Enterprise Systems

"You don't have to be a Dilbert sitting alone in a cubicle. There's nothing worse than having a job you absolutely hate. I have great co-workers, meaningful and important work, and, on most days, I love it "

I use psychology, design, and technology to find out how people will use the products that my company develops (...detailed description). It is my job to understand people and how they "think ", so that my company can create successful products. For example, I might watch a group of volunteers try to use a product for the first time, note where they have trouble and how they try to get help. If many of them have the same kind of trouble, we might re-design the product or change it in someway to make it more user-friendly. A good example of this is when people call a movie line to find out when movies are playing. A company needs to know how the user expects to get the information (e.g., name of movie first, rating, show times), and design the product so that it is easy to use.

A typical day is hectic. I spend a lot of time trying to figure out and prioritize work because there's just so much of it. I get lots of email and almost no phone calls. I average about 100 emails a day. I think the company you work for has a lot to do with how good the job is for women. It seems like when the economy is good, IT companies really have to work hard to just get and keep IT people. To do this, they offer perks like part-time work, flexible scheduling, and working from home. You will be hard pressed to find perks like these in any other industry. With lap tops and people being able to use phone lines to send and get information to co-workers, people don't have to be tied to an office to get their work done.

I didn't start out in a technology-related field, I actually first went into psychology (...more on career ins & outs). I learned how people get the most out of products (...more on education). Although I am now in project management, I still use many of my human factor skills. If you're going to be in IT , you have to understand business and psychology. The value added jobs that aren't going to be outsourced involve thinking and designing. How will the product work? What will it look like?