My experience in academia, both as student and as teacher, has shaped the way I think in ways that have immediate, everyday impact on the career I pursue now. It’s not simply the years of in-depth study of a particular thing. Doing that activity rubs off in a lot of ways certainly. For instance, you come to realize that you really are an expert in a specific slice of the world. It’s a trip the first time you notice your students are writing down things that you say. The confidence that arises from that, along with the understanding that it is possible with work to become an expert in any topic, is huge.

My academic experience has also shaped me in more abstract ways. It’s the self-awareness of process that’s largely applicable to my current career. In academia, I learned how to analyze and evaluate. Importantly I learned when to use what method to achieve which audience goals. That training, in particular, has been invaluable in my work as an interaction designer. Equally so in my work as a creative director, as I help my teams craft ideas and make a case for them.

For a long time when I first started in this business, the Ph.D. actually hindered my ability to get a job. To the extent that I removed my graduate education from my resume, both M.A. and Ph.D. Coupled with my early career inexperience, I suspect that the Ph.D. made me a “complex” candidate. Dealing with complexity probably isn’t fun for a hiring manager wading through scads of resumes.

They say you can run but not hide from your past. I haven’t hidden the Ph.D. in a long time. Now I think I might run back toward it, to try and bring more of its nuanced complexity and rigor into my working world. For me the applicability of my education to this field is obvious and true blue. It’s part and parcel of who I am personally and professionally. It’s part of my brand. It’s part of what you get when you pay for me. It’s part of what makes me good, even great, at what I do. If you don’t get it, well then, we’re probably not suited for one another.