My dream job is to design and renovate residential houses and get into property development. My family’s business in the Dominican Republic is offering full design services to residential apartments and houses. They do everything from renovations to fully furnishing their clients’ home. Other members of my family in the Dominican Republic are in property development. They buy land where it’s most profitable and design/construct residential apartment buildings. The work my family does inspired me on the path of my own career goals and have helped me develop my design passion.
Starting my career, I would like to work in a company that designs new construction homes and also renovates existing residential properties. Since I would like to work more on houses, my ideal work environment would be more of a suburban setting rather than the city. I want to be able to work on floor plans, figuring out the layout of a house, such as the bathroom and kitchen placements. I would also like to work on design details such as picking out materials, finishes, countertops, and fixtures.
The type of architecture company I work for is important to me. Location is an important factor. I want to be close to my family, so my ideal location would be in or around New York, New Jersey, or Philadelphia. I feel like a small to medium sized firm would work best for me rather than a large company. I want to work in a collaborative environment where everyone supports each other. Having a good work and personal life balance is also an important factor. Later on in my career, I would like to branch out on my own and get into property development. I would love to develop beautiful properties and later on be able to sell them. I feel that being a property developer would give me more flexibility on designing homes to my preference and could potentially result in making more money.
Hi Ashley, I agree with wanting to be close to home while keeping a healthy correlation between a personal life versus work life. I like when you mentioned “I want to work in a collaborative environment where everyone supports each other.” sooner or later they too will become like family. Environments that are collaborative eventually starts to feel like home, for me it’s a stress free environment, and it brings happiness as well as more productivity.