As designers we’re surrounded by a culture that says “selling out” is the worst thing you can do, and that if you want more than the minimum required to live you’re somehow a bad person, or you don’t really do it for the love of design, or some other horse crap. Making a fair wage isn’t selling out.
You’re not just a hired gun, you’re an adorable little bundle of potential and any employer that doesn’t give you a way to progress professionally is wasting you, which is practically sinful. You should have the chance to art direct, to manage junior designers, to meet clients, to start company initiatives
Make sure you get a job at a place where designers are decision makers. The last thing you want to do all day is make bad ideas pretty. “Polishing a turd,” as my father would say.
Try to reach out to some of the other employees, and do it through email or LinkedIn, not in the office, where they are very unlikely to speak out against the company. Ask them out for coffee sometime if you can, then you’ll get a more realistic picture of the office environment
