February 1, 2010

Job Opportunities in this Tough Economy

I keep in touch with one of my friends from our Interior Design program who just recently graduated. She is having a really hard time finding jobs, which makes me very nervous for this upcoming May, when I will be job searching as well.

I am putting my portfolio together this semester and it really has made it "hit home". Graduation is just a few short months away and I don't know if I am ready! I am ready to get out of the dorms, but I am not sure how ready I am to be job hunting.

I also have become interested in working for Disney World (doing design work). Boy, their website is hard to figure out! I found the section that talks about the design work they do, but in order to see if there are job listings, you have to create an entire profile, and to be honest, I didn't understand all of the questions the job profile application was asking.

Hopefully my classes this semester will help me get ready for the real world. And if not, I always have my wonderful Professors to back me up!

IDEC Design Competition

It's the start of a new semester, and my last semester (as an undergrad)!!

Before the semester had a chance to get busy, I chose to do a design competition outside of class for the chance to win a little extra cash. The competition was sponsored by the Interior Designers Educators Council (IDEC) and was a group project that was time-sensitive. You only had 14 days from start to finish and the project had to be recieved to Regionals by February 1st. It was a busy two weeks...

I chose to do this project with two of my good friends (and classmates) Rachel and Ashley. The project was to design a learning commons (about 4000 s.f.) for a university. We were supposed to combine technology with sustainability.

This was a really great project for me to do for several reasons. 1) We have not done any projects concerning educational spaces, and won't do any before I graduate and put my portfolio together. 2) It was a learning experience! My team interviewed two of the Library Professionals that work at my University's library and I learned so much about our library! I can text message and Instant Message my library and they will answer questions for you! (How cool is that?!) 3) This project really helped me get familiar with systems furniture (particularly Herman Miller) which is perfect timing because one of my classes for this semester is Corporate & Institutional Design and we have to use systems furniture for our project.

We sent in our project last Friday. We don't find out if we go to Nationals until the end of February. It is going to be a long wait!