<aside> 👩‍💻 Rachel Lee is a fifth-year student majoring in Fine Arts and HCI and minoring in Animation and Special Effects and Media Design. Last summer, she had a UX design internship at Amazon and worked with F3 VIDA team (Whole Foods & Amazon Fresh). She also has experiences of product design at Visa and GBH. Let’s see what her experiences are like!

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Could you briefly introduce your internship position? What do you do for the job?

I was fortunate enough to intern for Amazon over the summer. It was a great hybrid internship in Seattle. And I was responsible for helping to redesign a lot of protocols for the Whole Foods and Amazon Fresh team. They call themselves F3 — “fresh food fast” — it was a pretty fun experience overall.

What is your daily routine like during the internship?

It was mostly remote, and I had issued a work laptop to me, but I could also go to the office and work on my laptop within the office, which was pretty cool. In the morning, I attend some meetings, learning what people are going to do and what people are currently working on. And then, from there, it was usually touching base with my manager and discussing any new design updates that I had done. At least in the first six weeks of the internship, I was doing a lot of user research: analyzing what Amazon had already done, or what it was struggling with, what it could do better in terms of customer service, which was what I was focusing on. And from there, I compiled a lot of research on what the company just needed to do better, basically, and what the company's current status was. And then, the second half of the internship was a lot of brainstorming, prototyping, wireframing, as well as creating multiple iterations of possible prototypes that I then presented to the team at the end of the internship. A lot of these practices were covered in our HCI courses.

Why did you choose UX design at Amazon specifically?

My first two corporate internships were at Visa and GBH. Both of those were remote, and they were great experiences. I learned so much from them. But especially last year, a lot of internships were still remote. And I think Amazon's internship was one of the few options I had where they were hybrid and inviting me to come to Seattle. And especially if I were to get a return offer from the company, I thought it would be pretty important to see what the city was like if I were to move there, or what the office culture was like. And I also really wanted to meet my co-workers and other interns after two years of remote school. So that was a huge factor in why I decided to go to Amazon.

What is your process of applying and getting into the position like?

For Amazon, at least, it's different from my previous internship application processes. For my other internships, I applied to all of them through Handshake, which I cannot recommend enough. I find that a lot easier to use than LinkedIn for students. It's pretty convenient, especially when everything's remote and just setting up sessions with employers and getting to talk to them one-on-one. And I feel like because it's a platform for students, it's easier to get your resume and portfolio looked at rather than just cold-applying. And then, I also went to many career fairs at CMU, especially before COVID hit. I went to these career fairs and just talked to people face to face and got my resume and portfolio looked at in person, which I feel like got me through a lot of doors. In terms of Amazon, what was different was that I actually just cold-applied. And then it was really on top of the fact that they were hosting a lot of online information sessions, which teaches people what you need to do if you want to apply to a UX design position. I went to all of those and took a lot of notes on what they were looking for. After I submitted my application, it was an interesting process. They got back to me about the final interview. It was a pretty long interview from that. And then, after I completed that interview process, I received an offer two weeks later.

What is one of your unforgettable experiences at Amazon?

I've never been to Seattle, and it was pretty surreal to be in the offices. Again, it was my first internship where I was in the space in person, which was amazing. And it was just really cool to meet a lot of new people. I have made a lot of friends at Amazon, who I still contact today, even like a year later. And it was just really fun exploring the offices with them, meeting my co-workers in person. We went on a picnic one time in a lovely park in Seattle, just for the company to get together. This is such a clichéd answer, but everything was so new to me after two years of just remote learning and interning, everything about that internship was unforgettable.

What is one thing that you learned and find the most useful/valuable from this experience?

Being confident in my designs. I know that's such a no-brainer, but even during my other two internships before Amazon, I was always a little hesitant to assert my choices and be like, "is this the right decision I'm making? Would my co-workers look down upon me? They probably think I'm just an immature student." I had that mindset going into Amazon at first, but then my manager and many other co-workers set me down, and they were like, "if we weren't confident in your abilities, we would not have chosen you for this position." And that put a lot of things into perspective. So I stopped second-guessing myself. If there's any pushback on my design decisions or the research I did, I stood by my decisions and thoroughly explained why I thought this was the best route moving forward. And I think that it made me realize that I was chosen here; I am a designer, and I know what I'm doing. CMU HCI program is also pretty intense, and I feel like we learned a lot from here. The accumulation of all that helped me become a much more confident designer.

What is your career plan after graduation like?

I will be joining Duolingo after graduation as a product designer, and I'm very excited for that. I still haven't gotten the specifics yet, but I do know that because Duolingo is a highly visual app, and they're focusing primarily on their mobile app, it will be something to do with catering to their current operations within the app. Regardless of what they do, I'm pretty excited for Duolingo as it has always been one of my dream companies and the fact that we'll be joining them soon. It's still kind of surreal for me.

Envisioning 5 or 10 years later, would you be still doing design work for companies like Duolingo or Amazon, or you would like to explore some other industries?

I thought ten years down the line; it would be cool to be maybe a senior designer or a design manager, especially to have more responsibilities and be a lot more hands on whatever operations they are doing. In terms of industry, tech is pretty cool, too. But I think it would also be great to work for non-profits or some companies that are tangibly giving back to communities around them. That was also a huge reason I chose Duolingo because it makes language learning universally accessible, which is a pretty cool mission to be a part of.

What do you like about UX/product design and the UX industry in general?

One thing that drew me to the UX industry was how there aren't a lot of barriers to entry.  I've seen so many different people from so many different backgrounds within the UX industry. When I came to CMU, I was a Fine Arts major. I still have a Fine Arts major, but I decided to add on my double major, which has never hindered me. My background in Fine Arts has always helped me become a better designer and who I am. Even in the HCI program, there are so many students who come from so many different backgrounds, like Business, Information Systems, Design, or Computer Science. So many people are still going into UX design. I don't think I've ever met an older UX designer right now who came from a traditional HCI or UX background, which I found so remarkable. It's such an open field for anyone who wants to get into it, put their mind to it, and have a successful career in it.

What is one important skill that a UX/product designer should possess?