De-Sigh-ner

Having attended the 2006 NAFA Degree Graduation show with my ex-classmates recently, it reminds me that it has well been a year since mine own. Looking at those eager unfamiliar faces of this year's cohort, I wonder how would their careers turn out to be. One year ago, there I was, so full of hope, thinking of all the endless opportunities and career advancement I'll get with my qualifications. Before long, I found out that, it takes alot more than just qualifications to secure a job.

Designers lead a hard life. First, they have got to possess an impressive portfolio and, of course, have relavant work experiences to secure a job. To add icing on the cake, some award certificates, preferably those with a "Crowbar" on it. So what do other fresh grads do if they have no experience and no award to boot? Well, there are companies that are kind enough to hire fresh grads. But they are not willing to pay (to be accurate, the starting pay is usually about 1.2k - 1.5k). The fresh grads will have no choice but to accept it since they are desperate for some experience and commercialise work to top-up their portfolio (cause in our line, no employer really gives a damn about school projects). There designers are required to work long hours, usually with no Over-Time pay, deal with plenty of rejections/ criticism and are required to produce top-notch work.

When the designer is sick and tired of the company's exploitation, he decides to move on. And obviously the figure of the expected salary will rise a bar since now he has some experience and commercialise work in his portfolio. However, the companies in Singapore are so conditioned to the "cheap price" they pay for designers that they assume that they can always hire someone for the same low price. The mentality is "I would rather hire a fresh grad for a lower price than to increase your pay. It's up to you if you wanna leave. Cause designers are so easily available. If not, I'll just engage a freelancer."

So by this time, what do the experience designers do? I thought of a few probabilities:

1) Work even harder and strive to be a Creative Director (It'll usually be harder if you are not blessed with blonde hair, blue eyes or speak with an accent)
2) Specialize in an art/design skill and polish it to perfection. Then apply to be a lecturer in some art colleges. (That depends on what kind of skill-sets are in demand)
3) Consider making a career switch if you are money-minded. Cause the design line is not where the money is.
4) Continue to endure the exploitation. By the time you are 35, you will realised that you are heading nowhere except that your body is growing sideways and your eyebags are comparable to those of a Bubble Eye goldfish. Perhaps even face retrenchment to make way for new blood.

Up till date, I haven't met any local designers who are above 35. Presumably, designer's career life-span will no last over 35 years of age. Considering the fact that 30s is the prime time in any adult's life (think starting a family, buying a HDB flat and ideally owning a car), it will not a good time to be out of job. By then, the "veteran" of design would have been considered useless and it will be too late to start carving a career in a different field.

All in all, I don't see the situation changing for the better anytime soon. Hence, I'm so utterly caught in a dilemma to give up or not to. I know there are others like me too. If only we can unite, speak up for ourselves and protect our fellow "comrades" (especially freelancers) from unreasonable abuse.

That's just my naiveness. It's not possible. We are all selfish cowards in our own right.