As Purdue Polytechnic’s May 2017 graduates move into their careers, we are profiling a few and finding out their future plans and how they arrived at this point in their lives.
---
Maryam Bacchus, Fort Wayne, Indiana
Junior Product Manager for ZapLabs, San Francisco, CA
Education
Bachelor’s degree in computer graphics technology with a minor in computer networking and information technology
Job duties
Creating product requirements, developing wireframes/mockups, and working with design and engineering teams to manage details.
Purdue classes that helped Maryam prepare for her job
CGT 271 (Human Centered Design and Development, Studios 2)
CGT 272 (Human Centered Design and Development, Studios 3)
Other ways the college and/or Purdue provided preparation and assistance
My scholarships program, Emerging Leaders, helped provide financial assistance; the Computer Roundtable Career Fair is where I found my amazing summer internship with Lowe’s HQ in Mooresville, NC, as a business analyst. Being involved in student organizations and finding leadership opportunities also helped.
Thanks go to:
- My mom, Fazia Deen, for believing in me to tread a field not yet explored in my family.
- Toni Mungia helped me believe in myself as a woman and minority in technology my freshman year, and always made herself available as an ongoing mentor ever since.
- Dr. Mihaela Vorvoreanu initially introduced me to a career field (user experience design) with which I feel I have finally found myself align, and have geared my goals toward ever since.
- Dr. Colin Gray was the first professor I felt knew me as both a person and a student, my strengths and weaknesses, and guided each of my HCDD classmates and me towards strategic growth in our user experience abilities.
- Dr. Paul Parsons was my second professor in the HCDD track, who continued my experience pioneering a field I knew little about just a semester before. After finishing his HCDD course, Learning Studio 3, I feel prepared to take on some of the responsibilities I know I’ll face in the UX workforce.
In 2015, Maryam described what it's like being a Polytechnic student in our "I'm A Techie" video series: