Design internship season @ IIT Guwahati: descriptive ramblings
I’m enrolled in the Bachelor of Design course at IIT G. In my third year summer (2021) I interned (remotely) as an interaction designer with D.E. Shaw India. Shortly after, I received a pre-placement offer to join them in July 2022.
This is about the application process. I’ll be publishing a piece with details of my actual internship experience shortly.
Disclaimers
As a general rule, I’m nervous about giving advice. This whole thing is a rambling reflection as seen through my highly distorted lens. Please keep sackfuls of salt at the ready.
Also, this piece is an abstraction that breezes over details of my personal experience. If you’d like to know more about that — hit me up 😇
Bird’s eye view
Timeline | Process
At IITG, the process for Design internships is separate from (and happens after) the other technical roles.
Perhaps because the process was organised online, the portfolio submission deadline was initially Mid-August, but kept getting pushed. I typically like to plan my work to have a few days buffer before time limits. If I need to, I pause other projects to make this happen. So it was frustrating for me in the face of shifting deadlines, and knowing that without this information asymmetry, I could have optimised my workflow better throughout.
Companies decide to visit campuses based on shortlisting resumes and portfolios. They arrive in bunches or slots. You can apply to all, some, or no companies in a slot. If you apply for multiple, you will have to give your order of preference. I remain confused about the difference between a Slot and Spot.
When a slot/ spot starts, companies may choose to further shortlist based on sending out ‘tasks’ — or design sprints. These can be anywhere from a few hours to a couple of weeks in duration. Multiple companies may have these tasks going on simultaneously. Based on this submission, there would usually be multiple rounds of interviews with further shortlisting. The results are announced when all the interviews are complete and selection has been made for that particular slot or spot.
Companies that typically arrive are large MNCs, hiring junior UX interns. If you’re interested in a more autonomous role, or in design fields other than UX, applying off-campus would likely yield richer opportunities.
Ping people (relentlessly)
Talk to seniors & professionals | Get recommendations | Keep a log
We were evacuated from campus due to the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020 — so I did the majority of internship-focused preparation from home. I’m pretty paranoid, so I constantly shamelessly bug people with streams of basic doubts. This includes immediate seniors and alumni, as well as working (UX and other) professionals. Here, it did help that I had a bit of context from having stayed on campus for 1.5 years, but I did bug those I didn’t know personally as well. I’m still amazed at the amount of ultra-sweet and immediate help I received. With particular reference to the internship season, I can see how I benefited from the well-informed and more big-picture perspectives this yielded, as well as specific actionable pointers.
What was important for me was to make sure to keep track of all this insight — log all my doubts, record different responses, take notes live during calls or meetings but also consolidate later. Of course, not all the input received resonated with what worked for me — but that was part of the learning, and helped me prioritise actionables like recommendations.
Part 0. Know what you’re (not) looking for
It’s about the jigsaw puzzle | Do your research | Read lots | Times are uncertain
I got this fantastic perspective from a very brilliant senior. It acted as pole star for me during the whole process.
What helped me is to think of this whole internship process as a jigsaw puzzle. The idea is to find the right fit right now between you (puzzle piece) and the company (puzzle). Either you fit or you don’t, and it says NOTHING about you as a designer.
There are thousands of internships out there. LinkedIn is buzzing with recruiters and opportunities. The answer to ‘Will I get an internship’ is invariably, yes. The more interesting and meaningful thing is to find an internship that works for you. It’s worth putting fight to get that.
While I do feel the ‘away’ motivation is less powerful, because it fades as you move, I think it’s crucial to be very clear on what you DON’T want from an internship. This could be in terms of what the company does, or how the team is structured, or what would be expected from you as an intern. It could also be broader. For example, I didn’t apply to companies based in the Delhi-NCR area.
To get a better idea of what I did (not) want, I spoke to previous interns about their experiences, and looked up the companies themselves. Also, I read. I read at least one long-form article every day — on topics ranging from how to give feedback to your boss to the origin of the high-five. I try to articulate my critical impressions of these pieces as well. Regular exposure to this prose, removed as it is from my experience bubble, piques my thinking and offers a tickle of possibility — as well as great idea fodder.
Some assorted pieces I’ve loved
Some companies may, on the basis of internship performance, extend a full-time opportunity. It’s important to know, though, that this is a function of organisational policy and team structuring — which may change even partway through your internship. There’s a lot of luck involved. Another factor is COVID and uncertain times. When I applied, I thought I was going to work on-site. I guess the main way to look at the internship would be as a solid learning experience.
Part 1. Resume
Keep it short | Be genuine
Front-loading helps. Make sure the important things come first, even if that means getting creative with the official template. Keep it brief, and focused on specifics (what you actually did) rather than abstractions or jargon for its own sake. Basically, the question to keep asking is, ‘Would I be comfortable justifying or explaining this during an interview?’
Part 2. Portfolio (oof)
Website vs. Behance | Process over outcome | Make narratives | Get feedback and iterate
I had some work documented on Behance, but for the internship season, I decided to host my portfolio on a personal website. This gave me more control over navigation and project prioritisation. Also, I wanted to make my portfolio more text-heavy, and a website offered an easier opportunity to bring in those flavours.
I did struggle with overly long project descriptions. I didn’t want to leave much out. The fact is, recruiters may spend 30 seconds of a cab journey on your portfolio. Creating a portfolio is a design project in itself. It’s important to front-load at the macro (structuring of and amongst projects) and micro levels (individual paragraphs) and be specific in what exactly you’re trying to emphasise. If it’s painful to not include certain details, a workaround is to hyperlink them.
I feel it’s important to choose projects where the process — not necessarily the outcome — is solid. Tell it like a story, make sure to emphasise
- Major insights at each section
- Assumptions made throughout
- Pros and cons of decisions
- How the impact of the project was or could be measured
- Gaps in the work
- What you’d do differently were you given more time or the chance to do this project over
- Personal reflections on how this contributed to your growth
- (With group projects, give) credit and clearly demarcate your contribution
Having a 2-week buffer in my timeline, for feedback and iteration, was invaluable. I got multiple portfolio reviews from seniors and classmates alike. After getting thoroughly confused, I prioritised tweaks that made sense to me, and made incremental changes accordingly.
Useful resources
- Cofolios.com a collation of design portfolios (and designers!) that gives exposure and inspiration beyond the IITG bubble.
- https://www.udemy.com/course/uxportfolio/ authored by an IITG alumnus, this course is SUPER comprehensive, insightful and well-structured.
- https://www.jeremy-stokes.com/ a great example of how to structure project narratives.
- https://www.bestfolios.com/home curated visual libraries of portfolios and resumes.
Part 3. Tasks
Apply selectively | Go through resources | Create a buffer | Make templates
Not all companies have design sprints before the interview phase. But typically, there would be overlap in the timelines of the ones that do. Sprints demand focused intensity, and working on multiple simultaneously (while classes and assignments are in full swing) would have been close to impossible for me. The general encouragement was to apply for everything — because that’s coming from the perspective of optimally representing the candidate pool to recruiters. I happily ignored this; I had a mental list of priority companies and applied very selectively. This was a blessing. I was able to focus my energies and forget about the rest.
Those couple of weeks — tasks and interviews — are going to be hectic. Creating a buffer in advance (in terms of coursework and whatever else) is a good idea. To prepare, I also wanted to understand the status quo. Going through the tasks of previous interns (and critically analysing them to see what I could do differently) was beneficial. I also read through several UX reviews, and did some myself in a regular but impromptu fashion, on random new apps I’d download, or websites I’d stumble across. This helped me gain more familiarity with UI patterns and broaden my idea pool.
Another thing I did in advance was creating a rough UI kit for prototyping (because I knew I’d struggle with that), and a presentation template for the final submission — which also helped structure my design process.
Particularly during the slightly longer tasks, it’s very easy to go down that rabbit hole of making screen after screen. It’s a good idea to prioritise those in which major (or atypical) design decisions have been made.
Useful resources
- Solving Product Design Exercises by Artiom Dashinsky. This was an AMAZING find!
- https://www.designassignments.com/#feature-grid3 has a repository of internship tasks
- https://bootcamp.uxdesign.cc/my-design-challenge-framework-4a61ccd740f5 design challenges can be overwhelming and open-ended. This article consolidates aspects from different frameworks into an approach that may give you more confidence while diving in.
Part 4. Interviews
Be yourself | Ask questions | Be prepared with responses
These were a blur. SO much learning. For D.E. Shaw, I had three consecutive calls, each lasting around 45 min. The process was such that I wouldn’t know I’d have an interview until half an hour or so before. I was intensely tuned in the whole time. At the end, I remember feeling a new kind of fatigue.
Just be yourself. Interviewers know you’re tense (I started by saying I was super nervous, so it was hardly sleuth work in my case) and would aim to put you at ease initially. The important thing is to show your enthusiasm and be articulate about it. As a fresher, they’re looking for the energy and attitude you bring to the table; your approach rather than your experience.
Look up the company (and possibly the interviewers) beforehand. I was bursting with questions — about the firm and its work, how the team was structured, what would be expected from me as an intern, what a typical day was like, how conflicts on the team were handled, and what role peer-to-peer collaboration played. Also, on a more individual note — about their journeys as designers, what drew them to the company, where they saw themselves in the future, what resources they frequented for personal growth, and (super important!) whether they were typically able to completely unplug from work on weekends.
At the same time, be prepared to answer questions. It helped me to jot down rough points to make. A self-introduction, why I chose (interaction) design, what it meant to me, and an example + justification of good design and not-so-good design. Spontaneity is interesting, so allow flexibility in your script. Also, be prepared with 2,5, and 10-minute versions of presentations for all the projects in your portfolio, and know which one you’d present if the choice was yours — which it likely will be. During the interview, you may be asked to carry out whiteboarding exercises on-the-spot, so they can understand your thinking in real-time. Here, Artiom Dashinsky’s book Solving Product Design Exercises was invaluable.
Throughout, it’s important to be genuine. Fudging may seem like an easier shortcut, but it’s usually painfully transparent to the other end. At the same time, it’s crucial to keep an eye on the pulse of the conversation with respect to what YOU are (not) looking for.
Part 5. Interning
Ask questions | Talk to people | Evaluate the fit | Expect intensity
Be genuine. Ask all the questions you need to understand, until you understand. Reaching out before the internship began, to recognise what I could to do to prepare, worked well for me. Fudging will backfire later, so give it the time that it needs. Talk to as many people as you can, across verticals. This may help if you want to transition later, and gives access to more diverse mentorship. Reach out to your fellow interns. They’re likely the people you’ll be working with most closely, should you join as a full time employee. And most importantly, the whole internship is an opportunity for both you and the company to evaluate the culture fit — they knew you had the other stuff when they hired you. You also need to keep checking in (and possibly documenting) on how you feel about the sustainability of the role you play. Get answers to all those lingering doubts.
As an undergrad, it may be possible or even the norm to work last-minute or show up late. But as an intern and a professional-under-the-lens, being punctual, present and accountable is the bottom line. There are no excuses; the price to be paid for violating these ‘soft’ expectations is high.
Overall, my time at D.E. Shaw was like a growth spurt, and it was worth the effort to get this internship that worked for me. I learnt SO much: my design work, how to effectively communicate with other members of my team and across the company. I gained more experience in determining an overarching design approach while paying attention to granularity. Those weeks were certainly all-consuming, so it helped that I was at home. I paused all my other projects and learning ventures, apart from the bare necessities. Of course, this may not always be the case. My classmates had very different experiences.
Useful resource
- https://twitter.com/shreyas/status/1276956836856393728?lang=en a thought-provoking thread from the other side (written by a professional.)
Closing note
Be supportive
Stay connected with your classmates; help each other out. Getting into that scarcity mentality is not worth it. There are thousands of internships out there, everyone’s looking for something subtly different, and what works for you may not for someone else. 20 years from now, the friends you keep would almost certainly shape your life more than that one summer.
Useful resources
These are curated by professionals. I find them lovely to dip into sporadically.
- https://www.notion.so/newincreative/The-Vault-Nguyen-s-Design-Resource-stash dd710673638a4c16a571574ff72d05f9#d877ff153a724e5e8392968b1aea575b
- https://www.degreeless.design/#UX
Feel free to reach out to me anytime 😇 Happy to have meandering discussions on anything from tree climbing to cryptic crossword puzzles.
Many thanks to Bhabani Shankar and Megha Agrawal for taking the time out to patiently go through this and provide thoughtful feedback & amazing suggestions!
