Part 4: Navigating an Offer
This is Part 4 in a 5-part series for Social Science PhD students on how to apply for UX Research internships. Read Parts 1, 2, 3, and 5 here.
I am a Sociology PhD student at UC Irvine. I am primarily a qualitative researcher, and I study gender, technology, culture and inequality in India. I have never worked outside a university or in a non-academic role; and as a social scientist, I don’t have a background in engineering, pure sciences, or design. This summer, I completed a UX Research Internship with the Fitbit team at Google, in San Francisco.
Many academics in social science are looking to transition to industry jobs at the moment. If you are one of them, or if you are wondering how to explore industry jobs, perhaps this series of articles will be useful to you. I describe why I decided to explore UXR internships, what my application process was like, how to prepare for interviews, and what according to me are the most common mistakes made by social scientists applying to these roles.
Disclaimer: This article is based entirely on my personal experience of going through the hiring process for UX research internship roles in 2021–2022.
If you receive an offer — congratulations! You will probably have the chance to talk to your recruiter and to the team lead and ask any post-interview questions that come up. If there’s anything you wanted that you forgot to ask, this is the time to do so. Once you receive the offer, you can go through it carefully and make a decision.
Definitely check (both online and with the people who helped you during this process) whether the salary being offered is on par with typical salaries for a UXR intern or full-time team member. Also, don’t be shy to ask for accommodations that you need — for example, one good thing to ask might be whether your relocation charges will be covered (they usually will be).
Big vs Small Companies
I received UXR internship offers from 2 companies — one was a big tech company and the other a small tech company. I liked both the teams and projects a lot and it took me time to make the final decision. Here are some of the things I considered:
Impact
You may have the chance to create a much greater impact at smaller companies, where there are fewer people and a lot more work. Since startups are creating as they go along, it is more likely that working here may involve a chance to influence processes and products at a more direct and large-scale level than at a big company, where there are likely to be lots of people, lots of processes and a well-set bureaucracy to format your internship. At the same time, even a small change or improvement at a big company could end up impacting a much larger magniture of end users, and getting to work at a big company can feel exciting in its own way.
Initially, I felt excited about joining a smaller company especially as I really loved their product and goals.
Project Fit
A most important factor is how you feel about the projects you are offered. Some questions you can ask yourself are: which project is a better fit for my interests and background? In which project will I learn more? Which project excites me more? Which project has a greater impact? Which project is more useful to my academic career? (In case you want to keep that door open).
When it came to this, the bigger company and the specific project I was matched with there, was a better fit in my case and I felt it aligned very closely to my interests and experience.
Team Members
This too is extremely important — how do you feel about your team members and team lead? Who all will you be working with? What is the team culture like? You will be working very closely with your team, so these are great questions to ask and think about.
In this regard, I was torn because I genuinely loved meeting the team members from both companies. I had met and interviewed with more team members at the smaller company, and loved interacting with each person and loved the team culture. The team members at both places were women with social science degrees who were passionate about mentorship,and this made me feel very supported and enthusiastic.
Reputation
If you see the internship is a pathway for other opportunities — internships or jobs, for example, then reputation is a factor that becomes important. Working at bigger companies may bring you more recognition and easier job opportunities, so this is also something to assess.
In my case, this was a tempting factor, but not the deciding one.
Remuneration
In practice, the difference in salaries between bigger and smaller companies may not be significant. I don’t know enough to make a general comment about this, as offers can vary so much by company, application, location and year.
In my case, I got equally competitive offers from both places, and remuneration was not a meaningful factor.
Hybrid Work
In Covid times, the format of work is another important factor, depending on the state of the pandemic and your own preferences. You will want to check which company offers which form of work — is it flexible? Can you work remotely, hybrid or do you have to come in to work?
In my case, I was keen to experience in-person work as I might never get a chance to intern at a tech company again. So, the possibility of hybrid or in-person work became important to me and was eventually the big deciding factor.
Don’t miss the last article in the series!
Part 5: Avoiding the Most Common Mistake Made By Academic Applicants