Hey everyone,
I’ve always wanted to work for twitter or facebook or tumblr or google. More on the social side but also a bit on the techy side of things.
If I go to UCSD I will be majoring in Interdisciplinary computing and graphic/media design.
But what major should I take if this is what I plan on doing?
Anything?
I mean, it depends on what you want to do at those companies. Twitter and Facebook and Tumblr and Google have a wide range of employees - they have human resources professionals, they have accountants, they have lawyers, they have user experience researchers, they have business managers, they have marketing specialists, they have statisticians…it’s not all about the technology. They’re sprawling corporations with needs.
So…it really depends on what you want to do there. Assuming that you want to do the technical design stuff, the most obvious option would be computer science. You said more on the social side; the thing that immediately came to mind is user experience research. Here’s how Google defines UX:
UX Researchers strive to learn what they need and want from our products and services. As a UX Researcher, You conduct independent research, analyze real user behavior and work with User Interface Designers, Products Manager and Engineers to improve our product features and develop new ones. Your work spans across all of Google’s products, and you are encouraged to identify new opportunities for user experience improvements. We strive to the connect users to the magic of our products, and your job is to make that connection intuitive and accessible.
Requirements are pretty broad. A current Google ad asks for someone with “a BA/BS in Computer Science, Human-Computer Interaction, Cognitive Science, Experimental Psychology, Anthropology, Information Science, related field, or equivalent practical experience” and prefers experience with Python, SPSS, and SQL. Twitter asks for their market researchers (on the Design and UX Research Team) to have “a BS, MS, or PhD in Economics, Marketing, Sociology, Anthropology, or related field” and for user researchers to hold “BS, MS, or PhD in Human-Computer Interaction, Human Factors, Cognitive Psychology, Sociology, Anthropology, or related field”. Facebook is hiring a lead advertising researcher with “Advanced Degree in Social Science (Economics, Political Science, Psychology, etc.), Computer Science, Applied Mathematics, Operations Research, Engineering, or similar field. Graduate research degree / experience preferred” and an Instagram quantitative researcher with “Advanced degree in statistics, economics, behavioral/social science, or a related quantitative field preferred (Ph.D. preferred but not required)”
If you want to do something like this, personally I would recommend majoring in a quantitative behavioral/social science (psychology, political science, economics) with a minor in computer science, applied math, or statistics. Or, perhaps, the other way around - a major in CS, applied math, or statistics with a minor in a social science. Or a double major. Honestly, if I could go back and do college again - and it’d have to be somewhere else, I suppose, since my college didn’t have it - but I’d double major in psychology and statistics and take some programming classes, maybe the equivalent of computer science minor. But hey, when I started college, Facebook was just a cool site some Harvard kid made for college students, and YouTube, Tumblr and Twitter didn’t exist. Jesus.