Although recruiting for your first internship is challenging, know that it is totally possible to do! Our designers and recruiters shared tips on how to succeed without prior internship experience.

<aside> 🕸️ Portfolio projects Feel free to show personal projects, class projects, club projects, hackathon projects, and app redesigns. These are totally fine as long as you know your design and thought process inside out and these projects can showcase your abilities in problem solving, product thinking, applying or conducting UX research, interaction design, and/or UI design.

Tip: Joining design, product, or engineering clubs can help you come up with the motivation and opportunity to work on projects and collaborate with people in other roles. Additionally, joining clubs can connect you with more experienced members or alumni who can help you get your first design opportunity.

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<aside> 🐛 Before your interview Reach out to professionals on LinkedIn who are where you want to be (e.g. interns, new grad professionals) and ask them about how they got there. Trust us, most people are willing to help!

Asking for a 10-15 minute call is appropriate to get to know them and build a relationship with them as opposed to just having them type out an answer.

Customize your message to the person you're sending it to instead of sending a vague blanket message to everyone you plan on contacting. Look at their LinkedIn profile and portfolio to seek passions, past work, or projects that resonate with you or interest you and use this as an icebreaker.

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<aside> 🦋 During your interview It's important to show that you’re willing to learn and grow. For interns and new grads, companies are looking for potential rather than mastery of skill.

Ask your interviewers how they broke in to design and what they previously did so you can learn from their wisdom and experience.

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