Two Sisters Striking Out: A College Application Experience

I am 15 years older than my super genius sister (she hates when I call her that). Super Sister had perfect grades, near perfect SAT scores, perfect scores on so many AP tests I lost count, and showed promise in gymnastics and dance. She enjoys hard work, loves to learn, and on top of all that, she's not a dork. People like her. She's funny. She's cute. She's perfect for any school who wants to balance out their male geekness with a nice, intelligent girl.

She also likes math and science. MIT should have been knocking down her door.

Super Sister visited colleges all over New England, New York, Virginia, and Minnesota (because I live here). She fell in love with Amherst and Dartmouth. I figured it was a gimme. They had to accept her. She's awesome. She didn't make any assumptions and worked hard to prepare super thorough applications and interviewed well. She wasn't accepted.

I'm not too sad because she also really liked the school she chose, an outstanding small school less than an hour from my house. It's like the Amherst of the midwest. She's getting an awesome education and I'm sure will get a chance to do research with professors and intern at top hospitals or research labs. She'll be just fine (though I think she still pines for Amherst).

When I was in high school, I wanted to do "something with art, design, photography, and communications". I had the photography and design experience to have a shot at art school but also applied where I was expected to - or had a random interest because my friends would be there. If I list everywhere I remember applying to between 1994 and 1999 (not counting grad school), I think it goes something like this:

• Evergreen State College - for some sort of self-defined communications degree
• Art Institute of Boston - for photography
• Skidmore - was thinking a combo of design and communications
• Mount Wachusett Community College - took a class there one summer
• NYU's Tisch School - photography
• Concordia (in Canada) - for "art"
• Savannah College of Art and Design - originally as a graphic design major
• UMass - family expectations of attending the honors college 

I also considered:

• McGill (because my dad wished he'd gone there) - I could have been an architect!
• George Washington - to become a photojournalist for the Washington Post
• University of Vermont - all the cool kids went there
• Johnson and Wales - I also wanted to be a chef
• Blaine - For cosmetology - hairstyling is a passion of mine
• Yale - pipe dream, wanted to be a writer 

Of all those, only one stood out as the place I had to go. It was Savannah College of Art and Design but I didn't figure that out until four years after high school.

What I know is I had a good chance at all the schools I actually applied to. My sister should have had a chance as well. Things have changed and schools are more competitive. She was focused. She knows what she wants, where she wants to be, and she'll damn sure be successful. For some reason, her dream school didn't agree. I'd say they suck but in case she wants to transfer, I'll just say, hey out there in Amherst-land - look for the little girl with the cute smile and the dream to create medicines that save the world.

User Experience Education is Life Experience

As I was picking up my sketchbook to design a bathroom interior (somewhat unrelated to this post topic), I had a thought. I've been asked by several undergraduate students and a handful of later-in-life adults what it takes to do what I do. The concept of researching what makes a better, more usable design intrigues both techies and non-techies. They want to know how to get the education needed for a career as a user experience designer.

If you want to get into this career quickly and can commit to a year or two out of the workforce, absolutely consider getting a masters degree from a notable university. The notable university part is important primarily because the job market has been horrendous, but also because they have been teaching human-computer interaction longer than most colleges. Carnegie Mellon, Michigan, and Bentley come to mind as places to begin your graduate school search. There are many others, but you may have an edge if you choose one of those schools.

Education isn't everything. It doesn't guarantee an awesome job. It doesn't guarantee you'll be an awesome user experience designer. The best practitioners I've met are those who have worked in other careers, or who have spent many years dedicated to the practice. Psychologists, cognitive scientists, software engineers, graphic designers, anthropologists, writers, marketing professionals, and product managers all could become outstanding user advocates.

Here's an example of how my past career choices have strengthened my user experience abilities: 

Temporary Office Professional

Includes accounts payable clerk, medical secretary, receptionist, filing clerk, administrative assistant, and data entry assistant.

UX-Related skills: 

• patience
• adaptability
• phone conferencing
• handling redundant and sometimes boring tasks (not everything in UX is exciting)

Dry Cleaning Whatchamacallit

Unofficially managed a dry cleaning location without the recognition, pay, or authority that comes with a management title.

UX-Related skills:

• being nice to the most annoying clients
• extreme multitasking
• ethnography
• being prepared for the unexpected

Kitchen Designer

Also customer service, cashier, returns clerk, and appliance sales girl.

UX-Related skills

• project management
• needs analysis
• sketching
• physical modeling (contextual design)

Communications Manager
AKA media buyer, copywriter, editor, advertising planner, design liaison

UX-Related skills:

• aesthetic appreciation
• professional writing
• attention to detail
• coordinating teams
• speaking a professional design language

Quality Assurance Analyst
Or the girl who decided what could be posted on Guru.com every night and every weekend for several years

UX-Related skills: 

• concern for legality
• client relationships
• ability to work much faster than I ever thought possible
• stamina to work 6-7 days a week for a long time (this isn't always typical in UX)

While you are preparing for that new awesome career as a designer, researcher, or analyst, consider how your past makes you a good candidate for your first UX job. Just because you didn't have the title in the past, doesn't mean you don't have some foundational skills that set you apart from other applicants.

I have a blog, really I do

I tend to avoid most personal topics on my blog because this is my professional outlet (or so I'd like to believe). This isn't Facebook, where if you are my friend or family, you know too much about me already. It's not a rant space for health issues or personal crises. If you want to know what I ate for dinner, you can always follow me on Twitter.

Occasionally, some kind person links to my blog and I get a nice bump in hits for a while, but it drops off and I am sure not surprised. I've been a lazy blogger this year. My readers never know if or when I'm going to post and it's time to change this behavior. I make no promises because whenever things are settled, something crap comes along and I'm off the blog for a bit.

This is a rare moment where I bare my soul. I'll probably regret it but I don't have too many followers who I don't already know, so perhaps it won't be too big a deal until I'm super famous and on CNN next to Dr. Gupta (my medical blogging hero).

A little over a year ago, my awesome sweetie pie daughter was born. It was pretty uneventful, relatively painless (I have a freakish high tolerance for pain), and aside from the sleepless nights, life was good. I went back to work after a while and then just when I had everything under control, I was diagnosed with cancer. Yep, that awful thing that zillions of people get. I didn't take it too seriously because I heard a lot of "with surgery, you'll be fine" and "really early, definitely". But after so many unpleasant, painful (that says a lot), and expensive tests, it was Stage IIIb. I wouldn't call that early. There were hospital stays, chemo treatments, major surgeries, and many days without food. I put on my happy face for the world but the truth is, inside I was a mess.

During this time, I slacked on a few things, like blogging, side projects, and styling my hair nicely. Because of equipment I had to carry around everywhere, I felt trapped wearing long skirts everywhere. I couldn't go swimming. I couldn't eat sushi or deli meat. There were a lot of days I wasn't allowed to pick up my daughter because she's above the weight limit post-op. That's the best way for a doctor to emotionally mess with a mother, though it's certainly never intentional.

My boss and coworkers were so supportive and with their help, I worked except when medically necessary not to. I even worked while getting chemo, sitting in the hospital with an IV drip, eating my bland "free gourmet sandwich". That's not a knock to the volunteers by the way, just to the repetitive dry turkey on white bread with jello.

During this time, another job opportunity came up that I couldn't turn down. It fit my ideals. It was a necessary change and so a few weeks ago I became a design researcher for a major health care organization. I'm sure I'll never regret that choice and you'll probably still find me toiling away on improving patient interactions 30 years from now.

For the next few months, there will be several trips out of town for work, tired nights, long drives, and a lot of learning to do. I promise to balance this new career move with my family, my friends, and my kitty cats.

I also promise to balance this with the needs of my readers. I promise to blog no less than twice a month for the rest of the year. Some days you may see a listing of events or recommended reading, like always. If you think that's a waste of your time, just let me know. Most of the time, I'll try to focus content on what you want to read about. Tell me what you want to know. I'll figure it out and write it up. It's that simple.

Help me be a better blogger. Tell me what you want (within the realm of UX or seared Ahi tuna), and you'll see it here.

End of personal commentary.

User Experience Resolutions for 2011

This year, my user experience career will head in a new direction. With that in mind, I created a list of professional development opportunities to accomplish in 2011.

CONFERENCES

I would love to attend at least one conference this year, and preferring not to travel in 2011, I plan to choose from the following fabulous choices:

CONFAB 2011: The Content Strategy Conference
I am not a content strategist but do believe that content strategy is an essential part of the overall user experience. It may be a stretch to pay for this conference but I am sure the value would be enormous. Thanks to @matto for suggesting this for me!

MinneWebCon 2011

I missed the 2010 conference so hope to make up for it by attending this year. It's affordable and only one day so there's really no excuse, except perhaps my inability to figure out parking in St. Paul.

An Event Apart
The 2010 Minneapolis conference was absolutely inspiring so if I have my way, I will definitely be there in 2011. I'd love to hear from others who plan to attend this year!

VIRTUAL LEARNING

UIE Virtual Seminars:

User Research Analysis Techniques with Steve Portigal

Designing with Scenarios with Kim Goodwin

eCornell:

Conflict Resolution

Influence Without Authority

READING
Reading is an inexpensive way to learn from other people's experiences. I requested a variety of books specific to the healthcare and service design industry (in addition to a backlog of UX books) through interlibrary loan. These should start trickling in over the next month or two.

Bringing User Experience to Healthcare Improvement: The Concepts, Mehtods, and Practices of Experience-Based Design by Bate, Robert, and Maher

HCI and Usability for Medicine and Health Care: Third Symposium of the Workgroup Human-Computer Interaction and Usability Engineering... edited by Andreas Holzinger

Hospital Interior Architecture: Creating Healing Environments for Special Patient Populations by Jain Malkin

Reaching Women: The Way to Go in Marketing Healthcare Services for Women by Barbara Bellman

Business Ethics in Healthcare: Beyond Compliance by Leonard J. Weber

If you have any suggestions for training events in the Minneapolis or Rochester area, or blogs and books I should read, please let me know. I read every day without fail and am always looking for something new to learn.