How much does a senior product design earn? Real numbers.

Hi friend! Yes, it's happening again! In this video, I will walk you through my salary history for the past three years.
It's been three years since I did a similar video in 2019 when I walked through my salary history from an entry-level junior to a midway product designer.
I have changed jobs and grown in my career, so it's time to update!
Enjoy! ⚡️
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//LINKS
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//TIMESTAMPS
00:00 - Intro
00:41 - Important note before I share my salaries
01:19 - March 2020 (Mid-level Product Designer at Uber)
02:01 - March 2021
03:07 - July 2021 (transition to the next level: Senior Product Designer & new company)
05:24 - Salary bands
06:15 - Signing bonus
06:43 - Retirement matching (RRSP)
07:58 - April 2022
08:56 - August 2022
10:11 - Potential move to management
10:43 - Salary bands from my interviewing experience
11:51 - Wealthsimple’s offer for a Manager role
13:00 - My compensation as a manager: to be continued 😉
13:32 - Outro
// MORE
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[@jananiramesh7149]

Thank you so much for being so open and honest about these numbers and your experiences! It helps a lot with my journey working as a designer in Canada :))

[@femkedesign]

You're so welcome!

[@bandaatube]

This was awesome Femke! Learned so much - thank you :)

[@jaydentran5361]

I appreciate you being open about this as always Femke, many thanks for this video!

[@femkedesign]

Cheers Jayden!

[@DanielaCastroRamirez]

Thanks a lot. Your content is super valuable 🙏🏽

[@christyhu]

Thank you for sharing! Always a joy to watch!

[@femkedesign]

Thanks for watching!

[@robertfreeman2792]

Thanks for sharing! This is really helpful since the spread can be hard to gauge most of the time. Cool to see how your salary has progressed and this will definitely help me in my SW career.

[@femkedesign]

Glad to hear it Robert!

[@zainadeel]

Thank you for being open about this information. Specifically looking at the Canadian market and the variances seen. 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼

[@femkedesign]

No problem at all, thanks for watching Zain!

[@ScottBoydUX]

Thank you so much for posting this information Femke. I just bought tickets for the Vancouver UX Awards, and I'm very much looking forward to your keynote presentation. This is the first video that I've watched on your channel, and as a UX Designer living in BC, this is possibly the most *personally* relevant channel that I've seen on KZbin for helping on the journey in navigating a career in UX. I will absolutely be watching every single video on your channel. Thank you in advance.

[@sammidee]

Congrats. You deserve all the $! :) Thanks for being open and honest about this. These videos have helped me a lot in my design career.

[@femkedesign]

I appreciate that!

[@liubovk2]

Thank you for sharing, I can imagine how vulnerable you might feel, so I wanted to let you know that it reeeeealy helped a lot to me and my friend in our career navigation. Best of luck with all your future endeavours🙏!

[@femkedesign]

Thanks so much :)

[@rae.design]

Thanks for sharing Femke 💪🏾

[@femkedesign]

You’re welcome 😊

[@JesseShowalter]

Awesome vid Femke, tons of value here for designers

[@femkedesign]

Thanks Jesse :)

[@alfredograciam]

Hi Femke, thanks a lot for sharing all this information with a huge transparent, is really helpful all of this. Hi from México :)

[@femkedesign]

Glad it was helpful!

[@fabianaruggiero5888]

Thank you for sharing this!!

[@femkedesign]

You are so welcome!

[@princhipehdesigns5922]

very helpful video, very insightful

[@jameshou6230]

Thank you. You and all your videos helped me a lot in understanding what design career is like out of China. As a matter of fact, that even made me decided to immigrate to Toronto and I am just starting to enjoy the life here!

[@Tameika]

Welcome! fellow Ontarian here :)

[@femkedesign]

Welcome!! Hope you're enjoying it :)

[@syedkroos6436]

thanks for sharing. It helps to understand the value of a designer and how the salary structures are working in CANADA

[@santoskhalifa8027]

Thanks a lot for sharing this :)

[@annajasko]

Thank you for sharing despite being caught for transparency-))) you are amazing.

[@femkedesign]

Thanks Anna!

[@AntoniaMarcella]

Thanks for sharing Femke, I’ve not commented on your videos before but have been watching you for just over a year now and going back through your old videos. Your growth and your transparency is so inspiring. I’m going to be cheeky and say I would love if you would do a video on negotiating a signing bonus. Was this something Wealthsimple already offered as a company or was it a brand new concept for them? Would love to know how you even begin to bring this up and when.

[@femkedesign]

Thanks for commenting and watching my videos! Will add the topic idea to my list :)

[@Yilithy]

Interesting to know, thanks a lot for sharing some real numbers! 😊It's hard to compare to the EU or Germany specifically, but I think we're still lacking behind in terms of salary compared to the US and Canada. Your numbers (CAD converted to €) are way higher than what you can ever expect in Germany 😄 Whenever you feel like making a salary negotiations video, I'm in hahaha

[@femkedesign]

I lived in The Netherlands for 5 years so have experienced this too - cost of living generally is a bit lower in Europe compared to North America which I think reflects salaries. Taxes however.. haha

[@mirabelle0101]

A bit? salaries in the US are insane, compared to Germany. Pls don’t expect those numbers here… experience a lot of gen Z with freakin’ high salary expectations. But thank you for sharing! Love it

[@fazzyakamello]

Thanks for sharing Femke :) this is something that i am working towards as well. I’d love to know more about how you bring this topic up to your manager? At my company, the issue of salary/performance review its really not widely discussed. Even among my designers peers, its a bit of a “sensitive” subject to talk about…

[@femkedesign]

Does the company do performance reviews?

[@arpitasaha2745]

Hey! That was really helpful. Could you also share your responsibilities and how they changed with each salary bump?

[@femkedesign]

Will keep this in mind for next time! That said I do have this video which may help: kzbin.info/www/bejne/npLYdYyZpratgJI

[@linzee4584]

I recommend always asking upfront for the salary band. It's good to have in mind the numbers you'd be excited to accept, but try not to be the first to throw that out. I have yet to have a recruiter not share the band with me and it helped me realize I was worth much more than I had been asking for in the past. It also saves everyone time if their offer is much lower than you'd accept. Good luck everyone!

[@femkedesign]

100% this!

[@Mula952]

Femke! You are pretty underpaid! I hope you negotiate way up when you get your next role!

[@MyCUTboyz]

Thank you

[@danimalthefirst]

Came across your stuff by accident one day. Massey U ( I was AUT and MDS -queen st 2004!). 18 years exp. Ping me if your ever thinking of coming to the UK or Germany. I might have a role for you :) and if your ever heading home, I know someone you should definitely speak too. Keep it up! Great pragmatic UX advice.

[@femkedesign]

Thanks Daniel!! Small world :)

[@Battlethealiens]

I’ve been seeing such a wild salary range for product designers (I’ve only been in Canada for a few years, and at one company that doesn’t do increases at all) so when you have such a wide band, minimal frame of reference in a new market, how do know where to position yourself?

[@femkedesign]

A company that doesn't give any salary increases?! I've never heard of such a thing, they should at least be increasing your salary to match inflation. In the past when I've been unsure of where I sit, I've reached out to the other designers to have conversations with them about their experience and expected levels of compensation and used that to bench mark myself.

[@Battlethealiens]

@@femkedesign It’s crazy! I didn’t know that was possible til moving here. I’ve been told it’s because all our clients are non-profits but that seems off to me. That’s a good idea though. I’ve only spoken to recruiters about realistic salary ranges so far. The only designers I know here are print and that’s a beast I haven’t gone near since college days.

[@pamking2140]

Could you do a video where you compare your salary to your cost of living? I'd be interested to see the difference in cost of living prices because I come from South Africa.

[@femkedesign]

Oooh while an interesting topic, probably won't, but thank you for suggesting it! :)

[@zeeshey]

Heard you mention IC a few times in your videos. What does it mean?

[@Jakerno]

Individual Contributor

[@abhishekvastrad]

Individual contributor

[@PowerNotFound]

Nice

[@femkedesign]

Cheeers!

[@rswootten]

Bonuses are more heavily tax. Making it part of your annual salary is more beneficial for you :)

[@femkedesign]

haha agreed, was pretty happy in the end

[@CharleneDandelion]

Wow! Regarding your salary at Uber, were you an expat, or were you a resident? I just discovered expats earn a lot more than residents and I was mindblown that this is even a thing. Really curious about your answer, as this will help me to consider your salary in my salary research or not (I''m Dutch, so this is really concrete info for me). Hope you can share. :)

[@femkedesign]

I'm not sure I understand the delineation between the two - I was an expat (living abroad) but also a resident (legally living in The Netherlands). I've never heard of expats getting paid more just because they're an expat?

[@CharleneDandelion]

@@femkedesign yeah it’s a real thing! Sera Tajima who also worked as an expat in the Netherlands talked about this as well.

[@femkedesign]

@@CharleneDandelion Oh she may have been talking about the 30% ruling? It's a dutch tax break that is only giving to expats as an incentive for them to live and work in The Netherlands.

[@ever5215]

Incredible! What’s the average salary in Canada, overall, and for a designer? Do you expect to continue to increase at this pace throughout your career… is this sustainable? Is this the general experience or unique to you?

[@femkedesign]

Not sure the average tbh! I'm sure that info is available online somewhere. As for future salary growth, never say never haha. Who knows with the rate of inflation we're experiencing right now.

[@ever5215]

@@femkedesignI’d love to hear others’ experiences here to validate that such pace and extent of increases are the norm and achievable… any other commenters out there want to validate this?

[@heysupratim]

@@ever5215 Not discrediting the incredible design experience that femke has, i can vouch for a similar-is monetary growth. My Canadian work experience trajectory started from 85K cad to 110K cad (from product designer to senior product designer) and now at 150K cad at Lead product designer position. All of this happened in a span of 3 years. Remember this - to grow vertically quickly - horizontal movement is the fastest way provided you can show your worth and mettle.

[@user-sk2pj5tb7f]

Thank's a lot for your video, greetings from Kazakhstan

[@user-xo5dp9ud9c]

Interesting because $100k in US dollars is $135k in Canadian Dollars

[@emagirl33]

Salary negotiation is so important and yet so many designers struggle with it.

[@femkedesign]

Yeah it is hard especially early in your career. As you get a few years of experience I feel you gain a bit more confidence which helps.

[@colleenmoore976]

In South Africa, as a Senior Designer I am earning $18531,06 CAD a year 😞 We don't get paid enough here.

[@CharleneDandelion]

that is soooo little. :( how does it compare to living costs?

[@Battlethealiens]

Part of the reason I left. I’m pretty sure I was the lowest paid senior designer I knew. I recently went back on holiday and the prices compare to Toronto for normal groceries. The cost of living and salaries in SA don’t correlate very well unfortunately.

[@Tameika]

Haha that's the funny thing about making youtube videos... hiring managers often watch our videos 😂

[@femkedesign]

lol yes

190k/200k CAD makes sense for a senior product designer in 2023

[@ever5215]

How do you prove your worth: word of mouth? Portfolio? Commercial impact…?

[@femkedesign]

Most companies look for a track record of experience, influence and impact.

[@ever5215]

But *specifically* how have *you* been demonstrating that? What *exactly* have you done in each case to justify your alleged impact and rapid increasing value?

[@heysupratim]

@@ever5215 I think after a point a track record of valuable design contribution to improve products is enough to make a case

[@JetTinkerer]

I realize I've chosen the wrong career....

[@shotingstar__333]

This just goes to prove that som people don’t need ui skills to be a manager

[@femkedesign]

Strong UI skills specifically I wouldn't say are a pre-requisite to management, no.

[@lemonbuzz642]

Sign on bonus: how to you negotiate this? I can't say I want one 🤣

[@femkedesign]

I recommend reading Never Split the Difference www.amazon.ca/Never-Split-Difference-Negotiating-Depended/dp/0062407805