By Yinyin Wen
Finding a UX internship can be a grueling process that is made even harder when you have little to no experience in the field. Many UX internship postings require applicants to already have a portfolio of work to apply. As students or recent graduates, it can be difficult to have a robust portfolio without much experience in the field. This is the catch-22 that so many aspiring UX Designers face at the start of their journeys.
So how do we close this gap? We’ve compiled some tips for people who are looking to break into UX.
How to gain UX experience without an internship
- Volunteer to do UX work for a university campus organization/club. There are lots of student-run orgs that need help building an online presence and even student orgs that explicitly focus on building products and apps. You can learn more about some UCLA focused resources here.
- Cold-email nonprofits you are interested in, offering to do pro-bono UX work. These organizations often don’t have the budget to hire UX professionals and may really appreciate your reaching out. Volunteering for a non-profit is an excellent way for you to create a positive impact on the community while also sharpening your UX skills.
- Cold-email small, local companies with UX Designers on their team to see if you can shadow them and see what day-to-day work looks like. Be mindful that some companies may ask you to sign non-disclosure agreements, especially if they are agencies doing client work. Ask ahead of time what you may or may not include in your personal portfolio.
- Look for problems you can solve for people around you. Observe what pain points they encounter, and consider pursuing a design challenge based on what you find. Are there ways you could make processes more efficient or intuitive for your family and friends?
Choosing your first UX Design job
Once you’ve built up a well-rounded portfolio, it’s time to consider what type of company you want to work at. Working as a designer within a company is very different from working as a freelancer or with a student organization. Within a given company, the experience can differ greatly depending on whether you’re working at a large corporate company, a startup, and a design agency.
These observations are a compilation of personal experience and what I’ve read about others’ experiences as well.
UX design at early-stage startups
Many young designers are attracted to startups because of their innovation, casual work culture, and high potential for growth. Unlike larger, late-stage startups (think Headspace, Bird, etc), early-stage startups are those who are either preparing for a seed round of funding or in the midst of raising their seed round*. They often have fewer than 25 employees, and you may even be working in teams as small as 5 people. While there are many upsides to working for an early-stage startup, the environment may not suit everyone. Here are some things to keep in mind when looking for a UX job at a small startup:
*A seed round is the first round of reaching out to investors to raise money for the company.
You may be the only designer in the company. This means you will have to learn how to communicate clearly with people who may not have a design background, and continuously advocate for the user. If you’re a junior designer, you’ll have to take initiative and learn many skills on your own or reach out to find design mentors.
At the same time, you will gain a strong understanding of how to run a business. In a small team, it is inevitable that you will gain exposure to how other departments (eg. sales, marketing) operate. You will learn that sometimes other priorities might overtake UX design in urgency, and you will need to learn how to navigate the quickly shifting priorities.
You will likely be asked to do a wide range of tasks outside of just UX Design – from creating slide decks, to making marketing one-sheets, to designing the company’s brand identity.
An early-stage startup might be right for you if you like:
- A wide variety of tasks, design and (potentially) non-design related
- Learning about all facets of business, including pitching a product, researching competitors, etc.
- Having a different set of tasks every day!
- Being flexible, potentially shifting attention to a different project depending on business priorities
- Having a flexible (and sometimes unpredictable) work schedule
- Working directly with the executives of a company
- Working in a small, tight-knit team who is driven by the same mission/vision. There are few people that will be as passionate about their work as a team bringing a new product into the world.
- Knowing that your designs will make an immense impact on the company’s success
UX design at design agencies
Another attractive option for junior designers is working at a design agency. These agencies provide a variety of digital services (eg. strategy, UX/UI design, graphic design) to clients, which makes them very process-oriented. They will have perfected a process for taking a project from brief to deliverable within a very tight timeframe, so they are a great opportunity for learning a lot, very quickly.
In a design agency, you will be surrounded by talented designers who you will get to work with and learn from. Companies come to the agency for top-quality design, so you will rapidly learn best practices. Since you will likely be asked to work on multiple client projects, you will also learn how to juggle multiple projects at once.
Because design agencies sell their services, rather than a product, you will be focused on improving your design process and output rather than iterating on a single product. Agencies see companies from a variety of industries, so you will get to learn about many industries you’ve never even heard about!
A design agency might be right for you if you like:
- A fast-paced work environment. Project timelines are often very short (relative to startup timelines), and clients expect that work will be done efficiently.
- Being surrounded by fellow creatives! You’ll be working with mostly designers (and perhaps strategists) on a day-to-day basis.
- Lots of structure and guidance. Agencies produce beautiful, polished work and they will train you to do the same.
- Learning about lots of different industries. One day you could be working on a fashion e-commerce website and another day be doing user research for a real estate company.
- Having a lot of mentorship. In an agency, you will have direct access to a ton of talented designers. Use this opportunity to learn from the best!
If you’re struggling to find real-world experience to create your first case study, know that you’re not alone. Not everyone has the resources to study interaction design formally or attend a bootcamp, but this doesn’t mean that you can’t be a competitive job candidate. You just need to be scrappy and creative in the ways you create learning opportunities.
When you’re just beginning to delve into UX, you’ll probably find yourself voraciously learning about the different methodologies, tools, and best practices. While this is great for building up a solid understanding of UX, it is only part of what makes a great designer/researcher. It’s important to remember that as a designer, you will collaborate with many people of diverse backgrounds. So hone your communication skills whenever possible! You’ll also have to learn to balance user needs with business needs. In a university learning environment, you are afforded structure and scaffolding that allows you to experiment freely with ideas and methods. In a business setting, you will have to adapt to tight deadlines and real-world constraints.
As such, the biggest advantage that you can give yourself in your job or internship search is to show that you understand that design does not happen in a vacuum. Show that you know how to solve real user problems with real constraints.
Once you’ve gotten a few case studies under your belt, take some time to consider what type of work environment you want to be in. Different people thrive in different types of work environments. It’s tempting to apply to every UX internship/job under the sun, but really be critical about where you really want to work (and who you’d like to learn from).
