01
93.9%
93.9% of designers here are under 35. 5.9% hold a leadership role.
A generation without a ladder
Where is the seat you are meant to grow into?
Five markets answered. The questions we could not close are the ones worth keeping.
The conversation continues
This report counts 1,797 designers across Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam, and Thailand. The numbers say one thing plainly. Design in Southeast Asia has grown up. The careers built on it have not kept pace. So we close on five tensions worth carrying into next year.
Five tensions
01
93.9%
93.9% of designers here are under 35. 5.9% hold a leadership role.
Where is the seat you are meant to grow into?
02
70.2%
70.2% feel valued at work. Fewer than 30% have any salary transparency.
How do you know your worth when no one will say the number out loud?
03
2.1
Senior designers are 2.1 times more likely to negotiate successfully.
What did no one teach you to ask for?
04
77.3%
77.3% say their skills match the job. 74.8% feel uncertain about what comes next.
If you're good at the work today, why does next year feel so uncertain?
05
69.2%
69.2% have had to argue for the value of design itself.
How much of your week goes to defending the work before you can start it?
Questions worth exploring
That question sits underneath every chart in this report, about money and about whether the work is seen.
And one admission before we go. Indonesia makes up close to 79% of who we heard from. A single market shapes much of what you have just read. Treat the regional picture as a sketch, not a census. We would rather tell you that than let you mistake it for the whole.
Worth exploring next
Where this sits in the conversation
Overview
2024 reportLandscape
DemographicsLandscape
Roles & experiencesLandscape
CompensationLandscape
Company landscapeSentiments
Offer & negotiationSentiments
Career progressionSentiments
Value of designSentiments
Job marketSingapore deep dive
Singapore deep diveClose
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