My Summer at Feedzai as a UX Designer Intern
Hi! I’m Laura and I spent my summer holidays as a UX Designer Intern at Feedzai!
For three months I had the chance to experience what it’s like to work in a company with people all around the world — online coffee breaks, asking questions on the chat — and the best part is that everyone was always willing to help. Even though the internship was remote, if I ever had a question, there would always be someone ready to help.
I learned a lot during the internship, and now I’m going to share my experience of going from a student to an intern. I’ll walk you through my journey end to end, and will share the takeaways from this experience.
How I came across the UX Designer internship
One afternoon, I was scrolling through Linkedin job listings, hoping to find an internship that met my expectations and interests, when I came across a company that caught my eye: Feedzai had a UX position for an intern. After reading the listing I knew this was an opportunity I couldn’t miss. “Why?,” you may ask. Well, for one, the internship would give me the opportunity to gain professional experience, learn more about UX tools and its methodologies, user journeys, user testings, Hi-Fi mockups, and more. On top of that, the position was remote, which was a huge plus for me (I was still very much afraid of getting COVID-19! ).
I saw the listing a few days before the application due date and I had none of the required documents prepared. It was a race against the clock to get them ready. Despite being able to deliver everything on time, I do not recommend going through all that stress. If you are planning to apply for an internship, start building your portfolio as soon as possible!
What documents do I need for my internship application?
Everything I needed to apply for the internship was pretty straightforward: a resume, a cover letter, and a portfolio.
Resume
I prepared a 1-page long resume after doing some initial research. The page was divided into five different sections:
- Section 1: my contact information with email, Linkedin and my website portfolio;
- Section 2: an “About Me” section where I introduced myself and briefly outlined what I was up to at the time;
- Section 3: my educational background;
- Section 4: the languages I speak;
- Section 5: my design skills and software proficiency;
- Extra section 6: since I did not have previous relevant professional experience I left that section out, but if you already have professional experience make sure you include it.
Cover Letter
In my cover letter, I focused on writing a concise one-page essay. I introduced myself by telling relevant parts of my journey, how I came across the internship, and what motivated me to apply for the internship. I also shared what I enjoy about UI/UX, my motivations, and my overall goals for the future.
Portfolio
When I built my own portfolio I gathered three projects (although two would have been enough). For your own portfolio, you should include two case studies that demonstrate your skills as a designer. What should be included in each case study? It is important to not only showcase your skills as a designer by presenting user journeys, diagrams, or interfaces you’ve created. It is also important to showcase your UX process — the steps you took from discovery to design.
What’s the interview process for the internship like?
The interviews weren’t as scary as I thought they would be. In fact, they weren’t scary at all. The process consisted of two interviews: in the first one, the UX team reviewed my portfolio; and in the second, I had the chance to speak directly with the UX Director.
The first interview was conducted remotely with two UX designers. During this interview they shared Feedzai’s mission, as well as what type of products offered. I told them a little bit about myself and my journey. Finally, I got the chance to present my portfolio. The length of this interview allowed me enough time to discuss two of my case studies. I should mention that, during the interview, I had to speak both in my native language (Portuguese) and English. Since the company has offices in many different countries, being able to speak English is essential.
The second interview was the remote call with the UX Director. In the first part, I introduced myself and spoke about my journey. In the second part, we discussed the case studies I had presented in the previous interview with the two UX designers. The director asked some questions about my process and the reasons for my design decisions on my case studies. These might sound like scary questions, but the entire process felt like a friendly, casual chat.
The internship onboarding process
During my university years I heard many horror stories about people having horrific first weeks at internships or first jobs, where they would be thrown right into the chaos e.g., being on calls, interacting with more than 15 people on the first day, or having to answer questions on an ongoing project). Others shared the exact opposite experience, i.e., getting no guidance at all.
A really positive aspect of my experience was the onboarding process. Feedzai’s onboarding experience allowed me not only to get to know people within the product team, and my teammates, but also to get acquainted with the products. All of this made it easier for me to reach out to everyone and start doing my work without feeling too lost. I was assigned to a “buddy” who helped me a lot during my internship, especially with the main project.
The team
When I started at Feedzai, the UX team was quite small — about seven designers, including myself. Everyone was very welcoming and supportive. Some of the highlights were the extra “meetings” — by which I mean virtual parties. After a day of work we would get into a zoom call, listen to music and play games! These always gave us a great laugh, especially when playing Gartic Phone. It is funny how not so wonderful our drawings look under pressure!
Besides the UX team, I was also part of the product-related team, which focused mostly on our risk investigation platform. This gave me the chance to work closely with a development team composed of back-end, front-end and quality assurance engineers, engineering and product managers, one technical writer, and, of course, UX designers.
The projects
During my internship I had my hands around three different projects, which allowed me to go through various phases of the design process:
The first project consisted of the ideation, design, and testing phases. My buddy and I brainstormed on possible solutions, created paper prototypes, and wireframes together while I worked on high fidelity prototypes more independently. The created designs were run by the UX team in Design Critique sessions, giving me feedback on what was working, what wasn’t and ideas on how to improve them. Once the designs were finished, I conducted user testing with internal users, which once again, gave me even more feedback to improve the designs accordingly.
The second project was focused on delivering dashboards that allowed everyone to see information about the company, clients, and products in a more interesting and visually appealing way, rather than looking at it through an extensive datasheet, which can be very boring and uninviting.
The third project was focused on the discovery phase. I poured over artifacts, gathered insights, and delivered a use case based on a real client and finally some wireframes on how the journey of managing users could be done inside the product.
My favorite project was definitely the very first one, since it was a lot more go, go, go. I was constantly getting in touch with people to help me improve the designs and most importantly conduct user testing, which is my favorite part of the entire design process.
During the internship I learned…
How to work in a fast-paced environment
At the beginning of the internship, delivering good designs was definitely a top concern, since I was new and unfamiliar with the products, I was worried that my deliverables wouldn’t live up to Feedzai’s standards.
Since I was doing an internship, the window of adaptation was shorter, which meant that I needed to become familiarized with the products in a short amount of time. In the beginning, it was hard, since the products are quite complex. But once I got my hands on the first project, all the information became less and less overwhelming. Having a better insight into the product has empowered me to deliver more consistent and overall better designs.
How reaching out to others can help you evolve
I’m a very shy person, so reaching out to others is not always easy. In fact, sometimes it’s extremely hard. However, the fact that everyone I spoke to was always very welcoming and willing to help, calmed my nerves and made reaching out to others much easier.
Working remotely can also be a very lonely process. Too often we get wrapped up in a single idea, which makes us unable to carry out our work more efficiently and reach our full potential. So, one of the things that helped me improve my design skills was being accompanied by someone from the UX team whenever I needed help or hit a roadblock. Each member of the team was always available to help. All I had to do was either message them or schedule a sync session.
That constructive feedback is your best friend
When starting as an intern, asking for help can be a little intimidating, since you don’t know the people and they have far more experience than you. However, asking for help is the right thing to do, precisely because they are experts in their field, so you will learn new things that will help you become a better designer.
There were many opportunities to get feedback. This includes the Design Critique Sessions with the UX team and Sprint Demo Sessions with other teams inside Feedzai. Also just by simply pinging everyone on the chat was a great way to get feedback.
The feedback I received was refreshing, since what I was used to during my uni days wasn’t so much constructive criticism, but a green/red light on whether or not we can move forward with the project. Receiving detailed feedback was the key to bringing the designs to the next level.
How to work in a professional environment
Prior to this internship I had never had a professional experience in the design field. The only thing I was already used to was working with deadlines, but everything else was new to me. I had no idea how to work hand in hand with product managers and engineers. I had to keep the project team in the loop about the progress and the latest stage of the designs. One way to do it was through team dailies. At first, I was a little reluctant to join the meetings, since most of the time I didn’t have much to say. But I came to learn that it is important to join the meetings even if I only have a tiny little thing to report. Reporting some progress is better than nothing.
Where am I now?
Not long before the internship was coming to an end, I was offered a full-time position and I’m glad to say I have been working at Feedzai for the last seven months! My work with Feedzai’s risk investigation team has continued and we’re now working on an exciting brand new feature and a bunch of other small, but long-awaited features too. I have also been jumping around different teams doing different types of projects — mostly hi-fi mockups and a discovery — but very soon I will be settling down for a bit with a new team!
In the past few months I learned a lot about working in a professional environment. I also learned how I should approach and handle complex problems.
Apply for the 2022 Summer internship!
If you liked to learn about my experience, know that this could be you this year too! The UX team is opening a new position for a summer internship! If you’re a Portuguese resident fresh out of university or still in university but passionate about UI/UX, this is a great opportunity to gain real-life experience on how to become a better designer. You’ll get to influence the products and have fun while you’re doing it!
This internship was made for you because you’ll get to…
… work on projects in every phase of the design process;
… work with complex, yet interesting use cases;
… experience how it is working with people in various steps of the product development;
… work with great teams who are always happy to help you;
How to apply?
Make sure you have the following: CV/Resume, a cover letter and a portfolio with at least two projects. If you have everything set, you are ready to apply. This year’s internship you’re looking for is the ”Risk Studio Dashboard/Landing Page(s)”. You can read more about it here.
The timeline for the internships is the following:
- From May 11 to May 27: candidates should apply
- From May 27 to June 17: Feedzai will review applications
- June 18: Feedzai will announce the results of the applications and coordinate with each intern the best time to start the internship
You can find the job listing here.
Good luck and see you very soon at the Design Meeting! 😄
