Summer Design Internship
summary
Tegus • Director of Product Design • Summer 2023
I started the first design internship at Tegus in the Summer of 2023. Everything from recruiting to setting up the program, I help create a new culture of college students building products within Tegus. Our core belief was to not just give interns "side projects" but put them on real products to truly be apart of the fundamental development process. We wanted to provide real-world experience to best set them up for their future career opportunities.
Leadership
Management
Hiring
Started with the planning
I had 3 months to recruit and plan for 2 design interns to join us at Tegus for the first time. This was no small task as most interns had already locked in their internships. Additionally, we wanted to compete with the top technology companies and be competitive. We need to help students with relocation and onboarding and prepare our internal teams to provide the best experience for our interns. We outlined roles and expectations and tapped senior designers who wanted to test management to be the interns' managers.
Let the fun begin!!
We made pendant banners to reflect all the interns (both engineering and design) and used them in the office and throughout the internship program. On the first day of onboarding, we also made felt versions of the banners.
Learnings
As you would expect we learned a lot from our first internship program. We also conducted a survey and did exit interviews to learn what worked and were we could improve. Here are some of the results.
