"Part of my job is research, which is just "systematic inquiry." [It] brings me face to face with people, where I have to be insatiably curious: constantly challenging my assumptions, sensing ambiguities, asking questions that are framed in JUST the right way. This systematic inquiry and curiosity is fostered by the kind of work we do in an English degree, both in and out of class. And I'm really grateful for it."
When did you graduate from BYU?
BA English 2017
What is your job/position? And how would you describe what you do in that job/position?
Technologist and designer; UX (Software) Designer working at an agency. In my particular job, at my particular agency, I do a lot with multimodal design, and specifically VOICE interface design. I write the responses for voice interfaces.
Describe the path that you took from your BYU English degree to your current career, highlighting the important realizations and turning points that paved the path for you.
Well, the path was fairly simple. At BYU, while working on my degree, I was told I should get involved in extracurricular things. And so I got involved with the UX Design club and I started attending local meetups with professionals as often as I could. I got two internships and one full-time (the one I'm currently in) from those networking events.
Now, I'm introverted, but sociable. That helped, and I think the English degree can foster that sociability from the nature of the classroom discussions: it trains us to be curious, right? And it was the networking events that led directly to the jobs I got, and I'm glad I went.
The last job was especially interesting: I sat next to a guy at a networking event, started asking him about what he did, and he told me "I design for smart speakers, and do UX design for voice interfaces." I immediately got CURIOUS: wait, how does that work? How do you design for non-visual interfaces? (And admittedly, my English degree fueled some of that curiosity; much as I enjoyed working in pixels, was there a job in software where I could work mainly in words?) My curiosity led to us meeting at his workplace for a job, which turned into a job interview, and two weeks later I was interning. Three months later I got offered a full-time job. Five years later, I'm still working there, having worked on interfaces for Headspace, Nike, the Veteran Affair's office, etc. It's been terrific!
Another background point: in my industry, what really matters is your PORTFOLIO. And in UX design, your portfolio has to SHOW YOUR WORK, and tell a story (with words and pixels) about what you did on a project and why it mattered. I do think that my English degree helped me to tell those stories well.
What are the specific skills that you cultivated as an English major that you now use in your professional life? And how do you use those skills in ways that set you apart from your colleagues?
Well, I write. A lot. I have to constantly articulate my design decisions frequently and often. In some ways, I spend more time explaining my design decisions than actually designing. That fact used to irritate me, but I've come to terms with it, and have found a deep ENJOYMENT in helping people understand the nature of design. And an English degree has helped to be more articulate, more logical in my writing, than I would otherwise have been. For example, just last week I had to explain why we should NOT use focus groups in a research plan I had drawn up. This requires a general rigor in thinking, combined with an accumulated knowledge of my own unique discipline; and then an ability to communicate that thinking. My explanation for the approach received some compliments, and I am certain that the rigor in thinking and ability to communicate it was developed at my time at BYU.
That brings me to a second point. Part of my job is research, which is just "systematic inquiry." I have to be systematically curious about markets, about people, about products. This requires that I write up a research plan, and a field guide to use when we're out visiting people. And it brings me face to face with people, where I have to be insatiably curious: constantly challenging my assumptions, sensing ambiguities, asking questions that are framed in JUST the right way. This systematic inquiry and curiosity is fostered by the kind of work we do in an English degree, both in and out of class. And I'm really grateful for it.
What are some of the surprising ways in which your English degree helped you in your life?
My English degree forced me to engage with densely rich texts and critical theory, both of which require a high degree of attention. In the past few years, I've come to read more "philosophy of technology"—writers like Ivan Illich, Marshall McLuhan, Neil Postman, Nicholas Carr, L.M. Sacasas, Albert Borgmann, Jacques Ellul. Some of these writers are eminently approachable (Carr, Sacasas, Postman), and some are at times dense or obscure (McLuhan, Borgmann, Ellul, Illich). But all have enriched me, helping me think more ethically and more carefully about technology and design, helping me question my own profession in a rich and engaging way. Nothing in my English degree helped me directly in understanding these thinkers; but it helped prepare me to be the kind of person who COULD engage with the more careful theory and philosophy underlying my profession.
It also gave me a terrific metaphor: Kenneth Burke's "unending conversation." We live by metaphors (which I think I learned that in my English classes), and the "parlor conversation" metaphor has been one I've constantly come back to. Not only have I been able to immerse myself in some of the great technological thinkers, a matter of GREAT importance in today's technopoly, but I've also been able to engage with other parlor conversations: Biblical scholarship and theology, classic literature (I'm currently reading a wonderful translation of the ancient Greek plays), theology (through magazines like "Plough" and "Comment"), and even scholarship on Tolkein and his legendarium! I wouldn't say this helps me in any concrete way in my profession, though sometimes it helps me connect with colleagues in fun ways. But it's helped deepen what Zena Hitz has called the "hidden pleasures" of an inner, intellectual life; and it's helped me think more concretely about my own life, in much the same way that Roosevelt Montas writes about in his book "Rescuing Socrates." And I wouldn't trade that inner development—that inner richness—for the world.
What do you wish you had known as an English major? Is there any advice you’d like to share with current students?
Well, it took me six years to graduate, which I don't recommend. I wandered a bit, but "not all who wander are lost," and frankly, the best parts of my BYU were the unplanned, serendipitous bits. I think of Wendell Berry here: "we live the given life, not the planned." And I'm grateful for that! If I have any advice, it's to stay open to the serendipitous encounters: the random class you didn't want, but you make a best friend in; the life-changing book or metaphor that shifts your paradigm and changes your life; the after-class conversation with the teacher that touches your soul; the unplanned conversation with a stranger at a networking event that turns into your next job interview. It's these unplanned graces that defined my college experience, and much of my life since.
Contact
bryan@bryansebesta.com