Introduction
Although interior design offers designers a wide range of careers and exciting career paths to pursue, most designers often specialize in several areas in the profession to apply their skills and make it more rewarding. Through exciting designs, interior designers express their research skills, creativity, and knowledge to promote aspects of environmental responsibility in all aspects of interior design.
Using their aesthetic vision, practical learning, and knowledge, designers collaborate with clients to develop pragmatically satisfying, technically sophisticated and aesthetically appealing solutions. To understand the career path of a designer, it is important to discuss the career path of a designer in an interior design company, Industrial Contractors Company Limited (ICC).
Company background
Industrial Contractors Company Limited was a firm established by Mohamed Omar Babtain in 1975. The organization is a registered company in Saudi Arabia, and it is involved in a wide range of activities in the construction industry, including electrical, telecommunication, mechanical, and instrumentation services. The company boasts of experienced personnel in the areas of service, which contributed to the company’s strong corporate reputation of professional service and workmanship for the last four decades.
Over the years, the company developed as the leading company in the construction industry, including interior design. The company is owned by Saudi Arabia and made significant contributions to infrastructural developments in the Kingdom.
The company offers its services across the country and the region and boasts of a large workforce made of local people and expatriates working as managers, technical staff, merchants and administrative staff, among other functions. Customer satisfaction for the long-term is at the center of the company operations with projects meant to ensure safety and reliability. Interior designers are valued in the company because of their contributions (Inco, 2014).
Opportunities at the company
Because of the company’s involvement in a wide range of construction projects, interior designers have several opportunities to put their skills and knowledge into practice. Opportunities in the company for interior designers include bath and kitchen design, commercial design, hospitality design, residential design and remodeling, lighting design, and home improvement, among other opportunities.
Constructing the booming nature of the Kingdom’s construction industry, the designers have numerous opportunities as long as they have the required competencies. For fresh graduates, the company offers opportunities with a five-month probationary period after, which they achieve full employment.
Employment benefits include competitive salaries, insurance cover, and a good work environment, among other benefits. Employee training, development, and career advancement are realities in the organization as employees go through continuous training internally or externally to sharpen their skills. With advanced education and top-quality performance, there is a promotion, pay increment, and other rewards (Gibbs, 2005).
Challenges and demands of the company
To work in the company as an interior designer, graduates face various challenges and demands. Competition to get into the company is intensely considering the high number of graduates every year. Having got into the company, designers work daily with strict timelines for project completion, which often is challenging for fresh graduates. This means interior designers must have the capacity to work under pressure and minimal supervision.
Late submission of reports is a major challenge, as designers must finish assignments in the stipulated time without fail. While a designer may perform well in class and theory, the company emphasizes more on practical performance on real projects, which require interior designers to be quick learners and follow instruction from experienced designers (Piotrowski, 2013). Furthermore, designers have to work with the challenge of always being in the field far away from the company and homes.
Career path at the company
Being in the company as an interior designer, individuals progress through four major states. First, at the entry-level, the designer works under and gives an assistant to an interior designer. The position teaches the designer and supports learning in people management, maintaining effective relationships with clients, and ensuring compliance to company and industry requirements.
Working for at least four years at this level, the designer must have an organization and enterprise skills. The next level is being an interior design manager with the necessary skills being time and project management. The position entails managing several projects and works on acquiring new ones, which highlights the significance of effective people skills and good relationships with clients.
The third level is that of senior manager, a position that needs the holder to be good in problem-solving, decision-making, information analysis to make strategic decisions. Two to four years of high performance results in promotion to the consultant position with the holder providing technical and creative ideas and solve advanced issues (Inco, 2014; Piotrowski, 2013).
Conclusion
From the report, it is clear that interior designers have interesting and fulfilling career paths filled with opportunities and challenges. The report examined career opportunities, challenges, and paths for designers in an organization. Other than working in organizations, designers have opportunities for private practice. The career path calls for talented designers to work hard in bettering their skills and be able to provide practical and creative solutions in the industry.
References
Gibbs, J. (2005). Interior design. New York: H.N. Abrams.
Inco. (2014.). Design. Web.
Piotrowski, C. M. (2013). Professional practice for interior designers. New York, NY: John Wiley & Sons.