Category Archives: Undergrad Alumni

B.S. Informatics, 2010

Why did you choose this major?

I was interested in the broader study of how people work with and use software, computers, and technology.

What has been your career path since graduating with your B.S.?

I’ve worked with a number of small companies and startups, helping to design software systems that assist people in the workspace.

What do you enjoy most about your current position?

I have a lot of flexibility to start and manage whatever projects I feel will be beneficial to the company, and I have a wide variety of experience and educational foundation to draw on. It lets me approach problems from different angles.

What does a typical work day look like for you?

I’m largely self-managed in my current job. A couple of times a week, I will meet with my boss to talk about our short-term plans and make sure we’re on the same page about where we’re going. Aside from this, I spend most of my day working on whatever my current task is – design, coding, asset creation, testing, etc. I also frequently spend a few minutes talking with my colleagues, which helps me understand the status and issues of our software platform, and lets me start thinking about how I can address them.

What was the best part of your experience at UCI?

The best part of my experience was working in teams with other students who were as motivated and engaged as I was, designing systems and solving problems within realistic problem spaces. It gave a great level of context to the material we were learning.

In what way(s) did your studies at UCI prepare you for your career to date?

My studies helped me learn to work as part of a team, and collaborate effectively with others on a multi-engineer project. It also taught me to be very efficient at learning new tools, or expanding on my current capabilities quickly and effectively. I gained a great appreciation for the many stages that have to go into software design in order for good tools to be produced.

What would be your advice to incoming students who might want to follow a similar career path?

Always be flexible in your idea of what you do. It is helpful for a software engineer to wear many hats, and be comfortable in each of them. Be open to new ideas, new tools, and new concepts. And never be discouraged by what you don’t know.

B.S. Computer Game Science, 2014

Why did you choose this major?

It was rather serendipitous. After high school, I studied at Orange Coast College, where I stumbled into CS and eventually earned an A.S. degree in Computer Programming. I had always had a passion for video games in particular, and it turned out that I was applying to universities as a transfer student the very first year that transfer applications were being accepted for the new CGS program. I had already been eyeing the Bren school for its growing prestige in the field of Computer Science, so it was an easy decision to make.

What has been your career path since graduating with your B.S.?

I have been working fulltime as a Junior Programmer at the local financial software company MeridianLink for nearly half a year now. I also maintain a connection to the games industry through volunteer work as a member of the International Game Developers Association (IGDA) Scholarship Program Committee, which provides opportunities for students in game-related fields to attend major industry events such as the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco or the Electronic Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles.

What do you enjoy most about your current position?

I get to go to work every morning knowing there are interesting problems for me to solve. Even though I’m in a junior role I feel that I get plenty of challenging tasks, that my ideas are considered fairly, and that I’m constantly improving as a developer. It’s been a great experience so far.

What does a typical work day look like for you?

This isn’t going to sound as interesting on paper as it actually is, since I can’t really discuss the specifics of my work. I’d say about 80% of my time is actually spent coding, with the rest devoted to things like scheduling, meetings, and coordination with the project designers and other team members. I have some really smart colleagues and it’s a privilege to be able to work with and learn more from them every day.

My IGDA volunteer responsibilities vary week to week. We have a small operations team, so I wear a lot of hats. A major part of that work consists of managing the application process, so I spend a lot of time writing social media copy and working behind-the-scenes with judges and our collected applications. Once the winners are selected, a lot of effort goes into preparing them for the conference and scheduling events like studio tours at local game companies and other fun activities to make their experience unforgettable.

What was the best part of your experience at UCI?

I could talk all day about the great experiences I had at UC Irvine, it was such a transformative time in my life. If I’m picking one, though, it’d have to be the time I spent as Chair of the student organization Irvine Queers. Students in STEM fields often tend to shun the Humanities, and consequently lack exposure to social issues related to race, gender identity, sexual orientation, and similar topics. My involvement in both worlds has provided me with valuable perspectives that I would not have otherwise.

In what way(s) did your studies at UCI prepare you for your career to date?

This is a bit of a hard question to answer, because it would be so easy to just pay lip service to various classes that teach particular programming languages or disciplines and leave it at that, since most of my day consists of coding. One standout class, though, was the CGS capstone project course. While it was guided at a high level by the professor, we had unprecedented freedom within the classroom to select teams and create whatever project we wanted, using whichever technologies we deemed best. Having such an open project domain and being thrown into the development process for two straight quarters taught me a lot that simply doesn’t come up in more tightly-scoped classes with predefined assignments.

What would be your advice to incoming students who might want to follow a similar career path?

My career path has been a little unconventional and I’m not sure I’m experienced enough yet to give valuable career advice. Nonetheless, for anyone who wants to be a programmer in the games industry or elsewhere, remember that there’s more to the field than what you’ll learn in the classroom: working on a passion project or learning a new technology outside of class can go a long way. But more importantly, no matter what your career goal, don’t be afraid to venture outside the field entirely from time to time. Take classes that are outside of your comfort zone. Get involved in a student organization unrelated to ICS. You might be surprised at what experiences end up being useful down the road.

Why did you choose this major?

I originally chose to pursue computer science because it was clear to me that technology would continue to become an integral part of everyday life, and would therefore offer me many options when it came time to find a career. After attending an orientation session over the summer before my freshman year at UCI, I heard about the Informatics program and decided to major in it because I was interested in studying the interaction between people and computers, rather than just learning how to code. This social aspect of computing is what interested me the most about Informatics, and is what continues to drive my current career in user experience.

What has been your career path since graduating with your B.S.?

After graduation, I began working as a front-end web developer at a small web design agency. After a couple years, I slowly moved toward helping create wireframes of the websites we were designing and transitioned into a UX designer role. During this transition, I realized that UX is my real passion and I decided to pursue it exclusively. I am now a user experience specialist at the Nielsen Norman Group where we conduct independent usability research, teach full-day seminars based on that research, and consult for clients on a variety of digital projects.

What do you enjoy most about your current position?

I most enjoy teaching others about my findings from usability studies, and helping them determine how to improve the user experience of their websites and mobile apps. I also love the autonomy at my company: as long as I get my work done, and it continues to be of high quality, how and exactly when it happens is entirely up to me.

What does a typical workday look like for you?

My workdays vary widely. One day, I might be flying across the country to conduct a usability study for a client; another, I might be teaching a full-day course on usability and web design at a conference.

When I’m not traveling, I get to work from home. I typically am either writing an article for my company’s website about some aspect of user experience, preparing content to present at one of our conferences, or writing test plans and setting up a research study for a client (and then compiling all the findings from the study once it’s completed).

What was the best part of your experience at UCI?

Looking back, one of the best parts of my UCI experience was getting to know all of my classmates, and all the stressful yet fun times we had working on projects. To this day, many of us continue to keep in touch and have even worked together at various companies.

In what ways did your studies at UCI prepare you for your current career?

The focus in Informatics of ensuring you solve the right problem and my experience conducting research with various professors are things that directly help me every day in my current career. Rather than any particular topic of study being crucial, the Informatics program taught me how to think, and how to go about identifying issues existing between people and technology and finding solutions to those issues.

What would be your advice to incoming students who might want to follow a similar career path?

Find a professor whose work you’re interested in and ask how you can get involved conducting research. That hands-on experience of interviewing people, reviewing notes and data to derive findings, and presenting that information has proved to be invaluable for me.

B.S. Business Information Management, 2012

Why did you choose this major?

I had actually started off in Computer Science and Engineering, but after a few years of it and taking MGMT 189 (Project Management in IT), I realized that I wanted to position myself closer to the business/functional side while still leveraging my technical background and abilities. BIM
allowed me to do that.

What has been your career path since graduating with your B.S.?

After graduating in June 2012, I started my career with Capgemini, a global IT Consulting firm as an IT Consultant. I have been with Capgemini since starting in September of 2012.

What do you enjoy most about your current position?

I enjoy working with specifically with clients and speaking with them regarding pain points and business objectives.

What does a typical work day look like for you?

Recently, I have been traveling to the East Coast as my current project has been in sunny Florida! I am rolling off soon as my work here is done and soon will be commuting to North/South Carolina for another project. A typical work day involves many meetings with the business, our own internal team and then back to the desk to work on documentation and/or deliverables. We usually try to get in to the client site by 8/9 AM and leave at about 6/7 PM.

What was the best part of your experience at UCI?

I really enjoyed finding like-minded individuals in the two clubs I was a part of while at UCI. Delta Sigma Pi is a business fraternity I joined in order to meet successful men and women that would act as my business and personal mentors until this day. MAISS was also a great club that was started by some BIM majors in order to unite the BIM community. Whatever you do, try to join a club/organization that shares similar goals/standards as yourself. Also try to get a part-time job/internship. I like to have a full plate so what got me through UCI was being forced to balance school, work, family/friends, and clubs/organizational duties.

In what way(s) did your studies at UCI prepare you for your career to date?

I thoroughly enjoyed each and every one of my Business Information Management classes. I strongly feel and have expressed this to former/future students and faculty alike that the BIM major has been very well tailored for a student to go into a field like mine. It gives us a strong technical background, while also including very important classes: Project Management, Requirements Gathering, Databases; classes to which I draw knowledge and experience from on a daily basis.

What would be your advice to incoming students who might want to follow a similar career path?

Do it. The BIM major was designed extremely well. It features classes from the ICS major and the Business Administration major. You have some freedom as to what you would like to focus on as well so spend the first few years following the catalog and you’ll start to realize how you want to align yourself (more technical versus more business-oriented). Speak to the professors that you can see as mentors and ask them advice on how they succeed in their roles. Reach out to alumni who are more than happy to answer any questions about their careers if it pertains to your goals as well. And finally, have fun. The 4 years of college go by really fast, you don’t need to rush it; just soak it all in.

B.S. Informatics, 2012

Why did you choose this major?

When I was in high school, I liked to build websites with nice user experiences, and I wanted to become better at it. Informatics teaches the “human” or psychological side of computing as well as software engineering, and it seemed more applicable to real world applications I wanted to encounter in this field. In the end, design and code have a purpose that affects those using the application, so I wanted to learn how to make this experience a good one.

What has been your career path since graduating with your B.S.?

I’ve worked at two consulting companies as a front end developer, before moving on to my current gig as a front end developer at Apple working on Apple.com and internal libraries that the Apple.com team uses.

What do you enjoy most about your current position?

Working with nice, energetic, and brilliant people is what I enjoy most because it opens up a positive environment for teams to work well together to create something amazing. Being around my coworkers has helped me grow as a developer, and it’s good to constantly learn and improve on yourself.

What does a typical work day look like for you?

Once I get into the office, I read up and respond to emails. Then we have our daily scrum meeting and I work on my tasks from the Sprint board. Some tasks are research-related and some are coding tasks. Throughout the day, my teammates and I collaborate and communicate to make sure our code will work together. Afterwards, I have lunch with my coworkers, code review a teammate’s code or send mine for review, take a walk with a coworker (sometimes that clears your head), continue on my tasks, then go home after a day of hard work!

What was the best part of your experience at UCI?

The best parts of my experience were the team projects and the people I met in those projects (specifically the Portfelo project that my friends and I entered into the Butterworth Entrepreneurial Competition). You learn so much in the process because everyone brings something different to the table. There’s also a special kind of camaraderie that only stems from working on challenging projects with crazy, sleep-deprived, like-minded individuals like yourself. 😉

In what way(s) did your studies at UCI prepare you for your career to date?

I learned how to learn on my own, and that’s important in the real world when you’re given problems to tackle. My experience with Informatics also made me learn how to work with teammates, how to give and receive feedback to get a positive outcome, and how to step out of my comfort zone.

What would be your advice to incoming students who might want to follow a similar career path?

a. This sounds cliché, but go for your dreams! Go with the path you think will take you there, and try to soak up as much knowledge as possible along the way.
b. Learn how to learn. When you don’t know something, try not to be intimidated. Instead keep an open mind and ask questions because this is the time to do so! Everyone has to start somewhere and everyone learns at different paces. And once you learn something, be able to explain it to others. This really helps solidify your knowledge.
c. Set some realistic goals for yourself and contribute toward those goals with mini achievements on a regular basis (whether it be contributing to Github if you’re a developer, building up a portfolio if you’re a designer, teaching others, or keeping a blog of your learnings). The point is to constantly practice and grow towards your goal of the future, and you’ll get to where you want to be.
d. Pay it forward and be nice to people. They’ll remember your kindness, and people would much rather work with nice person compared to a rude person.

B.S. Informatics and B.S. Art, 2010

Why did you choose this major?

I knew I wanted a career in entertainment technology, but was more leaning towards games at the time. I wasn’t sure what scope yet so I attended a presentation of the different ICS degrees. The people aspect of Informatics completely was the ultimate factor. Technology is prevalent and is spread throughout every part of our lives now that I wanted to explore how can I use technology to have an effect on other people, whether be it games, television, software, music, health, etc.

What has been your career path since graduating with your B.S.?

Right after graduation, I was offered a position at Industrial Light and Magic, the visual effects branch of Lucasfilm. Every year has been a challenge, and I also learn an incredible amount from our engineers, artists, and supervisors. I was a technical director for Strange Magic, Lucasfilm’s first animated feature film, and am currently working on Star Wars Episode VII.

What do you enjoy most about your current position?

Besides constantly learning, I love being the bridge between artists and engineers/technology. I really enjoy hearing and analyzing a problem or a workflow that I can help with. It’s amazing to see the artists use their skills to create something visually stunning. My creativity is taking what I know, in terms of ILM’s (Industrial Light and Magic) pipeline, workflow, tools, and technology, and using that to create something new that will help solve a problem, or improve on an existing tool.

What does a typical work day look like for you?

I tend to jump around from tool maintenance/bug fixing that are currently being used in production, and continuing my work on new types of technology needed by supervisors and department artists. Over the years I’ve developed a lot of tools used in different production teams that I’m not in, but I need to address show stoppers for that team to continue. Between juggling support and development, I also have to be flexible with my priorities as I don’t drive the production schedule as to which movie sequences need to be delivered first. Most of the time, every sequence introduces a new challenge to solve — like how can we create such a detailed massive environment, a forest, planet, spaceship, etc., but still be efficient in delivering it down the pipeline for animators and lighting artists, and how can we build one quickly?

6. What was the best part of your experience at UCI? In what ways did your studies at UCI prepare you for your career to date?

Learning different programming languages and pragmatics. The experience using different languages helped when I graduated as I had to learn fast as I had to code in Python, which I didn’t use till my senior year. Sometimes I also have to dig into some C++ code, I’m not an expert in it but having a bit of knowledge helps to debug. I also liked having a wide spread of projects, from small scale — programming an Android phone, to a large scale project – Google App automated unit test suite. Working on the large scale projects, helped give a bit of professional experience before entering that ‘real’ world. I also remember doing a lot of cognitive walkthroughs in my senior year, and while I thought it was repetitive and boring at the time….it’s exactly what I do from time to time now when I collaborate with artists and in my head when I have to develop a tool UI that makes sense, and flows smoothly with their workflow.

What would be your advice to incoming students who might want to follow a similar career path?

Don’t pigeon hole yourself to what you are comfortable or good in. Learn a different programming language, take a quarter/class to try network programming or design interfaces, or take a class not related to technology; be open to opportunities that come along. Ironically, the worst grade I ever got in ICS was a computer graphics course. And I was hell bent on entering the games industry up to my junior year till I was given an unexpected opportunity to explore animation. When I work with creature technical directors, even things I learned all the way back from high school physiology are useful! And in terms of programming/classwork/work advice? If you’re stuck with a problem for a very long time, take a break and come back to it later. That always works. Yeah, that’s right you put a = instead of a ==!

B.S. Informatics, 2009

Why did you choose this major?

I started as undecided, but decided to switch to Informatics after sitting in on one of the software engineering courses. I actually doubted my interest in the major and picked up a second “back-up” major just in case. It wasn’t until I explored some of the upper division informatics courses in my second year that I knew informatics was right for me. I’d say it was definitely Informatics 161 with Bill Tomlinson that really solidified my interest. I dropped my back-up major shortly after that.

What has been your career path since graduating with your B.S.?

User Experience, specifically User Research and Interaction Design.

I really wanted to dive deeper into HCI and those pertinent career paths. I also wanted to get out of California since I had been there my whole life. I decided to get a Masters in HCI at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh. I did my time in the cold, and came straight back to California.

I interviewed with Google, Saatchi & Saatchi, a huge advertising firm, and a small, local software company called Mirth. In 2010, I joined the team at Mirth as their core UI designer and front-end developer. Since then, I’ve grown into a more user research oriented position and now help guide many user centered design projects within the company.

What do you enjoy most about your current position?

I love the challenges of understanding and empathizing with users, communicating that data, and turning that knowledge into meaningful experiences. I love working with others and the collaboration that happens in our UX team. I’ve loved building our team and finding like-minded individuals who are taking on these giant tasks. And I love being able to wear shorts and flip-flops in the office. Seriously, that’s huge.

What does a typical work day look like for you?

It really depends where we are in “the process.” Some days I’m in doctors’ offices watching them work.

Other days I’m transcribing audio or analyzing research days. Our team will meet after each visit and tell stories about what happened, building a collective knowledge to work off. We have inspiration days and design days and user testing days as well. It’s really quite varied!

What was the best part of your experience at UCI?

UCI really helped teach me how to learn and helped me understand what my interests were. I love making things, but I’m not a devout coder. UCI led me to HCI which led me to User Experience. I really loved the intimate environment of the senior design project. It was great getting to know everyone so well and watch our weekly presentations turn into rambunctious self-mockery (Sorry Ziv!). Those sort of relationships also came from my time living in the dorms freshman year … a bit overwhelming, intensely chaotic, but an extremely valuable and essential part of any university experience. I met so many people in the dorms, most with whom I didn’t share a major, and still hang out with them nearly 10 years later.

In what way(s) did your studies at UCI prepare you for your career to date?

I didn’t love every class I took at UCI. I didn’t love every professor I had or every assignment I had to complete. But every class I took helped prepare me for experiences I’d have in the real world. My studies exposed me to all sorts of topics, areas of study, and research. Again, my time at UCI helped teach me how to learn more and reach out to find even more experiences for myself. I learned what I liked and what I didn’t like. By the time I graduated, I had a solid idea of what I wanted to do with my career. It’s been 5 years and I haven’t looked back.

What would be your advice to incoming students who might want to follow a similar career path?

Take your time. Find what you love doing. Meet the friends that will last a lifetime. Informatics was perfect for me because the expanded curriculum really let me explore a myriad of topics. The small classes helped build relationships and connections.

If you’re interested in User Research and User Experience, follow through with the HCI courses. I’d also recommend some interdisciplinary work with the arts department, the cog-sci dept, and potentially sociology. If there’s one thing I wish I had learned while at UCI, it would have been sketching. Sketches are incredibly powerful tools of communication, and incredibly useful when designing or creating conceptual models.

B.S. Business Information Management, 2012

Why did you choose this major?

I knew coming out of high school I wanted to major in a degree that takes into account my passion for technology with my growing interest in business. I chose Business Information Management because it gave me the best of both worlds – technology skills (programming languages such as Java and SQL) and fundamental business concepts (financial accounting, marketing, project management). I did not completely realize this during college, but understanding technology and business helps me to converse with professionals from both areas and help bridge any communication gaps.

What has been your career path since graduating with your B.S.?

After graduating from UCI in 2012, I started my career at a consulting firm named Protiviti as a technology consultant. During my time at Protiviti, I worked with clients from parts of the country such as Oregon, the San Francisco Bay Area, Colorado, and New Jersey. I assisted clients by helping them solve technology-related problems, ranging from recommending process improvements to their security/infrastructure workflows to fixing enterprise resource planning (ERP) implementations. As a consultant, I had broad exposure to various industries across the clients I worked with.

In the fall of 2014, I accepted a position as a senior business analyst at Amgen, one of the largest biotechnology companies in the U.S. In this role, I work with IT developers and business professionals (scientists/engineers) to build and deploy applications that improve speed, efficiency, and value of the company’s clinical and commercial process and products.

What do you enjoy most about your current position?

I enjoy my current role at Amgen because I help recommend solutions (specifically technology solutions) that enable the organization to bring drug products to market faster to serve patients with illnesses. I enjoy the client-facing aspect of the job since a big part of being a business analyst is to identify current business problems and opportunities, identify needs of the business counterparts you’re working with, and documenting those needs in a way developers can implement through a technology system/solution.

What does a typical work day look like for you?

A typical day may include interviewing business professionals (think the scientists and engineers) whose goal is to streamline their drug development processes. Answering emails to follow up with your project team and daily status calls are typical in a day’s work.

What was the best part of your experience at UCI?

I believe the best part was the freedom and choice to participate in activities and organizations that interested me. I made life-long friends through my time in organizations such as Lambda Phi Nu and the Accounting Association. I also enjoyed those days in school in which I didn’t have classes and was able to sleep in!

In what way(s) did your studies at UCI prepare you for your career to date?

Business Information Management provided me fundamental skills that carried over to my career. The ICS classes provided me a solid understanding of programming languages and relational databases, which helps to understand and communicate with developers. The management courses I took provided me with a “big picture” understanding of how and why companies operate.

What would be your advice to incoming students who might want to follow a similar career path?

My advice to incoming students is to reach out to alumni (more often than not, we’d love to provide our wisdom!), become involved with campus organizations, intern at companies you’re interested in (you’ll find out if the industry or career you’re interested is right for you), and make sure to have some fun!

B.S. Business Information Management, 2013

Why did you choose this major?

I decided to major in Business Information Management because I always wanted to pursue a degree in business and work in the technology industry. The major also appealed to me since it offers invaluable skill-sets that many employers look for in job candidates, such as being able to understand how technology functions in the corporate world.

What has been your career path since graduating with your B.S.?

After I graduated from UCI, I received a full-time offer at Kaiser Permanente as an IT Project Coordinator where I help implement and upgrade healthcare systems in our various hospitals.

What do you enjoy most about your current position?

In my current position, I enjoy meeting with stakeholders and learning about the technology improvements being made. I feel as if I am constantly being challenged since I need to understand how IT plays a vital role in the healthcare industry. I enjoy the opportunity to work on different projects as it helps me network with various professionals and develop my IT project management skills. I find it rewarding to know that my work has a positive impact on the lives of patients.

What does a typical work day look like for you?

On a typical day, I am usually in meetings with various vendors to learn about their products/systems and how it can be incorporated in our hospitals. I also meet with IT project managers and together we plan and execute our current project. We make sure the project isn’t facing any issues and if there are, we’ll meet stakeholders to solve them.

And sometimes, I even visit hospitals and see how the systems we implemented are being used!

What was the best part of your experience at UCI?

The best part of my UCI experience has been meeting amazing people. A lot of our professors not only taught by also did research. It was always interesting to learn about their research and how they plan on making a difference. In addition, I have also made lifelong friends from my major since we would always be in the same classes and spend so much time together!

In what way(s) did your studies at UCI prepare you for your career to date?

I still remember taking an IT project management course which has been really useful in my current role and helped me easily transition into a project management career.

While at UCI, a lot the courses also required us to also work in groups which were very helpful since I am currently always working in teams on projects.

What would be your advice to incoming students who might want to follow a similar career path?

My advice to incoming students would be to get involved on campus especially with organizations that are related to your major and/or interests. It’ll help you to network with so many people and at the same time have fun! Another thing I recommend is doing an internship while in school. Doing an internship not only helps you gain experience but also learn about the many different opportunities there are.

B.S. Business Information Management, 2013

Why did you choose this major?

Initially, I came into the Donald Bren School as a Computer Science major, but after interacting with students and getting to know more about the BIM program, I found that I liked the blend of business classes in the Merage School of Business with CS/Informatics classes from the Donald Bren School. It allowed me to learn about IT project management concepts while developing fundamental computer science skills.

What has been your career path since graduating with your B.S.?

I have been a software development engineer at IBM for the past several years where I have worked on a variety of exciting projects and products ranging from leading global product releases with workshops to developing mobile and cloud products. I’ve also received my Masters Degree in Information Technology from CSUF and published several technical books and articles.

What do you enjoy most about your current position?

I enjoy the cutting edge projects that I work on and the people. What BIM taught me was how to understand the business processes that shape a product or a project plan within a development organization like IBM. When roadmaps or agile product planning come up, I am fully aware and capable of being a solid contributor. I enjoy being able to work on a variety of different projects each year with new challenges and new benefits.

What does a typical work day look like for you?

Depending on the day, I usually work from home for the day or I head into the office after working from home in the mornings. My morning consists of a scrum call with my development team where I share what I am working on for the day. Sometimes, I might have an interlock meeting or chat with the design, documentation, or test teams to get a certain bug or feature delivered. The rest of the day is spent interacting with coworkers about how to approach certain challenges or focusing and understanding how to get a feature or bug ready to be released.

What was the best part of your experience at UCI?

My BIM classes were very memorable and incredibly helpful, especially the ones from the Donald Bren School. I enjoyed the projects in the advanced programming courses where we were able to get creative with very technical challenges. A big part of my experience at UCI was starting and building up the ICS Student Council, the current Apple lab, Med AppJam, and organizing various student events like ICS Day within the Bren school. It was great working with faculty, staff, and students within the Bren School to improve the student experience during my time.

In what way(s) did your studies at UCI prepare you for your career to date?

The core programming courses prepared me literally how to program from little experience to being a full software developer at IBM. Although industry internships were a big part, UCI helped me to “learn how to learn” programming from basic Java projects to how to develop a web crawler. UCI taught me how to take theories and make them into practical solutions for the real world. The project-driven programming courses also taught me valuable skills to work within a team.

What would be your advice to incoming students who might want to follow a similar career path?

If you want to follow on a path where you can be very versatile in a increasingly demanding technical field, then BIM is essential for you. Many times, organizations do not just need one skill set, but require several skill sets like knowing how to plan a product from conception to delivery or how to develop a mobile application on iOS and Android for example. The options that BIM give you are plentiful after you graduate – where you can choose to be a consultant, developer, project/product manager, just to name a few.