Student Story - Kristine Brooks

“Show up! Go to every event. Put in the work. Reflect on the interviews. Have a goal. Be prepared to make the most of your opportunities and have questions ready for each event and situation.”

Kristine Brooks landed a UX/UI internship at Snapper last summer, and we met with her to find out how it was going in late 2021. Coming from a design background, Kristine studied Web and UX at Yoobee Colleges in 2019 and graduated in mid-2020. She talked about the benefits of being in a group of interns and gave her take on the Summer of Tech programme.

Why did you choose Snapper?

It’s a design-lead workplace. I like how the product reaches a diverse demographic - the public. I enjoy working for a diverse audience. 

What has been the highlight of the internship so far?

Working on real-life projects has been awesome. I haven’t done observational research in real life yet. I am practising in a real-life environment. 

Have you had any challenges or anything unexpected?

Not at all! Snapper has been incredible, and the whole onboarding process was covered in terms of the student’s questions.

They gathered everyone’s questions from past years. 

Due to covid, I slowly met everyone as they returned to the office. 

What’s it like working with a group of interns?

It’s awesome; you don’t feel alone. Because there weren’t many people in the office, everyone gelled. There are 10+ of us; it felt like a good section of us. 

What is a valuable skill you’ve learned from your mentor?

Depending on the project, our mentor will walk us through it. 

They are super open and free to what interns offer, and discussions are built around our contribution. They trust us and hear us out. 

We learn about their process, how they work. We also learn from each person in the team. We are learning faster ways of doing things. 

How did Summer of Tech help with the internship process?

All the workshops are super, super helpful. The events platform is super simple, and the write-ups of what everything is about is helpful. The variety of information provided has been super useful. 

There are career-focused, general, and quite niche topics from people working in the tech industry. It is quite inspiring to hear different perspectives on where people go and how they got there: including alumni stories and how they got there. The events have helped me build relationships with other students in other fields. It gives you an understanding of real work and firsthand knowledge to have something to talk about once you are in the workplace. There is some hand-holding, but it’s really awesome! It helps us know where to go and improves on things you didn’t even know you had to. 

What’s one piece of advice you’d give a student starting the Summer of Tech programme?

Show up! Go to every event. Put in the work. Reflect on the interviews. Have a goal. Be prepared to make the most of your opportunities and have questions ready for each event and situation. 

What’s next for you?

Hopefully, a permanent placement, but I’ll keep looking for work in the UX field if not. 

Continuous growth; when you get into the workspace, you’ll find skills you still need to learn or become better at. I’d like to work and develop more on my UX growth in 2022.