User Research Internship Application

Find Your Next User Research Intern with Paperform

Hiring the right user research intern can transform your product development process. Whether you're a design agency, SaaS company, or UX consultancy, finding candidates with hands-on experience in qualitative methods, usability testing, and survey design is essential. This User Research Internship Application template helps you efficiently screen applicants and identify those who truly understand the fundamentals of user-centered research.

Why This Template Works for User Research Hiring

User research requires a unique blend of empathy, analytical thinking, and methodological rigor. This template goes beyond basic resume screening to assess:

• Qualitative research experience through specific examples of interviews, focus groups, or ethnographic studies
• Usability testing skills via portfolio work and testing scenarios candidates have designed
• Survey methodology knowledge including question design, response bias, and data analysis
• Participant recruitment capabilities that demonstrate resourcefulness and ethical research practices
• Tool proficiency in industry-standard platforms like UserTesting, Optimal Workshop, or Dovetail

By asking candidates to demonstrate their skills rather than just list them, you'll quickly separate those with genuine research experience from those still building foundational knowledge.

Perfect for Design Teams, Product Companies & Research Agencies

This template is ideal for:

• Product design teams at SaaS and tech companies looking for research support
• UX agencies seeking interns to assist with client discovery and testing
• Innovation labs needing researchers who can conduct generative studies
• E-commerce brands wanting to improve conversion through user insights
• Consultancies building their research practice with emerging talent

The form captures both academic training and real-world project experience, making it suitable for evaluating candidates from diverse backgrounds—whether they're HCI students, psychology majors pivoting to UX, or self-taught researchers with strong portfolios.

Streamline Your Internship Hiring Process

Reviewing internship applications shouldn't mean endless email threads and scattered documents. With Paperform, every application arrives in one organized location, complete with:

• Portfolio links and work samples collected directly in the form
• Conditional logic that shows relevant follow-up questions based on experience level
• File uploads for research artifacts like discussion guides or usability test plans
• Structured responses that make comparing candidates straightforward

Connect this form to your Stepper workflows to automatically notify your hiring team when strong candidates apply, route applications to the right reviewer based on specialization, or trigger follow-up emails inviting top applicants to the next interview stage.

Automate Interview Scheduling & Coordination

Once you've identified promising candidates, use Paperform's scheduling fields to let applicants book their own interview slots based on your team's availability. No more back-and-forth emails trying to find a time that works—candidates see your open calendar slots and choose what fits their schedule.

For candidates who advance to final rounds, you can even use Papersign to send internship offer letters and NDAs for electronic signature, keeping your entire hiring process paperless and efficient.

Built for Teams Who Value Research Rigor

The questions in this template reflect industry best practices in UX research hiring. We ask about:

• Research methodologies candidates have used and when they'd apply each one
• Ethical considerations in participant recruitment and informed consent
• Analysis approaches from affinity mapping to thematic coding
• Stakeholder communication and how candidates present findings
• Portfolio depth through examples of actual research deliverables

This ensures you're not just hiring someone who's taken a UX course, but someone who can contribute meaningfully to your research practice from day one.

Integrate with Your Existing HR Tools

Paperform connects seamlessly with the tools research and product teams already use:

• Send applications to Notion databases for collaborative review
• Log candidates in Airtable with custom views for different hiring stages
• Notify your Slack channel when applications meet specific criteria
• Sync to Google Sheets for quick filtering and comparison
• Push to your ATS via webhook or Stepper integration

This means your internship hiring data lives where your team already works, not trapped in yet another siloed platform.

Customizable for Your Research Specialization

While this template covers general user research competencies, you can easily adapt it for specialized roles:

• Quantitative UX researchers can add questions about statistical analysis and A/B testing
• Accessibility-focused positions can include questions about inclusive research practices
• Service design roles can emphasize journey mapping and stakeholder interviews
• International teams can adjust for different academic systems and work permit requirements

The Paperform editor makes these changes simple—just type to add new questions or adjust existing ones to match your specific internship scope.

Trusted by Research Teams Worldwide

From startup product teams to enterprise research labs, organizations use Paperform to build professional, on-brand application forms that respect candidates' time while gathering the information hiring managers actually need. With SOC 2 Type II compliance and enterprise-grade security, you can confidently collect sensitive application data including portfolios, references, and work samples.

Start finding your next exceptional user research intern today with a form that reflects the thoughtfulness and attention to detail your research practice is known for.