Collegiate Times

Students and faculty walk through the Cowgill lobby to view a student competition for the design of Belle Island in Richmond.

Greg Justice stands before his students pantomiming modern greetings including the two-bump hug and the exploding fist pound. His gestures aren’t particularly smooth and giggles erupt from the seats.

Justice, associate professor in the Department of Theatre and Cinema, is proving a point in his honors course “Interviewing Techniques.”

The class’ homework: Formally shake hands with any and all roommates every time paths cross.

“Your generation doesn’t practice this,” he said to the Henderson Hall class.

While insightful, Justice’s curriculum assumes the job application process has been hurdled. Yet, it’s rarely your physical being that makes the true first impression. The resume affords opening remarks on your behalf.

And although a resume often translates to a letter-sized list of credentials, some disciplines offer more unique materials from the get-go.

“Theatre majors work in a million different disciplines and always have,” Justice said.

Five years after graduation, he said, only 25 percent of Tech theatre alumni work in professional theatre and only 8 percent of that cut pursues acting careers.

Experience in realms such as set design and costume design translates to other fields.

“Architecture firms are snatching up some of our lighting designers,” Justice said.

Another Tech lighting designer joined Tupperware.

“For two years she lit the bowls for buyers from all over the world,” he said.

Kristen Morgan, instructor of scenic technology, said designers within the theatre department supply potential employers with examples of their collegiate efforts. Other schools within the university such as the College of Architecture and Urban Studies, hold conferences to showcase the various portfolio worthy works of their students.

And while photographs of final products are informative, Morgan said employers want to see the underlying process. Historical research, conceptual drawings and scale models round out personal profiles.

Morgan noted that most of the students are creating Web sites to display their dossier, a trend echoed by Ron Kemnitzer, chair of Tech’s industrial design program.  

If industrial design students don’t craft a personal page, Kemnitzer said Web sites such as Core77 host digital portfolios. Core77 is respected amongst professionals and it occasionally yields effortless opportunities for students.

“Now it’s not uncommon at all for us to get a call from somebody (saying), ‘We’ve got an opening for an internship,’ or ‘We’ve got a job we have to fill this afternoon,’” Kemnitzer
said.

And the available positions can very greatly.

“The breadth of product design is pretty expansive,” Kemnitzer said. “It’s pretty much everything you can imagine in the built environment.”

A reasonably nearby event at North Carolina State University helps students hone their documentation skills. The Industrial Designers Society of America invites 15 to 20 practicing designers to meet with students from regional schools and discuss how they can better present their portfolio work.

Jay Crone, head of the Department of Music, said music students have similar chances to improve. Weekly convocations allow interested players to perform before their peers.

“It’s an opportunity for them to learn how to be a soloist,” Crone said.

Complemented by required junior and senior recitals, a play list ultimately emerges.

“Those things are recorded for archive purposes,” Crone said, “and the students are encouraged to listen to those and use them as part of their portfolio.”

Although most Tech music graduates enter music education, Crone said extracurricular gigs call for samples.

“Even the folks who play in the New York Philharmonic,” he said, “they’re teaching at Julliard.”

Despite the resume add-ons these and other fields may compile, the value of the bulleted list is not lost.

“I don’t think companies really care about who you’ve worked for,” Kemnitzer said, “so much as what you’ve done and what you’ve gained from (them) that makes (you) a better employee.”