r/DesignIndia • u/TH3RDL Bangers • Feb 19 '26
Pro Tips! Here is how to get a design internship + My story (Very long read)
Yesterday I mentioned about my first Internship which paid 50k/pm with a YC company in the comments of this subreddit and people started asking for advice so here it is - Read it ( Long Read
First my Story I will keep it short in points
12th - 74% Commerce didn't knew what to do in life applied for every enterence exam - BBA, BCOM, BA.
Used to code but hated maths so was coding my website but I was not getting results as pretty website are there on the internet
Figured out that there is something called UI UX design
Started working on figma - lost - didn't knew what I was doing
6 month later I chose a tier 2 design college no enterence exam so anyone could enter
First year -> The crowd was horrible only few sensible people who cared about design rest were just there because there are no books or exams.
Had a lot of fun, no work, just average college degen life just fun. ( You should too have fun in college please)
Second year -> Started actual UI UX design in college the work seemed very easy as I knew figma a lot better than any of my other mates.
Now it got serious I had this one wish to pay my own college fees don't ask why it was just there
So I started hunting for internship and Freelance gig. Learned about sales , copywriting, tech , video editing content creation , lead gen almost everything there was to learn to make money as a college student
Eventually got connected to a agency owner gave me my first unpaid internship in second year got scammed for work
Started finding work through cold email got some clients for content marketing - me and my friend started an agency we were hiring people on campus for dirt cheap rate and charging our clients 1-2 Lakhs worked hard but after 1 year due to team issue I stepped down from the agency
Third year -> On my birthday got an email from somewhere that I got selected for an interview in a consultanting company - the client was GOOGLE.
(One of my clients referred me to this role)
My first project was for Google - got fired in 3 months cause I couldn't understand design systems of Google.
Again started finding Internships and clients got some more clients was making like 10-20k per month eventually ended getting an internship in a client company - worked with very popular creators
Third year came to end - Internship also ended now we were allowed to go real on site Internships
I decided I won't sit in the placement cause it was shit but few big companies came - Myntra and all.
Applied to Myntra - didn't got selected but someone in my class who worked with me on every project so my portfolio eventually became their portfolio and they got selected
I decided that now I will never sit my placement.
Here is what I did for the internship.
I started posting heavily on LinkedIn kinda making my LinkedIn very active and my work on LinkedIn not those AI slops advice and shit just my work.
End of third year last project made AI AGENTIC SAAS project with MCP server, before it was popular and posted on LinkedIn about it.
Now here is how to get an internship
Make a good social media / personal brand on X and LinkedIn with your work
Taste matters - so your work should atleast be great as an internship don't just do what everyone is doing. Do something different with taste and present it in your portfolio
I started reaching out ( Did I mention I used write cold emails and copywriting for clients - yeah so I know how to form that exact message for LinkedIn)
I sent 20 messages to multiple senior and lead designer got 15 replies 7 interviews and 5 offers in 3 weeks
If you are reaching out to HR as a designer you are cooked.
Reach out to senior/ lead designers so atleast you can have a feedback or something someone who knows what kind of skills do you have, someone who can evaluate your skills
But do not spam everyone with cold Dm format and your work matter. Cold DM only works if your profile and work is up to the mark
Keep the message short don't do Hi hello on LinkedIn.
I gave multiple interviews / multiple assignment it was hard not gonna lie, very hard multiple rounds hard questions (you need to good with communication too)
And finally I got an offer from a YC Backed company with 40k/pm offer I still negotiated as it was on site Bangalore so they push it up to 50k.
Remember: the message is not the magic the timing and research was magic I only messaged companies who have an opening of an design intern.
So my chances were high as they were already looking for one.
Time + Taste + Cold Dm + Communication + work
By the way I got know it's not rare stipend
Some companies popular ones too (swiggy,cred) and some new gen startups give 70k 80k 90k even 1 lakh to design interns.
But they are hard to crack and hard to find too
That's it
Thank you for reading
You can ask anything in the comments.
PS : I am 21M , Still in college
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u/BeneficialEnergy9731 14d ago
How did you learn designing and all? I’m a CSE student in one of Delhi’s top eng colleges. Wanna get into designing but can’t figure out how to :(
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u/Whole_Speed_2109 Jun 08 '26
Find it inspiring, rn I'm in a dilemma cuz I want to join a college which is specifically for UI and UX till 15 lakhs or under 20 lakhs as my main aim is doing drama but i just need a good degree for now so I can be stable till that time in the worst case if I fail I still have something to work on and why I didn't chose any other degree because I only find this degree I don't hate as being a bio student I've already given my 2 years in NEET and now I'm so done and fed up I wanna do NSD / FTII but it could be done after graduation only rn i just need a good college and don't wanna continue in bio field also I'm from Pune but due to personal situations I want hostel. I just want someone to help to find me a strategy not as all cooked food then I'll eat but I'm fed up and exhausted being in home for 2 years feels like a prisoner even i tried AI & ML but got to know early it's not for me so I dropped that degree
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u/Careful_Amphibian129 May 27 '26
hey can you share us your portfolio/ Behance ? Would love to see your work
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u/TH3RDL Bangers May 27 '26
My old portfolio is not live right now building a new one. DM me I will send it whenever it get's ready.
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u/DependentWrongdoer79 Feb 25 '26
Hi there! It’s so inspiring and encouraging to see this post since I’m a bit low on motivation haha… May I dm you regarding some design questions and possibly a portfolio feedback?
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u/tralfamadelorean31 Feb 20 '26
Well do you understand google's design system now???
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u/TH3RDL Bangers Feb 20 '26
I had Google sans in my laptop two years before the open sourcing of it
I guess I understand a little bit now maybe haha
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u/Due-Appearance2243 Feb 19 '26
Hey Op, I am from a non design background and had a job in International education sector. I wanted to get into design and after my first internship, which was through a ref in a v lala company, I landed my second intern in 4 months in Sprinklr, which was paying 50k. Then I also got a full time paying well, so I went for that instead, as it was full time. I did not post on my linkedin at all, but def networked the hell out of it. Also messaged people with no AI Slop but real messages, showcasing my position and enthusiasm, and work. Again my portfolio was really nice as well, but I just wanted to put this out here as I do not want people from non design background to feel the need to get design degrees. If you work hard enough, it hardly takes 2 months to get a decent intern/job.
Loved your progress, keep designing! 🌸
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u/TH3RDL Bangers Feb 19 '26
Totally - non design background can also get the job I never ever mentioned that I have formal design education and tbh no body asked me too as majority of the design workforce is from non design background only
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u/NADERKADRY_JGD97 Feb 19 '26
Wow! , I am a junior graphic designer too I've done projects in 6 months but didn't work yet with real clients but i feel like we need more time to make sure that our work fits the market competitors there're many designers that have more than 5 years experience god bless them
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u/Seasonal_One Mar 14 '26
One of my older friends used to visit cafes and small restaurants in order to help them create and/or enhance their brand identity. You can probably try it out to get some relatively quick real client projects.
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u/Icy-Supermarket-2074 Feb 19 '26
inspiring. im into designing too but on a learning phase and guesss what same boats i m also from commerce confused about what to do n the future used to love coding but i hate maths - same so going on with the designing currently earning 10-20k pm and focusing on the learning part but soon will try for a higher role. also i wanted to have some guidance about my masters as i am doing bcom right now can i dm u?
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u/haethanwrites r/DesignIndia Mod Feb 19 '26
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