Summer Intership 2019 | Need help

Careers & Mentoring
#1

Hello Everyone!

I am a grad student and studying Information Experience Design. I have a few questions about summer internships in the industry.

1- How a good internship can help in my career?
2- How difficult it is to get an internship in companies like Google, Facebook, etc
3- What are some good companies to look for internships?
4- Is it necessary to get a good reference for an internship? I am new to the USA and hardly know anybody.
5- When is the right time to start looking for the summer internship?
6- What can I do to stand out from other applicants?
7- How hard it is to get a good internship?

I will be grateful if you guys can help me. I don’t why but I am very tensed about and I feel like I will end up getting nothing.

Thank you
Aimen

What is your bucket list?
#2

Hi, Amen

  1. A Good Internship is a necessity for your career. You will get to know how UX is applied in the actual corporate world.
  2. Well, since you’re new in UX. I’d suggest you not to worry about companies like Google or Facebook. What you all need is to learn from a company or design studio who care for User Experience. There must be plenty of companies in the USA who cares for UX. But if you talk about Google/Facebook, your portfolio and experience define difficulty level. I’ve met some designers who consistently try for Google again and again and they did get a job there.
  3. I’ve no idea about the USA but I think you could google about it as I did google about best design studios in India.
  4. It is not necessary at all. Reference only helps to let recruiter see your work first over other candidates.
  5. There is no right time, you create your own right time. For example, if I were you, I would find as soon as possible. I wouldn’t waste a second.
  6. A Designer has two jobs, one which you work daily at job and other is to create a portfolio. Your Portfolio must tell what challenges you faced while working and how come up with solutions.
  7. As a recruiter, finding a good company is really hard as finding a good designer.

Do ask more questions if you have any other concerns.

Enjoy Design
Robin

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#3

speak to your course teacher/career advisor. It’s likely other people in your course, past or present, have asked similar questions. Your school might already have connections?

If you want to stand out from others, you’ve made a good start in joining this forum. I would say get involved, learn as much as you can, contribute, share, ask. But above all, start working on UX projects straight away. This will 1. build your curiosity 2. work your UX solving muscles, and 3. give you interesting things to write about in your portfolio

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#4

Hey aimen,
I recently began my internship with timbu in Nigeria, its been a really great experience and i am learning so much thus far.
I do not know much about getting internships with the tech giants but i think your location does play an important role. I was equally as tensed as you are. Have you worked on some projects in the past? if yes, then
email recruiters a link to your portfolio. Always express your eagerness
to learn in the mails. Don’t fret, you will surely get a good place to intern at.

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#5

I’ve learned more from my current internship in one month than I had from all the coursework in school. I think that Robin is right, a good one will do wonders. I don’t know how to tell a good one from a bad one though. I would hazard to guess that you can get some good stuff out of any internship, but you’ll get a lot out of a good one.

Good luck! I’m afraid I don’t have much to offer beyond that.

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