This week I got an email stating that I was chosen for an interview with PSC. Linda asked me for my resume and attached a few tax forms in the grand email. The interview is for 9.23.15 and I ‘m still working on my portfolio. After having made one, I decided to scratch it completely. It was not being consistent with the look of my resume which I felt very proud of. My resume was clean, with hints of red and used sanserif font all throughout. Its got a very elegant yet very playful and minimalistic approach to organizing information relevant to me. I had to take the same approach with my portfolio to truly exemplify these design choices and who I am as a whole. I decided to make my intro page of my portfolio the same bright red that is throughout my resume. I modified my logo as well to have a slant on the W and L so that one of the branches in the W is actually an extension of the L. I also gave different sections of my portfolio different pages.

The advertising section of my portfolio has an introductory page with the two campaigns I’ve included. One is a print ad for Paragon Sports. The other is part of a campaign for Fishs Eddy. Both stores are located in union square and both are extremely different. As a result both of these projects show my capacity to think on completely different ends of the spectrum to solve problems. The Fishs Eddy campaign is much more extensive since I had more of the material available to me, verses not having most of the Paragon campaign on me. The next section of my portfolio is Graphic Design. Here I showcase my freelance work which consists of two real world logos. The first is a logo for Sadek Photography which is a company my friend is starting. It uses camera aperture aesthetics to form SP, the initials of the company. The second logo here is Glonova Fabrics, which was to be used in a short film another friend of mine was producing. Finally, work that I have done for Meet the Pros was also featured in my portfolio. All I have to do now is add some final touches and decide how to display my Fishs Eddy campaign properly, and I’ll be ready for this interview.

This week was quite interesting. My personal situation at home has me trying to tackle a dilemma: the need for a job and the need for an internship. I need to find a way to somehow achieve both and I’m still nowhere near done with my portfolio, although my resume is looking quite nice at the moment, according to Professor McCabe who I’m staying in touch with from across the pond. Building a portfolio has been no easy task. Its beyond gathering your best works [which in itself takes time] but its about the presentation. How will you organize all of this in a coherent and interesting package that makes sense to the viewer and informs them of what you do and who you are. That’s the challenge I’m facing.

Luckily, things went well this week for my first dilema. I attended a work study orientation on the 8^th and I was pleasantly surprised. In addition to the on campus sites, that City Tech provides, an outside program called Public Service Corps was there as well. They will place you in a field of your choice, in an internship program that pays you using the money allotted to you for work study through FAFSA. After reviewing your application, they set you up with an interview and things go on from there. I asked the lady, Linda if there were any graphic design opportunities and she said there were, so I quickly signed up. She said I’ll need to submit my resume and portfolio to which I assured her that I am working on.

Hopefully this goes through because it would be the perfect solution to my predicament. I’m a bit nervous about my portfolio though because I don’t feel up to par with whatever it is “up to par” means. As a student the real world is intimidating and as this is a real world opportunity, its quite the burden to deal with. Its not like a graphic internship at a school office, where things only exist in an ecosystem; depending on the place I end up in [hopefully] my work can be seen by many people, outside of a safe ecosystem. All in all, I’m excited and currently looking forward to finalizing my portfolio and going out to get this opportunity.

What have I gotten myself into? I’m not ready at all for this internship class. At City Tech I’ve often heard the legends of the big final 4 classes: Internship, Design Team, Portfolio and Senior Project. It was my goal over the summer to prepare my portfolio and resume for this eventuality, however things went astray. Towards the end of summer I discovered that Interactive Animation had been dropped from my schedule and as a result I was now left as a part-time student with only 9 credits. I instantly ran to Professor Wong and scheduled an appointment to squeeze me into whatever class we could find that was available. In a panic I responded yes to his suggestion: “What about Internship”?

Little did I know that Internship class would be a hands on hunt to sell yourself, rather than my preconceived notion of the college holding your hand, as it had up until this point.   A big problem that I had over the summer was mismanaging my personal life and my work related life. I think I’ll be able to handle the two more efficiently as the semester progresses, forcing me back into shape. The procrastination quiz we took was quite interesting as well. I scored a 91 out of 100 and my title was “Master Procrastinator”.   I screenshot all the tips laid out for me afterwards to try and build up better habits but for now a few things await me.

I’ve got to redo my resume, and craft up a portfolio in record time in order to remain full time and continue on my path to graduation. I’ve been in school longer than my liking and I’ve inevitably stumbled into this class unprepared so I will do what has to be done. I’m going to spend the next few weeks asking friends, and shooting out emails for opportunities while I make myself presentable to the world.