#i'm the graphic design tech girl at my job

[becca-alexa]

i love telling my coworkers the tasks they're giving me aren't my job to do

[pumpkinmetaphor]

what jobs do u think the twins would have if it wasn't the hinted ones bisco gave (fashion designer and graphic designer for kaoru and hikaru respectively)? you can throw kyoya into this question too if ud like 🙀

HMM...

So that phenomenon of your mean girl classmate becoming a nurse is malleable in my opinion. I had a formative experience with a "just kiiidding lol can't you take a joke?" girl in my year that partly landed me in therapy, only for her to become a psychologist. Which is objectively hysterical.

Anyway what I'm saying is Kaoru would do psychology and he would be bad at it because he's mean and judgemental. So he'd probably be a lousy pop psychologist. Not like, Dr. Phil but like bougie agony aunt vibes.

I could also see him getting into some other form of art like media studies research or photography. Theatre maybe?

Hikaru is interesting because his job is the furthest away from any parent's job already. So I suppose you'd have to think "what would Hikaru do if he didn't do *anything* tech related."

I think we should put Hikaru in customer service lol. Hikaru would be the snottiest, meanest line cook in Wendy's. But he also would get fired after a day and he's too stupid rich so I'm just kidding.

Hikaru is a nepo baby with insane cash and emotional stuntedness. I think he could fake playing a guitar well enough to be in some sort of rock band. Or an actor. "Yeah, Kaoru was always a better actor than me. That's why I'm stuck doing this shitty romcom and he's doing the hard acting work of pretending to care about the feelings of random losers."

Kyoya yearns to make and sell a tech start up in his early twenties and then ride the high of consulting for insane cash until he retires to a tax haven just shy of forty. For like, a year, and then he's back at it again because he's a workaholic.

[alisheaburgess]

Dev Diaries: Day 7... Kinda...

"This just in, nothing happened like it was supposed to, but everything is better...?"

Dev Diaries, Masterlist

So, this has been a weird day!

I crammed so many courses in this morning! It was all graphic design and brand identity stuff, because... fun! But then at 2pm, when the subscription was supposed to end, it didn't lol.

My overly tired butt read a 7 as a 2...so I had an extra 5 hours. Nice! More courses got taken.

BUTT THEN!!!

At 7 they extended my subscription for another month??!!! How? Why? No idea! But I'm so very grateful. Exhausted, but grateful.

I'm going to take the rest of the day off from courses, maybe 2-3 days 😅😂 I need a break. I want more of a plan this time now that I know what direction I'm heading towards. 😊🥰

ALSO!

I met with a mentor today!!! I'm so excited she was so nice and helpful. She is currently in one of the roles that I am particularly interested in so it's all lining up beautifully.

R.I.P to all those other course providers that are on hold for another month 🤣

Although, I'm probably gonna sprinkle some of them in as needed...because I know me.

I don't think even one thing has gone as planned this whole time😅😁 but that's ok. Having a plan is hard to do when you are in new territory. I love that the tech community is so welcoming and helpful. So many resources available even if you never speak to a person directly.

I think that even if I decided I didn't want to do any of this after all (not happening, but go with it) I would be so glad that I got to experience what these groups are like. I hope other industries start doing things this way! 🥰

I GET TO FINISH ALL THOSE COURSES NOW!!!!!! Mwhahhahahah!!! (I am still planning to work on my portfolio and resume this week. Girls got get a job!)

[emetheuhtitle]

I need to check if I'm too internet brained or just right like I've been my whole life universaly without exception, Mhm.

I want 'worse' more durable and publicly understandable technology. I want you're average girl to be able to make her own cables, for me not to have to buy a 4th XP pen cable, for me to be able to do my fucking job without seemngly going full tech priest.

I don't care it'd likely come at the cost of the average persons 20 billion pixel pictures of random dog shit, of game graphics you deadass can't comperhand, of processing you don't really use.

Even electrical engineers can't create more complicated parts becuase they're microscopic gibbrish. Each specilaist is on an isolated Island where others islands are completlely magical. Magic.

Guess what! We can still have big absurd monuments of incomperhensible complexity- it's called mayor collective efforts. We can have NASA, we can have our Particle accelerators and nuclear generators- they'd just be like the pyramids. Not every fucking grave in Egypt is a fucking pyramid. We don't need this, we don't use this.

Also earphone designers should be put to death. Worse than nazis, terfs whatever group. All of them.

[awigglycultist]

Solve it Squad Says No To Drugs thoughts! I also don't remember this episode too well but I sure to remember that I was insane, also sorry this one took me so long to get too,

Yup we're off to A Start

Esther has the birthdays of all the Dave Matthews band members memorized jfjfjf

"you're as looks TOGHT in those leggings dawg!!"

What made them think it was a good idea to bring Esther to a presentation about being drug free?

"alright kids, who here has ever ponded a beer so fast that their face went numb!?.... Good.. Lest keep it that way."

Boy that kid is terrifying

Wait do you think Scottie would be friends with Paris?

Once again: THIS THEME SONG GOES HARD

I think it's you're fault that you left a kids bday party pregnant girl

Mr Farmer, Esther can literally withstand horse tranquilizer, like they know hardcore drugs

I knew the "Esther are you ready to finally acknowledge the energy that's between us?" line was coming up and I still hate it

Love how Joey, when reacting to the other characters, often instead of looking at us he looks towards where this characters are on the screen relative to him (like he looks up since Keith is above, and diagonal for Gwen, to the side for Esther)

And ofc as always shout out to Joey's facial expressions

Fuck I love Joanna

Most of you won't get this/won't care about this but Keith's "RAID!" immediately made thing of Big Brother s20 Brett's "What wins national championships!? DEFENSE!!" even tho it's like the exact opposite

Keith, Scrags and principal Turner absolutely vibing <3 (nice to see Scrags can have fun sometimes)

Esther is. Trying.

"blah blah bloo! I'm Scrags! I have control issues! I wouldn't be doubting this plan if it came from a man!" "no! No!! Hey! That not fair- I'm never- besides aren't you gender non-conforming so technically it doesn't really-" "Scrags darling I know you're trying to be woke but maybe sit the rest of that thought out"

I love how in SISBIB there's so much Scrags being a Boomer™ but also trying His Best™

The fucking "I can't! It's tech week" shirt

"well its much more competitive and prestigious today" fuck off Gwen was actually in a TV show!

"you will regret that Benjamin Scragtowski"

Keith durning the whole "this little hotshots talking like a BIGBOY!" bit jdjddjd the voice, especially him calling a kid "biiittchhhh"

THAT'S RIGHT ANDREW BARTH FELDMAN IS THE DEFINITIVE EVAN HANSEN!!

"concerned parents.... of kids"

"little of this little of that" immediately made think of Andrew as Axel in TV or Not TV? Broadway Whodunit?

Omg I forgot they mentioned the tiktok Ratatouille musical!

God this musical argument between Keith and Vince jdjddjd (Keith is right)

Brian's voice <3

"yeah good parenting is easy. Heh, I mean take my parents for example they-... Were bad." Keith :( <3 also I love the wya he says this line

"ahhh fuck fuckyy fuckk

Jdkddb Gabe using his hand to make a little rino horn

"GET DOWN! GET THE FUCK DOWN! WE'RE TAKING FIRE!"

"Do you want to fucking DIE!?"

"belive all women Scrags!" "But Esther doesn't identify as-" "LEROOOOOY JEEEEENKINS"

Also Keith definitely should never have a gun

Gwen sorry but that school is not that important rn like you really should've put off that call til later anyway

Keith you dumbass it's metal

Scrags I have feeling they don't really care if you get your insulin or not

But Keith cares about getting Scrags his insulin <3 :)

Ah so humble Gwen

WorkED for a Russian drug cartel, important difference

"did you *kill* people?" "Noo oh no no. Just some graphic design, odd jobs, personal training" "oh thank god" "Of course I killed people you sugar free dumb dumbs!"

"man plans and god laughs. And then woman laughs at man for believing in god"

Esther: bye I'm gonna go die now

Anyway the squad cares about Esther <3 :)

I love that Dimitri and Annika go to therapy

Esther fucks

I forgot just how sexual

So honorable Keith

Naughty Bitches™

Comrade Cock-ubine

Yup. Just about as crazy as I remember. Well, maybe more than I remember actually.

[marimomo]

Long time follower from the ff.net days, sorry this will be random. Was curious about your job if you were willing to talk about it at all, didn't you go for compsci? How is working in that field if you are? I'm a girl and I might try to transition to it but I'm unsure. I can DM you if you would prefer, sorry I'm shy lol

no worries, I don’t mind! i have a bachelor’s in computer science and pursued technical writing after i did an 8-month software engineering internship at a company that manufactures drone software and decided i didn’t want to code as a career. i got a full time job as a tech writer while going to grad school for my master’s in professional and technical writing, then i moved and took a little time off from school. atm im probably finishing my master’s in early 2022 and am working full time remotely. it’s a pretty cozy job and i have a lot of freedom. mostly i write content for developers (ranging from documentation for internal APIs and tools to marketing type stuff), but i also sometimes branch out into UX research for my department, graphic design, and minimal front-end development.

tech writing is in a weird place right now because there’s been a big industry shift toward getting developers to create documentation as part of the software development lifecycle. this means that tech writers are less useful as pure writers, and the job as many know it will probably be obsolete in the next 20 years or so. my advice if you’re looking at getting into tech writing is to stay open to secondary skills like coding (pretty important for a tech writer anyway), copywriting, graphic design, content management, UX design, etc. i have a feeling that a lot of tech writers (myself included) will end up transitioning into “business analyst” or “UX” roles in the future.

i hope that didn’t overwhelm you! just wanted to be realistic about the future of this career. you will probably never be JUST a writer if you decide to pursue tech writing, which may or may not be a good thing for you. in my case, i appreciate the flexibility at least!

oh, and as for being a girl in the field: my only negative experience occurred when a fellow grad student said that he wasn’t surprised I didn’t like being a software engineer since girls aren’t as good at coding. other than that, no ones really cared or given me shit about it. im in big tech now, though, so diversity and inclusion is a real hot button issue. there is a zero tolerance policy toward that kind of behavior. people would lose their jobs for saying that kind of shit, so if they’re ever thinking it, they don’t say it out loud lol. i also feel very fortunate to be able to work with some amazing women who’ve been in tech for 15+ years. it’s surprisingly important to see your identity reflected in your mentors!

[pinkandgreenlivingthedream]

Hi Mackenzie! I know you've answered this before so I'm sorry in advance for asking it again, but what did you major in in college? And what is your job right now?? I love your blog & hope you are enjoying California!

Hey girl! No worries at all! It’s probably my most frequently asked question (especially now that I have graduated college- which still freaks me out to think about), and I know school/career stuff can be super intimidating. I remember asking my older friends so many questions about their classes, major, and summer jobs. I was so curious to see their journeys and hear their advice on life after high school and all that it entails. I also remember struggling with my own personal college and career journey. My freshman year of college, I literally thought I would be a dermatologist, until I failed biology lol. I went through so many different phases and down so many paths to get to where I am in this moment. 

Short version: I majored in Business Marketing and minored in Art (with a focus in drawing). I am currently Marketing Coordinator at a tech company in San Francisco.

Long version: I work on the digital marketing team, and spend a lot of time with numbers. Though I am only about two months into my first job post-grad, I do a lot of analyzing metrics, SEO, content optimization, conducting tests, Google Analytics, etc. It’s a super cool job because I get to kind of do a mix of numbers + creative stuff. I like that every day is different, and that there is always a new puzzle to solve or a new goal to reach. My strongest classes in college were always math (accounting, business calc., etc.) and art. Funny enough, I actually got offered an accounting internship when I was in college. I never really imagined myself doing an analytical position after college, but I am really loving the digital marketing side of tech! I’m very glad that I decided to study marketing in college because it really gave me a very broad background and a lot of different career choices to choose from. During my internship last summer, I did mostly graphic design, photography, and content creation- but it’s very interesting to be on the other side of things; seeing the numbers, looking at patterns, analyzing the data. Last summer, I got to explore the process and vision behind content creation itself. This summer, I have been really getting to see the numbers behind the content and understand content on a much deeper, technical side. I get to test different aspects of content and analyze results. It’s different than anything I have ever done before (or anything I imagined myself doing after graduation), but I feel like it really aligns with my strengths and passions. I like that my job challenges me at times, and that there is always something new to learn. 

If you are still in college and you are deciding on a major, I would highly recommend finding something that combines what you love with what your personal strengths are. It can be difficult to find that balance between the two, but a lot of it just comes down to following your heart and doing what feels right for you. A lot of people scoffed at me for spending so much time in college taking art classes (anyone with an Art degree/minor can probably agree when I say that art is very, very time consuming). Even if I could go back, I wouldn’t change my art background for the world. So many of the things I learned in my art classes are things I am getting to do now in my real job. My minor opened a lot of doors for me during the job search process, and I am really glad that I decided to study what I was passionate about in college (even when others thought I was wasting my time). I’ve always been a huge believer that if you work hard enough at whatever it is that you are passionate about, things will fall into place and hard work will pay off with time. If you are not 100% sure about what you want to do with your life, opt for something broad and versatile that will give you different options after graduation. When I went through the interview process my senior year, I interviewed for SO many different positions (from corporate photography, social media, software sales, web design, graphic design) - I really had no idea what I wanted to do specifically post-grad. I genuinely think most people don’t have a clue about what they want they want to do years down the road after college. I can assure you that it’s okay to not have things figured out. You don’t have to know today, or even this year, what it is you want to do forever.  If you aren’t sure what your personal strengths are (which is such a common I think most of us face), don’t be afraid to ask the people that know you best. Your family and friends will be able to tell you what they think your strengths are and what aspects of life you excel in. Don’t feel like your degree can limit you from what your dream job really is. I have met countless people in the tech industry that majored in something entirely different than what it is they are doing now. Passion, drive, and determination can get you farther than which classes you did or did not take in college. No dream is too big, and your major doesn’t necessarily determine your entire career path!

That was probably a really annoyingly long answer, but sometimes I just get in the writing mood (i.e. when I am on the couch with my blanket and hot tea). I hope that could answer your question :)