Internships at Etre in 2008 8 Jan 2008

Introduction

Are you a university/college student looking for a summer internship in the design industry? Then, Etre is the place for you! We're a relatively small but extremely successful user experience design company who serve a wide variety of clients based around the world, including Eurostar, Rolex and Mars to name but three (You can find out more about us here).

At other companies, your internship would consist of filing, photocopying, answering phones and perhaps - if you were very lucky - stuffing envelopes. With an Etre internship however, you're going to be too busy running usability tests, conducting field research and designing products and services to bother with all that. In short, you'll be gaining the sort of experience that's necessary to get a foothold in what is a very competitive industry.

We won't lie to you, it's going to be hard work - but when you do get a chance to relax, you'll be in the best city for it. That's because we're based in London, home of all manner of great restaurants, bars, clubs, galleries, events and attractions. Many of which are on the doorstep of our office.

What you'll be doing

We're going to level with you from the start: True to our philosophy of not training junior staff on our clients' time, you won't be directly involved in our client projects. This just isn't something we could justify to our paying customers. What we will do however, is involve you in the design discussions and show-and-tell presentations that surround our client work; and we'll also let you shadow our experts as they work on these projects. This should give you an excellent overview of our methodology and the types of deliverables that we produce.

Okay, so now that's out of the way, let's talk about what you'll be focusing on. Depending on your skill-set, you'll either be designing and developing a web application or conducting in-depth research involving real-life users.

We can't give you too much specific information about either of these projects, since our plans are commercially-sensitive at this time - however, what we can promise you is that your work wont just sit on a server/shelf at the end of your internship. Providing it's of the high-quality we demand, the web application will go-live and the user research will be published and promoted. So you'll have something great to show for your efforts (and more importantly something tangible that you can point prospective employers to in the future).

Also, since we're relatively small, you'll get to see everything that goes into running a user experience company - not just our design work, but the marketing, sales, practice development and client support activities that are part and parcel of our business - stuff you would never get to see at a bigger company.

One more thing: If you're really good, you'll more than likely receive a job offer from us at the end of your internship - deferred of course, to let you finish your degree.

What you'll get from us

Aside from working with a bunch of supremely-talented individuals (cough), you'll also receive:

• An accommodation allowance (enough to secure you a private room at one of the capital's wonderful hostels/bedsits) or a room in one of our corporate apartments (TBD).
• A food and drink allowance of £70.00 per week.
• An Oyster Card allowance of £21.00 per week.
  • Enough to get you to and from your digs everyday.
  • (An Oyster Card will get you on any bus, tram or tube in the city - and even some National Rail services).

What we need from you

So, are you interested? If so, here's what we're looking for...

The basics

First let's get some formalities out of the way. If you're going to work with us, you'll need to be able to satisfy the following basic requirements:

• You must have the legal right to live and work in the United Kingdom.
  • Student visas don't count, we're afraid.
• You must have an excellent command of both written and spoken English.
• You must be currently enrolled on an undergraduate or postgraduate degree programme.
  • Your course must be related to user experience design too (however loosely). This means that you should be reading something like Human Computer Interaction, Computer Science, Design, Psychology, Sociology, Communication Studies, English, Advertising, Marketing...
  • Preference will be given to those who are in their penultimate or final year of study.
• You must be achieving top grades and/or be able to demonstrate a track record of success.
  • Providing a reference from your course leader, transcripts of your grades, a solid resume and a link to your personal website/blog will give you a firm advantage over the competition.
• Internships will begin in July and last between 10 and 12 weeks.
  • It's not a boot camp but we will expect you to last the distance (no holiday breaks, no dropping out early).
• You must be able to work at our offices every day (No telecommuting. Sorry!).
  • Hopefully this won't be a problem, since we're providing an accommodation budget.

The rest

Okay, assuming that you tick all of the above boxes, you'll also need to have:

User experience knowledge

You need to have a good understanding of all of the areas that we work in (not just usability). We expect your knowledge to be up-to-date (You would be surprised at the number of people we've interviewed who didn't even know who Jakob Nielsen and Lou Rosenfeld are).

Technical competence

You should be a confident user of the extended Microsoft Office suite. That means: Word, PowerPoint, Excel and Access. Visio expertise would be great (but you'll be able to cope without it).

You should also know a bit about (X)HTML, CSS and JavaScript (You can't design a good user experience if you don't understand the medium you're working within). Knowledge of Ajax, Flex and other emerging technologies would also be useful. As would server-side technologies like Java, .NET, PHP, Ruby or Python (although this definitely isn't essential).

Strong analytical skills

You need to be able to analyse user testing data, develop insights and apply them to your work.

Writing skills

This is the skill we value most of all. Sloppy writing is the product of sloppy thinking. We therefore ask that you provide samples of your writing as part of your application (see below). Please don't present us with dry academic tomes, if at all possible. We're looking for people who can sell their ideas to the man on the street, not the Chancellor of Oxford University (although it would be good if he could understand your work too!).

Interpersonal skills

You need to be able to communicate in a clear and confident professional manner. You should be comfortable in presenting your work to an audience.

You also need to be able to get on well with us - reading our blog and newsletter should give you some idea of what we're about. Watching Alan Partridge will get you up to speed on most of our in-jokes.

A can-do attitude

We're a small company, so that means you'll need to pitch in here, there and everywhere at times...without moaning. Don't expect someone to clean your desk and refill the printer for you. Do expect to be fully involved in some great thinking and great work.

A point of view

We're looking for interns who'll contribute - people who won't shy away from debate and who'll challenge our ideas.

In a similar vein, we want people who aren't afraid to take risks in the work they produce - even if that means the odd embarrassing failure from time to time.

A prima-donna mind-set

Just joking! That's the last thing we want. If you don't like people challenging your ideas then please don't apply. We regularly critique each other's work and - of course - everything we do is user tested, so expect feedback and lots of it.

A professional approach

You must care about your work being of the highest quality. And about meeting deadlines. We will hunt you down and strangle your pet gerbil*, if you leave us with a piece of unfinished work at the end of your internship.

(*To be honest, we're scared stiff of those animal rights people, so we probably wouldn't follow through on this threat. But we would steal its food or something. After checking that it still had enough to survive on, of course.)

Passion and ambition

During a recent phone screen interview, we asked a young chap why he wanted to work in the field of user experience. His answer: "Well, it's a piece of p*ss really, isn't it?" Needless to say, he didn't get the job.

We're looking for people who live, breathe and sleep IA, design, usability, accessibility and all things user experience. You must be able to demonstrate this type of enthusiasm to us if you want to work here (preferably via the medium of dance ;-).

The application process

Still sound like your cup of tea? Great! To apply, please email us at interns2008 (at) etre (dot) com with the following information:

• Your current resume.
  • ...in HTML, Word, Plain Text or PDF format.
• Samples of your writing.
  • You must be the sole author of the documents you send us. We cannot accept documents that have been co-authored with others or prepared on your behalf.
  • We would prefer to receive documents that have been written for a business audience and not an academic one. However, we appreciate that this may be difficult for you to produce.
• A reference from your course leader.
• A link to your website/blog, if you have one.
• A covering letter, explaining why you would be a good choice for us.

Please make sure that you get your application to us by Friday, 29th February. Note that we absolutely positively will not consider applications received after this date.

We'll then consider your application and get back to you by Monday 31st March with either dates for a brief phone screen interview or, if you're unlucky, a rejection email.

Assuming that the phone interview goes well, you'll be invited to attend an in-person interview at our offices soon thereafter; and if that goes well, you'll receive an offer.

(Yep, we know this is a long process, but we want to make sure that we choose the best of the best. And on the flipside, it also gives you the chance to see whether you like us or not ;-)

Still have questions?

If so, please post them in the comments section below so that everyone can benefit from the answers we provide.

Thanks for your interest!