Scott Gledhill of StandardZilla has an interesting article, posted a few days ago, detailing a few tips for becoming a successful in-house web designer. Being a senior designer within a large organization myself, I found it quite interesting. Here is his list with my own advice and experiences.

Love what you do

I agree 100% with this point. It is the most important aspect of working within an in-house design team. There will be days were politics and even corporate policies will make for a stressful work environment. Add to that plenty of menial design work that is not creative, not fun, and tedious. If you do not love what you are doing, it can and most likely will affect your work, your performance, and ultimately your job.

I’ve found that the best way to keep motivated and creative during the work day is to be aware of what projects are coming down the pipeline and express a interest in those that you think you can contribute to or would be a challenge to work on. Being proactive and looking at ways to better improve a customer’s experience on your company’s site always proves to re-energize the creative juices.

Never stop learning

Again, Scott makes an excellent point. Often in corporate environments there will invariably be downtime. Take advantage of these slower periods to read, get caught up on trends and new technologies. Stagnation, both creatively and knowledge wise, isn’t good for the career.

Specialize

This is one point where Scott and I disagree slightly. I realize each organization is unique, having it’s own corporate policies and internal culture. I’ve worked in a few places that varied in size, business environments, and base social structure, but within each, the more you knew the better off your position was.

I may be partially biased due to my experience of working for dot-coms that did not fair well in the market crash a few years ago — having survived several rounds of layoffs due to what I’m sure was my work ethic and ability to perform multiple jobs well, whether it be IA, HTML coding, or print design. Granted, the work environment for many in-house designers has stabilized over time, layoffs will always be present. Just ask any ex- or current AOL employee that past couple of years.

I believe that the days of the jack-of-all-trades “web master” are well past us, but I also believe that you have to have a good grasp of multiple areas of web design and development. Specialization can pigeon hole you in terms of escalating your career within your company. There are not many opportunities for in-house designers to move up within an organization if you refuse to broaden your knowledge base.

Get a killer portfolio

Depending on your company and the industry within which it resides, portfolios vary drastically. Remember that in-house projects for Human Resources campaigns or intranet work of high quality make for great portfolio pieces. Keep logo comps. Keep screenshots. Not everything in your portfolio needs to be public facing.

Network like crazy

Networking serves a few purposes of the in-house designer in addition to Scott’s points. First, it lets others in your company know you exist. This sounds silly, but it’s actually quite important to be seen and known. Second, networking provides you with a list of contacts should you need to find another job or are looking to branch out and move up in positions. My last two jobs have all been facilitated by good people that I had work with in past companies.

Manage your time

Time management is hard for me. I personally tend to try and take on more work than I should, but always seem to forget to leave a buffer for those last minute fire drills that always seem to pop up right as you are knee deep in comping a product flow that is due at the end of the day. Things pop up all the time in an in-house environment. Setting expectations to others within the company in terms of delivery times and schedules will help you manage your time more efficiently.

Build your reputation

Absolutely, 100% agree with Scott. Being the go-to designer on your team not only brings challenges to keep the job fresh, it also leaves a lasting impression in the eyes of those that run the business. And having that reputation as a hard working, creative designer only adds fuel to the resume if ever you want to move up within your organization.