Losing a Google UX Design Internship to COVID and What I Did About it
I remember when I applied for the internship. I kept refreshing the page until the application button went live. It almost felt like if I took my eyes off of it, I would miss it entirely. Once I did apply, I was lucky enough to move to the next stage and get the design challenge. That was one of the most challenging but also exhilarating projects I’ve ever worked on. Luckily, it was enough to move me to the project match stage. I ended up matching with a team and had my interview a week later. Once I had passed that, I met the team that I had matched with: YouTube Gaming, and as a resident gamer, I was super excited about this team. I even went as far as doing pre-research on the project and immersing myself in the live streaming world so I could hit the ground running at the internship.
But that all changed when I got the phone call.
I remember getting it on a Monday in March. The recruiter was super friendly about it and let me know they canceled projects. I was grateful that she called to tell me what happened and let me know that I should be super proud that I had made it so far! I had matched with the YouTube Gaming team and was at the Offer Review stage. She let me know that I could reach out with questions and try again next year. I don’t think there was any way she could have been nicer about it but since I was so sure that I would land the internship that when I found it was canceled, I couldn’t process it.
I cried for the rest of the day.
I knew why they made that choice, and it was fair; COVID was causing so much hardship on everyone. They had to make a difficult decision for the company and its employees’ best interests. Although it felt awful, I knew ultimately it was the right decision.
I spent a few days just being sad and moping around. I talked to a few friends who had also lost their internships, and we vented and supported each other. Friends and family were also a BIG help during this time. It was during this time that I realized how wonderful the people at Google are. My potential intern manager, Xinni, kept in touch with me and supported me. She tried her absolute hardest to make the internship happen, and I could see just how much she cared. It almost seemed like she was sadder about the cancelation than I was. She offered to still mentor me throughout the summer and answer questions as I navigated new experiences. The fact that Google has people like her makes me want to try again. She was instrumental in me dealing with losing the internship and feeling better about the whole situation. In fact, we still email sometimes. She shares her Animal Crossing island screenshots with me, and I ask her about being a designer.
Once I had gone through all 7 stages of grief, I knew it was time to get back into it and try again. I had a whole summer, and I would not lose it to COVID. I joined slack groups and signed every “Lost your internship to COVID?” group that I could find. I think this initiative really started to change my luck.
My first stroke of luck came from my professor. He offered me a position as a Research Assistant at his HCI lab doing research. I happily accepted this role and began working with him. I knew that academic research would improve my user research skills and help me improve my communication skills. It has been super fun so far. I’ve learned a lot about research and how to go about creating protocols for interviews. I learned how to ask questions in a way that the participants would know how to answer instead of going off in a tangent. Soon I will be conducting interviews and drawing insights from them.
My second stroke of luck came from a Slack group I joined called Zinterns. It was in this group that I met my incredible mentor, Wayne Robins. He has been guiding me, finding new opportunities for me, and giving me feedback when I needed it. As a design leader, he was able to provide insight into problems and help reframe my thinking in ways I had never considered. With his help, I was able to land a part-time internship at a Design Agency called Not Dev and another part-time internship at Saltwater Capital.
At Not Dev, I learned how to interface with clients, stakeholders, and other designers. I improved my visual design skills and learned how to work within a design system. This internship gave me the skills to critique not only other designs but also my own. I built user flows, wireframes, and prototypes using Figma, and guerrilla tested them with real people.
At Saltwater, I got to work on the UX of a fantastic product called Potluck. I’ve learned how to present information to stakeholders in a meaningful way. I learned how to take broad research and insights and boil them down into actionable next steps and recommendations. I learned how to leverage tools like FullStory to help me do user research. I learned how important it is to have a consistent style guide that contains more than just colors and components (we have to include design principles and tone of voice).
This summer has been a crazy roller coaster of emotions. I went from hopeful to dejected to hopeful again, and now I’m excited about the future. I spent a lot of time feeling like I wasn’t good enough and wondering how I got so unlucky. Once I let myself feel all the sadness, I knew it was time to move on.
I met so many incredible people this summer, all of whom have had a profound and lasting impact on my career. I am grateful to all the people who took a chance on me and believed in my skills. Now, I wake up excited to learn something new from the wonderful people I’ve met. Some weeks I end up doing 60 hours purely because I love what I do and because I want to improve my skills.
This summer made me realize the importance of never giving up. Even with failures. As the famous saying goes:
Although I didn’t land the Google UX Design internship this year, I definitely don’t plan on giving up. I’ve learned through this process just how kind Googlers are and to Google I say, hope to see you next year!
P.S I’m looking for fall 2020 and winter 2021 internships! If you are looking for a UX design intern, please let me know!
My Portfolio: https://taamannae.dev/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/taamannae/
Resume: https://taamannae.dev/tammy_taabassum_resume.pdf
Dribbble: https://dribbble.com/taamannae
