05
“Cross-discipline communication and integration skills” are the key future design competencies This study also explored future professional design competencies (hard power), regarding which designers were of the opinion that such hard power will place greater importance on “emerging technology integration,” “business model innovation,” and “trend prediction.” Furthermore, “cross-discipline integration skills,” “international perspective and experience,” and “communication and interpersonal skills” were seen as what will constitute the key soft power for future industrial development. Hard power
41.9%
Emerging technology integration Business model innovation Trend prediction
Soft power
Communication and interpersonal skills
This study has also brought to light that “salary” was the main consideration for designers when applying for a post. However, from the study results, it can be inferred that importance is gradually being attached to non-economic factors with respect to job promotion prospects. For example, the received filled questionnaires revealed the following findings with respect to considerations when applying for a post: “freedom of creativity” (51.8%), “personal career prospects” (50.6%), “work-life balance” (42.1%), “value put on design by a business’” (37.4%), “challenge of work content” (35.1%), “leader management style” (31.9%), and “team cooperation” (30.8%).
Businesses’ main recruitment criteria– “portfolio” and “academia-industry experience”
37.2%
International perspective and experience
Job promotion prospects has also become a key job search consideration
08
38.5%
Cross-discipline integration skills
07
60.5% 56.2% 50.1%
06
Overall job satisfaction was on the high side of average–but room for improvement This study took “salary and fringe benefits,” “working hours,” “freedom of creativity,” “personal career development,” and “value put on design by a business’” as five aspects of job satisfaction. 48% of designers were satisfied (including satisfied and very satisfied) with their current situation regarding overall design working environment and conditions of employment, while 36.6% said that their situation was average. These results show that there is still room for improvement in the design working environment and conditions of employment.
Results gleaned from the questionnaires have also revealed that up to 90.6% of design supervisors attach most importance to an applicant’s portfolio content when recruiting. Next in importance was “academiaIndustry collaboration/internship experience” (60.3%), whereas “college/department graduated from” (23.1%) and “relevant certificates” (10.3%) were secondary criteria.
09
Social networking has become a key development criterion for freelancers 20.8% of the respondents to this study’s questionnaire were freelance workers. The projects they received mainly involved “visual communication design/ commercial design,” accounting for 82.9%, followed by “industrial design” (38.8%), “multimedia design” (23.6%), and “interior and architectural design” (22.1%). In addition, the source of projects for freelancers mainly came from “introduction by others,” accounting for 81%, followed by “peer introduction” (43.8%). These results have shown that freelancers in the design industry depend to a great extent on the accumulation of experience to build up a good reputation and establish contacts.
2021 Taiwan Design Talent Report
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