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How do you know when you should no longer be classed as a junior designer

I was told that it's marked by how many years of experience you have. 1-2 years is still considered a junior as you're still getting to know the ropes and applying your design skills to jobs, and therefore largely under mentorship/guidance. However there are very few exceptions to the rule where there are exceedingly talented individuals that I know, that have become junior art directors. 3 - 5 years is considered Midweight and 5 + is considered Senior. Hope this helps ~

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Question added by Fawwaz Siddiqui , Creative Director , FSD Media Corp.
Date Posted: 2013/03/31
Deleted user
by Deleted user

The years of experience is very important to define when a designer is not junior anymore, but as well its the field of design and the intensity and size of projects that he was achieving .

Noor Ali
by Noor Ali , English and Art Teacher , Julia's English Academy

I feel that sometimes it's determined by how you feel.
As a junior you are still learning and gaining experience on what it is to be a designer and how to do it well.
Sometimes that can take 1 - 2 years, but sometimes that can be longer.
Perhaps you decided to move to another company after 1 year, or you were made redundant, or the company you work for isn't pushing your skills to the limit.
You may find that all those cause set backs and in 1 - 2 years of working as a designer you're still not 100% confident in what you do.
In this case I'd probably still deem myself a junior, and would need a little more work before I could move on to mid-weight.
But after 1 - 2 years, if you feel you've gone as far as you can go knowledge wise without feeling like you're being tested anymore, you've freelanced and notched up some mega experience, you may feel like mid-weight is calling your name and you want to make that leap.

Nima Teimourzadeh
by Nima Teimourzadeh , Co-Founder and CEO , Ravagh Group

I'm not a designer but I have worked with many talented designers throughout the years, there is a point where your mind allows you to read a design brief or talk to a customer about what he/she wants and really feel what it is you have to do, you wouldn't need to make 5-6 different designs to see which one relates more to what the customer wanted, you can get it done in 1-2 attempts, a part of this comes from experience, a part coming from your ears as you will have to really listen and understand, but a more important part comes from your heart, this point is where I would say you should no longer be classed as a junior designer, you might reach this point after a year, and some designers never get there at all, so I don't think there is a timing guideline for this.

Raphael Linus Dulay
by Raphael Linus Dulay , Senior Graphic Designer , Xpert Solutions

it is based on how you solve problems outside the book.

Jayson Aglubat
by Jayson Aglubat , Creative Artist , Sadeem International Co.Ltd.

compare your work to your co- graphic designer, when your Sr. graphic designer say's your work is better..

Amit Amberker
by Amit Amberker , Looking for Creative Designing Projects which needs to be Done on Photoshop, Illustrator, CorelDRAW , Freelancer and Self Employed

Hello Roba Al-Assi , Thank you for Inviting me to Answer this Question I would leave this to Employer / Decision Maker.
It’s their Decision to Take a Call based on Employee’s Performance.
But however, as per the General Standards: ~ UpTo 1 Year is Considered as a Trainee ~ Between 1 to 3 Years is Considered as a Junior Designer ~ Depending upon Skills, Ability and Experience, one should be able to Decide when you should No Longer be Classed as a Junior Designer

When you know as much as the senior designer......

Hameed Ullah
by Hameed Ullah , Document Controller , C.A.T - Contracting & Trading

Designer should not be a junior He is always a creative person.
He will create things and make it better and better.