Congratulations to our Advanced Professional Training Most Valuable participant, Tapan! Tapan is always responsive to our emails, and we feel that he is a great participant overall. Tapan’s employer also agrees, and shared the followed about Tapan:

Tapan began his training program with Lighting Workshop in January of this year. Training with various members of the studio on a variety of projects has allowed him to develop a range of skills that we practice every day as Lighting Designers – as well as learn more about how we approach our work and serve our clients’ needs.  He has been such a wonderful addition to our studio!”

 Megan, Lighting Workshop

Name: Tapan Jani

Position: Lighting Design Business Practices Trainee

Location: Brooklyn, NY

Fun Fact About You: I love rain. If it rains and I have an opportunity you will see me out running and relaxing showering with the nature! When I see people bothered with the weather I wish they could see the way I feel and not feel frustrated. :) 

Why did you choose to come on a Cultural Exchange Training program? How are you hoping to apply this program once you’ve returned home? I am a firm believer that world will keep shrinking untill our boundaries and differences would dissolve. We can see how the internet has done that to a great extent in the past few decades. I wanted to be a world citizen and not just belong to one country, be able to service a client sitting in any part of the world from my home country, and use and promote international business practices in my home country. I hope I can take what I learn here and spread it back home. 

What have you learned about the city you're living in? New york is not just a city. It's a living breathing organism which is bigger than any individual or entity. Yet, it’s those individual dreams, ideas and aspirations that come together to make this organism. Everyone here thinks, feels, and believes they are the organism, and that I feel is the beauty of this city. You stay here you become a New Yorker, not a certain race, nationality, or sex - you are a New Yorker. I love the passion and the energy in this city. The humbleness of the tired hardworking people stuck tightly together in the subways, the musicians, the river front runners and the parade enthusiasts. It's a great experience to be here, similar to facing a great mountain in the himalayas, that make you realise how small you are and yet you are a part of this. 

What has been the most surprising thing about American culture? The shopping. I have never been the one to enjoy buying things. I would wait till its urgent. In my time here, somehow I know what I might need 10 years from now. Jokes aside, it is amazing to see the level of marketing and the precision which which the product industry works. I can say it with no shame, I enjoy to go shopping once in a couple of months now. And that is a super interesting case study right there. 

What experience has impacted you the most since you have been in the US? The business practices differ drastically between American businesses and Indian businesses. The level of professionalism and accuracy in a design oriented business which is generally very fluid, is phenominal. Our firm is very strict when it comes to quality control and in some cases I have seen that even a foot of discrepancy in a architectural plan might make us redesign something. This amount of dedication and truthfulness towards a job has changed my outlook towards professionalism.