Surely you have a lot of experience looking for opportunities and job offers in job banks and you have realized that not all offers are aimed at the same professional profile. Although this is something that occurs in all professional areas, within fields such as graphic design, this difference is quite accentuated. I'm sure you have a slight idea of what a profile means Junior, Senior or Semi Senior. But, what implications does each of these profiles have and in which of them do you fit and do you position yourself as a designer? It is something that you have to be clear about in order to effectively filter the job offers that you are finding and that may interest you.
There is something that is undeniable, and it is that the different steps or degrees of seniority they are in tune with their own needs and in some way also with the culture of each work team or company. The criteria for defining one or the other profile can vary substantially when changing from one work environment to another. Some are based on the number of years (time) of experience that a worker has behind him, although others focus more on the type of technical knowledge that a worker has. Although it seems somewhat confusing, there are certain inescapable distinctions regarding this differentiation. Today we will discuss them here and we will try to clear from your mind any kind of doubts regarding this topic.
As we have clarified in the introduction, there are different criteria that can define the level of Seniority of a graphic designer. We are going to see them all. From work experience, technical knowledge, functional knowledge, the monitoring factor, proactivity as a decisive agent, the quality of their work or their ability to innovate and lead.
Your work experience
This point is summarized in what has been the amount of time spent developing jobs for a certain sector. It is important that you bear in mind that the work done in the form of practices in your stage as a student does not matter here. Of course, the number of years you have invested in working for sectors other than graphic design will not be counted, as we have said before. The figures that are considered in this criterion are the following:
- Junior: Less than two years of professional experience.
- Semi Senior: From 2 years to 6 years of experience.
- Senior: More than 6 years of work experience in the field of graphic design.
Your technical knowledge
When we talk about technical knowledge, we are covering from tools to technologies and even work methodologies that the designer must put into practice in the position he chooses to fulfill his functions.
- Junior: To function in your work, you probably need supervision or accompaniment by a worker or team member to assist you when necessary.
- Semi Senior: You can function perfectly in your job, you are completely autonomous, but you still make foreseeable mistakes.
- Senior: He is a benchmark within the work team and will usually help other colleagues.
Your functional knowledge
It has to do with the operation and work methodology within business circuits.
- Junior: It requires a certain level of accompaniment.
- Semi Senior: He knows a large part of the processes involved in the business and is totally autonomous.
- Senior: It is the one that implements the methodologies and standards in the development of projects.
Proactivity.
When we speak of proactivity we are actually defining the degree of passivity (from its presence to its total absence) that exists within a worker.
- Junior: This professional profile needs that they are continuously marking their lines of work. You need them to somehow define the work to be done.
- Semi Senior: He makes the most of his time and when he finds space, he asks for new tasks.
- Senior: He brings new ideas and is the one who encourages movement within the work team.
Determining indicators
There are a number of parameters that are implicit within these profiles:
- Junior: Their quality of work is medium-low, as is their productivity. Its capacity for innovation within the company is non-existent.
- Semi Senior: Quality and productivity are average. Its innovation is low.
- Senior: Both their quality of work, productivity and their capacity for innovation are high.
And what profile do you correspond to? Leave me in the comment section!
I like the definition of semi-senior, although I have not seen that distinction in practice: The considerations that I usually perceive in the offers are Junior (Does not know and has to learn a lot from the senior) or Senior (knows and is the one who teaches junior), beyond that they do not seem to understand an intermediate point or worse still, they consider technical knowledge as the only relevant one when choosing a candidate.
Issues such as work methodology are competences of the person in charge and proactivity has often been treated as "unwanted" because contributing ideas reduces the productivity of the designer, which, after all, is a support tool. Phrases like "I don't pay you to think" I think it has been a scourge that all of us in the union have suffered at some point.
Let's hope that in Spain companies will mature in the management of their graphic resources and these distinctions (very successful and essential for proper team management), will permeate the business culture and integrate brand management as an element in their business models that provides differentiated value in the market.