I have worked with big companies like SM Corporation and Chowking Foods Inc, and these companies both have something in common. They all have Art (Creative) Departments separate from other departments, like HR, IT, SALES, and MARKETING.

The last two previous companies that I have worked with don’t have ART DEPARTMENTS and there was no budget for their designers (UI/UX) like me. So, I must look for a way to get the software which I need for my job, like Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, Dreamweaver, etc.  So, I ended up downloading pirated software from the Internet. Sadly enough, if you download pirated software, you will encounter numerous pop-ups of porn ads. And, not a surprise, I was reported by a boot-licking sycophant co-employee to the higher management that I was watching pornography during my duty. For goodness’s sake, I have already casted out the demons of pornography for several years already. But that is what it is. Apple-shiners like to put down their colleagues every time they can have an inch of advantage to exploit their colleague’s downfall. I came to realize that I was on the wrong team, the look-and-feel and their products were just secondary to none. It seems like I am a soccer player in a basketball team.

So, I looked for another job and, luckily, I found a company that was willing to double my salary from the previous one, but there was, all the same, no Art Department at this company, too. It was understandable because the company was just starting up. After six months, I had already made all their websites for their international branches and made all the brochures, flyers, leaflets, and any other marketing materials to name. There was almost no work already except for updates and maintenance of the websites that I made. So, they decided, to compensate for the salary that they gave me, for me to create android and IOS apps. So, I obliged, I personally studied SWIFT (A programming language from Apple to create IOS apps). Tutorials after tutorials downloaded from the Internet make me dizzy almost every day. But I managed to create an IOS Application they needed BUT it was full of bugs. What do you expect from a designer creating an IOS application using an alien language that I just encountered two weeks ago? It was a big failure. I don’t have any idea how to debug it. No one in the company either. So, they let me go. (Sad)

I ended up doing a part-time job in Magsaysay Shipping Company, and to my surprise, they have a highly sophisticated ART DEPARTMENT, and all their artists/designers were using Macs. Their Art Department Manager’s office was huge and high-tech, just like any other department. No wonder Magsaysay’s advertisements were all good, whether they were on TV or print. I just wondered if I spent my years working for a company in the right department that I am suited to. It would be a breeze for me. Maybe I am already at my retirement stage, unlike today, at old age, still looking for a job to feed my family and to send my kids to college.

So, my advice to UI/UX designers or graphic designers who are looking for a job, is to ask a question to their interviewer: if the company you are going to work with has an existing Art Department.