I do better work when I’m around other folks who are thinking creatively so that we can bounce ideas off of each other and be inspired by each others’ creative process. I have a pretty full life with a family, so part-time work would be the dream, but coming out of school also might mean that I need full-time work for a while to pay the bills. Full-time positions also seem more plentiful, so that’s probably what I’ll seek right out of school.
Here are a couple of postings that I found for currently-open full-time jobs:
Sounders FC (on LinkedIn)
Peter Novelli (on LinkedIn)