3 Months at Liferay as a Product Design Intern by Jolin Huang on September 02, 2022

How did you hear about Liferay?

The way I first heard about Liferay was pretty simple. I was scrolling through the employers catalog for the UC-Irvine virtual tech career fair. Liferay was one of the only companies that offered a product design intern role, and it just so happened to be that the company was located in Diamond Bar (only 10 minutes away from where I lived)!

I scheduled a quick 1:1 coffee chat with the recruiter, which then led to an official interview with HR and the design team. Shoutout to them for seeing potential in me and giving me a chance to display my design skills, despite barely having any prior experience :)

Can you tell us about your internship? What did you do?

I was a product design intern working with the Solutions team. I participated in a variety of projects and tasks, including a client-facing project with Arconic, internal product portal sites like Customer Portal 2.0 and Partner Portal, and conducting heuristic evaluations on our Liferay Learn site.

I learned so much during my time here, especially improving my visual design skills on Figma. Prior to the internship, I had never needed to use autolayout, components, and properties. Now, I am able to use those Figma tricks to design more efficiently and organize my files better.

If you want to view my design processes on the projects I worked on at Liferay, you can view the case studies on my portfolio!

What was your favorite part of the internship?

My favorite part of this internship was probably the people I met here, including my manager, interns, recruiters, the design team, and everyone that I worked with. I truly felt that my time here was valued and appreciated.

I really enjoyed the times I got to bond with the people here outside of work. I absolutely love designing, but it was the conversations that I had and the bonding moments that really stood out to me. Some highlights include having 1:1 conversations chatting about life experiences and hobbies, playing ping pong in the game room, and playing Gartic Phone with designers during happy hour.

What was the biggest challenge you faced and how did you overcome it?

The biggest challenge was probably when getting onboarded onto new projects. Being that this was my first product design internship, I really wanted to do my best and try not to mess up at all. Of course, this made me feel overwhelmed and stressed because well… I tried to be perfect. Luckily, my team always welcomed questions, which quickly made me realize that it’s okay to make mistakes. Afterall, this internship was an opportunity for me to learn. I had a team of designers that was willing to help me at any moment (really grateful for the design critiques and feedback)!

What advice would you give to future interns?

1. Be proactive. Don’t make your manager micromanage you.

Everyone is busy, and that includes your manager. There will be gaps in your weeks where you have less work assigned than usual. Try to make the most out of this internship by asking questions and for more work. Also, reach out to people other than your manager as well. I found myself running around Slack DMs, asking if anyone needed help.

2. Make connections. Get to know your team beyond work!

Personally, I love getting to know people and their life experiences. Ask your fellow co-workers questions about their life–hobbies, how they got into design, etc. Adding an interpersonal touch in your relationships with your team will make work even more enjoyable :)

What are your future plans?

There is so much more for me to learn in the world of UX. I plan to continue designing and learning from my peers!

Anything you wish we asked you?

“What was your favorite thing to take from the snack fridge at the Liferay office?”

Glad you asked–Goldfish crackers and Boom Chicka Pop!