Professional Practice for Interior Designers. Christine M. Piotrowski
restoration. Most of these job opportunities require advanced degree work in such areas as art history, history, and archaeology.
Journalism
A journalism career is possible for interior designers who are very good writers or who have had training in journalism. The position might be with a large city newspaper or a trade or shelter magazine. Some designers who find their way into full‐time journalism positions might also serve as design critics.
Merchandising and Exhibit Design
Many of the skills that an interior designer learns can be applied to visual merchandising, display, and exhibit presentation. Department stores, retail specialty shops, mall management corporations, galleries, and trade show coordinators require merchandise displays. Department stores have in‐house visual merchandising departments to oversee their constantly changing merchandise displays. Others work for exhibit companies that specialize in the coordination and setup of trade show and convention displays.
As a final note, this section has provided just a glimpse at the wide variety of opportunities in the interior design industry. Many of these career options are possible with a degree major in interior design, whereas others require at least several years of experience in the field. Some also require additional education, training, or advanced degrees for eligibility. Several other specialties that might be of interest to readers are listed in Table 5‐5.
TABLE 5‐5. Additional career options related to the interior design profession
| Acoustic design | Real estate |
| Lighting design | Tenant improvement planning |
| Art consulting | Installation supervisor |
| Client representative/facilitator | Contract administrator |
| Feng shui consultant | Construction supervision |
| Color consultant | Wayfinding design |
| Expert witness | Feasibility studies |
| Codes consultant | Behavioral factors design |
| Universal design specialist | Security design |
| CAD specialist | Specification writer |
| Graphic design | Architectural photographer |
WEB SITES RELEVANT TO THIS CHAPTER
www.asid.org/careers American Society of Interior Designers
www.careersininteriordesign.com Careers in Interior Design
www.interiordesigncanada.org Interior Designers of Canada
www.iida.org International Interior Design Association
www.bls.gov U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
KEY TERMS
Commercial interior design
Contract interior design
Facility planner
Goals
Personal branding
Personal goals
Personal mission statement
Professional goals
Residential interior design
Strategies
WHAT WOULD YOU DO?
1 Marilyn has been working very hard for the past nine weeks with a very difficult client, Mr. Norton, owner and developer of a facility for Alzheimer patients. He constantly challenges her suggestions and has already demanded four major changes in the specifications of products and three changes in the equipment plans for the common areas for the facility her firm is designing for his company. His primary argument is that she is overspecifying materials, using “expensive” products when cheaper ones would do—at least as far as he is concerned.“You have not even come close to staying within the budget we discussed at the beginning of this project. I insist that you find something besides that expensive cubicle curtain and drapery fabric and find me a cheaper chair for the dining room,” Mr. Norton exclaims. “It's not that the cubicle curtain and drapery fabric is expensive, but it must meet a certain level of code compliance, which this one does. Less expensive chairs will not hold up to the special needs of the residents who need an armchair,” responds Marilyn. “I don't care about that!” explodes Mr. Norton.
2 Sandra was hired by Hayden Residential Designs four years ago. She started as an intern and was promoted to designer a year later. Because of her exceptional sales results, she was promoted again just six months ago to senior designer. A month ago, Ms. Mill, the design director, discussed with Sandra some problems that clients had been expressing about Sandra's performance over the past several months. Sandra was told at that time that she needed to correct the attitude that clients complained about. Yesterday another client called the owner, Jim Hayden, and was very angry about some things that Sandra said at a meeting.
3 Mark made a point of setting and reviewing his goals every three months. He even took a day during a weekend to go through the effort. Yet, Mark felt like he was not getting anywhere. He finally took a long look at what he was doing and his goals and discovered that he started many things to get moving toward his goals, but never seemed to finish up what was needed to fully accomplish them.
REFERENCES
1 1. Covey, 1989, p. 106.
2 2. Tracy, 2003, p. 7.
3 3. Canfield et al., 2000, p. 61.
4 4. Covey, 1989, p. 97.
CHAPTER 6 The Job Search
The job search is always a time‐consuming and stress‐producing period. Whether you are an individual about to graduate and are seeking your first job in the interior design industry, or a professional looking for a new challenge, the job search must be done with thought and planning. This job‐search process starts with the material that was covered in Chapter 5.
The interior design profession does ebb and flow with the economy. When times are good—meaning there is a generally robust economy—the job seeker may find that it takes longer to find a position, not a short time. This is because employers are probably not looking for anyone except very experienced designers. When the times are bad—meaning a slow or even recession‐hit economy—employers can find more possible employees since more people may be out of work due to layoffs. Yet this will likely mean a longer time to find