Last week, I utilized the @cal alumni network to get an informational interview with this usability designer. I had it on my cellphone (because it was a long distance phone call) in a stuffy meeting room at the main office of where I work. By the time I had finished, the temperature of the room had risen from a 80 degrees to a boiling 87 degrees. How? Most likely by the setting sun and not me.

The problem was I didn\’t learn as much as I could have. I got an overview of how the usability field is like. That the dot-com bust happened, because of bad business models (this fact I learned during my summer internship). But as I listened, I admired the work that the alumni did. Indeed, he started at the very bottom working his way up after 10 years to senior UI engineer. And furthermore, he didn\’t apply much of the skills he acquired in college to his career. What about college not defining your career path???

I looked at the CMU Masters study plan. So incredibly exciting! The masters program itself has everything that I have always wanted to take. Course titles such as How people make things, Social issues of computing, Gizmology and Internet and Law. :D

And on this map test, I actually got a perfect score my first try (contrary to my belief that I missed one before time was up). It\’s not that hard considering I consistently meet people all over the country as well as apply to graduate schools all over the country (it wouldn\’t be good if I didn\’t know where Georgia Tech was located…)