Co-op and Career Opportunities
Cooperative Education
Industrial design students work for both small design firms and large businesses across the country in the areas of product and transportation design. Students begin their co-op experiences in either the third or fourth quarter of their sophomore year, and alternate quarters of full time work and study on a year-round calendar until the final quarter of the fifth year (there is no tuition for the quarters students work). They graduate with 6 quarters, or a year and a half, of work experience in their field.
Career Opportunities
Industrial designers are employed where products are planned for mass production. Since many goods are mass produced, there is a wide range of opportunities. Jobs have traditionally been divided into two kinds of employment:
- as a consultant
- on the design staff of a corporation
Furniture, appliances, housewares, electronic equipment, tools, toys, and packages are considered consumer products and nearly always require industrial design services while being developed for manufacturing and marketing. Other items not meant for the consumer market, such as machine tools, medical equipment, business machine and displays, are also designed by industrial designers.