Thursday morning, I had to be awake at the insane time of 5:45am. My Mum and Rob were picking me up at around 7am.
I didn't feel too bad thankfully when I did wake up and went about getting ready, making sure that everything I needed was in my portfolio, ready to take to Teeside. My interview was at 12:45pm and it would take around three or four hours to get there.
My Mum and Rob arrived at about 6:45am. I hadn't eaten yet, but my Mum said don't rush and I had breakfast before the three of us headed off to Teeside at 7:10am.
I started getting pretty tired soon after we set off and luckily, I had decided to take a duvet with me in the back of the car. I pressed it up against the window and rest my head against it. It's pretty hard to sleep in a moving car, but I did get a few minutes here and there.
We got lost along the way about twice, which meant that once we did finally arrive, I was about 15 minutes late. I was very very nervous. I didn't know what to expect.
The University itself looked quite huge. There were buildings opposite each other for different things, with lots of students walking about. It was quite intimidating.
With the help of some directions which I had asked someone for, me and my Mum found where I was supposed to go. I gave my name in at reception and a while later, a woman came and took me to a graphic design tutor. My Mum stayed in reception.
She led me to a classroom where there were another five students, all being talked to by a graphic design tutor. She was just explaining to them about what the course was about and showing some examples of work that students had produced. The work was good.
I was still feeling very nervous at this point and coupled with the fact that the room with very hot, the sweat was running off me. I tried to calm down and after a while, I did.
After the tutor had explained to us all about what the course offered, she said that we would now be interviewed. She took all of us to another room and said that I would be the first to be interviewed because I had travelled the furthest. The rest sat outside.
Once in the classroom, I was told to get my work out, ready for them to have a look. The tutor left me for a minutes to do so. I sat down after I had taken my work out and breathed deeply, trying to calm myself.
A few minutes later, a different tutor walked in and then another. I can't remember their names. One looked quite friendly and she was around 45-50 years old and the other looked around 28-30 and she definitely didn't look friendly. She looked quite serious and was very straight to the point when she talked.
I tried my best not to make first impressions. I did, though and I wasn't really proven wrong either. I attempted to be friendly, nontheless.
"Right, let's have a look at your work then shall we?", they said.
So, I started pulling some work forward and explaining to them how and why I had created it. They were particularly interested in the project I had created for myself, which was to design a bottle for a new energy drink. The younger one was saying how the bottle shape looked as if it would appeal moreso to a male market, rather than a female market and she did have a point so I took it on board. They also looked at my font that I had created and the younger tutor commented on how it didn't look very legible and that the spacing could be improved. I agreed. It was interested to note however, that the older tutor was much less critical, choosing to say things like "It still works very well" and "I like it". The younger tutor also asked me things like how I'd created it and what programs I have used. I listed off a ton of them.
"How much help did you get putting your portfolio together?", the younger tutor asked me.
This caught me off guard, since really, Brian had not helped me put it together at all. I was honest and replied with "Well, not much". I heard her mumble, as if she was thinking "Yeah, it shows. Your work is crap."
"I also have some digital work to show you", I told them, after they were getting to the end of my paper-based stuff. I then began looking for the CD full of my work while one of them went to get a laptop.
I began to panic. I couldn't find the CD. Anyfuckingwhere. I looked through everything and just could not find it. "How the fuck could you leave it!", I kept thinking to myself. And yet, I knew I hadn't. I knew that I'd put it in. I'd triple checked. Still, I just could not find it.
"I can't find the CD", I said to them, now feeling very stressed and panicing.
"Well that's not very good if that's a big part of your work", the younger tutor said.
I looked frantically some more for it but it was nowhere to be seen. Thankfully, I thought quickly.
"Do you have a computer with internet access?", I asked.
"Err, yes, we should do. But you really should have brought it on CD", the younger tutor said.
We went next door into a very small office where the older tutor offered me a seat in front of her computer and I tried loading up my portfolio website.
It wouldn't fucking work.
I tried again and still nothing. This was turning out to be one of the worst days ever. And, while I was trying to load up the site, I was being asked questions by the younger tutor, who seemed to have an endless supply of them. She also asked the question that most students dread...
"Why did you choose Teeside University?"
It's just a shit question to ask any student. It's one of the hardest to give a decent answer for and only serves to trip you up.
I made something up about how it sounded good in the prospectus and left it at that.
Still my website would not work.
Thankfully, I then had a plan C. I used DeviantART, which has a lot of my artwork. It worked!
I'm so glad that the site wasn't performing maintenance or anything like that, otherwise I would have been very much screwed.
So, I began loading up some of my artwork and allowing them to have a look as I explained the piece. They hardly made any remarks on it at all. They just looked. I was waiting for questions on it, but none were asked. It made me feel very nervous.
The younger tutor then started asking more questions. "Do you think you work well in a group?", she asked me, to which I replied yes, because it would give me a chance to get criticism from others and blah blah blah. She asked me plenty more too, such as who my influences are and she asked them in such a way that it sounded almost as if she was simply trying to trick me up. She was very dry, unwelcoming and unfriendly. It felt horrible. She also joked about my Liverpudlian accent, when I was trying to explain to her why I happened to think an artist was one of my influences. She repeated what I had said and tried to mimic my accent in a joking sort of way. I guess it was supposed to disperse the tension I was feeling, but it only made it worse.
I must have shown them about five or six different pieces in total, while at the same time answering questions. The older tutor hardly said anything throughout the interview, though she did ask one question. "What part of the design process do you enjoy the most?", she asked. I answered that I like actually coming up with the idea itself because without the idea, even if you're a great artist, the canvas would still stay blank if you don't have a great idea. She really liked the answer and smiled, satisfied with it. That was the only real conversation I had with that tutor.
I didn't know if they wanted me to carry on showing them my digital artwork or not and was waiting for them to stop me. "I can show you more if you want me to", I said to them, but the younger tutor said "Well, maybe one more and then we have to think about the time", as if she was bored.
After that, we went back next door where I packed away my work and talked to them both a little more.
"I don't think your work is presented as well as it could be", the younger tutor said. I just said ok, trying to remain calm and not argue.
She asked if I had any questions and I asked things such as what the atmosphere is like on the course, does everyone know each other and do they enjoy working there. All of my questions were answered well enough, but even when I asked "Do you have fun here?" and laughed slightly, she answered quite serious with "Yes we do, but in a 'get on with your work' way". Meh. She was horrible.
I left the room with a questionnaire they had handed me and told me to fill it out outside. I sat down next to the two girls who were sitting outside waiting to be interviewed and then they were eager to ask me how it went and what they asked. I told them as best as I could and told them how one of them was quite bitchy. Stuff like that. I filled the questionnaire in and then posted it underneath the door as I had been instructed to. God knows why they didn't want me to just knock and hand it to them. I felt like I had been treated kind of crap, considering this was my first interview so I was nervous. I wasn't even escorted back to reception and had to find my own way out of a building I had never even been in before.
I found my Mum and told her how it went. She tried to reassure me, but at that point, I was feeling quite ill and had lost my appetite completely. I felt like I had just lost any chance of getting into that University, regardless of whether I wanted to go there or not.
The journey back didn't take as long as going there because we knew our way. I tried to sleep again and succeeded, if only for a few minutes at a time. I got home around 6pm, still feeling downhearted. I didn't eat anything until 11pm.
And the worst thing? I found that CD. It was in my portfolio the whole time. I just hadn't found it.
I'll tell you about the other two interviews in a seperate entry.
