{"id":884,"date":"2021-05-14T08:32:36","date_gmt":"2021-05-14T08:32:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.simon-li.com\/design-and-code\/?p=884"},"modified":"2023-03-15T19:46:33","modified_gmt":"2023-03-15T19:46:33","slug":"should-you-break-into-ux-with-a-masters-degree-in-hci","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.simon-li.com\/design-and-code\/should-you-break-into-ux-with-a-masters-degree-in-hci\/","title":{"rendered":"Should You Break into UX with a Master\u2019s Degree?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Should You Break into UX with a Master\u2019s Degree?\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/WuEjj2uquXs?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p id=\"a124\">If the major of your bachelor\u2019s degree isn\u2019t any UX related field such as graphic design or human-computer interaction (HCI), one possible pathway to break into UX is to study HCI in grad school. A good master\u2019s degree in HCI gives you a solid foundation in UX design, some practical experience of working as a UXer for a real client, and a pretty good credential for landing a product design job. That said, grad schools are not a prerequisite for being a UXer. They tend to be expensive and not that easy to get into. Having been a graduate student in HCI, I wanted to give you a glimpse of my experience and help you make an informed decision.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"0d83\">Hard Skills<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p id=\"ff65\">A good HCI program in grad school walks you through and deep dives into many important aspects of UX, including design thinking, user research, interaction design, visual design, and some fundamentals about user interface programming. It helps you learn UX in a comprehensive and systematic way. While I\u2019d taught myself visual design for years before entering the program, I knew very little about design thinking and user research, so these two parts in the curriculum were really valuable to me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"6d2d\">Soft Skills<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p id=\"2ab3\">Most course projects we needed to complete in our program were group projects, each of which lasted for 3-4 weeks. In the 2nd and 3rd semester, there was also a 7-month capstone project where we were divided into teams to work with real clients to solve real problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p id=\"e897\">Group projects required a lot of collaboration, so it was a good opportunity to learn how to navigate team dynamics and communicate with stakeholders. Conflicts could arise, and so we needed to learn how to handle and resolve them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p id=\"f251\">It was really good that my classmates came from diverse backgrounds, not just computer science or design, but also economics, psychology, humanities etc. Each of us brought different skillsets and perspectives to the table so we could learn from each other. For instance, I\u2019d barely talked to a client before, but in the capstone project, I got to learn how to communicate with the client in a professional setting by observing how my teammates did so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"0fed\">Career Prospect<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p id=\"b388\">Getting a master\u2019s degree in HCI could increase your chances of being hired by the big tech companies like FAANG.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p id=\"944c\">Take a look at the following job ad from Amazon, you\u2019ll see that a bachelor\u2019s or master\u2019s degree in HCI is a preferred qualification.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/miro.medium.com\/max\/3392\/1*r2pVEsvebJ2fl5FtZVukHQ.png\" alt=\"\"\/><figcaption>A job description from Amazon<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p id=\"a5fe\">More importantly, you\u2019ll often find classmates\/alumni who are already working in those tech companies, so it\u2019ll be easier to find out what it\u2019s like to be a UXer there and get a referral from them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"7057\">High Tuition<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p id=\"2a6c\">If there\u2019s any drawback of going to grad school, it\u2019s probably the cost, which could be up to 50\u201360K USD. If that\u2019s your goal, plan ahead financially, whether that\u2019s through working for a few years or support from parents. Oftentimes, no scholarship will be provided because these programs are usually taught programs rather than research programs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"bf73\">Fast-Paced and Highly Intensive<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p id=\"b86f\">The workload of these programs tend to be heavy. Classes could start pretty early in the morning. I remember in the 2nd semester, 4 days out of a 5-day work week, my classes started at 9am. Considering the fact that I often needed to stay up late to complete projects and assignments, it was pretty common for me to get only 6 hours of sleep. Time management became pretty important.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p id=\"b779\">One mantra I had during that time was&nbsp;<em>stop trying to be perfect.<\/em>&nbsp;I knew that I was studying with a lot of intelligent classmates in the program and juggling multiple courses. If I could learn something and make small progress everyday, that was already a win for me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p id=\"d363\">It\u2019s good to know that no matter how amazing the HCI program is, it can\u2019t teach you everything in UX, so keep learning even after you graduate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p id=\"a198\">If there\u2019s anything I could\u2019ve done better during the program, it\u2019d be job searching, which I didn\u2019t plan well. The program was so intense in the 2nd and 3rd semester. I wanted to do well in my projects so I ended up not allocating enough time to getting my resume and portfolio ready.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"4dc3\">Final Thoughts<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p id=\"0069\">After weighing the pros and cons of pursuing a master\u2019s degree in HCI, should you decide to submit an application, be prepared to write a statement of purpose, get recommendation letters, save enough for the tuition, and think one step ahead about your career trajectory after the program.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p id=\"c59f\">Should you decide not to go to grad school, that\u2019s also fine: plenty of amazing UXers did not do that. In that case, you might want to learn more and gain more experience through online courses, reading books and working for a few more years in the industry.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>If the major of your bachelor\u2019s degree isn\u2019t any UX related field such as graphic design or human-computer interaction (HCI), one possible pathway to break into UX is to study HCI in grad school. A good master\u2019s degree in HCI gives you a solid foundation in UX design, some practical&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[134],"tags":[113],"class_list":["post-884","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-design-career","tag-education"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.simon-li.com\/design-and-code\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/884","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.simon-li.com\/design-and-code\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.simon-li.com\/design-and-code\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.simon-li.com\/design-and-code\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.simon-li.com\/design-and-code\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=884"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"http:\/\/www.simon-li.com\/design-and-code\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/884\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":929,"href":"http:\/\/www.simon-li.com\/design-and-code\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/884\/revisions\/929"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.simon-li.com\/design-and-code\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=884"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.simon-li.com\/design-and-code\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=884"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.simon-li.com\/design-and-code\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=884"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}