Hello all!
I am a 3rd Year Liberal Arts and Engineering Studies Major, studying at California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo, California. This unique program that I am a part of allows students to choose an Engineering concentration and Liberal Arts concentration; for these I have chose Comptuer Science (my previous major) and Psychology.
I am currently looking for guidance on where to go – both academically and career wise. I know that my goal is to become an expert in Human Tech, which I believe will put me more on the psychology side. However, after I graduate from Cal Poly next year I’m not sure where to go next. I’m most likely going for a Master’s in HCI, but also considering a Ph.D and potentially doing Cognitive Science. The top two graduate schools I’m looking into are Carnegie Mellon University and Georgia Tech.
I have quite a few questions, if you can advise in any of these areas it would be greatly appreciated!
- For starters, is HCI is the best choice to make an impact in Humane Tech?
- M.S or Ph.D?
- If I do a Master’s program I will have at least one summer where I’ll be looking for an internship (I am interning at Facebook this summer). Are there any companies you’d suggest I look for an internship with for the summer of 2019?
- Once I attain my graduate degree, where should I look to get involved with afterwards? I’m not sure if I want to be a researcher, a product manager, or something different yet. Do you have any insights on where this career path might take me?
I’m very excited to get involved with Humane Tech! I look forward to where my academic studies will take me, and hope that one day I can gain the expertise to design software that really focuses on being nothing more than a tool; to design software that lets the user go; to design software that instead of taking advantage of human vulnerability enables human strength.
Thank you for any advice you can give to help me advance my career!