The Best Way To Get Product Design Experience When You Have None

Junior product designers know what it is like. To get a job you need experience; and to get experience, you need a job. How do you break free of this annoying circle? The internet is full of generic suggestions that do not really get you anywhere. Luckily, there's a better way.

In this episode of The Design Table Podcast, Tyler and Nick tackle the experience-job circle mentioned above. They skip the tired advice of redesigning a famous website and focus on what gets you real clients, real work, and real proof.

Tyler makes the case for doing free work the right way, from pitching local businesses a redesign in exchange for a testimonial to building a home services website before you even reach out. Nick explains why good outreach makes things easier for the other person, and shares the Loom and FigJam combo that gets him a reply almost every time.

They also get honest about timelines. Bootcamps promise a new career in weeks. Nick puts it closer to two years and Tyler caps it at one year if you're willing to make sacrifices.

In this episode you will learn:

🔸 Why free work in exchange for a testimonial beats another pet project

🔸 How to pitch a local business without sounding desperate

🔸 Why freelance-style experience translates to in-house roles

🔸 What Dan Mall gets right about cold outreach, and why Don't Make Me Think applies to your pitch

🔸 How answering an A or B question with option C landed Nick a client

🔸 Why building the website before you pitch speeds up the sale and lets you charge more

🔸 How offering to do the job until they find someone can make you the person they keep