Lately people have asked me frequently what I want to be doing once I graduate. I’ve finally found a quick answer that I believe encompasses all of the different areas in which I’m interested.
I’d like to go into interaction/interface design, web application development, user-centered product design, or some similar area.
I’d also be happy doing some sort of audio-oriented digital signal processing, audio synthesis, or audio electronics sort of field as a backup.
On top of all this I hope to become politically active somehow at the local level, wherever I end up. Possibly I could even work for a think-tank that deals with technological issues.
These fields are fairly disparate, and I don’t have a good sense of which one or ones I will end up in. But they do all hold a common thread.
So when people ask me, now I answer, “I want to ensure that my work treats people as humans, rather than mindless drones.”
Any engineering work that I do ought to make technology more accessible and natural to use for real people. Any audio work I do should focus on making things sound natural and pleasant to real people. Any political work I do should help bridge the gap between arcane policy, political wrangling, and the real people who are affected.
So that’s my new answer. It’s not too focused, but then again, it finally makes my plans cohesive in some manner.
By the way, sorry I’ve been gone for a while. My blog software should work properly now. I had to revert to the default theme. Hopefully the problems will get fixed soon because I liked how it was before.
