Alex McCausland
UX Design
Quality Manager at Epic Systems
Describe your potential job duties
Work side-by-side with developers to test new features, identify bugs, create content, and suggest enhancements to software.
In what ways did the Polytechnic and/or Purdue help make you uniquely qualified for your new job?
Purdue's UX Design program gave me real-world experience through its Experience Studio course. Through my time at Purdue, I was able to work on five unique projects sponsored by a wide variety of companies with teams of other UX Design students. The Experience Studio allowed me to learn how to work in a more professional setting, improve my communication, teamwork, and leadership skills, all while working on projects that interested me! I did not have an internship or job interview where I didn't talk about something I learned from this class.
How has the college or someone in the college helped you achieve your goals?
Nancy Rasche, a professor in the CGT Department, has been an invaluable teacher and mentor for me. She cares deeply about her students and does everything she can to help them succeed. Nancy always provided great feedback on projects and assignments that really allowed me to grow my UX skills and improve the way I communicate. I truly believe I would not be as successful without her guidance!
What specific classes helped prepare you for your new job?
The UX Design program's Experience Studios were essential to preparing me for internships and my new job. They provide students with real-world experience working with company sponsors on relevant projects. In this course, I learned how to conduct varying UX activities, gained leadership and team working experience, and improved my communication skills. I loved that every semester was a new set of companies and projects so I was able to work on a large variety of projects and discover what project types and industries I enjoyed the most.
If you had a favorite class, project, experience, or professor, what/who was it, and why?
My favorite project was an Experience Studio project where I worked with Great Clips to investigate the future of payments in their salons. I enjoyed this project the most because I worked with a great team of students, was able to participate in a multitude of UX activities, and our team received funding to conduct user interviews through an industry standard platform, userinterviews.com!
The Experience Studio was the most impactful part of my Purdue journey. Working on five different real-world projects with company sponsors gave me the practical skills and confidence I needed to succeed. I brought up that class in every internship and job interview—it shaped how I work, lead, and collaborate."