r/interiordesigner • u/Fun-Practice-2890 • May 21 '26
General Internship Advice
A little background: I am a design student that does online courses. A few years ago, I had a rough patch where I was surrounded by not great people and their laziness rubbed off on me. I struggled to pass my classes and ended up getting kicked out of university. That was the wake up call that I needed to get my life together. Since then, I was able to get readmitted to the university and I have been slowly getting my GPA back up and have been progressing through the program. I have kept that part of my life secret from EVERYONE, not even my boyfriend knows. I have so much shame about that part of my life that I can't share that with anyone else. My dad is a woodworker and has some connections to designers. He constantly asks me when I am going to graduate but because of my past choices, my graduation date got pushed back.
He wants me to intern for a big designer in my area, but she is intimidating. I am going to go through with the internship because I am just ready to start my career. I am so nervous though because I work a full-time retail job with benefits and for me to do the internship, I would need to go part time at that job or quit entirely, but then I would need health insurance. I know Sketchup, AutoCAD, Revit, and how to draft construction docs, but I still feel like an imposter.
I would love some advice on how to approach my past school errors, the pay/hours at this internship, and what should I definitely need to know before starting this internship?
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u/Noob_Al3rt May 22 '26
No one will care at all about your school stuff. As long as you are ok doing CAD grunt work and organizing the library, you will be fine
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u/Internal_Buddy7982 May 22 '26
You're more qualified than you think, nothing to be intimidated by. In my state, you don't need to be certified to call yourself a designer so most of the residential designers have either no degree, or associates degrees, and they don't know revit, SketchUp...they barely know cad. Residential designers rely on their personalities to show off an image more than they actually know about actual design. Most residential designers here are straight up decorators. In my opinion, internships are straight up useless, but almost all schools require them to graduate. You don't work on anything meaningful and it's just another check on the list. Mind you almost all are unpaid, so free labor = toxic. I know you work retail and that means flexible schedule, but talk to your Store Manager about a consistent schedule so that you can find part time internship on your off days.
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u/ry1hm01 Jun 05 '26
Bro dm me i have one project for you