How I got my first UX Research internship
UXRTO Blog Editor Alyssa King reflects on her journey to the Winter 2019 Shopify UX Research internship
2018 wasn’t the best year for me. I struggled with job searching after graduating from my Interactive Media Post-Graduate program at Centennial College in August 2017 and it ate away at my self-esteem. There were times I thought about giving up on UX because the interviews were few and far between, while the rejection emails kept coming. I even half-joked to my friends that I should just go back to my old gas station job.
Thankfully, I didn’t give up on my goal to work in UX because at the end of 2018, finally, I was presented with an amazing opportunity: a UX Research internship at Shopify. 🙌
I’m writing this blog post to share how I worked on improving my skills while I was unemployed and how it led to my internship, in hopes of helping others struggling with job hunting in UX. It’s difficult getting rejected over and over again, especially after putting yourself out there, so I hope reading about my experience helps!
Realizing the gaps in my skills
I started applying for UX Designer positions in January 2018.
After going through job postings, I realized many companies were looking for expert design skills. I spent a lot of time looking at UX Designers’ LinkedIn profiles and portfolios, which stressed me out because everyone had great design work, while I still barely knew how to use Photoshop. Having recently completed an Interactive Media program, I had a strong foundation in content strategy and UX but had little design knowledge. Unfamiliar with Illustrator, InDesign, typography, colour theory, and grid systems, I felt overwhelmed.
Still, I was determined to improve my design skills.
I reached out to a friend who is a Graphic Designer, and she was kind enough to sit down with me once every few weeks to go over the basics of Adobe InDesign and Illustrator with me, as well as give me design tips and feedback on my work.
I also took advantage of Lynda.com classes I had free access to from the college I had recently graduated from. I completed several courses on the basics of Adobe CC, grid systems, and typography. I also read a ton of articles on these topics and signed up for Daily UI to apply what I had learned. Later in the year, I went back and completed the Daily UI prompts I did earlier in the year and found I had improved quite a bit. I’m still working on my design skills today.
Taking advantage of learning opportunities
In March, I learned about a free(!!!) 11-week product design program offered by Bridge School. I was on the fence about applying because I thought, “School again? Do I want to take another class? 😫” After reading great things about their program, I decided to apply. Since my job hunt was unsuccessful, I knew I still had lots to learn and I figured taking another class couldn’t hurt. And it was free, so how could I pass that up?
The first step of the application process was to answer a few questions about myself. When I moved on the second step, I had one week to complete a design challenge. About two weeks after submitting the challenge, I received an email saying I had been accepted to the program, which ran for two nights a week for 11 weeks from May to August.
Applying for Bridge School was the best decision I made in 2018. The classes were small, intimate, and the instructors emphasized that it was a safe learning space. I felt safe and comfortable enough to participate in class, which I hadn’t done in undergrad or post-grad because I always felt intimidated by my peers.
Bridge taught me a lot about Product Design, but my biggest takeaways were learning how to communicate and engage with clients, increasing my self-confidence, and funnily enough, realizing that my greatest passion was actually UX Research. Job hunting and rejection emails made me feel like I wasn’t good enough to work in the industry, but Bridge helped me fight the doubts I had about my skills and gave me the confidence to reach out and connect with others. ❤️
Networking
People kept telling me that networking is important, but it seemed scary and intimidating so I never made a strong effort to connect with others. I thought I could find a job on my own by applying for positions online. However, since the summer was coming up and I was still unemployed, I decided to take the plunge and try networking.
I learned about a mentorship platform called Out of Office Hours, where mentees are selected every month to connect with mentors. After reading mentor profiles, I connected with self-taught designers and those without a formal design education because I could relate to them the most. Hearing about their backgrounds, how they taught themselves design, and their careers gave me a further boost of confidence.
In late July, I sat down with a TA from Bridge School, also a self-taught designer, and she gave me resources I could use to further improve my design skills. I then sat down with Lindsie Canton, one of my instructors and the Director of Product Design at Bridge, who recommended I connect with Danielle Klein about my interest in UX research. These connections were another turning point for me and set me down a path towards Shopify.
I met with Danielle in September and I spoke to her about how frustrating job hunting was because companies had vastly different criteria on what they wanted in UX Designers. After speaking to her about my interest in UX Research, she introduced me to Gigi Wong, a UX Researcher at Shopify who had previously done their internship program.
Gigi was really helpful; she told me about the application process at Shopify and also walked me through her portfolio and design process, which helped me improve my own portfolio a lot. After that meeting, I did my research on Shopify and was convinced it would be a great environment for me to learn and grow as a UX Researcher. I then stalked their website pretty much every day, waiting for the internship postings to go up. 😅
After connecting with Danielle, she offered me the opportunity to volunteer with UX Research Collective, and it has been a great learning experience thus far. I’ve had a lot of fun interviewing and connecting with event speakers. I’ve also learned a lot from managing the Twitter account, which helped me to read and keep up-to-date on the latest UX research content online. I’m excited to be part of this team and can’t wait to see what 2019 has in store.
Applying for Shopify
The Application
In mid-October, after a month of stalking Shopify’s website 😅, UX internship postings went up. The application consisted of three parts:
- Creating a Shopify store
I wanted to have fun with this and ended up creating a store for a fictitious Filipino restaurant. I created a story for the restaurant based on my family and upbringing and also looked at a few restaurants’ websites to see what kind of info I needed to include on my store.
2. Completing a UX research challenge
I was given a situation and asked how I would find the root of the problem through user research. I then explained why I chose each research method and how using it would help solve the problem.
3. Writing a cover letter
The job posting mentioned Shopify wanted to learn about people’s passions and how they demonstrate this passion outside of school. To account for this, I chose to focus on side projects and my volunteer work with UXRTO, rather than focusing on school projects.
During the application process, I also read up on Shopify’s culture and learned what they were looking for in candidates. I immersed myself in Reddit threads and blog posts written by past and current employees about their interview experiences, as well as their key takeaways from working at the company.
The Life Story Interview
In mid-November, I received an invitation for the Life Story interview. I enjoyed this interview because it gave me the opportunity to reflect on my life, interests, the decisions I’ve made, and why I made them. Before the interview, I wrote a list of events and interests that ultimately led me to pursue a career in UX.
I spoke about what makes me me, such as how I like to learn and try new things, how my customer service experience taught me a lot about people, and how a Japanese band motivated me to learn Japanese and allowed me to make friends from all over the world. The interview was more like a conversation and I had fun talking about myself since I rarely get the chance to tell my life story.
The On-site Technical Interview
A week after the Life Story interview, I was invited to go to the office for a technical interview, where I presented a research project to two Senior UX Researchers. Creating a presentation was a good opportunity to review and reflect on my project, which allowed me to thoughtfully answer questions about my design decisions.
The Offer
At the end of November, a week after the technical interview, I received an offer and accepted! I start in January and I can’t wait. 🙌
Takeaways
First of all, job hunting sucks and I hope I never have to spend an entire year of my life looking for a job again. 😅
Still, I learned a lot and made meaningful connections by taking advantage of the opportunities I was presented with. Even though I was at first intimidated by the thought of having a conversation with more experienced designers, everyone I connected with gave me helpful advice.
Most importantly, I strived throughout 2018 to improve my skills and didn’t succumb to the negative thoughts in my head about giving up and pursuing another career path. I know that the learning doesn’t stop now that I have a position. Fortunately, there is still loads more to learn in becoming a better researcher and a member of this growing community.
At times, it will seem like you’ll never find a job and that you’re not good enough. You might feel like everyone around you has gotten a job and you’ve been left hanging. It’ll be frustrating because companies will reject you even before understanding how amazing and hardworking you are. However, by taking the time to realize what you need to improve on, working on these areas and making meaningful connections, you’ll end up finding the perfect opportunity for you. It may take some time, but your hard work will pay off! 👊
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