How to become a UI/UX intern? A step-by-step guide
UX design internship can be the first important stepping stone of your UX design career as it is the only job that pays out and also trains you at the same time. So if you are a fresher or an aspirant, a UX design internship can be the way to start off. It’s an opportunity where inexperienced UX design professionals can get a hand at the real job while learning from it.
However, with competition increasing every single day, it’s difficult to crack that dream internship. You might need to gear up and set up the initial steps that can get you a UX design internship.
Step 1: Prepare yourself for the UX Design Internships
In order to gain yourself an internship, you will need to prep up. While an internship offers you the environment to learn and get introduced to the UX design world, you will still need to get your base understanding ready. To do that you can start with completing your UX design education where you learn the basics and fundamentals of UX design and attain a degree or certification for it.
Simultaneously, start creating your own UX design portfolio by designing sample application pages for a phone or website, take up any popular app and rethink its design to present better engagement, work on some of the UX research reports or assist a designer you may know. This will help support your certification as it will display your practical knowledge of UX designing and allow you to stand out of the crowd.
Having a resume or CV handy before applying for your internship is essential. Create a profile of yourself and build a confident resume that states your skills and past projects or samples. You may also create an online page that showcases your portfolio and have that link added to your CV as well.
Step 2: Apply for UX Design Internships
Once you have prepared yourself, the next step would be to start applying for UX design internships. While doing so you will need to compare your skills and interests against the internship opportunities you would like to go for. Start with shortlisting your areas of interest from the diverse field of UX design considering all the factors. Usually, the job descriptions can help you get an idea of what captures your interest and skills. Also, with internships, you can always try out different roles to identify your best gig.
With this direction, your next step can be to start searching for businesses that are offering internships for the role you want to take up. These businesses can be a designing firm, an agency, a UX design studio, any small business or application company.
Make a list of internships that caught your attention and start applying. In case the internship window is closed, try reaching out to the HR or UX design team members through LinkedIn or emails. Often such interactions can help land in an opportunity that was least expected.
A few dos’ & don’ts would be:
- To not share the same email to everyone, rather customize it as per the job description
- Create a cover letter
- Customise your resume to highlight relevant skills
- Explain how you can contribute to this internship
- Follow-up
Step 3: Performance
Stay focused and build your own goals for the specific internship profile so that you are aware of your roles and responsibilities. This will help you stay on track and monitor your progress on a regular basis, ensuring you make the best of your internship period. Gather as much knowledge as possible as the duration is less with internships and take advantage of the learning environment by staying engaged.
Look out for feedback from your mentors or team members, as it will help you improve on your UX design skills and also provide a different perspective to it. This can be done during group sessions, meetings, presentations or even over a cup of coffee.
One of the most important parts of your internship will be to gather as many referrals or testimonials as possible. This will help you seek your next internship or even a job while giving you the ability to negotiate your salary.
If you follow the steps stated above, it will pretty much give you the right direction to approach any UX design internship. However, if you need help with taking the first step of learning UX design then look no further because we at Felix-ITs are here to train you with the fundamentals of UX design. Our industry-led mentors and project-driven courses offer a learning curriculum that grooms aspirants like you to build a successful career in UX design.
Check out our success stories and how we help our students get their careers on the move.