Whether you have an internship or not, it is important to sit down and talk with someone in the field that you’re interested in. An informational interview is beneficial in so many ways.
- It encourages you to break out of your shell and take control of a situation
- You will learn valuable information that could help you decide your career path
- Most importantly, you will make a connection with someone who will remember you one day when you’re looking for a job
For my informational interview I sat down with Robert Reeder, a very successful and experienced interior designer. We spent the day together and I got to see what he does as well as learn how he got to where he is today.
When Robert was a student, he had an internship in NYC. He stressed the importance of internships and how getting the chance to be mentored by someone in your field is huge. Throughout his internship and summer work experience, he learned to really observe and take mental notes on even the littlest things. In the interior design world, your eyes are your tools. Your mind has to always be open and observing your surroundings.
Robert is a very successful interior designer so I was a little intimidated to tell him about my passion for garbage picking and repurposing furniture. But I knew that the purpose of the interview was to be open and get rid of the nerves, so I told him. To my surprise, he was very impressed and shared that he garbage picks too! He said that it shows that your mind is capable of looking at something that most people think is trash in a completely different light. This is important because it means your mind is always thinking outside the box, and that is a great quality to have in any profession.
Overall, the experience was great. I’ll leave you with Robert’s piece of advice that stuck out to me; You have to give up one thing to learn something else. But in the end it all pays off.
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