Working for the United Federation of Teachers has been a great experience. it all began when I emailed manager Oscar Rivera. I had no idea what to expect or how I should go about requesting an internship position, so my message was pretty straight forward. I asked If it was possible to have the opportunity to work for him, gain experience and he accepted the same day I sent the email. Oscar Rivera is the manager of many different departments in UFT. He primarily works for the Printing and Mail Department where I was hired. He looked at my portfolio and hired me based on my skill set and the ability to express my thoughts on how I created the design.
He didn’t really ask many questions because I thoroughly explained my process of creating my work, how I think, what I believe works, and the background of my education. This interview really opened my eyes. I started to notice how much design is really based on the communication aspect. During my portfolio review the people who loved my work were the people I took the time to explain every single detail on how I came up with my idea and executed it. I noticed that most designers look more for mistakes then the positives and use it against you. In my portfolio review I had a Data Variable Printing Project that gave off mix opinions but that project is what I feel impressed my manager. UFT in fact does Data Variable Printing and he got to explain and show to me how it was done in person. I feel it helped me gain even more knowledge about how things are done in the print production side. Oscar Rivera mentioned how a lot of designers don’t know about print production and it would help me tremendously in my field.
