Curious to know what different people do all day at their 9-5? We’re investigating job titles and diving deeper into day-to-day tasks to get the low-down on exactly what those roles really entail. Not sure how much to ask for your raise? Wondering what a VP in finance does in the afternoon? We’re uncovering the details behind jobs, along with the salaries and tasks that come with them, to help you figure out what you’re interested in. Below, read about how a graphic designer from Georgia spends her day.
Age: 26
City: Atlanta
Industry: Marketing
Job Title: Graphic Designer
Years of Experience: 3
Salary: $50k
What does your job title mean? What does your job entail?
I do everything from product photography to email and catalog creation. I’m an in-house graphic designer so I work for a specific company every day on whatever they need for marketing. Our main goal is to make sales from our website but there are a lot of ways we can achieve that. Facebook ads, email blasts, website upkeep are all things my team works on every day to keep our company relevant.
When do you wake up?
I wake up at 6:45, kiss my husband good morning, do my hair and makeup before greeting my cat who sits with me while I eat breakfast and browse social media for anything I may have missed the night before.
At 9am I am…
Putting a pause on the several projects I work on each morning. Every hour, on the hour, my department takes a break to do a one minute plank. This helps us wake up, keep creativity flowing, and we get our exercise in.
At 11am I am…
Usually trying to wrap up anything that needs to be done before lunch. This means sending off rough drafts of emails and new marketing ideas to get feedback while I am away.
What does lunch normally look like for you?
I get lunch every day. The time I can leave may vary depending on how urgent the projects I am working on are, but it is not unusual for me to grab lunch at a local restaurant with the other people in my department.
At 1pm I am…
Just getting back from lunch and checking all those email replies I got about our latest marketing plan.
At 3pm I am… 
Deep in my projects for the day, calling printers to get prices, setting up photoshoots for products and meeting with the Marketing VP of our company to plan out our next project.
At 5pm I am…
Heading home. I’m grateful to have a job that makes me leave at 5 every day, so I get to spend time away from work, and recharge so I don’t get burned out creatively.
How does a workday end for you? What time do you normally leave work?
At the end of the day, 5PM, I make sure anything that was time sensitive, like postcards we need back from the printers, have been sent off and all of my emails have been answered. I like to set myself up for a good start to the next day and not be weighed down by projects from the day before.
What do you do after work? An event? Dinner? More work?
Keeping a good work life balance is important to me, but it is hard because I love what I do. Sometimes I have to force myself not to edit photos while I am off of work and remind myself how important it is to keep that balance. But when I am not tearing myself away from work I love to cook with my husband, or try out a new trendy restaurant downtown with friends.
What time do you go to bed? 
I like to spend the time right before bed winding down, and Netflix is a great go-to for this. I’m currently obsessed with true crime shows which entertain me until 10:30, when I go to sleep.
Is there anything about your job you’d like people to know?
I get to do a ton of different things because I work for a small company. We don’t have one person totally devoted to photography or graphic creation. We have a couple people who can do everything. If you are a graphic designer, afraid you are going to get stuck cropping photos for hours at a time, you should check out some smaller companies that will let you do many different things.