What’s the best way to gain real world experience when starting in service design?

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My two cents

These are the ways I've personally used to get more experience in Service Design and that I found worked well:

  1. Work in a consultancy: Working in an agency is great because you'll get to work on a ton of different projects in a small amount of time. The agency culture isn't always the most healthy, but you'll get a lot of real-world experience, plus you get paid for it.

  2. Volunteer to improve an existing non-profit service: You can help a local NGO to improve its service. For example by doing a little research project for them, or trying to improve things in the backstage to improve their efficiency. Here you'll learn a lot about the political side of things and how to bring change in complex organizations.

  3. Build your a service, startup idea or side project: Build something by yourself or with a few friends. Here you'll learn to build something from scratch and you can really use your full toolbox.

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