Experience working for a corporation as a designer (internal or external)

10 months ago from , Senior Digital Product Designer

What do you like? What do you hate?

Personally I'm getting tired of the way it works. The process is really slow and moving things forward is just painfull. I've worked for numerous different corporations as an external designer over the years and it's the same every single time. After 7+ years in this industry it's starting to piss me off that a 5min task take 5 days to complete and not because of the different levels of approval, but because of employees that have a job for no reason and need to fullfill their tasks to please the boss instead of actually show progress made. Let me give you an example: We have a lead designer in a team (who is incapable of the role) and despite numerous requests to replace him, they hired another guy to be his supervisor instead. The process is now even slower. I'm slowly thinking of joining a startup even if this means working overtime. Etc...

If there is anything to like is - at least the payment is good, but gosh I mean, come on...


  • Johnny JuiceJohnny Juice, 10 months ago

    "at least the payment is good" this is what they call the golden handcuffs

    3 points
  • Paulo PereiraPaulo Pereira, 10 months ago

    I've worked in corporate for 8 years got fed up then jumped into a startup was there for only 2 years and now back into another corporation.

    I liked the corporate setup at the beginning, I liked the structure of it. I was privy to meetings where I saw and heard executives cutting departments for the shareholders it pissed me off and saddened me. How could corporations be so cold and have no humanity whatsoever.

    So I left and went to a startup. It seemed exciting and fun free food, beer and games. Then once again privy to CEO's meetings and all they cared about was money - shut down products departments just to make the company look more profitable.

    You then realize all these companies are exactly the same! They might preach were a family/team (they are not), you might think they need you and can't function without you ( they do not). They will fire you for whatever reason or whenever they need to be seen as profitable, (most companies in most states do not need a reason to fire people).

    There is no greener grass on that other side of the hill. It might seem to be greener at the beginning but eventually you'll see that they sprayed it green and it was really dead or dying.

    So you have to do whatever is good for yourself.

    2 points
  • Aaron Wears Many HatsAaron Wears Many Hats, 10 months ago

    Personally I like being an internal creative with a corporate. Yes it's sometimes slow, but that's what the real world is often like.

    There's lots of startups out there, but not all startups become big, and not all survive. You have to decide if you want to have the stability and security of a large company, or the apparent coolness of a small one and the risk that comes with it. Heading towards my mid-30's, I prefer stability to be frank.

    And my expensive hobbies.

    I've been in more bad startups than bad corporates fyi.

    1 point
  • Jerry TJerry T, 9 months ago

    What you're describing here (hiring C players to manage D players), is unfortunately so common. I can relate and empathize.

    As for the Corp vs Startup. I've seen both for quite a bit. I really believe it's a matter of personal preferences. I've seen designers in Startups who craved structure and stability and were triggered by the chaos of the first days. Others thrive in it.

    I personally prefer the chaos of startup environment vs the overly rigid structure of large corporation. With that said the paycheck is often better in larger companies. Statistically speaking, having early employee stock options rarely pays out better than the fixed salary (especially if invested wisely).

    0 points
  • Ryan Hicks, 10 months ago

    I prefer small to mid-size places for this very reason.

    0 points
  • paavo koyapaavo koya, 10 months ago

    Corporations usually have such an enormous profit faucet that many people can drink happily. If you want to be part of a lean, mean fight-for-survival team then a corporation is definitely not the ecosystem you want to be in.

    0 points