It’s almost impossible to find a person who has escaped having a less than desirable entry-level job or internship. No one is immune – inside or outside of the interior design industry. Starting 
at the bottom is just a fact of life, but how you deal with these patience-testing experiences will determine how fast you rise beyond them. So after a five-month hiatus on the universal topic of getting as much out of a seemingly mind-numbing position as you possibly can, we’re back with some more useful tactics.
Last May we gave you tips on how to ensure earning respect from your employers and how to deal with being micro-managed to death. Then in June we explained how to handle cranky – or was that crazy” – bosses and how to survive office drama that would rival anything found in Soap Opera Digest or one of Univision’s telenovelas.
This month we address tedium, whether real or perceived. You know, the little tasks – that you are asked to do when hired on for an internship or your first career-driven job – that drive you just a little nuts because you feel like a six-year-old could perform if given a minimal amount of instruction. Well, maybe your niece could alphabetize files and copy redlines, but it’s YOU who are doing it. Therefore, instead of just go through the motions, actually take charge of the situation. If you keep digging deeper, we guarantee that you’ll find something valuable.
You Don’t Have To Get Lost In The Library
A very common place for employers to utilize interns or entry-level employees is the design library. In today’s fast-paced world, libraries tend to have a bad reputation as staid, boring places where nothing really “happens.” Not so! Terri L. Maurer, FASID, who was once National President of ASID and now owns Maurer Design Group, explains why:
“Back in the day, as the youngsters like to say… the ultimate in horrible internships / first jobs was being relegated to the sample library. Feeling that this was shattering their vision of working on a huge project right out of school (or still in school) with a budget of a million dollars or more, they immediately decided to hate the job. They failed to see all the value of working in a library. While I understand that in many design schools today the libraries are made up of much more current materials, when I was in school (gazing at dinosaurs feeding on the trees out the windows of the design lab), we had to work with horrendously old catalogs and samples that were "generously" donated to the school by the designers in our area.
“The library position in a firm does have its benefits: first of all, the young designers usually get to meet with all the sales representatives that come in to update their catalogs and samples. Those same reps travel from design firm to design firm everyday and know EVERYTHING that is going on in the local industry, including who is hiring.
“Another benefit is to take time to really LOOK at all of the materials that come in, not just alphabetize the literature and shove it in a catalog of file folder. Use this opportunity to learn the products on the market, how they might best be utilized in a project specification, how quickly, or long it takes to get the product if it is selected. Become the knowledge base that the senior designers will come to for answers. This is a great way to become a valued resource at the company while building your own personal knowledge base for the time when you do get to work on a project team or even head up the team. Remember: Education does not stop with graduation – it is just the beginning!
“Another ‘tool’ to use, even in a less than desirable situation, is to ‘latch on’ to one or two of the senior designers. Find a way to make yourself irreplaceable. Ask questions about their projects, see if there is anything that you can do to help them out. Next thing you know, they will be trying to find ways for you to do things for them and other designers on other projects. Just stay positive and look for the silver lining in any job, because there truly is one there.”
Take The Time To Redefine Yourself
Jerry Neisel, an accountant who has been in the corporate world since the late 80s, agrees with these tactics. Though he is in a completely different field from the building arts, his perspective is quite valid for those new grads going to work for major manufacturers and A&D firms:
“I did hate my first job as an accountant with a major national / international public accounting firm. The job was far more menial than I had been led to believe by the college counselors and recruiters. I knew something had gone very wrong when during our training we had (seriously) sessions on: 1) copier paper jams, 2) calculator practice, and 3) the supplies we would be required to stock for the more senior accountants – paper, pens, erasers, etc…
“If students find themselves trapped in a similar situation – trapped in a large institution / organization – sometimes it is extremely difficult to immediately ‘redefine’ how senior management views your potential.
“The best approach if you desire to stay at that company is to prove yourself through attention to detail. Critical point: no matter how much you hate it – never forget that your peers will be in your industry with you forever. Almost 17 years after I graduated from college, I work today with at least two people from my first firm. Never alienate your peers – and no matter how much you hate it – and no matter how quickly you move on to something else – never forget to network with those people. As we get older, we have fewer and fewer peers, and these easy networking opportunities can prove elusive in older age.
“If students find themselves at a smaller more entrepreneurial company, it is easier to redefine how management views their potential input. Taking initiative – working harder than your peers – can make a huge difference.
“Your approach should be to work within the system and pay attention to detail. It was important to me that I not leave before I became a senior – a level at which you have proved your worth – and, wonderfully, a level at which other companies would gladly value your public accounting experience.
“Many fine and smart people chose the other path – which was to run like hell – and many, many people were simply fired. There is really no shame in any option, but I would just encourage students to remember how this time in their lives is the most fertile and productive networking time they will ever have – and they should take advantage of it!”
More To Come
If you have escaped some of the situations that we’ve covered in these three articles, then consider yourself extremely lucky. However, if you know that similar ones are most likely on your horizon or if you are in the middle of one now, then join us next month when we’ll have some more sage advice on beating those Bad Job Blues. And you can do it.
