How I got my First UX Internship with no UX Experience or Portfolio
A lot of people applying for the UX Internships usually already have a design or UX related education/qualification that could help them when applying for roles, but there are some, like myself, that have somewhat of an unrelated background. I have a Psychology and Marketing degree, no UX certifications or qualifications, and I worked pro bono as a Digital Marketing Manager. I really didn’t have much to showcase as my UX related work. All I had was my strong passion and willingness to learn about UX.
So, somehow this is how I landed my first UX Research and Design Internship in one of Canada’s largest retail stores with no UX experience and a really crappy portfolio!
Referral
Everyone says getting a referral is the key to getting into a company and they are right! Having a referral allows you to stand out from the hundreds of resumes the recruiters have to sift through. Because Linkedin is so amazing, it allows you to see if any of your existing connections are working at the company you are applying for. This is shown at the top header of the job posting on Linkedin. So I simply reached out to one of my connections, before submitting my application, to refer to me and they said yes!
Prep with Keywords
The best thing about virtual interviews is that you can use double monitors or split your screen so you can view your notes while also being engaged during the interview. Don’t tell my manager, but that’s what I did.
In my notes I copy pasted the ‘Who you are’ and ‘What you’ve done’ directly from the job description and highlighted the main keywords and qualities they were looking for. Then I wrote a short blurb about each highlighted quality or keyword and how I demonstrated that in one of my previous roles. For example, if they wrote “Exceptional communication skills with the confidence and passion to share knowledge”, I highlighted Exceptional communication skills and then below I typed out how I demonstrated communication skills while being a President of a club during university.
Even though I did not have UX related experience I could still talk about my other indirectly related experience Conducting Research as a Psychology student in university, doing Market Research as a Digital Marketing Manager, and demonstrating Collaboration skills as a president of a club. Be creative in how you answer their questions, but always mention the key words mentioned in the job description during the interview. This will make life easier for the interviewer, and hopefully for yourself as well when you get the internship!
Ask Questions
At the end of both interviews, I was asked if I had any questions for them, and I always said ‘Yes’. Asking questions at the end of an interview always makes you look more interested in the role, and overall makes you look better in the interviewer’s eyes. But make sure to be respectful of the interviewers time as well. My interviewers were very impressed by the questions I asked, but I got the best reaction and response from my last question:
What does the career path of someone in this role look like? Is there an opportunity to be hired as a Full Time after my 4 months?
Do you have any tips for someone in my shoes? Someone who just graduated and is new to the UX design or UXR industry?
How many people am I competing against in this first/second round?
What do you like best about working at [COMPANY NAME]?
Is there anything about my background that makes you hesitant to move forward with me in the next steps of the interview process?
What I learned from this is that everyone loves to talk about themselves and their experience in the industry (exactly why I am writing this article) so don’t be afraid to ask them for tips and tricks. However, I highly recommend everyone use the last question. Regardless of what kind of job you are applying for. This will not only allow you to learn how a recruiter sees you in their eyes, but if this interview doesn’t work out, you can use their feedback to improve yourself for the next one!
When I asked my Senior Researcher (who interviewed me) months later, why they picked me — She said “Even though you had the least amount of qualifications compared to the other candidates, you are the most keen and enthusiastic for the internship based on the questions you asked and the Thank you email”. You heard it here first.
Thank You Email
At the end of my last interview, I told my interviewer I will email her a Thank you email after the meeting and this is what the interviewer responded with “That’s great because that puts you in a better position than the others”. After that I was shocked, but also super happy by how the interview ended because I got high hopes after her response.
If you are not familiar with a Thank You email, it is exactly what it is — a Thank You email. It is a short and sweet email to the interviewer thanking them for their time interviewing you, and includes 2–3 points you talked about during your interview OR 2–3 UX internship related points you didn’t get the chance to mention. This is what my Thank you email looked like:
Hello [HIRING MANAGER]!
Thank you for taking your time out of your schedule to meet with me today! I genuinely enjoyed hearing more about the role and your professional background in the UX industry.
As much as I enjoyed your talk today I wanted to reiterate and add some things that I believe might make me a good candidate for the [INTERNSHIP] position.
- I am a [JOB DESCRIPTION QUALITY] individual with X years of experience in [XYZ] and doing [ABC] during my university years. I also did [XYZ] while working on my experience at [EFG] as a [PREVIOUS ROLE TITLE] for X months.
Again thank you for your time today, and if you have any questions or need any clarifications please feel free to reach out to me at this email or my cell [YOUR CELL #].
Regards,
[YOUR NAME]
This is completely optional but I wanted to be a little fancy, and especially since it’s UX, I think that changing the bullet points to an emoji related to the point really helped! For example, if one of my points I was talking about my skills in research, I changed the black circle bullet point to a magnifying glass emoji 🔎.
This is what helped me stand out from the other candidates and I hope this information could help at least one other person with their new UX career! I am still learning as I go, so if you are someone from the UX industry with more years of experience and think any of my information is wrong could use some changes based on your feedback, please let me know and I will do my best to work better next time.
And to you reader, I wish you all the best in your internship/job hunt!