Three In-Demand Design Jobs That Offer Six-Figure Salaries

Although many people associate six-figure salaries with executive positions, those with a knack for technology and creative thinking can earn handsome compensation, too. According to research from Robert Half Technology and The Creative Group, salaries often top $100,000 for roles such as information architects, data security analysts and user experience (UX) designers. The generous compensation levels are due to high demand for these professionals.

“These highly specialized positions help companies implement essential projects, such as improving and securing the firm’s online presence across platforms, or gathering and analyzing business data,” said John Reed, senior executive director of Robert Half Technology and The Creative Group. “Employers are willing to pay well for these roles because they allow organizations to take advantage of new technologies and gain a competitive edge.”

The Creative Group 2012 Salary Guide

The Creative Group 2012 Salary Guide, which can be downloaded free, identifies starting salary ranges for more than 100 positions related to interactive design, marketing, advertising, and public relations. The figures in the guide are national averages, but can be adjusted for more than 130 U.S. markets.

According to the The Creative Group 2012 Salary Guide, these three design jobs often pay six-figure salaries:

Interactive creative director­. These individuals lead interactive creative teams, composed of designers, writers and art directors, who together are responsible for visual and conceptual creative direction and user experience. Average base compensation is $93,500 to $150,000. The midpoint is $121,750.

Mobile applications developer. As companies strive to reach consumers on smartphones, tablets and other mobile devices, they need professionals who can develop applications for the small screen. Average starting salaries for mobile applications developers range from $85,000 to $122,500. The midpoint is $103,750.

User experience (UX) designer. Because so much customer interaction happens online, companies are looking for professionals who can create positive digital experiences. The average starting pay range for these individuals is $71,750 to $104,000. The midpoint is $87,875.

Other in-demand creative positions for 2012 include: video producer, web analytics specialist, web designer/developer, SEO (search engine optimization)/SEM (search engine marketing) specialist, and online project manager.  The job descriptions for all of the positions listed in the guide can be found in the Salary Center of The Creative Group website.

LINKS

The Creative Group 2012 Salary Guide

 The Creative Group

Robert Half Technology 2012 Salary Guide

This guide covers salaries for a wide range of information technology positions. This year, analysts identified three in-demand jobs that can pay six-figure salaries.

Information architect. These individuals help define content strategy and design website features, as well as analyze audiences and their needs, in order to improve architecture and navigation. Base compensation for this position is between $78,250 and $116,000 on average. The midpoint is $97,125.

Business intelligence analyst ­. As companies strive to gather more information about their customers, they need professionals who can design and develop enterprise wide data analysis and reporting tools. Starting salaries range from $87,750 to $123,500 for this position, on average. The midpoint is $105,625.

Data security analyst. Security threats are constantly changing, and staff members who can analyze risk and protect against it are in demand. These workers can make between $89,000 and $121,500, on average. The midpoint is $105,250.

LINK

Robert Half Technology 2012 Salary Guide

Robert Half Technology

 

Designers Should Pay Extra Attention to How Resumes Look

DESIGNERS. A new survey by The Creative Group suggests that your resume may be the right place to start demonstrating your knowledge of good design. Nearly half (46 percent) of advertising and marketing executives interviewed in the survey said for those pursuing creative roles, how a resume looks matters as much as what it contains.

“While the content of a resume is crucial, it first has to capture a hiring manager’s attention. This is especially true for those in creative fields, like design and marketing, and applies to both print and online versions of resumes and portfolios,” said Donna Farrugia, executive director of The Creative Group. “Hiring managers should be able to find information quickly and easily, as well as get a sense of your attention to detail.”

The national survey was developed by The Creative Group, a specialized staffing service for interactive, design, marketing, advertising and public relations professionals. The independent research firm that conducted the survey asked advertising and marketing executives, “How important would you rate the overall look and feel of a creative professional’s resume when you are evaluating potential hires?”  Their responses:

  • 46% Very important
  • 43% Somewhat important
  • 7% Not important
  • 4% Don’t know/no answer

The Creative Group offers five tips for developing a resume that’s easy on the eyes:

Consider the user experience. Most hiring managers spend seconds scanning resumes to spot the ones they want to read in detail. Use simple fonts, standard margins, section headings and bullet points to highlight key attributes and help employers navigate the information.

Don’t overdesign it. While it’s OK to incorporate elements of your personal branding (such as a logo) into your resume, refrain from excessive embellishments. For example, including too many fonts and colors can be distracting. Instead, use your portfolio to showcase your creativity and artistic style.

Paint a picture worth a thousand words. A well-done visual or infographic resume can help you stand out, as long as the graphic is tailored to the job opening. Make sure your graphics don’t overshadow the actual information, and offer a traditional version, too.

Take advantage of all your options. If you want employers to have a more complete picture of your individuality, you can use many different tools to build online profiles that showcase your strengths and career accomplishments. Links to these profiles are easy to share via email and social media. These sites offer more space to list relevant interests and links to a personal website, blog or online portfolio.

Prepare a ‘plain’ version. Although most email systems can accommodate attachments (such as Word documents and PDFs), not every hiring manager or organization is able or willing to accept them. Cover your bases by pasting a plain or ASCII text version of your resume into the body of an electronic message or online job application.

About the Survey

The national study was developed by The Creative Group and conducted by an independent research firm. It is based on more than 500 telephone interviews — approximately 375 with marketing executives randomly selected from companies with 100 or more employees and 125 with advertising executives randomly selected from agencies with 20 or more employees.

About The Creative Group

The Creative Group specializes in placing a range of highly skilled interactive, design, marketing, advertising and public relations professionals with a variety of firms on a project and full-time basis.

LINKS

The Creative Group

The Creative Group e-Zine

Writing an Effective Resume

 

Creative Group 2012 Salary Guide Shows Gains for Creatives

Professionals in creative fields can expect average starting salary gains of 3.5 percent in 2012, according to the recently released “The Creative Group 2012 Salary Guide.” The guide lists starting salary ranges for more than 100 positions in interactive, content-development and management, advertising and marketing, and public relations.

Professionals with interactive skills, such as user experience (UX) designers, are especially sought after as firms look to improve their web presence and transition many of their marketing programs online. Other in-demand creative professionals include online project managers, search-engine optimization (SEO)/search-engine marketing (SEM) specialists, video producers, web analytics specialists, and web designers/developers.

The figures in the guide are national averages for the U.S., but can be adjusted for more than 130 U.S. markets, using the local variance figures also included in the guide.

The Creative Group 2012 Salary Guide is one of five new Salary Guides released by Robert Half International. The Salary Guides include:

2012 Salary Guide from Robert Half for accounting and finance

Robert Half Technology 2012 Salary Guide

The Creative Group 2012 Salary Guide

Robert Half Legal 2012 Salary Guide

OfficeTeam 2012 Salary Guide 

Among the fields researched, technology positions are projected to see the largest gains in starting salaries, with an anticipated 4.5 percent increase in base compensation. Accounting and finance professionals can expect starting salaries to rise an average of 3.5 percent. Starting salaries for administrative professionals are expected to rise 3.4 percent, and starting salaries in the legal field are anticipated to rise 1.9 percent on average.

Salary calculators that can be used to determine average starting salaries in hundreds of local markets can be accessed via the links to the Salary Guides above.

Since 1950, Robert Half has produced Salary Guides to offer business owners and hiring managers information on prevailing starting salaries in their geographic areas and insight into employment trends. Information in the guides is based on the thousands of job searches, negotiations and placements managed each year by Robert Half’s staffing and recruiting managers, along with the company’s ongoing surveys of executives. The U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics has used the guides when preparing its comprehensive Occupational Outlook Handbook. The salary guides only report starting salaries, because continuing salaries are based on many other variables, such seniority, work ethic, job performance and training.

On the Robert Half International website, you can find a variety of reports and white papers, including “Business Etiquette: New Rules for the Digital Age.” The guide discusses etiquette related to Facebook, Twitter, instant messaging, and phone, video, and web conferencing.

LINKS

About Robert Half International

Salary Guides

The Creative Group 2012 Salary Guide

About The Creative Group

Business Etiquette: New Rules in a Digital Age

 

Should Freelancers Be Called Independent Workers?

I have worked long enough to have experienced multiple recession/recovery cycles. In the past, when employers downsized during recessions, they typically turned to freelancers to get them through the crunch periods. Then, when the economy picked up again, they offered full-time jobs to the best available talent. In a strong economy, the term  “freelancer” sometimes described a part-time worker who was temporarily between full-time jobs.

Things are much different now, even though many colleges,  job-training programs, and government statisticians haven’t yet realized it. The  severity of the current economic downturn, the rapidity of technological change, and the ease of global outsourcing have made it economically attractive for managers to hire fewer full-time employees. Today, companies can use online employment agencies to quickly assemble “virtual teams” of “independent workers” with specialized skills from throughout the U.S. and around the world.

The Q2, 2011 Report from Elance and an article by Sara Horowitz in The Atlantic Magazine show two sides of this story, and suggest the emergence of a permanent class of “independent workers.”

Elance Reports Record Growth

Elance®, a worldwide platform for online employment, promotes its ability to help businesses hire and manage projects “in the cloud.” In their Q2 report for 2011, they reported that businesses are hiring online more than ever, “driving record earnings for online workers across all sectors, including IT, Creative, Marketing, and Operations.”  according to the report:

The number of active clients jumped 23% to 160,756. The 453,461 online workers who find gigs through Elance earned a record $34.3 million in Q2, up 48% from Q2 in 2010.

Demand for skills such as WordPress Programming, Game Development, and iOS Programming, continued to make IT the largest category of employment, with a 107% increase in jobs posted compared to the end of Q2 in 2010.

In the Creative category, there was a 79% year-over-year increase in demand. Skills such as business writing, photography, and illustration helped fuel this growth, but the largest jump in demand (148%) occurred in the field of Infographics.

The full report can be downloaded from the Elance website. It includes a variety of charts and graphs including:

  • total earning by category
  • who clients are hiring
  • number of job posts by category
  • what online workers are earning
  • contractor earnings by category
  • geography hot spots
  • top hiring U.S. cities
  • top earning U.S. cities
  • top states by contractor earnings

Of the top 20 skills in demand, 9 were in the creative fields. In-demand creative skills include:

  • article writing (ranked 3)
  • graphic design (4)
  • Photoshop (8)
  • content writing (10)
  • blogs (12)
  • Illustrator (13)
  • research (16)
  • logo design (18)
  • web content (20)

In a Sept. 7 press release, Elance notes that businesses gain flexibility and time savings by hiring contingent workers online. An August survey of Elance clients showed that 83% of the businesses plan to hire at least 50% of their workers online in the next 12 months, and nearly half of the businesses plan to make 90% of their hires online.

LINKS

Elance Online Employment Report: Q2 2011

Press Release: Elance Survey Shows Small Businesses Taking an Online Road to Recovery

A New Industrial Revolution?

In the first of a series of  columns on the website of The Atlantic magazine, Sara Horowitz writes that, “Everywhere we look, we can see the U.S. workforce undergoing a massive change.” Instead of working for the same company for 25 years and reaping the benefits of full-time employment, she says, “Today careers consist of piecing together various types of work, juggling multiple clients, learning to be marketing and accounting experts, and creating offices in bedrooms, coffeeshops, or co-working spaces.” She points out that, “We’re no longer simply lawyers,  or photographers, or writers. Instead, we’re part-time lawyers-cum-amateur  photographers who write on the side.”

Today’s surge in freelancing might ultimately be as consequential as a modern Industrial Revolution. Yet, as Horowitz points out, the government doesn’t count independent workers in a meaningful and accurate way. Nor are there provisions for some of the protections that independent workers need in order to build economic security (e.g. unemployment insurance, protection from unpaid wages, etc.)

Sara Horowitz is the founder of The Freelancers Union, which was described in the post “Three Organizations that Can Help Freelance Creative Pros.”

LINK

The Atlantic Magazine: The Freelance Surge Is The Industrial Revolution of Our Time
by Sara Horowitz

The Freelancers Union

RELATED POST

Three Organizations that Can Help Freelance Creative Pros

 

The Creative Group Publishes 2011 Salary Guide

DESIGNERS. WRITERS. The Creative Group, the staffing organization that places creative, advertising, marketing, web, and public relations professionals with a variety of firms, has published its 2011 Salary Guide. Designed to guide companies that plan to hire creative professionals this year, the guide features projected starting salaries for the more than 100 creative, interactive, marketing, and PR positions that The Creative Group recruits.

The Creative Group 2011 Salary GuideSome of the titles for which high and low projected starting salaries are listed include: creative director, interactive creative director, senior graphic designer, mobile apps designer, illustrator, technical illustrator, video producer, blogger, podcaster, online editor, web content writer, copywriter, proofreader, social media designer, SEO/SEM specialist, event/trade-show manager, marketing director, and PR agency account executive.

The content of the 2011 Salary Guide is based on thousands of freelance and full-time placements that The Creative Group makes each year. It includes local-market insights from staffing and recruiting teams in different cities, data from surveys of advertising and marketing executives, and an analysis of the 2011 hiring environment and trends.

For example, the report observes that “Although companies are gradually getting the green light to hire, they are still looking to maximize their budget dollars.” So, when hiring for full-time positions, they tend to seek candidates who have a range of skills and experience and can offer expertise outside their specialties.

The guide lists the nine most in-demand positions, average starting salaries nationwide, and methods for calculating and adjusting local salary ranges.

Not surprisingly, salaries have to be adjusted upward in cities such as San Francisco, Boston, San Jose, Los Angeles, Chicago, and New York. Salaries tend to be lower than the national averages in cities such as: El Paso, Texas; Sioux City, Iowa; Lincoln, Nebraska; and Youngstown, Ohio. Cities with salaries right around the national average include: Salt Lake City, Utah; Milwaukee, WI; Cincinnati, OH; and St. Louis, MO.

The 2011 Salary Guide also explains “how to turn freelancers into rock stars.” The report notes that “Firms are finding that augmenting full-time staff with freelancers provides protection from staffing mistakes, whether the economy is contracting or expanding.”

The Creative Group is a division of Robert Half International, Inc., the world’s first and largest specialized staffing firm.

The Creative Group’s 2011 Salary Guide is just one of several resources available through the Salary Center on The Creative Group’s website. A salary calculator and list of job descriptions are also available.

The resource center of the Robert Half International is another good source of career-development, staffing, and job-search advices. White papers include “Conducting an Online Job Search” and “The 30 Most Common Mistakes Managers Make in an Uncertain Economy.”

 

 

Fast Track Photographers Don’t Grumble About Change

Cover of Fast Track Photographer BookLast May, Amphoto Books released a provocative book entitled “The Fast Track Photographer: Leverage Your Unique Strengths for a More Successful Photography Business.” The author, photographer Dane Sanders, explains why building a successful photography career is far different than it was 20 to 30  years ago.

The key to success as a photographer in today’s hyper-competitive environment, says Sanders, is to: “Stop worrying about what everyone else is doing and start focusing on your most powerful resource—you!”  In today’s digi-flat world, creative professionals can carve out niches all their own. As Sanders puts it, “You need to design your sweet spot around the one thing that cannot be replicated: you!” 

The book and its accompanying online self-assessment test can help you determine whether you would be happier trying to become an independent Signature-Brand Photographer or would be perfectly content as a Freelance Photographer who does fee-based assignments for employers. You can devise a solution that blends the two styles, but Sanders advises photographers to “Be clear about the choice you’re making, and do what’s required to see it through.”

Above all, Sanders encourages readers to avoid “The Grumpy Photographer Life Cycle (aka the Road to Hell).” This cycle starts when photographers get overloaded with debt early in their careers, fail to promote themselves as individuals, and take on as many jobs at market prices as possible. Then, they become burned out and bitter.

Sanders characterizes “Grumpy” photographers as self-centered, arrogant, “experts” who feel entitled to business and are stuck on old business models. In  contrast, he describes fast-track photographers as client-centered, service-minded, and personable. They are adaptable to change, open to new technology and continuous learning, and able to delegate and outsource. They know who they are, and find clients who appreciate their unique set of skills.

“Rather than lapse into Grumpiness,” says Sanders. “I encourage you to see that in the digi-flat world, the spectrum of possibility has exploded.”

Dane Sanders succinctly articulates trends I’ve observed at photography conferences over the past few years. Some photographers are clearly much more upbeat, optimistic, and enthusiastic than others. Photographers who have worked for 25 to 30 years seem aggravated by how rapidly and radically technology has commoditized the conventional markets for photography.

Thus, Fast Track Photographer will not only be helpful to serious amateurs who are considering turning pro, but also to companies that use old-school, big-name photographers to help them sell products and services. People entering the photography business today must cope with marketplace realities that are fundamentally different from the business environment that existed when older-generation experts built their businesses.

“If you want to find your sweet spot in the photo world, resist the temptation to emulate heroes,” writes Sanders. “Unless you are just like them, the odds of succeeding by adopting their strategies is very low. Better to let them inspire you by how boldly they have pursued their own sweet spot in the business.”

Head shot of Dane Sanders“The old mode of learning from an expert and slogging away until you’ve earned the right to put your name out there is too slow for our fast-changing, digi-flat times,” writes Sanders. He notes that no one is an “expert” anymore because no one really knows what new developments will occur in the next 5 to 20 years and how these developments will interact dynamically to create whole new possibilities for photographers. He suggests that, “An attitude of staying creatively adaptable may be the single most important asset in extending your lifespan as a photographer indefinitely.”

As a writer, I was interested to learn that “Fast Track Photographer was originally self-published and geared only toward wedding photographers. Amphoto Books published a revised and expanded edition to help amateur and working photographers in all genres strengthen and develop their businesses.

Cover of Fast Track PhotographerReaders of The Fast Track Photographer might also be interested in The Fast Track Photographer Business Plan. This new book is designed to help you devise an overall business strategy to support your creative vision. It also contains techniques for running a creative business.

For more information, visit: www.fasttrackphotographer.com

Sales and Marketing Execs Are From Mars; Creative Pros Are From Venus

By Eileen Fritsch

Book Cover The Creative ProfessionalFive years ago, Emmis Books sent me a review copy of “The Creative Professional: A Survival Guide for the Business World” by Howard J. Blumenthal. It was billed as “a book to help right-brained people survive in left-brained world.” The press release noted the same personality traits that give certain people a creative edge can also cause turbulence in a corporate atmosphere.

That statement grabbed my attention because the editors, writers, art directors, and photographers I worked with on magazines seemed increasingly at odds with the publishers, sales reps, and bean counters who set our budgets and marketing strategies.

In 2005, the painful, disruptive transition from print to online media was just beginning to ramp up. Our editorial staffs were already lean. It didn’t help that our art and editorial budgets were slashed even further as print-advertising buyers began diverting big chunks of budgets to developing websites, internal databases for email marketing, and emerging forms of online media.

We stopped hiring photographers, illustrators, and freelance writers. We started using cheap stock photography and more advertorial-like feature stories freely supplied by PR agencies. To make matters worse, every staff writer and designer was expected to produce more content—including websites, books, conference workbooks, and promotional materials.

As the quality of our work began to suffer, the creative pros started complaining. Some of us passionately believed that short-sighted business decisions were undermining the overall quality and value of our editorial products. And we predicted it wouldn’t take long for readers (and potential future advertisers) to notice.

Blumenthal’s book helped me understand why it was perfectly natural for the creative pros on the staff to feel so argumentative. The book also explains why business people consider creative pros difficult to manage.  While our innate ability to think and see things differently can be a great asset to businesses seeking innovative solutions to new problems, business-focused people don’t always see it the same way.

For example, traditional business people see their mission as generating profits. They consider sales as the most important aspect of any business.

Conversely, creative professionals generate value (which is far more difficult to quantify than quarterly profits). Creative pros see business as a holistic system and believe sales will succeed if the entire system works properly.

Blumenthal admits that working with creative professionals “is no picnic.” Many managers don’t understand our nonlinear thought processes and what motivates us. Whereas many employees like the security of a paycheck, benefits, and sense of community, creative pros are typically driven by three other needs: 

  • the need to know, understand, and explore;
  • the need to constantly learn and improve our techniques and skills; and
  • the need to derive part of our self-image from our work.

So why do some creative people do well in a corporate environment while others struggle? Blumenthal says it’s not simply a matter of skill. He contends that “A creative professional who takes the time to understand the company’s operations and manages projects accordingly will be far more likely to win the business game than a creative who simple writes with talent and skill.”

In the book, Blumenthal lists seven key attributes as crucial to success:

  • a keen understanding of the marketplace
  • abundant self knowledge
  • the ability to engage others in your creative work
  • the right combination of integrity and cooperation
  • the willingness of others to work with you (based on track record, industry reputation, personality, and quality of the opportunity)
  • your ability to raise necessary resources and/or support

As Blumenthal puts it: “The creative process does not exist in a vacuum. Instead, you are part of a community. The way you behave as a member of that community will affect your success more profoundly than your ability to dance, juggle, sculpt, arrange the horn section, or any other skill-based endeavor.”

Much has changed since Blumenthal’s book was released.

Media channels and platforms for online marketing have multiplied. Print publications that failed to develop effective online strategies are being forced out of business. Corporate marketing managers are under tremendous pressure to do more with less, while producing measurable returns on every expenditure.  New forms of analytics have made it increasingly easy to pinpoint exactly which forms of communications are generating the most bang for the buck.   

Blumenthal’s book primarily focused on helping creative professionals succeed as full-time employees in a corporate environment. But he points out two other ways creative professionals can earn a living:

  • working for multiple clients; or
  • selling work to the public, either directly or through a publisher or distributor.

Happily, the transformation from print publishing to online publishing and communications has made it far easier for creative professionals to develop a broader base of clients and/or sell more of their work directly to the public.

However, if creative pros want to work with a broader base of clients or sell directly to the public, there is one big drawback. We must develop some of the sales and marketing skills and financial discipline that seem to come so naturally to the profit-minded left-brained business people.