I build Lego models for a living. Here's how I landed the job and what it's like.

• Ryan Wood, 37, is the model-shop manager at Legoland in Hudson Valley, NY.
• Wood's team is responsible for bringing 15,000 models to life and keeping them in working order.
• Here's his career journey and advice to aspiring theme-park pros, as told to Perri Ormont Blumberg.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Ryan Wood, a 37-year-old model-shop manager at Legoland New York from Los Angeles, California. It has been edited for length and clarity.

As a lifelong Lego hobbyist, I was encouraged by two close friends who were master model builders at Legoland California to enter a model builder tryout in 2009 for a top-secret Lego model production facility.

It entailed speed and accuracy challenges and team- and creative-build sessions. The field of talented applicants was whittled down over the course of two days, and the final creative build took place in the park with guests and cameras under the warm SoCal sun. I look back fondly at that competition as the day I met some of my best friends.

I was hired from the tryout and worked as a model builder, then a model designer, where I produced tons of Lego models for theme parks and Legoland Discovery Centers around the world. Then I took leadership roles as a team lead and production supervisor in California and Florida before landing the role of model-shop manager with Legoland New York Resort in the Hudson Valley in early 2020.

It's worth noting that I tried out to be a model builder with Legoland in 2006 and didn't make it past the first round of build trials

I just didn't have what they were looking for at the time. Although disappointing in the short term, it was a foot in the door with the network of Legoland employees, who would ultimately offer me a job.

The trajectory of my life changed upon getting the role the second time I tried out. After the first time in 2006, I spent three years completing my degree, as well as reinforcing my relationships in the fan community and within Legoland Parks in ways that pushed me to be a better builder.

I collaborated with builders from around the world to display together at Lego fan conventions. By the time I got my second chance in 2009, I'd acquired skills that helped to make me a stronger candidate.

If I'd given up after the first time, who knows where I'd be now? That's something my wife and I try to reinforce with our four kids: They should always keep trying.

My plucky team of 5 starts every day at 7 a.m., about 3 hours before guests enter our gates

We do a circuit around the entire resort to review any overnight disturbances or damage from natural causes like weather or curious critters, although none has done any major harm to any of our models.

A large portion of our time is spent in Miniland, the heart of every Legoland park that features eight clusters of cities from across the US, all made out of 22 million Lego pieces. We check all of Miniland's mechanical features to ensure they're in working order. We then check the sculpted Lego models within the other six "lands" of our resort.

Our rounds during the day include a trip to the Legoland Hotel, where we inspect all 150 models in the common areas, as well as any of the 1,900 models in the guest rooms that might need attention. 

When we're not hustling around the 150-acre site, we're in our back-of-house model shop repairing any damaged models and coming up with new creations

My team loves building new Miniland vehicles, small seasonal models to hide throughout the displays, and Miniland-scale recreations of some big sculpted Lego models you can find elsewhere in the park.

That giant, 27-foot crocodile sleeping in his tent in Lego Pirates? You might see the seven-inch-long version hanging out alongside the Mississippi River in the New Orleans area of Miniland.

During our Halloween Brick-or-Treat event last year, I designed a Lego Minifigure ghost model, and we built 24 copies of it to hide all over Miniland for guests to find. It was fun interacting with guests to find out how many they'd discovered and giving them tips to find some of the trickier ones. We also learned that some repeat visitors had turned our other Miniland Halloween creations into unofficial bonus scavenger hunts.

Every one of our employees — or 'model citizens,' as we call them — wears a Lego brick badge on their uniform shirt

Mine, of course, is a supersized "Ryan" badge. It attracted a little too much attention, and now I get asked to make custom brick badges for a flood of fellow employees.

My team's favorite part of the job is coming up with ideas and building new creations to surprise and delight our guests, and that's just what we're doing as we look ahead to next year. [Editor's note: The park is typically open from early spring through November.]

We're also tackling the normal wear and tear that happens to our Lego models during a busy operating season, and we're available for seasonal requests. If Legoland Hotel wants a Lego mailbox for kids to mail letters to Santa, we're happy to build it. If our Brick-or-Treat Halloween event calls for a gaggle of Lego ghosts to haunt Miniland … who you gonna call? 

I've been fortunate to participate in the hiring of more than 100 model builders and designers during my 12 years with Merlin Entertainments

Anyone can say they're a Lego fan in their resume. Prove it in your portfolio with as many kinds of models as possible. (Luckily, my own recruiter saw past my portfolio full of Lego spaceships.)

Builders can be right-brained artists or left-brained mathematicians, but both can excel equally. There's no four-year degree that makes you more or less likely to become a model builder — all you need is a love of Legos.

Finally, just keep creating

Some of the best builders I know had barely put two bricks together before getting the job but were able to utilize their creative backgrounds and previous work experience to evolve what it means to be a master model builder.

Two of my Legoland New York team members come to mind. On paper, neither of them had had any Lego work to speak of. Tom had spent 30 years with USPS but had a gigantic Lego city built at home.

Danielle had worked a variety of jobs, including loan-servicing specialist and flood-insurance rep, and at one point she even performed as a mermaid, but she didn't buy her first Lego set until she began working at Legoland.

Both of them, however, brought a level of passion, roll-up-your-sleeves work ethic, and an intriguing set of skills from their professional and hobbyist work that complemented not only each other but the rest of the team.

If at first you don't succeed, keep trying. Some of the most successful master builders I know didn't get the job on their first try. I'm one of them.

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