Every day I’ll run through the employment opportunities section of the papers to see the demand of designers or programmers in the market. I’ve noticed very few advertise these jobs in the printed media anymore. Most of these jobs are likely to be found on Jobstreet or probably the newer Jobs and More website.
While I was walking today, it came to my attention that most employers are requesting for graphic designer with skills of being able to create website or ‘web page designs’.
But when they say ‘create web page designs’, what they really mean is that the graphic designer is able to design a website and is able to program in HTML. Of course it isn’t all that difficult now since they could freely design in Photoshop, slice it and have it exported out into a ready made HTML file.
See how inexperience some employers are nowadays?
Just because they’ve heard from their business partner or children that all you need is some Adobe or Macromedia applications to create a website in a day, the profession or respect for a website designer is becoming extinct.
The employers assume that the graphic designers know about web standards or other technology like PHP to help provide their website better value. Sheesh, talk about degrading. It’s bad enough that website designers are at each others throats for projects for peanuts but now we’ve also to deal with the loss of respect in this profession.
If someone in Malaysia doesn’t slap more sense into the employers about the professions of website design during those conventions, I think I’ll need to call myself some phunky rank.
Maybe I should dub myself, Chief Website Professor. Not bad, it has a scientific profession to it.
Oh yeah, maybe then there won’t be any need of website agencies because employers will assume they can produce a cutting-edge high profile website or microsite on their own.
I think that day will come soon with our ‘smart people’ here who never change.
the thing about some of them is that they do not understand the industry price for a website. a corporate website can easily cost 5k and above. a corporate website with e-commerce functionality can easily cost 10k and above. even a simple php-backend websites can cost thousands.
they are killing the market because of cheapskate mind.
web designers/programmers on the other hand should stick to the market price, and shouldn’t agree with a cheap price. they should realised that they need to create a product in order to compete in this industry.
and web designers are not web programmers
If you look from another perspective, this could be the evolution of expectations from employers, where in the past, an artist is only expected to paint, today, the artist may be expected to not only know how to paint, but also know what kind of material to choose, where to buy the best and chepest material, also do marketing for his paintings.
On another perspective, I wonder how are the companies in Malaysia measure up with those abroad, like in the US? It could also be a typical Malaysian Company expectation for the designer to ‘pau ka liau’ (hokkien for do everything)…
People from this part of the world need “exposure” – to the finer aspects of web designs. Few are like us who are updated with such stuff. Introduce them to web 2.0. Tell them about SixApart. Hell, show them blogmoxie.com.
And I think the title “Web Architect” is cool :)
hafiz:
it’s not the mere cheapskate minds but maybe some employees are becoming more stingy and expecting a graphic designer to have more expandable qualities. after all, to them they pay RM2k a month for someone to do everything. talk about employer abuse.
shagalot:
welcome aboard since I’ve not seen you around. :) and I totally see your POV now of a sign that the expectation of employees might be evolving. good point there.
I think in the US, they still recognize website designers as a specialist in the field. They appreciate designers more than here.
razlan:
yeah, probably there’s a huge need to prove ourselves as professionals. on the other hand, if these ‘smart people’ don’t even understand things web standards than there’s no point of explaining Web 2.0 to them.
i like web architect but it’ll be very universal ranging from planning, designing to programming. :P
Ooh you’re so right. I can’t stand our M’sian web design industry. Wait a minute, what industry??
Every local ‘web design agency’ I’ve come across still code their sites in tables. Horrible navigation, no thought to usability and IA. And they call themselves web designers. Bah!
I’ve always thought designers are the most shortchanged. Starting pay for fresh graduates is low – at about RM1200 – and you’re expected to know how to use different software, and work morning to night.
david:
as said by hafiz, web designers are not necessarily web programmers. but i do agree some are lazy to learn about things like CSS because they’re too comfortable with tables.
However, I’ve listened to a podcast by a UK web designer and he debated over that some projects it’s alright to use tables because client want some things chop-chop and would like to spend the minimum budget.
strizzt:
well, not all agencies pay their designers peanuts. there are some who value their creative designers and pay minimum RM1.5k after the EPF and whatever taxes. :)
But I’m wondering if website designers will have to be given a new name by the time Malaysia is really proficient in the web. Hmm..
I like this entry. Well said. That’s why it scares me a lot to go back.
I hear you, man.
It does scare me to take up part-time design jobs and all because I might not be rewarded appropriately for the work that I’m doing; when I do something I do it professionally, and I don’t want to make some bang-up job just because I need it finished quickly.
And I don’t want to resort to tables and cliche layouts that are currently the norm amongst local web designers, whom I think are not up to date with web standards and other ancillary matters.
I think it’s still o.k. to use tables, provided they are used wisely and neatly, coz I have seen some web couldn’t even make good use of tables, not to mention CSS.
Thanks for dropping by and leaving a comment dol. I’d like to hear your definite view of using tables wisely and neatly and if possible, share a few of the websites that couldn’t even make good use of tables.
In here, we all share our honest opinions openly. :)
I read you page and I love it. I actually was in a forum and followed a link to your site! Must be popular. The last comment/post is right on. Good job! :-)
Thanks and I’m guessing it’s from the Low Yat forums. Hope to see you around often. And oh yeah, if anyone does plan on spamming it doesn’t do you any good because there’s the nofollow tag as well if I banned you you know what comes next.