Should work experience be determined by more than # of years on job?
Absolutely!
Yes, but this is impossible to quantify and therefor doesn’t matter.
No opinion.
No, time on the job is all that matters.
0voters
I would like to inquire about how many designs other Sr. Designers out there are taking to production each year. I haven’t been able to find any information out there. Granted all products are different and have different lengths of development calendars, I would still like to find a comparable average.
The reason I am seeking this average is to be able to pass onto my employer quantifiable evidence that they are asking too much from the design team and do need to either expand the team or compensate accordingly. The argument being that if in fact our designers are all taking more designs to production than the average then perhaps our work experience and corresponding compensation should be based on more than just years within the industry, but should also consider this additional product experience.
Now this query is not intended to offend or invalidate years on the job, but more to speculate that in ID perhaps there are more dimensions to work experience that should be considered. Please weigh in.
Experience usually is defined by more than just years, but if your issue is a work overload (which most people probably are facing these days) an “industry average” probably won’t help you.
In terms of workload, our team is handling 3-6x our normal volume of work with ~20% less people due to headcount reduction. Oh, and we haven’t gotten raises in 3 years.
Your ID management should be the one deciding and pushing for more headcount if it’s needed. And in some cases needed is questionable. Imagine for a second you’re a manager - you give your team more work and they still manage to get it done on time. Do you really need to increase headcount or compensation? The reality is you as an employee have a choice to continue working there. If you feel it is unacceptable you can leave - at which point if you are valued enough in their eyes they would probably offer you additional money, or they would let you walk and hire someone else.
The reality in most of the world these days is lots of people are broke so everyone has to do more with less - and that doesn’t just apply for ID. You should certainly highlight to your boss how much work you’ve been putting in and hope that they’ll fight for you. Otherwise you can go on the job hunt and hope that a move will give you opportunities for better compensation.
You can’t judge by products brought to production per year either, because plenty of bad products are brought to production.
Experience tends to be a soft equation factoring in years of experience, kinds of experience (corporate, firm, global, regional), personality (yes this matters), and portfolio (this really matters)
Years of experience is almost the lowest factor on that list. As someone once said, do you have 10 years of experience, or one year of experience x 10? If you do the same wowrk as a junior designer, just a little faster, you are not really a senior. I expect at the senior level a certain amount of autonomy, objective prioritization, mentoring ability, and leadership qualities… in addition to being able to design like no other.