LEGOs: All Work, All Play

December 2003

Newsweek
Dec. 1 issue

Remember all those times Mom told you to stop playing and do your homework? Her contention: you can't make a living by playing with LEGOs. Turns out you can. Last week LEGOland embarked on a nationwide job search for a "master builder" who will join six existing employees to-seriously-build LEGOs full time at the Carlsbad, Calif., theme park.

NEWS OF THE job opening has spread mostly through word of mouth on LEGO fan sites, and the cattle calls have already attracted hundreds of candidates. (The company is four cities into the nine-city tour.) "I took out my earrings for this," says a multiple-pierced Joshua Lee Roadifer, 22, who traveled from Spearfish, S.D., to New York for his shot at the dream job. "This is huge." The drill's the same at each location: candidates, who can preregister online or just show up with their resumes, are given 2,000 LEGOs and 45 minutes to build a model based on a theme, like "animals" or "transportation." Judges scan the builders looking for speed, ability to build in 3-D and "flair." The standouts are given on-the-spot interviews (sample question: "How do you feel toward children?"), and a handful are invited to a final interview in February.

Though the job requires weekend and evening work and starts at just $13 to $15 an hour, it hasn't dissuaded some professionals from considering a midcareer switch. In Washington, D.C., the first stop on the tour, LEGO's HR representative interviewed a candidate who works for the Department of Defense. Corporate lawyer Nathan Sawaya, 30, says he'd have no qualms taking the job. "It's seriously my dream," he says, confessing to calling in sick at his Manhattan firm in order to make it to the New York audition. His efforts paid off-his replica of a "space bunny" (theme: space) scored him a slot as a semifinalist. Is it really worth the pay cut? "I spend so much money on LEGOs as it is," he says, "it will probably work out in my favor." Wonder what Mom thinks about that?

-Elise Soukup
© 2003 Newsweek, Inc.

Newsweek, December 2003