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  • - When you go looking for a design job,

  • the first decision you should make

  • isn't which company is the most impressive

  • or who has the best website,

  • it's what kind of situation you want to end up working in.

  • No matter what type of design you do,

  • there are three main job types for a designer;

  • agency, in house or freelance.

  • In this video we're gonna discuss

  • the differences between them and try to help you

  • figure out which one might suit you best.

  • (upbeat music)

  • When I was studying design at university,

  • most of the talk around our future careers

  • was centered around working in the agency or a studio.

  • Those types of design jobs

  • were seen as the way to be successful.

  • Once I was out in the real world of design though,

  • I realized that they were many different options for me

  • to have a successful design career.

  • So that's why I wanted to make this video,

  • to let you know about your different options

  • and try and help you figure out what would be best for you.

  • This video is the start of a series

  • that I'm making about design careers,

  • so we will be digging deeper into each one of these options

  • in future videos, but for now,

  • I just wanna give you an overview

  • and some of the pros and cons.

  • (gentle music)

  • Agencies, or studios, are companies

  • that create design work for clients.

  • Generally speaking, an agency will be a larger company

  • and a studio will be smaller,

  • but essentially the job concept is the same.

  • You'll be working with a team to answer client briefs.

  • An agency might not necessarily be

  • a design agency, specifically.

  • It could be advertising, social media,

  • branding, marketing, but all those things

  • need design and all those agencies will need

  • designers to help provide the service

  • that their client needs.

  • Working at an agency, you can expect

  • to be working with multiple clients on multiple projects,

  • so you definitely need to enjoy taking on new challenges.

  • The cool thing about working for a larger agency,

  • in particular, is that you might get to

  • work on some pretty big budget projects,

  • which will be pretty fun, but remember

  • you won't be working on them by yourself,

  • you will be part of the team

  • and you will likely have to work your way up

  • and sometimes that can be quite a climb.

  • That likely won't be the case with smaller agencies

  • or studios, but like with everything,

  • it depends on what you want out of your career.

  • So if you choose the agency route

  • you also need to decide if you want to

  • go for the big famous corporate

  • or something smaller and more boutique.

  • (gentle music)

  • If you're in house, you're a designer based at a company,

  • working on their brand and projects.

  • Over the years, as the tech industry has boomed

  • and more of an importance has been placed on design,

  • in house roles have definitely exploded in popularity.

  • Designers who work at Facebook,

  • Twitter, Google they're all in house designers.

  • Just like with agency though, there are in house roles

  • at smaller companies, like mine for example.

  • I'm the marketing designer at ConvertKit

  • and we're a team made up of only 28 people.

  • I should note that it's not just tech companies

  • where you can be an in house designer.

  • Other companies like, for example;

  • colleges, magazines, retailers,

  • they all hire in house designers too,

  • in many different design specializations.

  • When you're in house designing,

  • you get to know the brand and the audience

  • you design for really deeply and you also

  • have the opportunity to learn from things like user research

  • and improve on your designs over time.

  • Of course there will be new challenges coming your way,

  • with new types of projects you work on,

  • because you won't just be redesigning the same thing

  • over and over again.

  • But there definitely needs to be a lot of consistency

  • and so if you're someone who enjoys

  • working with new styles a lot of the time,

  • perhaps you might get bored working for the same brand.

  • (upbeat music)

  • Freelance designers kind of operate

  • as their own little studios.

  • They take on clients and they create design work for them.

  • Generally speaking, these clients and projects

  • will be smaller than an agency would take on

  • and also, unlike an agency,

  • you won't be working in a team to answer the briefs.

  • Instead, you will be in charge of answering them yourself.

  • To be a freelancer, you need to

  • learn to be good at business, because essentially

  • you're running your own small business,

  • whether you think of it that way or not.

  • You'll also need to be really self motivated,

  • because you'll be your own boss

  • and you'll need to find the clients yourself too.

  • So while you get a lot of freedom and flexibility

  • being a freelancer, you also have

  • all of the pressures of running your own business.

  • From listening to the descriptions

  • of those different job types,

  • is there one that appeals to you most?

  • Let me know about it down below, in the comments.

  • As I mentioned, I will be making specific,

  • in depth videos on each of these topics

  • and I'll be bringing on an expert

  • who works in each different type of situation,

  • to tell us more about what it's like

  • and also share advice on how to be successful in each.

  • So stay tuned for those videos later on in the series.

  • Give this video here a thumbs up if you enjoyed it

  • or found it useful and if you'd like to be notified

  • when new videos, in this design career series,

  • goes live then you can sign up to my email list.

  • It's at charlimarie.com/designjobs.

  • And I've also left a link in the description,

  • if you'd rather click it, rather than type it in.

  • All right.

  • Thanks for watching and I'll see you in the next one.

  • Bye.

  • (upbeat music)

- When you go looking for a design job,

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