What to do after Interior Design School?

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Whether you are an interior design student or recent graduate, or you simply want to know what the heck comes after design school, then you have come to the right place. I think.

The first thing that comes to mind for everybody after graduation is: finding a job, which can be stressful, and hard, and not the easiest thing to do, but we gotta do it right? Your plan for getting a job should be the following: 

1. Your Portfolio

First of all you need to update your interior design portfolio, you probably know that having a well-crafted interior design portfolio is extremely important when you are applying for jobs, so if your portfolio needs some work, spend the time, make it beautiful and if you have projects that need some redesign, fix them up and make sure that you are only showing your best pieces of work in your portfolio. Or you may already have a stunning looking portfolio so if that is the case, then you already saved yourself some time.

2. Research Design Firms

Once you have a portfolio, you should do some research on the companies that you want to apply, make sure that you resonate with their type of work, and make sure that that they are a fit for you. Make sure to attach your resume, cover letter, and portfolio when you are applying for jobs. Although not all companies require for a cover letter, I would highly recommend that you attach a cover letter with your application. And finally, apply. So it's a straight forward process but it may take some time to complete these steps, but this actually takes me to the next step.

3. Be patient

Being patient is as important as applying for that job or jobs, one of the most frequently asked questions I get from my followers on social media is this:  is it hard to get a job as an interior designer? I personally think it's hard, you are competing with hundreds of other applicants for one position most of the times, and design is a very subjective field sometimes. So searching for a job is as hard as in any other career, but this shouldn’t stop you from pursuing interior design if this career is your passion and you want to become an interior designer, because if you put the work, you will eventually get there. So just keep in mind that being patient is a skill and it's an important part of this process, so instead of being frustrated about the situation all together, just try to relax and chill and lay back and be patient. And keep applying for jobs. 

4. Personal Branding

If you are getting into the interior design field, you need to show your work to the world. First of all, you need an instagram account to showcase your work, period. It's free, anyone can have an account, you need one. Now if you are a student, it's even better to make an account while you are in school, if you graduated and you now want to make an account. that's okay, but I would recommend that the earlier the better. So of course on that account you want to show your school work, your design process, your sketches, your drawings, everything related to interior design, basically you need to make a brand for yourself. And if you want to scale your personal branding to the next level I would highly recommend that you have your own website as well. This shows that you are invested into your career and it shows more professionalism. 

4. Network

Probably you were not able to network as much while in school because you were stuck in school from 9 to 5 and then have to go home do homework for like 5 hours so sometimes it's impossible. However, once you graduate, you will eventually have more time to connect with people in the industry, so do not be afraid to reach out to other designers, to follow other designers on social media, go to networking events in your industry, just talk to people for the sake of talking to people. Being part of your design community is great for learning, making friends, and it can actually bring you more opportunities, unexpected opportunities in the future, so just network and be open to meeting new professionals.

5. Do not stop LEARNING

This is literally the key to success, so read very carefully. What you learned in interior design school, unfortunately most of the times is 25% ish of what you really need to know as an interior designer (okay this is not accurate data but believe, you will learn so much more while being in the industry). There is a bunch of informationf that gets missed in school, so what you want to do is to keep learning, self-learning, yes, like on your own. One way that I personally love to learn about design is by checking out books from the library, or purchasing new books. If you are not confident with your skills, try to learn more about them.  You should have this habit of just having this curiosity for interior design.

6. Use your softwares

When I got y first job as an interior designer, I remember clearly on the first day I was given a task which was to model some reception desks in sketchup. And I had opened sketchup in like a year cause I learned it in school and I never used it again, and so I wanted to work and i just couldn’t remember a thing. Not practicing and using those program can make you forget some of the tools and workflowS, so always keep using, practicing, and working with your design softwares. I hope that this tips can help you if you have just graduated from design school, or if you are soon to graduate.