{"id":1098,"date":"2023-10-05T14:25:05","date_gmt":"2023-10-05T21:25:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bellevuecollege.edu\/new-foundation-dev\/?page_id=1098"},"modified":"2023-10-05T14:27:18","modified_gmt":"2023-10-05T21:27:18","slug":"student-stories-pooja-jain","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.bellevuecollege.edu\/foundation\/support-bc-students\/student-stories\/student-stories-pooja-jain\/","title":{"rendered":"Student Stories: Pooja Jain"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"BC<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Meet Pooja<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Meet Pooja Jain, a successful BC graduate of the interior design program who landed the job of her dreams at Sechrist Design.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pooja Jain has a relaxed air of authority as she sits behind her desk at Sechrist Design. A senior designer who oversees multiple interior design projects and supervises junior designers at the firm, Jain is an alumna of Bellevue College (BC) whose journey from student to design professional had more than the usual number of hurdles to conquer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jain arrived in Seattle in 2007 from India. She had already completed the necessary certification program for interior design in her home country, and she had work experience and a portfolio of projects she could show prospective employers. But no one in the States would consider hiring her without a degree from a U.S. university or college.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt was incredibly discouraging,\u201d Jain says. \u201cNot to mention it was going to be very expensive if I had to start from scratch. I had done all the basic coursework in India and earned a diploma [the equivalent of a degree]. I had been working as a designer for four years already. To have to begin again and not to have any of my credits or experience transfer\u2026\u201d She shakes her head in disbelief at the memory. \u201cA lot of my friends in the community told me to forget about design and get an IT certification instead. But IT wasn\u2019t what I wanted to do. I didn\u2019t have a passion for it. I had a passion for design.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pooja Finds Bellevue College<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Luckily, in her search for options, she met Dan Beert, chair of the Bellevue College Interior Design Department. \u201cDan really changed everything for me,\u201d she says. \u201cHe looked at my portfolio. He listened to my story and my experience. And he agreed that it didn\u2019t make any sense for me to start over with the basics. \u2018Don\u2019t worry,\u2019 he said. We\u2019ll figure something out.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The solution Dan came up with meant creating new rules for how international students could transfer previous course credits from their programs abroad. Jain smiles. \u201cIt took a while to work it all out. But it saved me an enormous amount of time and money. Really, it was the only way I could earn a degree and ultimately pursue my career here. I started the interior design program in 2008 and finally graduated in 2013.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The interior design program itself was going through some changes during roughly this same time. The department received permission from Washington state legislators to offer a Bachelor of Applied Arts in Interior Design and added a fourth-year capstone experience to the existing three-year Associate of Arts in Interior Design. The department also pursued and received accreditation from the Council for Interior Design Accreditation (CIDA), a rigorous continuous assessment process that must be renewed every six years. Graduating from a CIDA-accredited program is extremely valuable for students. It confirms that they\u2019ve met professional standards for entry-level practice and helps them achieve professional certification.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While she was still a student at BC, Jain began applying for jobs in the area. \u201cEveryone said \u2018No,\u2019\u201d she says. \u201cFor one thing, they didn\u2019t know if my work experience and portfolio pieces from India were real. And I wasn\u2019t very outgoing at the time. New culture, new people, you know?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But again, Bellevue College played a role. While at Bellevue, Jain was working as a teaching assistant. One day, one of her students told her about a job opening at the design firm where she worked. The student encouraged Jain to apply, which she did. And she was turned down again. But the student went to bat for her and convinced her bosses to interview Jain. That interview turned into a job at Sechrist Design.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pooja\u2019s New Job<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s been ten years since that fateful interview and Jain has progressed from being a junior designer at Sechrist to a senior designer overseeing the company\u2019s business. The company specializes in multifamily and senior living housing projects, and has a residential arm as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMy boss likes to say we do everything from the walls in,\u201d says Jain. \u201cAs it happens, I also have a bachelor\u2019s in accounting from India,\u201d she says. \u201cI do design work, of course. And I oversee junior designers. But I also write contracts, handle suppliers, and take care of billing. I\u2019m involved in many aspects of the business.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pooja\u2019s Advice<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

When asked what advice she\u2019d give up-and-coming designers, Jain says students must develop good presentation skills. Pitching concepts successfully takes practice. \u201cIt\u2019s like when you\u2019re making a meal. You can serve the food in the pot you cooked it in. Or you can take the time to plate it beautifully. Which meal is going to be more appealing?\u201d Jain notes that mastering presentation software like SketchUp and practicing your pitch while still in school will go a long way to making someone successful on the job.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jain also stresses, \u201cBe prepared for criticism. In the real world, you\u2019re going to get a lot <\/em>of feedback from clients. You have to know how to handle that feedback diplomatically. This can be hard for junior designers just starting out. Clients have a lot of money riding on their projects, and they want what they want. So, you have to develop good listening skills and not be defensive when you get criticism. It\u2019s how you learn.\u201d As she points out, real-world design work is done in teams, so listening to and working collaboratively with your teammates is essential.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A Happy Ending<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Working collaboratively with Dan and the interior design department at Bellevue College was certainly the key that opened the door to Jain\u2019s successful career in the U.S. \u201cIf it weren\u2019t for Dan, I wouldn\u2019t be here,\u201d says Jain. \u201cI will always be thankful for him.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Meet Pooja Meet Pooja Jain, a successful BC graduate of the interior design program who landed the job of her dreams at Sechrist Design. Pooja Jain has a relaxed air of authority as she sits behind her desk at Sechrist Design. A senior designer who oversees multiple interior design projects and supervises junior designers at ...more about Student Stories: Pooja Jain<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3261,"featured_media":0,"parent":100,"menu_order":7,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"class_list":["post-1098","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bellevuecollege.edu\/foundation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1098","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bellevuecollege.edu\/foundation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bellevuecollege.edu\/foundation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bellevuecollege.edu\/foundation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3261"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bellevuecollege.edu\/foundation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1098"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.bellevuecollege.edu\/foundation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1098\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1099,"href":"https:\/\/www.bellevuecollege.edu\/foundation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1098\/revisions\/1099"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bellevuecollege.edu\/foundation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/100"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bellevuecollege.edu\/foundation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1098"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}