The decision to change careers can arise at any age. Interior design today is one of the trending areas.
Designers are in demand because they are the ones who can make a space more handy, functional, and beautiful.
These qualities become determinants of the room, regardless of its purpose.
The entry level interior designer jobs offered in the labor market suggest that it will be relatively easy to find a job after graduation.
It is necessary to replenish the luggage of knowledge and skills with narrowly focused information to master the profession and start working in the vocation.
The path to becoming an interior designer is not quick, but it is interesting.
We have teamed up with experts from job aggregator Jooble, to take a closer look at the most attractive sectors of the Colorado job market.
Options for learning the profession
To become an aspiring designer, you need to acquire the minimum knowledge basis. There are several ways to learn:
- Self-education. You can find free video materials and training videos on interior design online when you have access to wifi for apartment complexes in your area.
- The resources are paid and free, designed for different periods. Specialized literature will also help you understand the topic and add to your knowledge.
- But there are certain disadvantages. Lack of control, lack of understanding of the system, and lack of practice make the path of self-education long and complicated.
- Specialized courses are short-term, almost thesis-based. After only a few months of communication with experienced designers, you can learn the basics of the profession.
- According to the statement of experts from job aggregator Jooble, the ability to choose a course in several areas at once will expand the range of knowledge, allowing you to absorb large amounts of information.
- Disadvantage: the risk of becoming a “perpetual” student, postponing the work in their specialty for an indefinite time.
- Interior Design Assistant gives you good practice. Working under the guidance of an already established specialist allows you to get both theory and practical skills.
- The difficulty is finding a designer who agrees to spend his time training an inexperienced employee.
The most reliable way to master the skill of interior design is a complete study in a higher education institution.
A faculty of interior design can teach everything a specialist needs to know. In addition, at the end of the training, the student receives a diploma, which will help in future employment.
Career path: how and where does it start?
In the training process, the student learns a lot of practical information. The majority may have a logical question: what should a specialist be able to and know at the end of the training?
Knowledge necessary for the interior designer
The ability to draw is a skill that a designer should possess in an ideal world. Modern programs allow you to neglect it, but the drawing skill fundamentals will be a significant competitive advantage.
- Computer programs. There is a list of programs that one needs to master to become a specialist in interior design.
- The list of the most popular ones includes Google SketchUp, Autodesk Homestyler, Autodesk 3ds Max.
- Repair and construction work. Knowledge in this area will help to develop drawings with ease and to form an interior image.
- Even basic knowledge will help in mastering the profession and quality performance of their duties. Lighting design is also becoming one of the main requirements for designers.
- Light can create a mood, influence emotions, zone the room, hide flaws.
Getting Started in the Workforce
Once the training is complete, the issue of finding a job becomes a question. The beginning of a career path is always fraught with difficulties.
Young professionals can spend months looking for work. After at least a dozen interviews, it may seem that nothing will work out. But you don’t have to give up.
There are several options to help kick-start your career:
- A personal assistant is an ideal option that will give you practice as a young professional. After training, neither the master nor you will have problems with communication.
- You will be able to take the design basics much easier when you form knowledge baggage.
- Employment in a design studio will help to join a team of professionals and see the work of a designer from the inside.
- In this case, it is necessary to realize that you will have to spend time doing routine, simple tasks.
- But in parallel with the performance of their direct duties, the newcomer gets a chance to learn the “kitchen” of design, to gain invaluable experience
- Own business is the most daring and challenging. Without having a mentor and own portfolio, you will have to learn the design method of trial and error.
- Here is an option to start their own business with a partner. Mutual support and assistance will help overcome the first difficult section on the growth path.
Prospects for the interior design profession
Technical, technological progress dictates its conditions. It is almost impossible to stop innovations, and it is not necessary.
Various programs, applications, utilities greatly simplify the work of the interior designer.
Today it is no longer necessary to illuminate the glass with a lamp form below to make a drawing.
Ruler, pencil, and compass are inferior to 3D models created in special programs.
The prospect of the profession of interior designer seems quite successful and progressive.
It is impossible to replace the sense of beauty peculiar exclusively to a man with artificial intelligence.
An experienced designer performs a whole range of work, which is almost impossible to replace with machine thinking:
- A personal meeting with the client
- Drawing up a statement of work, based on which a design project is created.
- Project development: measurement of space, search for several concepts, the study of materials, furniture
- The client’s choice of the best idea
- Development of multiple implementation plans.
The designer may provide additional service – the designer’s supervision. It is a separate front of work, which involves monitoring the plan.
At this stage, the designer helps to purchase furniture, advises on the material, and shows the best options for purchase.
Additionally, the specialist decorates the room upon completion of the work, after which the project can be handed over.
Instead of the bottom line
Profession interior design has both advantages and disadvantages.
The pluses can be attributed to the constantly high and growing demand in the market, the growth of potential. Remuneration for a professional interior designer is quite decent.
Constant communication with people allows you to gain friendships and relationships. The designer can choose the most convenient schedule (if the owner himself, of course).
Master, who is constantly working on his professional growth, keeping track of trends, update knowledge, can work in interior design without reference to age.
If we talk about the disadvantages and prospects, the market is constantly replenished with new specialists. It means that competition is growing.
You need to learn to develop a fighting spirit, to find new competitive advantages. If we talk about career growth, there is none in this profession.
You become a specialist; start your firm – that’s the end of the movement.