Motivations for Pursuing Tech

Genre and Sub Genre — Verbal Folklore: beliefs and relayed experiences

Language: English

Country where Item is from: United States

Informant Data: Nan Hu ’18 is a senior here at Dartmouth. He is a computer science and mathematics double major. Nan is from Seattle, Washington, where his parents work in the technology sector. Nan interned twice, once sophomore summer as a software engineer at a company called Pegasystems in Cambridge, MA, and another time junior summer as a software engineer at Microsoft. He is a member of the Sigma Nu fraternity. After graduation, Nan will return to Microsoft as a software engineer.

Social Context: Given the unique nature of tech  jobs and the nature of tasks one will be asked to take on, prospective graduates must have a high level of conviction that a career in Tech is truly something they want to pursue. In light of that, senior undergraduate students will often question those younger than them who ostensibly want to go into Tech why exactly it is they think they might be interested in Technology. As such, the folklore in question is not only circulated among Engineering and Computer Science majors more generally, but among those who are more junior and those who are more senior in their undergraduate careers. This verbal folklore is shared amongst both males and females who aspire to careers in Technology.

Cultural Context: In a country where employment opportunities abound, it is often hard for people to decide what it is they want to do professionally. And given the myriad of choices one often has, it becomes imperative to do one’s due diligence about different fields of work so one can make an informed decision about what one’s best career path may be. In the same vein, it is also important for one to pursue something they’re passionate about. This is something particularly emphasized in American culture and impressed upon graduating college students. And so, in order to understand this particular aspect of corporate recruiting, we collected folklore surrounding the experiences and beliefs people had with respect to pursuing particular fields of work, and in this particular case, Technology. To this end, Nan Hu was interviewed by Trent Shillingford one-on-one in a quiet area in the library. We interviewed other individuals as well, but for the sake of brevity, have simply included incorporated their insights here.

 

Item: Nan Hu noted that he was drawn to technology because of the problem solving opportunities it posed. He also noted that he was drawn to technology because of the prospect of working on interesting problems and honing his problem-solving skills. He also cited the opportunity to build things in a collaborative environment as being very compelling. What was particularly salient was Nan Hu’s general love of technology and his interest in working on interesting, challenging, and ultimately consequential problems.

 

Associated file (a video, audio, or image file):

Relevant Portion: 1:31 — 2:29

Transcript of Associated File:

  • Trent Shillingford: What was your motivation for pursuing Software Engineering?

 

  • Nan Hu: Uh.. for me… stems mostly from my interest in Computer Science. Mostly .. for me. .. I think it’s very powerful to be able to… given a set of tools… be able to solve a huge variety of problems… I think that’s pretty powerful.. And also .. you know I think I enjoy working with technology obviously… and also I think the idea of you know.. doing problem solving.. I think it’s pretty cool being able to go into work .. and also .. you know..  work on some pretty cool problems and enhance your problem solving skills..And also work in a culture that is very collaborative and more casual.. And so basically I think… it’s a combination of what I like to do .. and the environment

Collector’s Comments:

  • Nan Hu was very  convicted in his love of technology and had no doubt as to where he wanted to go in his professional life.

Collector’s Name:

  • Trent Shillingford

General Comments:

  • Those interested in tech cited  almost the same motivations. There were no variances in account. The opportunity to work on interesting problems, have a great degree of autonomy, and to ultimately have an impact were things people cited as motivating their interest in technology.

Tags/Keywords:

  • Verbal Folklore, Beliefs, Traditions, Tech motivations

 

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