When Rebecca was in high school she wasn't sure what she wanted to do. She loved lots of different things. She was inspired by movies, art, and the creative process. During her high school years she started to experience computer games, and one called Myst caught her attention as it was a game that started to use beautiful graphics and story telling as the core part of the game. She was intrigued and realized that she could combing being creative and artistic with something like computers.
She had no experience in coding when she went to college. When she was looking for a college to attend she knew she wanted a mid-size college where it wasn't thousands of students but also not so small she'd know everyone - Carnie Melon University (CMU) was a good match. She also looked for colleges that offered computer science courses for students who hadn't programmed before. She also liked the program as CMU has a strong arts program and so she was still able to pursue that part of her interests. She got to do a couple of well-paid internships as a computer science major. This allowed her to save up and travel.
Her are of focus in Computer Science was Human Computer Interaction (HCI) which is the study of psychology, people, design and technology. It was the perfect fit for her interests as it allowed her to combine art, people and design.
On graduating she got a job with Microsoft as a Program Manager. Sometimes this role has other names at different companies, like Product Manager or User Experience Strategist. She loved the job as she got to continue to dabble in all aspects of creating and designing a product. She loves being given a problem that she has to solve. For example she mentioned one project she worked on was to design the Start Menu for Windows 8 - they started the project just as touch screens were starting to show up on computers and tablets. In her role she has to coordinate the work and input of many people. She sees herself as the center of a wheel and then there are spokes out to other jobs. She works with designers (who are doing the visual side of the product), user researchers (who work on understanding people and t
esting designs with people), developers (who are writing the code) and testers (who are making sure the code is good quality). She has to make sure everyone is on schedule to deliver the right pieces at the right time and that everyone has a chance to contribute ideas to get to the best solutions.
She enjoyed working at Microsoft. The work also paid well, and has allowed her to save up to take time off from work now to pursue working on a startup project idea of her own.
Hilary Prathner is a senior at the University of Washington. She's in the informatics department.
When she was in high school she liked lots of activities such as being on the Cheer team, Theater, Debate and Math! One particular math teacher influenced her thinking for what to study in college, Mrs. Pane helped her consider something like working with technology even though Hillary hadn't done any programming.
Hillary decided to go to University of Washington because it was a big university, had lots of courses on offer and was a beautiful campus. UW offers computer coding classes to students who haven't done it before, so Hillary started with these classes. On teacher encouraged Hillary to think about majoring in technology, and spent time with Hillary explaining to her different career paths that would be possible if she majored in a technology subject.
She gravitated to the School of Informatics. The school offers a variety of computer courses and also courses on understanding people and designing great experiences (very similar to HCI, that Rebecca studies). The classes exposed her to designing software, digital mockups, mood boards and coding. She enjoyed all the different aspects but decided her favorite area was coding.
She took two summer internships. One internship was at microsoft - it was part of a special program where she got to spend 3 weeks as a developer, 3 weeks as a tester, and 3 weeks as a program manager. Her second internship was at Square (they produce a mobile card reading application). She was a developer writing code on this project.
Recently she's been applying for full-time jobs - she's had a large choice to apply for, and has been made several offers. She's decided to work for a mid-size startup called Tune.
Her advice for you is:
She had no experience in coding when she went to college. When she was looking for a college to attend she knew she wanted a mid-size college where it wasn't thousands of students but also not so small she'd know everyone - Carnie Melon University (CMU) was a good match. She also looked for colleges that offered computer science courses for students who hadn't programmed before. She also liked the program as CMU has a strong arts program and so she was still able to pursue that part of her interests. She got to do a couple of well-paid internships as a computer science major. This allowed her to save up and travel.
Her are of focus in Computer Science was Human Computer Interaction (HCI) which is the study of psychology, people, design and technology. It was the perfect fit for her interests as it allowed her to combine art, people and design.
On graduating she got a job with Microsoft as a Program Manager. Sometimes this role has other names at different companies, like Product Manager or User Experience Strategist. She loved the job as she got to continue to dabble in all aspects of creating and designing a product. She loves being given a problem that she has to solve. For example she mentioned one project she worked on was to design the Start Menu for Windows 8 - they started the project just as touch screens were starting to show up on computers and tablets. In her role she has to coordinate the work and input of many people. She sees herself as the center of a wheel and then there are spokes out to other jobs. She works with designers (who are doing the visual side of the product), user researchers (who work on understanding people and t
esting designs with people), developers (who are writing the code) and testers (who are making sure the code is good quality). She has to make sure everyone is on schedule to deliver the right pieces at the right time and that everyone has a chance to contribute ideas to get to the best solutions.
She enjoyed working at Microsoft. The work also paid well, and has allowed her to save up to take time off from work now to pursue working on a startup project idea of her own.
Hilary Prathner is a senior at the University of Washington. She's in the informatics department.
When she was in high school she liked lots of activities such as being on the Cheer team, Theater, Debate and Math! One particular math teacher influenced her thinking for what to study in college, Mrs. Pane helped her consider something like working with technology even though Hillary hadn't done any programming.
Hillary decided to go to University of Washington because it was a big university, had lots of courses on offer and was a beautiful campus. UW offers computer coding classes to students who haven't done it before, so Hillary started with these classes. On teacher encouraged Hillary to think about majoring in technology, and spent time with Hillary explaining to her different career paths that would be possible if she majored in a technology subject.
She gravitated to the School of Informatics. The school offers a variety of computer courses and also courses on understanding people and designing great experiences (very similar to HCI, that Rebecca studies). The classes exposed her to designing software, digital mockups, mood boards and coding. She enjoyed all the different aspects but decided her favorite area was coding.
She took two summer internships. One internship was at microsoft - it was part of a special program where she got to spend 3 weeks as a developer, 3 weeks as a tester, and 3 weeks as a program manager. Her second internship was at Square (they produce a mobile card reading application). She was a developer writing code on this project.
Recently she's been applying for full-time jobs - she's had a large choice to apply for, and has been made several offers. She's decided to work for a mid-size startup called Tune.
Her advice for you is:
- Advocate for yourself
- Learn to appreciate diverse perspectives and skill sets
- Find mentor(s)
- Find out what's important to you