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Education Path Questions + Career Opportunities

soniako1

Hello everyone, first post here. I plan on being a regular member. Anyways, I am planning on going to school to get a Bachelors Degree in Interior Design, then taking the state (Florida) license exam.

What kind of decent jobs can I get after a Bachelors Degree in Interior Design? I know the obvious answer is Interior Designer. My fear is that no one will hire me and I don't want to work in Ikea or something. Am I able to get a decent entry-level job right after I finish school?

I live in Orlando, Florida, and I plan on attending Seminole State College, they have a BS Degree in Interior Design.

Any help or advice will be appreciated.

 
Feb 18, 16 12:36 am
archiwutm8

Ikea is actually a great office to work for, I'd love to go work for them as a photographer or 3D Designer.

Feb 18, 16 4:07 am  · 
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A lot of interior designers catering to Hospitality design have their own product range making them profit more.  These offices are safe targets for you.  You could work both on spaces and on product design.

If was an interior designer, I would work for Andree Putman or Tsao & McKown.

Feb 21, 16 7:43 pm  · 
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( o Y o )

You need a license to be an inferior designer?!

We're holding you liable for those clashing colors.

Feb 21, 16 8:09 pm  · 
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What's the hostility towards interior designers? The hostility should be towards the glorified interior decorators on HGTV.
Feb 21, 16 8:24 pm  · 
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geezertect

The hostility comes from having a client who lets the decorator make major architectural decisions while expecting the architect to be content with being a glorified drafter while retaining all of the liability.  Gets under your skin after a while.

Feb 22, 16 9:37 am  · 
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Some years ago (not long enough) I had a client who died during construction. The wife took over and brought in her decorator 'friend' to help her. The decorator was given the seven bathrooms (yes, a disgusting over-the-top pig out) to save money on. The budget for finishing them in tile and white marble was $40k.

Decorator gave builder the specs, who priced it at $80k. Decorator refused to tell owner the price. Owner demanded price from builder, went ballistic at number. Builder said relax, it's only a number, nothing has been spent, I wouldn't do anything without your approval.

Owner went back to decorator 'friend' who said "the architect gave us the wrong information, the builder is incompetent and the tile man is screwing you." Guess who the owner believed? This particular project ended up in collection (becoming the origin of Jaffe's Second Law).

We designed ceiling pockets for motorized vertical shades at each window. The decorator later changed them - with no notification to us - to horizontal motorized shades. Because the pockets were detailed to fit vertical shades there was no place for the horizontal ones to park except in front of the glass.

My favorite moment in the entire project was in deposition when I was getting grilled about the shades. The lawyer asked what I knew about a shade pocket. I asked which one. The questions went back and forth for some time narrowing the question down to a single point to which I could honestly reply that I didn't know anything about it. My lawyer spit her coffee out trying not to laugh.

On the same project I saw the decorator and the owner laying out the master bath shower tile pattern, two five-foot walls at least 8 feet high. Every tile was numbered and a map of their placement carefully made, it took all day. Little hand-painted watercolor tiles from Italy - need I remind you, for a shower. The tile man threw away the map and put them up randomly, nobody ever knew the difference.

The same decorator faxed us a color swatch. Forgetting all the problems of digital reproduction of color, this was in the day when black and white fax machines were the pinnacle of technology.

14 years of legal wrangling to get paid. Couldn't afford to go to trial. Settled for 1/3, just enough to pay the legal fees.

And you want to know why I don't like decorators?

Feb 22, 16 10:46 am  · 
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midlander

well, if he was licensed, you could have filed a complaint and gotten his license to decorate revoked. so there.

:D

Feb 22, 16 11:25 am  · 
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geezertect

 The wife took over and brought in her decorator 'friend' to help her

That was probably 2/3 of your problem.  The wife (who knew nothing) hires her friend (who couldn't possibly be wrong since she was a friend).  If the husband had been alive, he might have known the decorator was wrong but wouldn't have interfered since he had to go home to the wife at night.

But, hey, the lawyers got paid which made it all worthwhile, right?

Feb 22, 16 11:59 am  · 
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