I am joined today by special guest, Shannon Major, alumna of the Academy and Uploft Interior Design designer here to share her journey with you.
This episode, we discuss…
[1:01] About Shannon Major
[1:22] How long it took Shannon to become an interior designer after joining the Academy
[1:52] What inspired Shannon to join the Academy
[2:45] What made Shannon look into interior design
[3:53] Other career paths Shannon was exploring
[4:35] Shannon’s experience with the Academy
[7:27] What the process was like from student to interior designer
[8:29] What Shannon’s day to day looks like as an interior designer
[12:57] The most valuable thing Shannon learned in the Academy
[16:45] Does Shannon still use the resources from the Academy?
[19:39] Advice Shannon would give someone who is skeptical about pursuing a career in interior design
[21:49] The positive changes Shannon has seen from taking the Academy
[24:56] Skills Shannon was able to transfer from teaching to interior design
[1:01] About Shannon Major
Shannon currently lives in New Jersey with her fiance and two cats. She is currently a designer at Uploft and was a teacher previously.
[1:22] How long it took Shannon to become an interior designer after joining the Academy
Shannon started the Academy in April of 2021. At the time, she was still a teacher and taking the course in her free time. Now, two years later, she is a full time designer.
[1:52] What inspired Shannon to join the Academy
Shannon went to school and got a degree in education and she believed that was going to be her forever career, as a lot of teachers do. Teaching ended up being just something that was not sustainable for her due to long hours among other things so she started looking for a new career path during the pandemic.
[2:45] What made Shannon look into interior design
Shannon has always been interested in interior design. She liked designing her own home and she had taken a design course in high school that she really loved but chose to take the education path in college instead so interior design was always kind of on her shortlist of hobbies.
When she was looking for a new career she explored that a little bit. Before Shannon found the Academy, she thought it really wasn’t possible to make a career out of interior design. It just seemed like she could get a job at a furniture store or something like that but not take it much further than that.
When she found the Academy, it just seemed like a door was opening that she didn’t realize was possible and then it became her first career path choice.
[3:53] Other career paths Shannon was exploring
A lot of the career paths Shannon was exploring involved interior design to some extent. She was looking at both retail stores and furniture stores where she could potentially design the front of shop windows or things like that.
The other career options were education based and she wasn’t too passionate about those but figured that since that’s what she went to school those were the only options.
[4:35] Shannon’s experience with the Academy
If you are able to dedicate enough time to it, the Academy typically takes around 10 weeks to complete but since Shannon was working full time as a teacher, it took a little bit longer to finish.
She guesses it took about 4-6 months to complete the Academy from start to finish. Because the whole process was something she was very interested in, it didn’t seem too daunting. She really looked forward to learning more about interior design every day while she was still teaching.
[7:27] What the process was like from student to interior designer
Shannon started the Academy in April 2021 and then was offered a job at Uploft Interior Design in April of 2022 so it took about a year to fully be an interior designer. She took a client or two before working with Uploft using the systems that she had learned in the Academy. Shannon was actually pretty surprised how confident she felt doing that so that made her confident enough to apply to Betsy’s design firm.
[8:29] What Shannon’s day to day looks like as an interior designer
Every day is a little different depending on what Shannon has going on. If she has a client that she needs to travel to meet with, she will travel usually into New York City, spend a few hours with them measuring their space, getting to know their style and then tends to work remotely the rest of the time which is a totally different world compared to a few years ago.
She has a lot of flexibility and is able to make her own schedule to a certain extent. Shannon is able to during the hours that I feel most productive.
Now, she feels so much better working every day, not only because she loves what she is doing, but also that she has the flexibility to work at night when I feel most productive.
[12:57] The most valuable thing Shannon learned in the Academy
The most valuable thing Shannon took away from the Academy was the toolbox of guidelines that make designing less of a mystery.
Before she was in the Academy, she knew she enjoyed designing and that she was good at it but she didn’t know exactly how to make everything look, the way she wanted to make it look.
The Academy really took the mystery out of that by providing a very specific set of guidelines. It’s not hard and fast rules all the time. Well, standard sizing is but there is wiggle room for creativity.
The guidelines were super helpful for her in terms of her confidence as a designer. Those were really valuable because if the client wanted something and she knew it wasn’t possible, or knew it wouldn’t look good for these very specific reasons she was able to tell them that.
Now she has the tools to take it to the next level and design a room that is feels complete both stylistically and proportionally and the Academy really helped take the mystery out of that.
[16:45] Does Shannon still use the resources from the Academy?
Shannon still uses the resources from the Academy every day. Shannon doesn’t reference some of those things that she has memorized but different things like paint color go tos and paint finishes for different rooms she references daily.
[19:39] Advice Shannon would give someone who is skeptical about pursuing a career in interior design
Shannon would say it is very scary, but it is possible especially if you are in a situation like she was where she truly wasn’t happy in my career. In that situation, you really don’t have anything to lose because if you’re doing something you love it’s going to make your every day that much better. With the academy, you can do it while you’re still at your day job, which makes it a little less scary.
You don’t have to quit your job, and then take the Academy and then start a new career right away so that helped me transition into a new career because she was able to do them simultaneously for a bit.
By the end, Shannon felt so confident that she was entirely ready to start her own business before she noticed that Betsy was hiring.She thinks that it is possible to start a new career in non-traditional way.
[21:49] The positive changes Shannon has seen from taking the Academy
The biggest thing for Shannon is that she is happy doing what she does day to day which wasn’t the case in my old career. The flexibility has added to her happiness and she feels a lot more freedom in her every day to get things done that I need to get done.
The Academy has also given her a lot of confidence. This is not something that she ever thought would be possible. She thought she sealed her fate with what she went to school with, but it made her realize that in any career you’re trained for, there are transferable skills in anything that you do.
She used to think that teaching was such a specific skill set but as a teacher, she learned how to be a communicator, a consultant, and so many other different things.
[24:56] Skills Shannon was able to transfer from teaching to interior design
Communicating directly has been helpful. She knows how to interact with several different types of people and that really has been an asset.
Shannon believes that applies to design more than she thought it would, because people sometimes have very grand ideas for a space and some are possible, but some are not so it’s helpful to be able to speak very directly and frankly, and back it up with evidence.
As a teacher, it’s almost comical how flexible you have to be because things are constantly changing. Shannon believes the flexibility has helped her as well because before she gets a client to understand what they want or what style they want and it can involve a lot of thinking on your feet.
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Website: https://www.uploftinteriordesign.com/
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