people with degrees CAN be the equivalent of those kids that have really expensive music equipment but couldn't play anything worth listening too if their life depended on it.
in my proven work experience the most valuable players never had a a formal education. the ones that do like to debate more than they like to get things done. i always get this your should go to school remark and I'm really not all that impressed... it's all relative... On Fri, Jun 20, 2008 at 1:34 PM, Andrei Herasimchuk < [EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > On Jun 20, 2008, at 12:57 PM, Harvinder wrote: > > We are a UX recruting firm and work with a lot of Fortune companies as >> clients. I have recently seen that in a lot of UX positions companies are >> increasingly asking for a Master's degree in design, HCI or related >> fields. >> We recently got some body interviewed at Microsoft who has 8 years of >> strong >> experience in Usability and User Research and the comment that came across >> from the hiring manager was if she had a Master's degree it would open up >> a >> lot of doors for her at Microsoft. >> > > Any person or company asking for a masters degree in design or HCI to do > work in the software industry at this point in time is making a huge > mistake. Having hired many people out of the best programs in the country in > the past 10 years, and seeing where these programs are at this stage even > today, it is clear people are still graduating without enough of the proper > balance of skills vs theory. There are some that are exceptions to this > rule, but not many. > > I'm sure that will change like it does with all design professions as this > particular field matures over time. However, we're simply not there yet. > What people should be looking for is experience and example of work that > prove the person can excel at the job. At this stage, that is all that > matters. > > As for needing a degree? Sure. It can certainly help, but like all things > in higher education, what you should be looking for is the right school for > you, and even more important than that, the right mentors and teachers. The > school itself or even the program is not what matters. It's the person that > is teaching you that does. > > And for what its worth, I dropped out of college to get into the software > industry. Do I regret it? No. Back in 1990, no one was teaching what I > wanted to learn, so I had to do it myself. I went into deep immersion mode > about all things design and coding related and haven't looked back since. > Times have changed, which is nice, but there are still a lot of people out > there spending a lot of money and learning the wrong things. If you are you > looking at programs, make sure you do your homework. > > My only advice is this: If you are choosing design programs with the > intention of getting into the field of high-technology, desktop > applications, web applications, or pretty much anything in the digital realm > that uses software at its core, make sure the program you pick is blending > practical design skills (art, color, drawing, typography, layout, etc) with > computing skills (coding, scripting, algorithms, database, etc.) And on the > side, you'd do yourself a big favor by picking up a hobby that requires > craft or years of practice to master, since at its heart, that is what this > field is all about even if people get so immersed into their digital devices > they might forget it. Things like playing a musical instrument, or painting, > or building furniture, or gardening, or any number of hobbies that require > you to use your hands and not a keyboard or mouse. > > -- > Andrei Herasimchuk > > Principal, Involution Studios > innovating the digital world > > e. [EMAIL PROTECTED] > c. +1 408 306 6422 > > ________________________________________________________________ > Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! > To post to this list ....... [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe > List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines > List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help > ________________________________________________________________ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ....... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help
