Internship guides
How to get a design & ux internship
How design & ux internships are actually won: the skills employers screen for, how to stand out without experience, what the interviews test, and live data on who is hiring right now.
The design & ux internship market right now
Intern Insider is currently tracking 96 open design & ux internships, 33 added this week. 94% of postings that disclose pay are paid, and 11% offer remote work. Employers hiring now include Careers at Crown, Palantir Technologies, Brunswick Corporation, Apple, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Skills employers screen for
- Figma fluency
- Interaction and visual fundamentals
- User research basics
- Prototyping and iteration speed
- Presenting and defending design decisions
How to stand out without experience
- Build a portfolio of two or three case studies that show process, not just final screens
- Redesign a real flow you find frustrating and explain the constraints you honored
- Seek critique publicly and show how the work changed because of it
What the interviews test
The portfolio walkthrough is the interview. For each project be ready to answer: what was the problem, what did you try, why did you land here, and what would you do with another week.
When to apply: the summer 2027 cycle
Big programs open applications around August-November 2026; healthcare, media, and startups keep posting into spring 2027. Roles start May-June 2027. Applying inside the first days of a posting matters more than a perfect resume submitted late, so check the freshest roles first.
