How to Get Design Experience Without a Job + Singapore Meetup!
You need experience to get a job, but need a job to get experience. How do you break out of that cycle?
You don’t need a formal role to start building your design portfolio. There are plenty of ways to grow your skills, make connections, and build your portfolio—all without a full-time gig. Let’s hop in!
How to get design experience without a job
Work on Passion Projects
One of the best ways to gain experience is to start your own passion project. Whether it’s redesigning an app you love, creating a personal website, or launching a mini brand identity project, the possibilities are endless.
Collaborate with Others
Reach out to fellow designers, developers, or even non-designers who are working on cool projects. Offering to help with the visual or UX aspects of their project can give you invaluable experience and expand your network. You can find designers in our Discord community and on LinkedIn!
Take Freelance Projects
Start small by offering your services on platforms like Upwork, Fiverr, or Behance. Even helping friends, family, or local businesses with design work can be a great way to add to your portfolio.
Participate in Design Challenges
Design challenges are when you create your own designs based on a prompt. They can be as simple as the Daily UI challenge or a design hackathon. They’re a great way to practice your problem solving skills and working with others!
Do you prefer a more structured learning program? We’re launching something new in partnership with early stage startups that are building in emerging tech + social good!
Our 10-week internship & project cohort is our new program that we specifically designed for students to work on real-world projects. In 10 weeks, you’ll build your UX design skills from scratch by instructors from big tech companies while working on real projects with startups! You’ll come away with a case study that you can use on your job interviews or a job offer with the startup you work with.
Learn more here and apply as soon as you can: https://www.ux-go.com/uxgo-2025/10-week-internship-course
We’re offering $1000 off in our first cohort starting Oct 15, 2024!
Here’s how our last cohort with TempoLabs (YC S23) went: https://www.ux-go.com/stories/celebrating-our-tempolabs-internship-outcomes
Join Design Communities
Communities like Design Buddies are full of like-minded individuals who can provide feedback, share opportunities, and even collaborate on projects. Design Buddies is free to join and you can learn from others here!
Design Buddies In-Person Meetups (Asia)
Also, we are continuing our Asia tour with our second stop in Singapore! Join us on Thu Sep 26, 6:30 pm with Singapore Product Design during Singapore Design Week! Hosted by Grace Ling and Natalie Oh.
RSVP (free): https://lu.ma/singapore-buddies
We had a wonderful time meeting you all in Seoul this week!! Thank you to Hannah Lee and Grace Ling for hosting~
Online event
Online, we are also hosting a LinkedIn live on this very newsletter topic! Join us on Tue Sep 26, 5 pm Pacific Time on a discussion on how to get design experience without a job by Manvitha Madem and Jennifer Jing!
RSVP (free): https://lu.ma/w0ra1hp3
You don’t need to wait for a job to start gaining experience. By taking initiative, working on passion projects, collaborating with others, and participating in programs like our 10-week internship cohort, you’ll be well on your way to landing your dream design role.
We hope you slay your day~
Thank you all! Got any feedback for our newsletter or would like your work featured? Please email Grace Ling grace@designbuddies.community
🐰 About Design Buddies
Design Buddies 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. Founded by Grace Ling
👋 Visit our website, hop into our community, and subscribe to our newsletter!
💖 Partner with us
🍎10 week internship & project cohort (starts Oct 15)
🌟 Watch our past events and connect with us on Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn for more fun!