Skills USA

Heard of it? Its a great organization.
Tomorrow is the NY state competition. I am going for Customer Service. Major scholarships on the line.

http://skillsusa.org/

But anyway, what I want to know, is how many of you have heard of Skills USA (or whatever country you live in)?

I've never heard of it, but I guess it sounds pretty cool.

Customer Service! THE NICEST PEOPLE EVAR! as the nationals announcer put it.


I was a member for 2 years because of the school I attended while taking Graphic/Advertising Design courses.

I competed in the "Job Skill Demonstration B" contest where tons of people of multiple professions compete against each other (ex. Welding vs. CPR vs. Nurses vs. Motor Mechanics vs. Precision Machining People vs. Graphic Designer, etc... the list goes on forever).

Job Skill Demonstration has been a SKILLS USA contest for some time, and I was fortunate enough to win 1st at District and move on to State. There I won 2nd in state (the first of any graphic designer to ever even place above 10th in the history of the contest!). I was very excited when I heard that news! I think the nerves got to me and may have cost me a shot at nationals, because as soon as I got back to my hotel room (in Tulsa, OK), I looked in the mirror and all I saw was a RED FACE, blush, w/e you wanna call it, I was nervious as hell.

Here's a pic of my silver metal.


oh, and last year they streamed the Nationals Contest Rewards and Ending Ceremony live over the internet, so your family can see you once you get up on that stage

Anyway, after winning 2nd at state I was very honored when they asked me to attend the NATIONALS CONTEST, fee free, to help set up all of the different contest areas, and get a behind the scenes look at it all. The warehouse they use (In Kansas City, Missouri) to house all of the contests areas in is HUGE. You'll get a good walk just going from one end to the other (in fact, we actually rode in buses to do that when the warehouse was empty lol), which I had to do multiple times! It takes a week to setup, only 1 hour to tear down. There's just thousands of people there, it's insane.

But all in all I think that the contest is pretty tough on a Graphic Designer because he's competing against people with brand new and interesting equipment/technology, which allow the judges to feel that "hands-on" or "awe" experience. As a Graphic Designer in that contest all you can really do is sit behind your computer screen and hope that the judges really like what you do, otherwise it'll be super boring to them!

My only cons about the contest was having to compete against multiple professions.. like comparing apples to oranges, but I can't complain. I knew what I was getting into




As you are competing in one of their competitions I wish you luck! Even if you don't win there are always people watching those contestants and are looking to hire you, so make an impression!

Oh, btw, I got to sit down with a few of the judges from different competitions during Nationals.. THEY'LL (Skills USA competition writers) have written rules which you must go by when performing your tasks in the competition, but IMO feel free to bend them just a bit if you think strongly of a better way to do w/e it is you're doing, but consult your instructor first, or your mentor. A lot of the judges really don't care about the rules imposed on the score sheets, and will usually rate you on your overall performance.

One of the judges I talked to from Screen Printing implied to me a lot of this, because I sat right next to him when he was writing the scores down. It's usually not as strict as you might think. -but be careful of those prissy arse judges.

I lost. Stupid ass judge. His 1st time judging. He was about 20, and I am the only guy in the competition. All the rest were nice looking girls, and I saw him check a few of them out. I was last to go, and everyone else said they messed up and were all nervous. I did mine near perfect but....
The girl who won 1st was an hour late. She didn't lose any points because of that.
I am just so pissed. I know it sounds unsportsmanlike but...I know I did better then 10th.

Yeah, SkillsUSA is nice. I talked with alot of people, and it was fun. Other judges were nice, and the other competitors were nice. I will do it again, except probably for baking next year.