What’s the best way to gain real world experience when starting in service design?
My two cents
These are the ways I've personally used to get more experience in Service Design and that I found worked well:
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.
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.
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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