As a UI designer attached to the Internet IT industry, the best option for career development is to work in major Internet leading enterprises, and promote in the system of these big factories, so as to gain better industry resources and experience accumulation.
The reason why we should enter Dachang is that UI is greatly different from design types such as plane and architecture. The property of rapid iteration of Internet determines that UI is difficult to exist independently from the product team.
Moreover, the salary level of today’s Internet giants is already at the top of the domestic enterprise pyramid, and even exceeds that of the financial industry. It is not uncommon to see designers earning $50 or $100 a year (plus year-end and stock) in big factories.
Top design network tips, although big factory is good, but not want to enter into the go, so today I want to share, want to enter Ali, Tencent, Baidu, Bytedance, jingdong and so on big factory should do.
(Editor’s note: The author was the design director of Xiaohongshu)
Echelon and recruitment levels in large factories
There are many large Internet enterprises in China, but they are also divided into three, six, nine and so on. It is necessary to have a general concept of which grade different companies are corresponding to.
For example, the first echelon must be BAT (Byte, Ali and Tencent) at the top of the golden tower. They have absolute advantages in terms of market value, product influence and technological strength.
And the second tier, including netease, Shell, Meituan, JINGdong, Pinduoduo, Ctrip, Baidu (after the recession) and so on, these enterprises are familiar enough to do not need to make more introductions.
If the scope of the second ladder is expanded, unicorns with relatively single products can also be included, such as Xiaozhuozhu, IQiyi, Kingdee and Xiaohongshu.
In the third tier, the scope is no longer limited to pure Internet companies, but includes the IT departments of “big companies” in other fields, such as BYD, China Eastern Airlines, Midea, Gree, IKEA and so on.
Or in the field of a smaller market scale of some head Internet enterprises, such as what is worth buying, Tiger, ape counseling, etc..
This kind of enterprise together pieced together the territory of the domestic Internet factory, also gathered the most outstanding talents, technology, treatment of the domestic Internet. The higher the echelon, the higher the recruitment requirements, the more difficult it is to enter, and the higher the achievement value it represents.
However, in addition to understanding the concept of big factories, it is also important to know what level of designers they are hiring. For your convenience, I’ve also divided them into three levels:
1 grassroots, 2 senior, 3 management
The grass-roots level is the most elementary designer, on the most complex and basic design business processing and output. The senior has outstanding design ability, or has led a team to complete some more important and advanced design tasks. And the management, basically is the department design director or product design person in charge, to ensure that the work of the design department meets the strategic needs of the company.
We will introduce the requirements of each stage separately later, combining with the echelon of the enterprise. The requirements of the same position in different echelons are different, and the gold content is also different. The basic level of BAT core department can do senior design in the second tier, or even work as management and director in the third tier.
Later, I will not write too specific skills or ability model, but from the framework of thinking, to enter a big factory from a small white, what should be done.
The UI profession today has become increasingly complex and diverse, with different organizations requiring different UI designers in product, interaction, vision, collaboration, creativity, and more.
A grassroots position in a big factory
The basic position of the big factory, namely the primary designer under their system. It’s not the same species as your average junior designer in a small company.
Large factories require more solid foundation and visual output ability for grassroots positions. And this ability should have been in college, after enough exercise or practice.
That is to say, the grassroots positions of big factories, mainly for big schools to recruit or outstanding fresh graduates. And most of the school enrollment and graduates are not a blank sheet of paper, but during the university has participated in the internship, entrepreneurship outstanding students.
Although the course has advantages in the early learning stage, it does not affect the decision-making of the actual recruitment. It takes the measurement of skill level as the core theme.
If you have not graduated yet and are in the state of sophomore or junior, it is the closest time to Dachang. You can learn the basics quickly through self-study or training, keep practicing, and then start looking for internships to prepare for your senior year.
Of course, there are still a small number of recruitment will be completed through social recruitment, but the social recruitment of grassroots positions will not be reserved for fresh graduates without experience, more targeted at only one or two years after graduation, in other large factories or in small companies but skilled designers.
If you are in the state of fresh graduate, you should complete skills learning as soon as possible and enter the Internet industry. At the beginning, you should not pay too much attention to the so-called salary or platform. Your first two jobs are purely for filling the resume blank and gaining practical experience.
Do not think the working environment of general enterprise can help you stride into big factory absolutely, be like the graduate student that thinks to take an examination of 3 this school environment can help you go up north of Qing Dynasty is same dimly apparent, grow is to rely on oneself active accumulation to complete.
Senior position in big factory
The recruitment of senior positions requires further improvement. Soft strengths like specific past qualifications, worldview (yes), and professional attitude are not easily crossed.
The biggest source of recruitment is hiring from other big factories or job-hopping. The likelihood of getting a senior job from a regular company has dropped dramatically. Not only need to have very good design ability, theoretical ability, collaboration ability, but also need to have certain achievements in their respective industries.
Take my own example, for example, I used to deal with the interactive process of taking photos and answering questions in the education industry. After that, basically other competing products completely copied my design and used it as the industry standard process for a long time. Coupled with the growth of products from less than a million to tens of millions (although the credit was not designed), these are important resumes that can match senior positions in job-hopping.
Therefore, if you have graduated more than two years before starting to learn UI, but also want to enter the big factory, then no matter self-study or training after the direct interview senior post is no chance.
You need to do, is still the first to learn the basics, into some small companies. But unlike the beginner stage, you can no longer just use the companies you encounter and enter as a “tool” to score points. Instead, you need to pick a real “springboard.”
That is, the product is promising, the team is reliable, the founder is knowledgeable, experienced and far-sighted, you need to be fully committed to the development of the product, through your thinking, design content, as much as possible to improve the product’s business data (acquisition, retention, payment, etc.).
In addition to the accumulation of your personal ability, your career prospects will also be tied to the development of the company. The higher the evaluation, growth and exposure of the product, it will accumulate into your medal and raise its own premium.
This process needs 2-5 years, and certainly not too easy, if holding to go to work to touch fish, hold high the labor law, advocate rich personal life outside work, disdain and struggle 13, proud of the capitalist mentality, it is basically impossible to complete the excess growth.
Changing careers and achieving higher achievements is a process of catching up with the past study efforts of peers and overtaking them in the same period of time!
Therefore, how to choose a company worthy of full devotion, to put it simply, you must have several rounds of job-hopping, accumulated a certain vision to judge, we will find a chance to discuss next time.
A management position in a large factory
But the big factory management post, more difficult, the most stable way is in the advanced these big factories as a grass-roots or senior designer, and then by virtue of their liver to the earth-moving working hours and excellent performance through the six, become a design department executives, middle level enterprises.
Most designers can only stop at senior positions in their design career, and then choose to either retire to a small company as a director, or continue to be an experienced veteran in a large factory for years (facing optimization at any time).
I can only share what I have seen and heard and thought, and tell you that if you really have the pursuit of professional height, you should make full use of the method of “Tian Ji horse racing” to complete the accumulation of professional capital.
Big factories still want to go, but not at BAT at first, but at tier 3 or below (not too far). The promotion difficulty of such companies is much lower than that of BAT, and the staff turnover is relatively large, so it is relatively easy to be promoted to management positions.
If I can lead a large team and my accumulation has not stopped, I will pay close attention to the vacancies of the second and third echelons of big factories through headhunting or internal promotion, and I will immediately submit my resume to contact the person in charge for interview as soon as I meet the right opportunity.
Go for it. Bike to bike
As long as you can meet and establish yourself in the new environment, there are no restrictions on entering BAT in the future. It’s just a matter of biding your time.
As an executive in the management and design department of a large factory, you are indeed at the apex of your UI design career in China. Only in this case can you say that the industry has reached the end for you, the income ceiling has been reached, and there is no room for further development (relatively early)…
conclusion
Today I don’t want to talk about technical flow or logical flow. I wanted to draw a series of mind maps and tables, but I decided to do it. We should not be too rigid in some general directions of career planning, but try to find ways to practice after we share the same concepts.
Do not think that you are a novice, not a class, without a variety of talent background blessing, and big factory hopeless. As long as you stick to the right strategy for a long time, there will be no problem to enter the big factory. And how to make good use of job-hopping is one of the most important strategies.
First-class design network believes that the last thing to say is that the training done by Daishen can only help you master more knowledge or develop some good professional habits and ideas. There is no set of courses, sharing and dry goods that you can simply finish reading and directly walk to the peak of life.
External forces only support, real growth depends on their own efforts, and this process is very painful and lonely. To conclude, only those who learn to systematically sacrifice their happiness will succeed.