Everyone's career journey through the tech industry is different, with an array of challenges and opportunities. In this edition of Tech Tuesday, Full Sail University graduates Emily Kaneff (Web Development), Tatiana Kerick (Web Development), and Vachon Pugh (Game Design Master’s) join moderators for a discussion on getting started in tech and their experience so far, how they found their niche, and the different ways Full Sail helped influence their success.

Entering the Tech Industry

When getting started in the tech industry, there is added value in ensuring you’re working for an organization with a community you feel welcomed in, that is supportive, and is willing to adapt based on employee feedback. “I definitely struggled to find a cultural fit for myself,” says Masonite UI Designer Tatiana. “I have bounced between different jobs, mostly out of contracts ending or finding something just wasn’t really what I was looking for.”

“I think it’s important to find a community you feel comfortable in,” says Emily, a software engineer with Accusoft. “[Right now] there’s a unique opportunity for women going into a technology-heavy field…to go into a system that has old archetypes in place and sort of instilling their own change.”

Finding Your Niche

With a large assortment of disciplines throughout the technology industry, identifying your niche is an important step in your professional development. You may already know you want to work in a specific sector like web development, but are you more interested in the front-end, the back-end, or designing for the user experience? For Tatiana, this was an important distinction to make at the onset of her career, saying, “I knew I wanted to work in a creative field but didn’t know how I wanted to accomplish that,” she says. “I really wanted to find something that was the middle ground between creativity, technology, and psychology,” something the grad eventually found in UI design.

Full Sail Influence

Full Sail’s tech-related degree programs are uniquely designed to give students an in-depth understanding of not only their specific role in the industry but the knowledge to communicate with other tech professionals across disciplines. “Full Sail prepared me quite well for the rigorous development process that games go through,” says Vachon, a producer with Paradox Interactive. “It definitely pushed me. I may not know how to do something but I sure know how to figure out how to do it and I’ll come up with a solution because Full Sail definitely prepared me to be able to tackle any problem that I come across.” To hear more from these grads on their experiences as tech professionals, check out the entire Tech Tuesday discussion led by Full Sail Education Director for Emerging Technologies, Dr. Haifa Maamar, and Learning Director for Emerging Technologies, Dr. Holly Ludgate below.

Tech Tuesday is an original online show produced by Full Sail University that delves into different aspects of the technology industry. Check out upcoming or past episodes.