Career musings
As part of my MA in User Experience Design, I completed a module called UX Design.
This blog post was originally published as part of the reflective piece I wrote throughout that module.
Week six, the mid-point in the module, was a reading week which was mostly spent catching up on the module content. However, I did spend a little time reflecting on what I might want to do after finishing the Masters.
An opportunity to explore
I looked back the the first blog post I wrote for the MA, at the beginning of my first module. In it, I’d written about my desire to explore alternative career paths. Throughout the MA, this is something I’ve done.
I learned about gaming by collaborating on a project with students from the MA Indie Game Development course. For that project I designed narrative elements of an augmented reality game and carried our user research for the game we created together. I really enjoyed doing that.
I learned more about academic research within the field of human-computer interaction (HCI) during the last module. One of my frustrations with the elearning industry is the continued use of models that lack any supporting evidence or have been proven to be ineffective (Husmann and O’Loughlin 2019). So I thought I would really enjoy carrying out research to delve into a topic and discover the evidence supporting current theories and trends. However, I realised that I much preferred the more practical aspects of UX.
One of the things I’m enjoying the most about the current module is working with a local charity. I work with large organisations so frequently that my work often feels meaningless. How am I contributing to making the world a better place?
The rest of my life
Outside of work and education, I spend as much time as possible engaged in physically-active hobbies. I hadn’t realised this until I took to to reflect this week. I love dancing, weightlifting and going out for walks in the Peak District National Park.
Spending hours in front of a screen makes the most of my skills and experience but it negatively impacts my mental health. As I continue to explore potential directions after the MA, I want to see if there are any options that allow me to incorporate more physical activity into my career.
Perhaps that means doing UX or elearning work on a part time basis while pursuing something else at the same time. As these musings were swirling around my head, a dance teacher I know asked if would be interested in attending a dance teacher training workshop. It’s a two-day event in May so I’ve signed up.
I hadn’t thought about more physically active career options before because I always hated PE classes at school. As I’ve gotten older, I’ve realised that perhaps has more to do with the approach to PE in schools than my interest in being physically active.
Figuring it out
I don’t think I’ve found the answer to what I’d like to do after the MA yet. However, I think I’m closer to figuring it out. So I’ll continue having a think and exploring ideas. I’ll come back to these thoughts at the end of the module.
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HUSMANN, Polly R. and Valerie Dean O’LOUGHLIN. 2019. ‘Another Nail in the Coffin for Learning Styles? Disparities among Undergraduate Anatomy Students’ Study Strategies, Class Performance, and Reported VARK Learning Styles: Study Strategies, Learning Styles, Anatomy Performance’. Anatomical Sciences Education 12(1), [online], 6–19. Available at: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ase.1777 [accessed 6 May 2023].
Thank you for reading.
