What I learned during my internship at Uber
Let’s Start with My Final Presentation Video
After I finished my presentation deck for my final day, I decided to stay at the office 4 hours longer after work to make a 1-minute video to showcase all of my projects at Uber. As result, my team really loves it, and I am glad I pushed myself a bit further to make it happen.
Internship @Uber
During 2017 Summer, I worked with the Uber creative marketing as their design intern.
It was a fantastic experience with a lot of fun and learning.
To be honest, before the internship, I was a little bit worried about interning at Uber. You may have heard that the company culture there was… problematic. But here’s the thing: it was not true at all. The people I worked with every day were incredibly friendly and nice, especially my manager, David Colson. Hey folks, as far as I’m concerned, Uber is a great place to work!
My Team
I was fortunate to intern in creative marketing, the source of many of Uber’s innovative ideas and products. I was honored to work alongside so many talented designers and copywriters. The team was hyper-productive, with people often working on more than four projects simultaneously. It was a satisfyingly fast paced creative environment.
Intern Program
Uber has a remarkable intern program. I wasn’t fetching coffee for the full-timers. I was given access to all of the important meetings, and I had a voice in our workflow and direction. I was given the opportunity to jump into the deep end of a lot of important projects such as Uber Ice Cream, Uber 180 days change, a Halloween campaign, Grammy Awards, etc. Furthermore, there were about a million intern events, like special lunches, design workshops, BBQs, baseball games, and community service. The Uber intern program was a blast, and if I weren’t looking for new opportunities, I’d happily do it all over again!
Some highlights of my internship:
Project Diversity
I worked on 18 projects including UI/UX Design, marketing campaigns, branding, web design, digital advertising, and animation. I learned a lot of new skills and tools through the projects during the internship.
Cooperation & Innovation
Besides regular projects, the team gave us additional weekly design exercises. We needed to collaborate with another intern to finish a project in just one week. The goal was to train us to be able to create tons of creative ideas with very aggressive deadlines. We gave a final presentation every Friday and received feedback from senior designers and copywriters. Through the training, I learned how to analyze and define problems in a very short time and create a process with a partner to have a clear schedule to follow to a completed project.
Breadth of Exposure
During the internship, we not only had access to Uber’s extensive internal resources, but also our team often invited people from other companies such as Facebook, Snapchat, and Starbucks to share experiences and exchange knowledge. It was inspiring to be part of the free flow of ideas across individuals and organizations. For example, I was stunned to see a Facebook researcher demonstrate how quickly people can capture information in just 10 seconds nowadays, and also how this could be adapted to create an advertising strategy.
Anyone can have a good idea, but collaboration makes the dream come true
I learned that a good idea is just the beginning. It takes many people’s specialties to make that idea come to life. I saw many famous Uber inventions develop from nothing into a globally implemented project. Each successful project that I saw at Uber began with one person who was able to sell his or her idea to others and thereby generate a working team that was focused on bringing the idea to life.
For example, one project, Uber Sign Language, impressed me a great deal. It was just a person who took an Uber, and he had a hard time communicating with the deaf Uber driver. This story was presented at a small meeting, and after that more and more people became interested and then dedicated to the project. In the end, it has been instituted all over the world. After watching this project grow, it made me realize collaboration is so much important than just having ideas. Before a product can be sold to a customer, the idea has to be sold to a team who will become inspired to realize it.
Be ready to present anytime
We gave many presentations at school, and we always knew when we were going to present, so we had enough time to prepare. However, I was shocked that everyone in our team could present their work very clearly almost without any preparation at all. One time, our team asked me to present my work after just ten minutes. No surprise, it was a disaster. After that, I got a tip from our team. Always take notes for each part of design while I was working on a project. The notes can provide all the key points if the project needs to be presented on short notice. After learning this, I am no longer apprehensive to present my work without lead time.
First Uber Newspaper Ads
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