From CNET News
In-demand grad takes a very big gamble
By Daniel Terdiman
Imagine your professional future on the line, and a group of six people you hardly know standing between you and a great job.
With national unemployment at 9 percent, and the economy still teetering between a double-dip recession and a very modest recovery, you could forgive Thomas Schluchter for being anxious as he readied for what might prove to be one of the most pivotal days of his life.
That day took place earlier this spring. Schluchter was a finalist for an interaction design position at a Bay Area social-networking company — the name of which he asked CNET not to publish given the NDA he'd signed. But despite the fact that he was about to put his fate in the hands of six strangers who had the power to derail his professional plans, Schulchter was keeping his cool.
It may have had something to do with how prepared he was.This weekend, Schluchter will graduate with a master's degree from UC Berkeley's School of Information, known affectionately as the "I-School."
Said to be UC Berkeley's newest and smallest professional school, the program has already established its reputation for turning out talent. Among its alumni are famed social-networks researcher danah boyd, as well as Matthew Rothenberg, Flickr's former product head and current bit.ly's head of products. The I-School's mandate is "expanding access to information and to improving its usability, reliability, and credibility while preserving security and privacy."
For Schulchter, ... Berkeley's program seemed like a perfect fit....