First job interview advice

[Jalenack]

Hey. I've this great potential position and would like to look as professional as possible. I recently redesigned a personal website for a guy who was the webmaster of his company ( :eek: ). Anyway, he liked me so much that he offered me a job/internship at his office, and told his boss. His boss is really interested. He wants me to recode the site with CSS and do some graphic design work. His company is in San Francisco, about 30 minutes drive away from me, and you can see their website at http://oneshare.com . So I've got some questions:

I'm a minor (15). Are there any legal barriers...things i have to do? Do i need to get a work form from parents/school?

What should I bring to the interview? I remember a thread awhile back about this...but any other thoughts? What to wear :-p ...

Their office is 100% PC and I'm a devout mac-lover. My dad recently got an iBook and I've been informed I could possibly bring that to the office and work from that. That would be sweet :) ... Anyways I won't get it for 2.5 more weeks, so I probably couldn't bring it to the interview.

What kind of hourly wage should I expect?

I'm going to be teaching people about CSS, so what should I bring to demonstrate. An hour ago I downloaded their front page and got to work CSSifying it a bit (I only did the upper half). I think if I could show the guy a copy of my version of his site (looking exactly the same with half the markup) it would be a great visual example. Is this a good idea?

I still, of course, have school everyday from 7:30 to 3:30 ... One obstacle is that their office is running 10am to 4pm mon-fri. That just about equals all my school hours. So I may end up working from home, which would be nice with my G5 and 23" screen.

Any other advice you guys can give me?

Thanks a bunch!

[mindlessLemming]

re:wages - who knows, but don't get too excited. Your age means they will probably be able to pay you the same as a 15 year old working in McDonalds... that all depends on the laws over there. When I was a little older than you I was getting paid $9/hour as a photoshop monkey and my work was being charged at $75/hour + materials! :eek: You may have to just grin and bare it if you want to get a head start in the industry while still at school.

Things to take:
a folio set out in 'case study' format -- have a few pages of sketches, various design concepts, client brief (a document outlining what the client wanted, what you felt the client needed and obstacles you see arrising etc. I've got a few of them from college, I'll email you some stuff if you PM me your address ;)), flowcharts of the site structure (I can send examples of those too) and anything else you think would fit.

Basically just demonstrate that you have a firm understanding of the workflow and processes involved with producing effective, customer focused websites. Drop a few terms if you want (accessibility, extensibility, modularity, user centricity, blah blah) but don't get carried away -- you most probably won't be talking to nerds or even people who have the faintest idea of what goes into making a website. This is where you must demonstrate your ability to put everything into lamen's terms and still sell the benefit of your skills.
Speak to Brady about that one -- he pimps his kool-aid like no-one I know :p :thumbsup:

...and chill; or you'll blow it like I did last week :o

P.S - congratulations! :)

[Jalenack]

hey thanks for the great tips! PM is sent...
MM...brady i know you're out there :)

I'm hoping to assert myself as an expert on CSS, and I'll have a far greater knowledge than any of those in the office. I'm hoping/requiring to make double digit hourly wage...what should I do if I'm not offered a good one? Their page won't require any super css tricks..i may leave a basic table layout intact depending on how deep i am told to go...and if browser compatibility becomes a problem. But if i can work as well/better than some professionals, shouldn't i expect pay thats equivalent? Am i being too idealist? CSS is a technology that I know extremely well...and what they want is a css redesign, so I'm not required to branch into fields that I'm less experienced in.

[MrFreeze]

Equal pay would be great, but unfortunately is nearly impossible. It sounds like you've got a great opportunity, but be aware that adults in any industry are fairly leery of young-guns coming in and laying down the law. Now I'm not saying that's what you're going to do...just know that their defensiveness isn't a personal attack on you, but more of a knee-jerk reaction to change.

Good luck with the interview! :thumbsup:

Travis