What is it Like to Intern with BJC?

My summer intern from NYU’s Learning Tech and Experience Design program was interviewed recently about what it was like. I thought it might be nice to share it here, as a resource for my future interns and any interns you might have the good fortune of working with in the future.

Getting to Know Emma

Emma: I’m from China, a second year LDXT student (2022). I studied in Jinan University in China and had a background in journalism and Chinese language. I worked in a journalism company before but don’t have any experience of education or design.

Sherry: What drew you to the LDXT program?

Emma: I had a few elective courses when I was a university student in instructional design, national education and digital design. That triggered my interest in educational technology to make learning more engaging.

Emma: I had my internship at Barry Joseph Consulting as a UX designer in 2022 from May to August. The company is working with the Utah Education Network (UEN) to improve their user experience. UEN has provided infrastructure and support for higher educators in Utah through building technology and licensing. A lot of public schools and communities are using UEN resources in their teaching and learning. But as time goes on, users’ daily teaching and learning has changed a lot. At the same time, the teaching model and education has experienced revolution because of the pandemic. In order to have a better understanding of user’s needs, UEN collaborated with Barry Joseph Consulting to develop tools that would help UEN better understand their users and their needs. Since the company already had their prototypes, most of my job focused on the research: to understand the user pain points. In order to know the pain points, we conducted interviews and surveys, analyzed the data and created personas, journey maps, and experience maps.

Sherry: Why did you want to do an internship?

Emma: Doing an internship will be helpful for our future career. And I think an internship is a connection between the school and society so that I can have real-world experience and learn something I couldn’t learn from schools such as communications in the workplace, team collaboration, client needs, etc. Also, it’s a good way to polish our portfolio and resume.

Sherry: Why did you choose to do your internship as a UX designer?

Emma: I spent a lot of time browsing online information to figure out my future career and I found the UX designer is a meaningful job to make people’s life more enjoyable, which I’d like to set my path in. Therefore, I chose to do my internship as a UX designer.

Sherry: Did you face any challenges during your internship?

Emma: Of course I had! I came across many difficulties. For example, it’s hard to condense 50 interview data to create a persona. It really challenged my analysis skills. Thankfully, my boss was very supportive and kind to help me.

Emma: I found the opportunity from ECT general chat on slack. Janelle sent the information and I sent the email to apply for. However, the final decision was still on the company. I was applying for other positions on LinkedIn and Indeed as well in the beginning of April. Though a bit anxious at that time, I finally got the position at Berry Joseph Consulting in May and started working a few weeks later.

Sherry: What advice do you have for students who also want to be a UX designer?

Emma: Firstly, it’d be better to be familiar with the process and have the basic knowledge of UX design. Those would be helpful when you’re working as an intern. Secondly, find your advantages and potentials to set up your career path such as UX writing, UX researcher, or UX design. Thirdly, always keep yourself updated in design knowledge. You can learn the design trends from Podcast, Medium, Behance, etc. Last but not least, prepare your portfolio as early as possible. It’d be the most important thing for applying for a job.

Sherry: What advice do you have for students to get the most out of their internship?

Emma: I would say don’t be afraid of asking questions. Your teammates and mentor will help you and you will be able to learn the knowledge that is impossible to learn at school.

Sherry: How might current LTXD students on a career path like yours make the most of their time in the program?

Emma: In my perspective, focusing on the classes can help build the fundamental knowledge. Also, setting up your career goal as early as possible helps you monitor what tools you still need to learn and what elective courses you should take. Try to make your class project better because they will be presented in your portfolio. Lastly, networking with your classmates and professors. They can help you with abundant resources and information for your study and work.