Truck driver vs web designer: which profession pays off better for immigrants?
A profession is more than the place you spend weekdays from nine to six. Choose work you care about and you will enjoy the doing of it, and can fairly call yourself a happy person. Both UI/UX design and truck driving are in demand in the USA. But when it comes to a career, popularity alone is not enough to go on: you need to weigh the working conditions, the prospects and the pay.
What to know about truck driving in the USA
Hauling goods short or long distances is a popular choice among immigrants in America. The main duties are driving the vehicle safely, loading and unloading, keeping an eye on the cargo and maintaining the logs. Before starting, a truck driver goes through a specialist driving school and earns a CDL.
If you are considering the profession, its particulars are worth weighing:
- You will spend most of your time on the road.
- You will often sleep in the cab.
- Heavy physical labour is not really part of it, but you will spend a great deal of time sitting, which can affect your health.
- The responsibility is high: delivering the cargo safely, following traffic law, staying on the route the dispatcher set and knowing what to do in an emergency on the road.
- There is almost no career ladder. At most you buy your own truck and become an owner-operator, or move into logistics. Both routes require further investment.
The main drawback is the travel. You will not be home often, and every member of the family needs to be ready for that.
What a truck driver earns in the USA
Income depends on experience, on the company and on the type of cargo. It also depends on the kind of work — local or long-haul. The average annual income is $60,000. Long-haul drivers can earn more, $80,000–$100,000. A local truck driver earns $40,000–$60,000.
Working for yourself, you also have to set aside money for insurance, fuel, maintenance and meals on the road.
What makes UI/UX design interesting
Working in a creative field, you can build products that change people's lives for the better. UI/UX design combines creativity with technical skill. It is many-sided, it keeps developing and it opens up considerable prospects.
To understand what a UI/UX designer does, unpack the abbreviation. UX design (user experience) is concerned with how the product feels to use — its skeleton, its navigation, its functional elements, the logic by which tasks get done. UI design (user interface) is about the interface itself. The designer builds not only the product's workings but its visual appeal and usability.
The first thing the role requires is training. You will need a set of technical skills to do the work well. But the training is worth it, because what you get is:
- creative freedom and the chance to build distinctive interfaces;
- work in whatever arrangement suits you — staff, freelance or project-based;
- a wide range of tasks and no routine;
- pace and constant development;
- room to grow: as a UI/UX designer gains experience, their salary rises substantially with it.
Let's look more closely at the pay.
What a UI/UX designer earns in the USA
People starting out can expect $50,000 to $70,000 a year. Their responsibilities are narrow and they work under experienced colleagues. Mid-level designers earn $75,000–$100,000 a year, and senior designers around $100,000–$140,000.
To land a first job, all a UI/UX designer has to go on are the no-experience vacancies. Competition is stiff, because the market is full of course graduates wanting to build a career in the creative industry.
At PASV, students work on real projects and can take an internship at an international company. Graduates put that experience on their resumes, which sets them apart from other juniors and improves their chances of getting hired.
You can read more about the programme, the cost, the instructors and the format on the UI/UX Designer course page.
