Always Learning: Before, during and after my internship at Macquarie Group
I’m no stranger to it; I know there’ll always be talk in our design cohorts of securing an internship here, internship offer there, internship offer… where and how actually? Well, I’ve been through it myself and I want to share that moving through your design career journey shouldn’t feel like a race. Instead, everyone is on their own path.
And, when you think you’re up for it, I’ll give you my tips to ✨finesse✨ and make the most of your internship.
But, who am I to take advice from? I’m just another design student trying to navigate the industry world of design, let alone their young 20-something-year-old life. Well, some good advice I found for who to take good advice from is to, “never take advice from people who aren’t getting the results you want to experience. If you don’t like what you see in the life of the messenger, it’s usually best to ignore the message.”
So, let me give you some context as to who I am. I’m Regina, my pronouns are she/her. I’m someone who froths for good live music, a good outfit, and recently found out that I love animals with short legs (e.g. sausage dogs, munchkin cats, shetland ponies 🥹). Now, as for what I think gives me credit to share some advice based on my experience: I’m in my final years of studying a Bachelor of Design Computing at The University of Sydney, I was apart of Macquarie Group’s 2022/23 Summer Internship Program and have been part-timing in the Experience Design team as a Service Designer ever since. I’m also SUEDE’s Industry Events Co-director for 2023. A year ago, I was a completely different person in terms of the skills I possessed, my confidence in my designer identity and the direction I wanted to take in my career path. However, I’ve always been a reflective person, and so I’d like to share what I’ve learnt, to empower others through the rich experiences I’ve had before, during and after my internship.
Before: Internship, internship, internship
Debunking the pressures of securing internship positions
If you are reading this, I’m sure you have heard of, are going through or have experienced the ordeals of securing an internship or graduate role. Being in a design cohort, there is undoubtedly pressure to level with your peers and find some sort of experience to harness what you’ve learnt in class. It’s also crucial to remember that for most of us studying a Bachelor of Design Computing or Interaction Design at USYD, a three-year course can feel extremely short. And so, only after just learning some design basics, beginning your second year or what is technically your penultimate-year, finding an internship can become overlooked or can feel too early for some.
For me, it was the end of my first year when I decided to challenge myself with the new year’s resolution to finish the next year with at least one internship offer. I did what everyone else did; open up LinkedIn and Seek, save any searches under “design, design internship, UX,” submit my resume for the 10th time and with a hopeful but cautious outlook, keep an eye out for any returning emails. Luckily, I was supported with the advice from tutors and friends and was able to learn deeply about the process from attending SUEDE’s Recruitment event series (subtle plug 🔌). And with even more luck and persistence, after some calls, some daunting psychometric math quizzes -which I thought I dodged taking a design course- I was very happy to fulfil that new years resolution with two offers: one to a digital consultancy and an accepted offer to a financial services group (read more to hear my experience 😉).
So, I can call it luck, I can call it perseverance to keep clicking that submit button, but moreover, I felt like it was just the right time for me to put myself out there. My takeaway that I want to share is that everyone is at their own pace. Yes, you’re in a cohort with 100+ others trying to find a role and there’s certainly pressure to do the same, but also, that pressure and strive to do so should only come from yourself. Everyone is on their own path in terms of their career and studies, and so I believe as hard as it can be, there is no need to compare. At the same time, if you do think you’re not ready to find a role, that’s completely valid too. You’re never too late or early to the game — starting your career can start at your own time. I think it’s special that in this day and age, people are realising alternative paths to a career or traditional route. I believe in taking advantage of that however that looks to you. If you want to wrap up your studies and take a gap year before your graduate role, that’s so fine! (hint: that’s what I’m doing 🤘🏽).
The “lack of experience” dead-end
When it comes to finding a role, there seems to be this universal hurdle with not having enough experience. Junior UX Designer requires at least 1–3 years of relevant experience, sometimes even a design internship requires experience in A, B and C! So how and where do we begin with finding a role?! From my experience, and I urge you again to take this however you want, my learnings after going through the internship application processes myself is to counter this “lack of experience” with your ability to finesse and reflect.
Finesse — bring about or deal with (something) by using great delicacy and skill. This is an Oxford Languages definition that pops up through a simple Google search, and finesse might mean something different to you but here’s what it means to me. As daunting as interviews can be and as imposter-like as we can feel to whether we suit the role, if anyone’s going to believe in you, it’s gotta be yourself. And so, I’ve always believed in trying to present myself as truthfully and proudly as I can. Finessing my interviews means staying honest to myself, but tweaking answers so that it still suits the question. Okay, I’m not sure if that makes sense but I’ll share some examples:
- When it comes to sharing the skills and assets I present to a role, I’m honest if a certain skill isn’t my forte or if it isn’t even on my skill radar. How I finesse this, is by sharing my willingness to learn and my open-mindedness to adapt on the job.
- There was a time when all the job experiences I had to offer solely revolved around my five-ish years of hospitality and customer service, a floating tutoring job I had, and an odd call centre job (no surprise in the realities of jobs for young Australians 🤠). It was hard to connect the dots between responsibilities of writing down a customer’s order to speaking to clients in a design role. However, the finesse comes in realising and identifying transferable skills and characteristics that come from previous job responsibilities you’ve had. In writing a customer’s order down, you’re listening to their needs and trying to meet their preferences. When I was tutoring children, I was understanding their behaviour and attitudes to work so I could assist them in ways that met their learning styles. And when I was on the phone to customers complaining on the other side of the line, I was patient in readjusting the capacity of the business to meet a solution that satisfies both the customer and all stakeholders involved. Sound familiar to the human-centred skills we foster in design? Hence, I believe any and all experience is justified. It just depends on how you can tweak the answer to be honest and best present yourself for the role. Finesse ✨
Reflect. I think regardless of how experienced one can be or how little experienced they are, a strong skill set that any role needs is a growth mindset and your ability to be attuned to your learnings. As design students, our experience often relies on what is shown on our portfolios (full disclosure: my portfolio is a WIP 🤪, but I share this advice from attending portfolio reviews and in hearing from recruiters ✊🏽). So yes, it’s great that you did 10 empathy interviews and used affinity diagramming and landed with 10 insights. But, where I believe you can really shine is in your ability to reflect; to approach any project with that outer lens to see gaps in the process, mention what this step made you realise, and how you aim to improve for the future. For instance, were those 10 empathy interviews enough or do you think there is more representation you can get in your research? How was the affinity diagramming process helpful to progress towards your insights? Is there another method you want to explore in your design toolkit to produce themes instead? Admittedly, these are questions I’m also answering as I grow as a designer. So, I urge you to consider your reflections within a project and also your reflections more holistically as a budding designer.
Again, I am totally transparent to the fact that I am only just at the roots of my design career. However, I’m proud to have jumped over that “lack of experience” hurdle with a combination of finesse and reflection to showcase my passionate, growth-mindset to move forward.
During: Making the most and the best of your internship
In December of 2022, I began what has now become one of my most rewarding experiences that I continue to have: my Summer Internship at Macquarie Group as a Service Designer. More than I can express, I am grateful and beyond proud to be a part of one of many design teams at Macquarie Group. My experience has led me to meet talented and supportive co-workers and leaders that I work alongside. I can also speak highly to the inclusive and diverse culture my team provided for me, so that I can show up at work as myself. Macquarie Group’s Summer Internship program certainly jumpstarted me with lots of opportunities to progress in my career and design mindset. I’d love to share it all but here’s an insight into some of my learnings and experiences.
I am an intern (and more)
By job title, I was recruited to be an intern as a Service Designer in COG Digital’s Experience Design team. However, I want to begin my recount with the “and more” part of my experience. I believe Macquarie Group’s approach to their Summer Internship Program and work culture in general allows for all voices to be valued, no matter your level. Standing true to their company purpose, they foster a real sense of accountability and opportunity, which I can attest to from day one of my internship. Imagine it’s your first day in the office, you’re being introduced to the team, you get your work laptop; the usuals. However, in addition to that, imagine sitting down for a meeting with your manager and boss, on your first day, to be told that during your internship you would lead a small team through the discovery and research stages of a project, whilst all being told that on your first day! Now, I share this not to present my team as a demanding one, but rather the opposite. Instead, I was very fortunate to be given the opportunity and ownership to lead a project, whilst having the utmost confidence and support from my manager and boss. It goes to show that my experience at Macquarie Group’s Summer Internship program goes beyond my job title as I was an intern and more; leading a project, showcasing what I know from my studies and learning from my like-minded design team. My recommendations to achieve an internship experience you’d like, regardless of the company, is to have open conversations with your manager about your goals and expectations. Of course, you’ll be given your primary task and your manager may also set expectations for you but with a little sprinkle of job crafting, you can ensure you’ll move forward from your internship being more than an intern. For instance, I voiced my interests to my manager to improve my presentation and communication skills. Let’s just say I’ll let the pictures my team took of me to explain how that went.
Q&A time is for questions
Another part of the “and more” that I experienced at Macquarie Group is their inclusion of multiple workshops, sessions and events that allowed us to upskill in different capabilities and network with talented individuals. Whilst I was in the Experience Design team, I engaged in workshops driven by other teams to learn about capabilities such as Data, Agile working and Eliminating Failure Demand. During these sessions, there are always times to ask questions and my biggest advice is simply to do that: ask your questions! Undoubtedly there is a nerve in raising your hand amongst your internship cohort and in front of industry professionals. However, equally so, you are an intern for a reason and I believe that means your role is primarily to learn. My experience, especially at a financial group, is that you’ll hear lots of technical jargon and acronyms used (heavy emphasis of Macquarie Group’s use of acronyms 😅) and in no way are you expected to know what it means. So even if it involves asking what a term means during a meeting or putting your hand up in front of a crowd, I urge you to do so. Asking questions isn’t silly or doesn’t show you’re dumb; it shows you are an engaged listener, keen learner and hey, it can also make you stand out from your cohort.
“Let’s catch up for coffee!”
It’s safe to say that finishing my three-months at Macquarie Group left me with close connections within my intern cohort group and within my Experience Design team. Alongside the hard work, I was also introduced to the concept and importance of “coffee catch ups.” It is here where I was able to form good work relations with mentors, receive advice for my own work and learn from their experience. My tips are to take advantage of your ability to reach out to coworkers and your leaders for a coffee catchup for many reasons but especially these two: most people if not everyone, especially in my experience at Macquarie Group, is more than happy to share their wits and tricks and secondly, it’s as easy as sending a Teams message! As for what to talk about, a tip I got from a mentor is to make sure you tell people what you’re passionate and interested in because you’ll never know when they’ll reach out to you for that reason for advice and even a job opportunity.
After: Always learning, especially after my internship
I’m proud to share that my learnings and effort during my internship certainly paid off as I’ve been fortunate to continue working part-time with my team. I’ve got to say: balancing my two-days at work with completing three units of full-time studies, fulfilling my role as a SUEDE executive member, whilst making time for family, friends, personal interests and my health came with its whole other set of challenges and learnings. Staying honest to the idea of always learning, I will keep no secret to the fact that my past year certainly came with its ups and downs. One thing I’ll continue to figure out is context-switching and my ability to place boundaries between all the people and things I prioritise… but we’ll keep that for another conversation.
If you’d like to reach out to me, I’d love to hear your thoughts! Whether it be to share your experiences, talk about music or fashion, ask any questions (and I mean it 🫵) or for a fun little coffee catch up. My socials are below!
About
Regina is a third-year student completing a Bachelor of Design Computing. She works part-time as a Service Designer in Macquarie Group and there, she’s passionate in designing end-to-end experiences that are inclusive for all and puts the customer first. Importantly, she’s interested in the world of audiovisual experiences and wants to build connections to the design community.
