Despite the challenges of the job market and the state’s 12% unemployment rate, School of Information master’s student George Hayes said that he got multiple offers for summer jobs or internships; he is now working as an interaction designer in Yahoo!’s consumer advertising experiences group.
“My internship actually found me,” he said. “I was recruited to this job after submitting my resume to Yahoo! at the I School career fair.” Hayes credited his I School education with helping him secure the internship. “They noticed I was interested in mobile interaction design and that I had gone to CHI this year, and they saw me as a good fit.” His internship involves optimizing how Yahoo! advertises on mobile and video platforms, and he is also designing a mobile augmented reality application to synthesize the services of Yahoo! and its partners. “I don't think I would have had the same opportunity if it weren't for the I School.”
Kate Smith, Hayes' classmate in the MIMS class of 2011, agreed. “At all of my interviews, people were eager to learn about the projects that I had worked on at the I School. People were really fascinated in finding out about the problems that we were exploring, the methods we were using, and the results we were finding.” Smith is a user research intern for Autodesk, where she is designing research studies, recruiting people for them, and then analyzing and presenting the results. “I’m the one behind the one-way mirror taking notes at usability sessions, working the cameras to record focus groups, and figuring out the best way to word survey questions so that we get the best results,” she explained.
A recent survey of MIMS students suggests that Smith and Hayes are not alone — over 85% of respondents from the MIMS class of 2011 have secured summer jobs or internships. In fact, many students reported receiving multiple job offers; some were offered as many as six different positions.
School of Information master’s students are working at companies like AT&T Interactive, California Digital Library, Citrix, eBay, Electronic Frontier Foundation, Fluid Inc., Google, Intel, Intuit, Lawrence Berkeley National Lab, Lithium Technologies, Primera Capital, Salesforce, SAP, Topspin Media, and Twitter. To accept these positions, they turned down offers from companies like Fuji Xerox, FXPal, GT Nexus, Microsoft, Oracle, Tata Consultancy, Twilio, and Zappli.
For some students, the first year of the master’s program didn't just help them get a job, it opened up a whole new career direction. Marco Cozzi came to the School of Information with a background in business technology consulting, but this summer he is working in information policy, as an information risk management analyst at Chevron. As an intern, he identifies possible risks to the company, such as data privacy breaches or intellectual property violations, and suggests policies or standards to mitigate or control those risks. “Coming to the I School really sparked my interest in information policy and security,” he said.
Several of Cozzi's first-year courses helped prepare him for this job. “Info 205 (Information Law and Policy) really helped me understand information and data privacy. And Coye Cheshire's class, Info 203 (Social and Organizational Issues of Information), helped me understand the concepts of behavior-based risks of social media. This is something I never would have thought about before starting this program.”
Kate Smith had a similar experience. “I took User Interface Design (213) and Needs & Usability Assessment (214) last spring, both of which are directly related to what I’m doing now,” she said, “but I’m realizing that all my classes prepared me in some way.”
The students are enjoying using their education in their summer internships. “It was interesting to study this [information policy] theoretically, but actually applying it in a business context is very rewarding,” said Cozzi. “I’m having a great time and I’m learning a lot,” said Smith. “I couldn’t ask for a better place to be this summer.”
George Hayes agreed. “The internship has been going great,” he said. “I have been able to use what I've learned at the I School to really do some interesting things. This is definitely the most interesting job I've had as a designer.”
