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 :)
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