How I Landed My First Design Internship (at SAP Vancouver)
This is a recount of my remote recruitment process for my first design internship in August of 2021 during the COVID-19 lockdowns. Some of the details may have blurred over time but here’s my best recall to help those that are trying to find their first internship or are interested in working at SAP. Please note that the recruitment experience may vary per candidate. All opinions are my own.
First internships are notoriously difficult to obtain. After 4 months of continuously applying and countless rejection emails, I felt dispirited and inadequate.
Towards the end of the summer, I noticed a job post for a UX Design Intern position from SAP on LinkedIn. The posting was highlighted by a classmate of mine who was already interning there.
Pandemic regulations made it impossible to have an in-person internship, so all recruitment happened remotely for me. This little Linkedin job post would eventually become my first industry experience as a designer. It had felt so miraculous to me that they actually decided to hire me despite having no work experience. Lemme tell you how it went:
01 — Application
The recruitment process began as I was browsing through jobs on Linkedin. I spotted an intern role for SAP and thought: what do I have to lose by simply trying? So off I went to complete their online application and dropped in my resume.
Leave the rejecton to HR
With no work experience, it’s easy to talk yourself out of opportunities. But you and I both know that it feels way better to have tried than to deny yourself a chance at success in the first place. So let the receiving end decide whether you’re a good fit and shoot your shot!
02 — HR Screening
After about a week, I got a screening email from HR asking to check over some basic details: expected graduation date, citizenship status, my availability to work for the next 8 months, etc.
Ask questions to your recruiter
As each company have their own unique hiring process, asking a couple of questions will do wonders in clearing up any misunderstandings you may have. The HR recruiter is there to help you along the way, so feel free to email them for any clarifications.
A few days after the screening process, I received an email request to book a time slot for an interview with a panel of designers. Showtime! ✨
03 — The Interview
The video interview was 45 mins with 4 senior UX designers as my hiring panellists. I was embarrassingly several minutes late because my moody internet refused to load me into the Microsoft Teams portal. Luckily, my panel was patient enough to stick around and happily went around to introduce themselves. When it was my turn, I proposed to share my screen as my introduction slides were embedded inside my presentation deck.
Familiarize yourself with the (virtual) environment
Different companies have their own preferences for tools. I’ve been invited to interviews via Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Google Meet, Webex, etc. If you have inconsistent internet, try using an ethernet cable to secure your WiFi connection during the call. Nowadays, I prepare for my interviews by:
Performing a test run on the specified platform ahead of time to acquint myself with the videocall controls and
Loading my interview screen 5 mins before my scheduled appointment
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Introducing Myself
I first briefed my audience on my journey switching from engineering to design. My intro slides visualized my educational background (engineering → business → interaction design) as well as the key skills I had developed during my time studying in various programs.
This approach helped to frame me as a unique candidate who is strong in systematic and analytical logic, supplemented with my empathetic and creative skills.
What skills make you unique?
If you only have academic experience, use this time to highlight some of the transferable skills you learned during your time as a student (regardless of your major) and/or in volunteer roles. How might your existing skillset add value to the company and design team?
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Outside of School
As a part of my intro, I also showcased my hobbies outside of design school: I competed regularly in hackathons, led a team of cool peeps for my program’s student association, and (under my mom’s mentorship) I was starting to develop my nascent talents in gardening. Your hobbies don’t have to be leadership experience or competitions. Some people talk about their baking adventures, running a cute Etsy shop, or simply walking their dog.
Interviewers are people too!
Sharing about how you spend your time outside of work helps the hiring committee understand you as a multi-dimensional person. It builds empathy in the room when you demonstrate your interests and what you do for fun outside of obligatory settings such as school or work.
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The Case Study
For my presentation, I presented a project I made during a hackathon early in the year. It was a case study I had completed in a team of 4 as the sole designer and was centred around mental health, a topic I was deeply passionate about. With my presentation deck packed and loaded, I knew I would have no trouble defending it during my interview.
I first ran through my process for the project and then the senior designers challenged me with questions in my design decisions: logic of the flow, mental models, and potential edge cases. I conveyed the surrounding conditions and the assumptions made during the hackathon that led to the final result for each of my design decisions. This stage of my interview mimicked a team design critique. Although my responses weren’t perfect, the team was able to see how I reacted to feedback and communicated my ideas as if I was a co-worker.
Know your project inside & out
When presenting for an interview, it’s essential to choose a project that you are proud of because the love and confidence will help to captivate your audience. It may feel tough to sound confident under the weight of your own imposter syndrome 😮💨 but remember that this is your project and you know this project best!(My favourite hack to calm my nerves is to level out the power dynamic by pretending as if I’m already working for this company and that this is just a regular day at work; 😌 I’m simply going in to collaborate with my design team.)
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Next Steps: Beyond the Brief
I knew I would be designing for SAP Analytics Cloud (SAC) from the original job description. Though I had limited interactions with the app, I demonstrated to my audience that I understood the purpose of analytics; to help B2B users identify existing patterns within their data and plan for the future. To echo my project to what the product team represented, I tactfully added a redesign to extend my hackathon idea in the “Next Steps” section (AKA “What Would I Do Differently”) as the final conclusion to my presentation. This small touch of analytics was able to spark some great questions from my panellists and generated interesting discussions thereafter.
Resonate with your audience
Looking back on this memory, my “Next Steps” section resonated with the designers as it mirrors SAC’s purpose. Even though my idea was just a draft, it implied that I’d already started thinking about the design challenges for a data-driven tool like SAC and that I was interested in developing my skills further within this role.
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Presentation Deck
Having slides for your interview will help pace your presentation, as well as show off your visual design skills. This was the structure I adapted for my presentation deck. Feel free to modify it to whatever works best for you. (Credits to Rohail for the base, thanks dude!)
cover page (name & tagline)
academic background & transferable skills
strengths & principles as a designer
what I do for fun (hobbies)
case study (approx. 17 pages*)
*The number of pages is dependent on your specific project. I aimed for each of my case study presentations to be around 12–15 mins.
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Presentation Criteria
structure of the case study
storytelling abilities
communicating your design decisions
thoroughness of project
design terminology
visual design of slides
04 — Offer Letter
Three days after my interview, I got a Friday morning email from my HR recruiter wanting to book a call with me for the upcoming Monday. (Interesting 👀…)
Lo and behold, in the following week HR called to congratulate me on the offer and I signed on to an 8-month internship the very next day.
Summary
Recruitment Stages
From application to offer, my recruitment took around 3 weeks in total, completed in following order:
Online application
HR Screening
45 min interview presenting a case study (or two)
Offer letter
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Tips
And to recap, here are all the lessons learnt:
Leave the rejection to the HR
Ask questions to your recruiter
What skills make you unique?
Interviewers are people too!
Familiarize yourself with the (virtual) environment
Know your project inside & out
Resonate with your audience
Final Thoughts
Looking back, my time as an SAP intern welcomed a plethora of new experiences, met lots of amazing people, and truly helped kickstart my design career. If you’re interested in retrospectives, the lessons I learned during my time as a UX design intern can be read on my portfolio.
If you have more design student or intern-related questions, feel free to reach me on Linkedin 🍵!