Ghosted by internships? How to make this summer count as a design student!
So, summer.
It was supposed to be internship szn—lanyard selfies, the coveted “incoming intern” tag, a Slack handle at your dream company. Instead: no offer, ghosted inbox, LinkedIn flex-fest, and the mirror asking, “now what?” Been there. Grind? Chill? Side quest? Below is the straight-talk guide—your rarest asset is time.
We’ll break down real options (and hard pitfalls) so August-you lands stronger. And yes, at the very end we’ll mention our advanced design cohort—the internship-level structure people use when the hiring cycle whiffs. Just one more path in the toolkit and explaining how that got our alumni all these big tech offers the last few cohorts.
It’s gonna be a hop design summer 🐰
1 Vanish to the beach - 0/10 Two months, mango paletas, zero Figma.
When it rocks: you’re fried and need a factory reset.
When it sucks: August hits, LinkedIn opens, motivation snaps like stale ramen. If you go full vacation, own it and stop doom-scrolling, maybe it’s a good 10/10 mental health recovery.
2 100-day UI grind / unsolicited redesigns- 2/10
Looks productive, feels productive. Real products aren’t museum pieces—they’re constraint soup. Hiring managers may applaud your Dribbble shots, then ask, “Have you ever shipped something that broke at 3 a.m.?”
Daily challenges do build discipline and can be impressive, but we recommend choosing one micro-skill—say, a 15-second motion design—and crafting a single chef-kiss demo. Check out the examples from our cohort alumni (not a promo, just a quality benchmark you can match).
Bottom line: visual and craft quality > calendar streaks—though a streak is still better than doing nothing.
3 Build & launch your own thing - 3/10
Romantic take: “Founders will respect the hustle.” This is a good thing to do if you plan to join a start-up. Less helpful for big tech.
Reality: as a solo design/dev, user count sits at zero, dopamine tanks. Yes, you’ll level up on some hard skills, design and shipping, but the payoff is hardly gonna stick—rarely will it be portfolio gold since you are going to feel a huge burnout, and craft details might drop. Especially when there is no one guiding, reviewing, or structuring it for you. You are your own boss. You’ll pick up technical chops if you are good at watching YouTube tutorials, yet it won't count as formal experience and won’t rly guarantee any help towards next year’s internship or full-time offer.
Plus, staying motivated for the full three-month sprint is brutally hard. Things will be lonely.
4 Volunteer for a non-profit / friend’s side hustle - 4/10
Great karma and maybe a handful of real users, but let’s be honest: most of these gigs run on lightweight tech stacks and thin resources. That means fewer chances to wrestle with complex AI pipelines or gnarly infra decisions—the stuff recruiters drool over. References can feel lukewarm (“my roommate’s cousin was PM”), and the org’s name rarely turns heads in background checks or on LinkedIn. The key here is try to avoid website redesigns, a huge red flag for portfolio pieces.
Still, designing something sort of real beats doom-scrolling. If you jump in, lock down a scope that actually launches—no ten-week “logo brainstorm.” Remember: recruiters judge the competitiveness of your experience by the caliber of the team, founders, and mentors around you. A mission-driven side hustle is better than an empty summer, but know it probably won’t carry the same weight as a big-tech team badge.
5 Overseas contract at a big-ish name - 5/10
Big-name logo—check. Modest paycheck—check. Maybe even in your home city thanks to Mom and Dad’s connections—check.
For international students, an overseas stint at a well-known company sounds perfect. The catch? Many branches lock interns in a hey, just pretend to do some work world. Especially if you are a random “marketing intern”
You can pretend to make a case study or resume experience out of it, or even hide the project behind a “NDA title”, but you will still walk away with nothing you can show. Sure, it pads the résumé a bit, ok, actually the best out of the options so far, but without a solid case study, the time you spent is almost wasted depending on your goals.. Telling interviewers, “Sorry, it’s under NDA,” isn’t the ace card you think it is, because what will you present?
So what’s the move? Anything closer to a 10/10?
Big-tech internship on the table? Take it. That is a 10/10. However, remember, the point of this newsletter is even if not, summer isn’t doomed.
Every path teaches something—just choose the gaps you can live with. At the end of the day the ideal would be something with structure, teammates, and shipped work. That sound right yah? So peek at our advanced design cohort, even if you do not join, you can use it as an example on how to look for opportunities.
Real squads of big tech senior designers, PMs, engineers, and founders.
Weekly crit & FAANG design coach/managers.
Peer pressure that kills procrastination.
Kill it next recruitment cycle.
Trade-off: our cohorts still include a brief interview, and—because it’s a course—tuition is part of the deal.
Made it this far? If you decide to apply, drop code summerintern25 on the form. Alumni who turned cohort projects into roles at Meta, Google, Amazon, and a stack of seed-stage startups will likely be the ones interviewing you. This isn’t a hard pitch; it’s a reminder that your most valuable asset is time. Invest it, let it compound, and give August-you something to brag about. Cheers.
Applications selected on a rolling basis. Next cohort starts Jun 2, 2025:
We’re offering some scholarships for designers who make content!
In under 90 seconds, make a video that feels like you. Keep it simple or get creative. It can be a vlog, a skit, animation, or just you talking—your choice! Get selected for $1000 scholarship!
Online events!
[Free code for you] Join us this Thursday May 22, 12:30 pm PT (UTC-7) with Design Better podcast with Grace Ling, Founder of Design Buddies, for an AMA as we’ll jam about:
- Building a design community
- How she landed her UX design job at Electronic Arts without applying
- Personal branding/LinkedIn content creation
- More!!
RSVP here using code “dbfriend” for a free spot: https://www.crowdcast.io/c/graceling
Also on Friday May 23, 12 pm PT (UTC-7), we’re hosting another portfolio roasting session! Sign up here to gain practical design portfolio advice to help you get closer to landing your dream UX design job: https://lu.ma/portfolios
Also! We’re highlighting a job from one of our friends who is urgently looking to hire a founding designer at his AI video startup. Say you’re from Design Buddies to have your resume and portfolio through the mix!! Here’s a message from them:
AIVideo.com is the #1 all-in-one tool for AI powered video production. We are seeking a lead designer to help invent the next era of video production tools. Work directly with the founding team to design and implement our exciting product roadmap. We have over 3,000 paying subscribers and our investors include 3 billionaires and a grammy award winning artist! Cant wait to meet you.
Send your portfolio to justin@aivideo.com with subject line “Design Buddies”
🐰 About Design Buddies/UXGO
Design Buddies/UXGO is a community where you level up your design career. Land jobs, improve your design skills, and make friends. We have resources, events, design challenges, job boards, fun perks, and more.
👋 Visit our website and hop into our Discord community.
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