How I Landed My First Interior Design Job at 19

I was only 19 when I was offered my first job in interior design, during my first semester at university. To be fair. I wasn’t offered any job, I found a job and chased it until I got it.

Here’s the story.

I was a student in first semester when a teacher advised me to start looking for a job. 

At that time, I had very little knowledge about design, but I took her advice anyway.

There was only 1 company nearby my home, and since I didn’t have a car, it seemed like a good option, or more like… the only option.

I pulled together a portfolio with my school assignments and some painting and photography personal projects that I had done years back. I stopped by the studio and left the portfolio at the door.

A few days after I got called for an interview.

Guess what? I didn’t get the job. And the owner of the company told me why, which I appreciated.

She told me that if I wanted to work there I needed to know how to use digital tools, which I didn’t just yet.

I left home and started to consider taking summer classes to just learn those programs she told me about.

So I did. I sacrificed my summer just to learn these programs and try to apply again. A month after I came back to the design studio, and got hired. 

This designer was not looking for someone who was a master with design, she was looking for someone who was really good with digital software, because she was the one designing but she needed someone to help her translate those designs into models, renders and construction drawings.

The truth is that school doesn’t prepare you for these things, and although that is not our fault as students, it is our responsibility to make sure we have these skills under our belt at some point (in my opinion, the earlier the better.)

And I think that’s where my obsession with design software comes from, because knowing it gave me the opportunity of my lifetime back then: my first job in interior design. 

I hope this makes you think about which areas you need to improve to land better and more opportunities. 

And if you are looking to learn 3D modeling software for interior design, check out this.