“Years ago, I was a marketing manager at a big shoes retail brand.

Each of us managers were allocated a fixed budget for each hire under our wings, and we were free to hire anyone within the budget. As the turnover rate was high, most managers just hired the cheapest, youngest designer so that we can report effective budget management on top of  getting work done.

After the designer under my department quit, I interviewed a candidate who asked for the upper limits of my budget. I have never hired a designer at this pay before, but he seems experienced based on the extensive portfolio he showed. We often treated designers as interchangeable entities, and I have about 3 others to interview but this time I decided to hire him based on the pay he wanted.

Within the first month, people within the company has started to praise the quality of work he has done. Instantly, he set the bar higher for design work in our retail company. I assigned more work to him, including launch events, and promos for new products.

1 year later, the sales my department contributed to the company overshadowed the other marketing managers. And so, I was promoted to Marketing Director, with a neat 25% pay rise! Working with Haan has improved my company and boosted my own career. Through him, I also learned to respect the designer’s perspectives. Here is one thing I learned – if you can use design to make the customers happy, sales will come naturally! But of course, only a skilled designer can try to do that.

When Haan left the company to aim for a better job, I was sad but happy for him. I know any company can make good use of his talent.  The good news is now YOU can try to hire him! ”

-Marketing Director of a certain shoes retail company