Interview experience - How I Landed the Job

I always liked getting asked how I got my job at my age and while I was still in school. I think it's very important for students to know that it's never too early to get your foot in the door.

I worked at a sub shop during most of my college career and I just wanted to get a head start into the field. I was willing to just ask a company if I could shadow them a couple days a week for free.

On my way to school I always passed by this beautiful modern architecture office and I just knew that that was the goal at the end of the day. Soon enough it was time to look for an internship as a requirement of my course and I figured I'd give it a shot. I emailed the office manager asking if they were looking to have any internships coming up. I was pretty confident in this since it's essentially free labor for the company. But to my dismay, they told me there currently were not looking :(

I scratched that off my list and went to my second choice, a small interior design company. That was also an attribute I was looking for by the way, a small firm. I recommend for any student to do this while in search for their first job or internship. From personal experience, and I say this every chance I get, in a small firm - you often get the opportunity to learn. Typically at a big firm, you get stuck doing the same thing every day. There's a person for every job and you hardly get the chance to explore and adapt to something new. It's an uptight feeling at a big corporate job, while a small firm can give you a little bit more of a personal relationship with your mentors and the field.

I got an interview the very next day from when I sent an email to the interior design company and I loved the designer! She was so friendly and understanding of someone like me who was young, both eager and nervous to start in the field. She knew I was eager to get a hold of any opportunity I could. I was granted the internship for 3 months. In that time I went on multiple job sites, supervised installations in homes and commercial spaces, prepared presentation boards, did some CAD, did spec research, and she would even ask my opinion on materials. Although I did love the experience, especially seeing some designs come to life and stand in front of my face, I just knew something was missing and this wasn't the place to work long term. I wanted to learn more of the technical side of design, the architecture. I wanted to deconstruct a beautiful building and see what put it all together and how every piece worked together. It was during my last couple of weeks of the 3 month internship that I took out my list and start going down them again.

To my surprise, I had an email waiting for me from the first firm I tried to apply for an internship for. Turns out, they were still not looking for interns but wanted to hire a CAD designer full time and wanted to see if I would come in for an interview. The title of "CAD designer" was basically a glorified CAD Monkey and I just wasn't sure if that was all I wanted to be, but like I said, it's never too early to get your foot in the door.

I prepared my portfolio and the day of the interview came, it was a Friday. I was just leaving a shift from the sub shop and was going straight to the interview. As I was pulling out of the parking lot, a man ran a stop sign and hit my car. Of course! This would absolutely happen to me, and right before my interview at that. I called ahead and said I may be late due to an accident. I for sure thought I lost most if not all points already due to this - first impressions are everything, right? I thought I was screwed.

After the car reports and all that nonsense I rushed on over to the interview and I was so nervous.
They probably think I made the car accident up. They probably think I'm lying and that i'm so  unprofessional already.

I was led to the conference room by thee office manager and a man (who is my current boss) walked in in shorts, and I felt some tension lifted. He looked through my portfolio and commented on the things he liked and asked me to explain the process during these projects from school. What you put in your portfolio is also important! I knew that I was coming in for a CAD job, but I threw in some design work and renderings in there anyway just so they knew what I could do. He also commented that he liked how my portfolio, business card, and resume all had the same header/design. "It shows you put thought into this and making it all come together".


I was STOKED. Nobody else EVER noticed this at my other interviews!

He then proceeded to ask me if I have any experience in the field and I told him that I was finishing up an internship with an interior design firm.

Funny enough, he told me that the owner/designer of that firm was a friend of his brother's  and they worked with that firm on projects from time to time. Small world! Definitely a plus in my favor though.

I remember the last thing he asked me - "What are you looking for out of this? What are you hoping to gain if you were to work here"

I can't remember exactly what I said, but I think its very important for you as an interviewee to bring this up if your employer doesn't. I told him what I felt earlier, doubting the interior design company. I wanted to learn as much as I could, if there was any opportunity he had to take me in the field or to learn something beyond my job description to please do so.  It's so important to show you care about what you're doing. If you want to be more than what you are at you're job, you need to do more then what you're asked of at your job.

I left pretty happy. It was the first interview I had that I didn't leave with anxiety, and I think that was a good sign, because they called me a couple days later to give me a job offer :)

Update:

Well, three years, a Bachelor's degree, a full time job in the field, and much less sleep later, I figured I would update my blog about my experience as a newbie in the architecture field.

In a nutshell,
I was blessed with the offer of a full time job at a local architecture firm in Tampa Bay before even graduating school.

I have been so busy with projects, so grateful yet all the while exhausted. I'm not complaining!
I have finally got ahead of my work load and am able to set some time down to at least blog my experiences should any youngin' or student wanting to explore the world of architecture.

Plus, writing's good for you, right?

Blog goals:

• Post at least once a week

Bare with me, stay tuned friends.

Future of an Interior Designer

 The future of an Interior Designer can be a positive or negative thing depending on how you approach the subject. Designers, because of how they're portrayed by the media and the public, sometimes get discouraged about what they do. Majority of the people are not educated on this profession, so their distinction between an interior decorator and an interior designer isn't as clear as their awareness of the difference between a doctor and a nurse. A designer can approach this confusion in different ways. For example, they can spread the word, deliver more information to the public in order for people to understand. Although talking and informing is great, a designer can also simply continue to do what they do best and let the public see for themselves. If a designer is more open with displaying the problem, the process, and the finished product, the profession will gradually be understood. Being able to handle conflicts can be difficult at times, but appreciated when done professionally. I can easily see a bright future for designers. When great work is shown, interests will be developed, and that's how you can capture a potential designer's heart.

The misinterpretation of Interior Designers

If you would ask someone what they thought an Interior Designer actually did, a mental picture of paint swatches, materials, and tiles show up in their head. In a nutshell, the majority of people would think that we decorate for a living. Like I've said in my very first post, although those two may have overlapping responsibilities, they're not the same thing.

As irritating as it must be for a designer to be underrated and unappreciated, we cannot blame the public for thinking that way. Everyone knows what an architect does because that profession has been around for as long as anyone could remember. Interior Design has only been introduced in the 18th century and they started with interior decoration, not design. However, time has developed interior decoration into interior design, and not many people understand or even know that.

Another thing that gives the wrong impression to the public is (what always gives the wrong impression of everything) the media. Shows on HGTV are very popular, but do NOT deliver the right information about what an interior designer does even though they label themselves otherwise. With that being said, it's our job as designers to correct these expectations and let everyone know that interior designers are worth more than changing the pillows of your couch.

Being ethical is being practical

Whether people know it or not, you have a ethics may not be a successful set of ethics but they exist. Work ethics are the collection of morals and personal values that molds a person into who they are along with their behavior. As much as someone denies or attempts to avoid it, work ethics will have a huge impact in how someone interacts with any subject, it's human nature. As a professional it will determine the relationship we have with coworkers, clients, and even the projects themselves.

 Think back to grade, was there a class or subject that you didn't see the point of taking? Think about how that mindset affected your grades and your work in that class. Did you do as well as you did in a class that was particularly your favorite? The case is highly unlikely. We carry that habit throughout our entire lives even as we age and mature.

 With that being said it's important to recognize what your personal worth ethics values and how you can apply that to your career as professionally as possible. Work ethics and professionalism go hand in hand no matter what profession, so it's important to be able to know what your work ethics are, and how you can apply that in professionalism.

Professionalism - A huge attribute to success

What is professionalism? According to Webster's dictionary it's defined as "the conduct, aims, or qualities that characterize or mark a profession or a professional person." but what does that mean to you?

Professionalism is all about knowledge, skill, character, and responsibility. There are two important sides to professionalism, and that's to your clients and also to your co-workers. It's important to deliver yourself professionally to the people you're working for, but also who you're working with. When dealing with clients in interior design, or any profession for that matter, it may not always be easy. Professionalism means to be conscious of a client's wants and needs but also being able to constructively inform without leaving a bad impression. When working with people, conflict is almost always in a project's path, and that's completely okay and normal. However, the problem that most coworkers face is that they attach themselves to their ideas and work that they take issues dealing with their projects personally. It's very important for a designer to understand that they are not their work and learn how to both give and take criticism constructively. Using your skills and knowledge to know how to carry yourself professionally is very important in succeeding in your career path.

Value of Interior Design

Majority of people underestimate the role of an interior designer and label the professionals as "decorators". Although some of the roles overlap, there is a huge difference. Decorators will be seen spending their time looking at textiles, paint swatches, fabrics, and are mainly concerned with surface decoration. An interior designer, on the other hand, has a four-year degree from an accredited educational institution and practices a three-part process:

• Shaping the experience of interior space through the manipulation of spatial volume
• Drawing on aspects of environmental psychology and architecture
• Specializing in health, welfare and safety

Being an interior design student, I've quickly learned that designers do more work than people give them credit for. An interior designer's job is thought of as making a space appealing to the eye, which is true, but the functionality of the work is overlooked and romanticized. When designing, interior designers take several things into consideration, and just to name a small portion:

• Research and analysis of the client's goals and requirements
• Formulation of preliminary space plans and two and three dimensional design concept studies and sketches that integrate the client's program needs and are based on knowledge of the principles of interior design and theories of human behavior
• Preparation of construction documents, consisting of plans, elevations, details and specifications, to illustrate non-structural and/or non-seismic partition layouts; power and communications locations; reflected ceiling plans and lighting designs; materials and finishes; and furniture layouts
• Preparation of construction documents to adhere to regional building and fire codes, municipal codes, and any other jurisdictional statutes, regulations and guidelines applicable to the interior space
• Observation and reporting on the implementation of projects while in progress and upon completion, as a representative of and on behalf of the client; and conducting post-occupancy evaluation reports.