What a Product Engineer at Graphistry Wishes They Had Known Before Entering the Tech Industry
Alex, a Product Engineer at Graphistry, wishes they had known the breadth of roles within the industry—from product management to UI/UX design and various engineering specializations—before starting their career, as "it took a while and I was really frustrated for a long time" navigating this landscape. The interview also highlights the importance of strong statistical math skills in certain high-paying roles, but cautions that these roles may not always be "user facing".
Career Exploration, Technology, Data Analysis, Project Management, Overcoming Challenges
Advizer Information
Name
Job Title
Company
Undergrad
Grad Programs
Majors
Industries
Job Functions
Traits
Alex Warren
Product Engineer
Graphistry
University of Arizona 2015
None
Computer Science
Technology
Product / Service / Software Development and Management
Took Out Loans
Video Highlights
1. The wide variety of roles within the tech industry may not be immediately apparent to students. There's a significant difference between roles like product management, project management, engineering management, UI/UX design, user experience research, and various types of engineering (frontend, backend).
2. Pursuing personal interests alongside professional development is challenging. It takes time and effort to explore different roles, and simultaneously managing personal life and career growth can be difficult.
3. Strong math and statistics skills are highly valuable, particularly in areas like machine learning. However, these roles may not always be user-facing, which is a factor to consider when choosing a career path.
Transcript
What have you learned about this role that you wish someone would have told you before you entered the industry?
There are a few things I didn't realize. One was the variety of different job roles. I was doing research internships over the summers, so I didn't see the breakdown of roles until I entered the industry.
I'm not naturally inclined towards bureaucracy. At Google, I saw roles like product manager, project manager, engineering management, UI design, UX design, user experience research, backend engineering, and frontend engineering.
Even with all these roles, I didn't know which ones would appeal to me. I ended up doing some backend work, but I think I would have preferred frontend. I've since enjoyed learning frontend and design, which has been fun.
I felt like I was following my interests and ended up in one area of the industry, only to realize I wanted to be somewhere else. It took a while, and I was frustrated. People suggest doing things on the side, but that's a lot on top of personal life, healing, relationships, and friendships, which are also important.
So, it's just been a process of gaining different experiences and figuring out what I'm drawn to. Then I might try it, and then wonder how to make money from it.
Also, statistics and machine learning require strong statistical math. I didn't realize that some of those roles pay extremely well, though they aren't user-facing. There are many different things to consider.