Where to Go After Grad School: A discussion about HCI jobs and careers
The viability of academic and research lab paths is quite evident, although students often have questions about their relative merits and drawbacks. Less clear to many graduate students today are the possibilities for staying active in research while working in non-research jobs. This does not preclude an eventual return to research; in fact, it can be a less stressful and a more impactful and successful path in the long run, if undertaken thoughtfully by someone with appropriate interests and skills. It is also possible that changes in the field make this especially attractive at this time. This talk will describe some merits and drawbacks of academic, industry research, and industry development paths, along with some compelling lessons based on Human Computer Interaction (HCI) research in practice.
With a background in computer science, Umer Farooq finished his Ph.D. in information science from Penn State. During his graduate work, Umer did summer stints at IBM T.J. Watson Research Center and SRI International. In 2008, he joined Microsoft’s Cloud & Enterprise team as a user researcher and advanced API usability methodologies. In 2013, Umer helped to launch Xbox One globally, working on key entertainment scenarios such as media integration. He is now a senior user research manager in Microsoft’s operating systems group and is defining the next generation of consumer experiences.