What does loyalty earn you as a designer? 🌱


First, I'd like to say a massive thank you! We’ve just reached over 100 subscribers on the newsletter šŸŽ‰

This is so amazing to think. My goal has always been to be able to help at least one person out, to think there’s 100+ people reading the newsletter is crazy ✨

Loyalty as a designer

As you grow in your career and you stay longer at one company, you expect to get promotions, being able to challenge yourself and being rewarded. However, I feel like this has changed a lot over the years.

More traditional companies 20 years ago had some gigantic perks for sticking at one company for lengthy periods. Insanely generous pension packages, more vacation time, higher salaries and stock options that carry on growing.

If you join as a new employee today a lot of these benefits have evaporated away. This means that once you’ve been at a company for a few years, your work may stop challenging you, what is the real incentive for sticking around?

Stick or Twist

You don’t have a gold mine of a pension waiting for you anymore today. It’s expensive to recruit new employees, companies will want you to say. However it’s always important to remember everyone is replaceable in the workforce, so put yourself first.

You may have a really good work life balance, or you may be learning a ton from your teammates around you. Larger companies means that you could be working on a completely different project learning totally different skill sets.

Not Happy?

But at the end of the day if you're not happy, you're not learning much, or you want a higher salary and you're not getting that, your best bet is to move on. Loyalty today isn’t rewarded like it used to be. I personally feel like it’s sad, but it’s something we can’t control.

How long should I stay?

Finally, I'd also like to say that there isn’t a ā€œsetā€ amount of years you have to stay at a company before moving on, or after X amount of years you should leave. Do what’s best for yourself, everyone’s situation is totally different. Take it with a pinch of salt when reading those articles. Remember, the ā€œgrass isn’t always greener on the other sideā€.

Hi! I'm Furquan

Hi my name is Furquan, I'm a senior product designer at Meta in London, where I also grew up! Previously, I was solving mobility problems at Ford. During my time at Ford i set up a YouTube channel, where I teach others about design and share my journey, with the intention to help out and inspire as many designers across the world. The channel has 100,000s of views. I also like to write a design newsletter, which is read by 1000s of designers across the world.

Read more from Hi! I'm Furquan

Live Portfolio Reviews And Q&A Steam! Hey Reader, I wanted to personally invite you to join me for a live stream next week where I will be reviewing portfolios and answering questions on anything from design to career-related topics. The livestream is scheduled for this Monday April 10th at 4pm (UK time). This is a great opportunity to get some personalized feedback during Ramadan. Whether you're just starting out in your design career or you're a seasoned pro looking to take your skills to...

90% Off Design Mentoring During Ramadan! Hi Reader, Ramadan Mubarak! During Ramadan, I'm offering a 90% discount on all my mentoring services, and will donate proceeds to charity. This is to help as many people as possible during this important month. Use the discount code "Ramadan90" to sign up. Sign up soon as slots are filling up quickly. I will also be doing some livestreams on my YouTube channel conducting portfolio reviews and doing a LIVE Q&A, be sure to turn your notification bells on...

A Few Things You Need To Know About Generative AI Hey Reader, Generative AI is an unsupervised learning method that enables an AI model to create new content from vast amounts of training data. Microsoft, OpenAI, and Google have introduced powerful viral tools that have opened the floodgates to a new way of working and a whole new set of tools. These are being integrated into workflows today with great success. Here's an overview of a few significant AI events: In December 2022, OpenAI...