Grad school
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- ninjasavant
I'm thinking of returning to school to get my Masters Degree in Clinical Psychology. Think its worth the time/expense?
- benfal990
- Sorry ninjasavant, it was stupid.benfal99
- *wipes tears of laughter from eyes*ukit
- epic, right up there with "fuck you, candy"armsbottomer
- benfal990
Seriously, do you want to change job? Tired of graphic design? Or you want to do it just for personal knowledge?
- ninjasavant0
I have degrees in graphic design and psychology and have ended up doing interaction design which combines both. I always thought I'd end up in advertising or culinary school, this computer thing kinda found me. So the more I get into business and the psych behind IX design the more interested in it I get. Plus the advanced degree might help my future earning potential. Wondering if anyone else had ever gone back.
- Go for it.
I def don't have the courage to go backGeorgesII
- Go for it.
- ukit0
- ukit0
I guess there is a certain connection between user experience/ usability and psychology. If you were able to market yourself as the guy who brought the serious science knowledge, considering most UX designers are hacks, perhaps you could do well with it and even be the next J Nielsen.
- < This.dMullins
- Of course that assumes the ability to network within a pretty narrow fieldukit
- most UX designers are hacks? i love how people correlate their personal experiences with FACT. idiot.studderine
- relax - i'm just saying that most UX guys (and I worked as one and am not knocking the field in general), while they certainly play a useful role, it's not exactly the rigorous scientific discipline that many of the personalities in the field like to pretend it is.ukit
- a useful role, it's not exactly the rigorous scientific discipline that many of the personalities in the field like to pretend it is.ukit
- maybe you should have said that rather than saying ux designers are hacks.studderine
- CGN0
If you feel it can advance your career.
- utopian0
You would not happen to be designing on a PC would you?
- ninjasavant0
Sounds like a resounding 'why the he'll not.'
I work on a mac at IBM so I'm not sure where I fit in the debate.
- jerseyred0
Shouldn't you go for a degree in Human Factors, human-computer interaction, ergonomics, or simply interaction design?
http://www.humanfactors.com/down…
http://www.hfes.org/Web/Students…I was looking into Carnegie Mellon's program a year ago but decided not to - http://www.design.cmu.edu/show_p…
- ninjasavant0
I looked into that but most of the graduates I meet from these programs know more about user research than they do practical implementation. I figured pursuing a more broadly associated discipline would help build the foundation I already have. In any case its not an idea thats completely thought out yet so your advice may yet be good advice.
I'm curious though why you decided not to.
- juhls0
It won't hurt.
- jerseyred0
^response
Reason I decided not too was simply money and time. I've had the pleasure of working some great jobs with good companies (no huge names) and decided that with a combination of fulltime, freelance,non-profit volunteer work, and a couple of start ups I would have a better chance of reaching my goals compared to going into debt as a student and losing time within the workforce.
I started reading all about these topics and started applying them to my own projects - through my personal study I've been able to get interviews at Yahoo, AOL, HBO, NY Times, etc. Haven't gotten the big gig yet but it's an indication that my own route has paid off too and I'm not in debt both money and time wise.
- Fair enough. The next step for me will be figuring out how to get Big Daddy Blue to pay for it.ninjasavant
- what's your age (round about?)jerseyred
- 30 (exactly)ninjasavant
- k - I'm 31 and I just can't consider the switch to being a student again. Nope, can't do it
jerseyred - This would be part time while still working.ninjasavant
- how long would it take to complete a 2 yr progrm part time?
jerseyred - *shrugninjasavant
- shrug = what, like 4 years, right? f thatjerseyred
- Masters don't work that way. your dissertation is the focus. if you can get it done fast so be it. I've know people who got it done in a yearplash
- done in a year. masters programs are structured differently and mostly out of gen pop.plash
- plash0
@ninjasavant; im thinking about doing the same shit.
but for IP law .. Being a designer isn't what it used to be and i can see this track isn't going to improve. Better jobs out there that will pay more for the same hours we put in. (70 - 80 a week) been doing this for 14+ years now and i see that not only has graphic design been dumbed down but web designers/dev are the worst of sinners. ...most web designers have no education in graphic design at all.
i meet you guys in your moist dirty small web studios. smoking that 2nd pack and drinking that 6th cup of coffee. all sweaty, oily and worthless. it's often the web designer and programmer that fucked that shit up that required an outside agent to come in and correct it.jaded by the saturation.
- nah - it's senior management that fucks shit upjerseyred
- i agree with that too and sales people really do need to understand what the tech is.plash
- we're a matrix managed company so the blame for fucking it up gets spread around.ninjasavant
- ninjasavant0
@plash: I hope you like reading because that is all lawyers do. My roommate for 2 years was a law student.
- WTF! LOL! . "i hope you like reading"; yeah i don't mind reading books without pictures. reading isn't an issue.plash
- studderine0
grad school is a interesting idea. its always easier to do it when you are younger with no family to feed. i think i gave you a few recommendations on another thread, but kent state, uni of baltimore, arizona state and others have some decent IxD programs.
- an*studderine
- Yeah, you did and it was good info, kinda fueled this idea. How's SoCal?ninjasavant
- im digging it! my first day is tomorrow!studderine
- studderine0
the library science degrees are also interesting because you be a librarian if the UX stuff didn't work out in the long-term.
- man, i cant write a sentence today. you could*studderine
- ukit0
yeah nice one plash I'm sure the industry would be booming if only it wasn't for web designers!
- LOLukit
- more of a craft in print. you "need" to know actual knowledge in print design.plash
- Not really. There are plenty of bad print designers out there.ukit
- But web has created most of the growth in jobs over the past decade. Without web it would be a dying industry.ukit
- I'm not judging them we are talking about web/dev. there are bad people at everything. if you take that argument.plash
- without web; newspapers and mags would be doing just fine.plash
- haha, I guess you have a point there. But no industry is static, better to evolve with it I think.ukit
- And you could argue print would suffer anyway due to outsourcing/ overall downwards pressure on wagesukit
- read some of these responses. "i don't want to get an education, its too expensive and takes too long" my point exactlyplash
- post grad education is dif from under grad and 10 years exp - that's my point
jerseyred
- MrDinky0
ninjasavant
why pondering such? looking for change? wanna talk about NY?
- dunno, no plans in particular but that's kinda how I do things. Just set them in motion and see. Probably gonna have to stay local though.ninjasavant
- stay local though with a GF in school.ninjasavant
- morilla0
My ex got her masters in Clinical Psychology. She was fucking batshit insane.
- morilla0
Sorry Ninja, not much encouragement. But if you are feeling it, do it. We only go around once.