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Career Development

Career Development

Designed to expand your career opportunities

ID offers career development support from your first day. Once enrolled, students stack their resumes—gaining practical experiences through internships and assistantships, as well as hands-on classes.

Career readiness is just one reason why our MDes graduates increase their salaries by 166 percent, on average, versus their pre-ID salaries.

ID graduates work for corporations and consultancies, nonprofits and startups. They are design strategists, product managers, and innovation consultants—among other titles—working in business services, healthcare, and technology.

With our broad focus on business and social innovation, ID has a singular understanding of what organizations are looking for when recruiting talent. We also help make the connections that create opportunity, with an alumni network that actively recruits ID graduates.

Practical experiences

Internships & assistantships
Corporations, nonprofits, and governmental agencies hire ID students as interns, externs, and research assistants to work on a variety of projects, from improving healthcare delivery systems to discovering the future of the workplace.

  • Externships: part-time credit-earning experiences
  • Internships: paid experiences with full-time summer and part-time academic year options
  • Industry projects and research assistantships: opportunities to work on applied research with faculty

Sponsored classes
While all ID classes are grounded in real-world challenges, sponsored classes give students the opportunity to work directly with corporations and nonprofits to solve pressing issues. From defining requirements, through analysis and co-design workshops, students work closely with industry partners on all aspects of the project.

Recruiting and career events

ID offers a number of events to help students and alumni connect to industry leaders and polish their career skills.

recruitID
Every semester, recruitID offers students and recent graduates an opportunity to meet with over 30 employers, interview for open positions, and build their professional networks. Learn more.

Workshop series
ID regularly hosts workshops for students on a range of career topics, including resumes and portfolios, networking, interviewing, and negotiating.

ID events
ID students also regularly network with design leaders and the greater ID community at ID events.

Career support

Peter Zapf
Peter Zapf

Peter Zapf, Associate Director of Career Services, hosts the career workshop series and helps students prepare for their careers with resume reviews and mock interviews.

As an ID alum and design professional with over 25  years of experience, Peter is uniquely prepared to professionally mentor ID students.

Alumni network
ID's engaged alumni network actively recruits ID graduates.

Illinois Tech Career Services
Students and alumni connect with Illinois Tech Career Services for initial resume consultations and interview preparation.