Barkha Patel

"After finishing my undergraduate degree, I wanted to pivot myself into a career where I spend time looking at building usable technology. I wanted to focus on User Experience while still building my technical skills."

In my current role at AT&T as a UX Researcher, I work to identify and document customer needs and values so they can be used to design new or improve existing AT&T products and services. I have a background in Computer Science which enables me to bring my technical skills to my current role. Not only do I carry the duties of a traditional UX Researcher but also develop 'proof of concepts' employing the use of different front-end & back-end technologies. I also use methods and processes in Data Science to find insights from Business Data that can help guide UX Research. 

The School of Information has been the perfect school for me. After finishing my undergraduate degree, I wanted to pivot myself into a career where I spend time looking at building usable technology. I wanted to focus on User Experience while still building my technical skills. The School of Information provides a range of courses that allowed me to do what I wanted. Courses like the Projects in HCI, Understanding Research, Introduction to Machine Learning and Rapid Prototyping have prepared me to perform well in my current role. I also got the opportunity to be a Student Technician at the IT Lab which helped me make connections at the iSchool and also keep my developing skills current. In all, the school of Information has fully prepared me for my career in Design Technology. 

The advice that I would give current iSchoolers would be to take advantage of the different types of courses offered at the iSchool. Another advice that I would give is to make meaningful connections and keep in touch with the Career Development Office. Both of these resources have been very vital in getting a lot of iSchoolers where they are today.