These days, you have to know how to diversify. Make yourself indispensable in every field. To be competitive, you need to master the tools to produce more and more. In my opinion, this omniscience is not uniformly valued in all strata of the population.
In fact, the opposite is often true. The more you burn, the harder it gets. Let’s talk about coal. In the case of a mine, wages are proportional to the distance to the coal itself. It’s like that: knowing how to use a pickaxe isn’t highly valued in our society.
Let me get to the point. I came across an ad on LinkedIn: “Visual communications manager”.
This ad, like all those written by a recruitment professional (and AI support), lists the skills needed to meet the requirements.
Bachelor’s level (+ CFC): candidates must produce content (print/web), know how to create and produce videos (scripting, filming, editing), take photos, design graphic animations, create landing pages and banners.
Further down the page, we learn that this rare pearl is expected to keep a creative watch, propose original concepts and actively participate in the development of the brand’s identity.
Clearly, when it comes to qualifications, recruiters adopt a “too much is better than too little” philosophy.
In other words, let’s make an exhaustive list of all the design professions and see what happens.
Summary of expectations:
We need someone who can produce promotional videos, take staff portraits, lay out the activity report, create and maintain the website with a few animations, all while adding creative direction skills to keep us at the forefront of design. And off we go!
Do the same exercise with a doctor, lawyer or accountant. For example:
“A hospital is looking for an orthopedic surgeon with a good knowledge of neurology.”
It’s true, you can be an excellent generalist.
But let’s look at the list of technical prerequisites:
– Complete mastery of the Adobe suite (approx. 20 applications).
– Advanced HTML/CSS skills.
– Photography, video and audio (just a short line for that!).
– Good knowledge of WordPress.
– Office… of course.
Add to that the soft skills of multitasking and impeccable organization.
In all honesty, how many managers, head of communications or marketing managers have so much business knowledge? On top of that, you need to be creative and have ideas.
So yes, some of us could respond, credibly and honestly, to this announcement.
To these people, I suggest aiming for salary expectations of at least 120 k/year. Because in this case, the “3 years experience” mentioned can easily be translated into “we don’t want to pay more than 60 k/year”.
Designers of all kinds, be proud of your technical knowledge and creativity. We are key elements in the value chain, pivotal to marketing differentiation and drivers of profitability.
And that comes at a price.