<aside> 🤩 Sabine Jung is a CMU senior in the BXA program studying Decision Science and Cello Performance. Last summer, Sabine worked at Duolingo as a Design Program Manager Intern managing Duo's Taqueria (Duolingo's subsidiary restaurant). Outside of class, Sabine is a member of the American Marketing Association, AMA, and Project Smile!
</aside>
My name is Sabine, and I am currently a senior in BXA studying Decision Science and Cello Performance. I also have a minor in Human-Computer Interaction. When I started at CMU, I had a concentration in Biology, but I didn’t really like it, so I tried a bunch of different classes to see what I was interested in. At first, I wasn't really interested in the Social Sciences at all, but I had a friend who was really interested in psychology, so I took a class in Cognitive Psychology. I was really intrigued by it. It was cool to see how, even though humans are so different, the mind is made up of the same hardware while the software is what makes us different. I also took and really liked Reason, Passion, and Cognition (88-120), and that’s when I knew I wanted Decision Science to be my concentration. I found out about HCI through a club where a lot of people were in HCI. It was really interesting to hear about their experiences, so the next semester I took Interaction Design Overview (05-392) and found the topic really interesting. It felt like it clicked with my brain.
I’m a part of the American Marketing Association, AMA, which is a little weird because it's a marketing organization, so it’s not related to my major. However, AMA has been a really helpful experience in helping me become more well-rounded. Being a part of AMA helped me get a taste of marketing and other things related to business.
I’m also a part of Project Smile. Project Smile is a student organization dedicated to organized acts for campus (we're most known for our bubble tea🧋 & care package💌 events!). You can apply for Project Smile’s Executive Board here for the upcoming year!👀
Taking an intro level class in a topic you’re interested in is really helpful to get a taste of what a major has to offer. For example, Reason, Passion, and Cognition is the intro level course for Decision Science, so it was a good course to get a foundational sense of what Decision Science is. I would also recommend talking with your advisor and talking with the advisor of the major that you're interested in because they know the best about the details about a specific major. In general, if you plan on being a four-year student, you have leeway in your schedule to take at least one or two classes that you’re interested in that aren’t required for your major. Minis are also a great way to go because they aren’t as much of a time commitment, though they can be a little more intense because they’re shorter.
Last summer I was a Design Program Manager intern at Duolingo. My main responsibility was to help manage Duo's Taqueria (Duolingo's subsidiary restaurant). This looked like managing their social media, organizing customer surveys, creating new initiatives to connect with the East Liberty neighborhood, and more! I also did a few side projects such as organizing team merch and helping with an office photoshoot.
Before being hired, I struggled a lot with being motivated to apply for internships because the process can be really opaque and not transparent. I didn’t really know what was going on behind the scenes when companies didn’t contact me for long periods of time, so I got easily frustrated with the process. I was also just really busy with school and club work which made applying to jobs difficult. Since cold applying wasn’t working for me and because my major is unique and sometimes unknown to recruiters, I decided I was going to network.
During my sophomore spring, someone from Duolingo gave a talk about working at Duolingo. Seeing other Duolingo employees on the Zoom call and hearing about the supportive environment made me feel like it was a really great company to work at. Later, when I decided to network to find an internship, the first person I reached out to was actually the person that gave the talk. We scheduled a coffee chat and ended up talking for around 1.5-2 hours at a coffee shop in East Liberty near the Duolingo office.
She asked me if I was interested in applying to roles at Duolingo, but the only position available at the time was a product design internship which didn’t really align with my skills and interests. She ended up working to open a new position that more closely aligned with my skills and I was able to apply and interview for that position!
My exploration with finding the right major definitely impacted how I approached finding an internship as I actually was technically a BXA major with concentrations in Biology and Cello up until my Junior spring. This sometimes made it difficult for me to feel like I qualified for an internship or would be a competitive applicant as there are usually recommended or required majors for a posting. My method to find an internship pivoted from cold-applying to directly networking with people so that there was a way to explain more about my unique background and major as, unfortunately, a resume is sometimes not enough to communicate that information clearly.
Communication is very important, and people want to work with someone who's easy to work with. Characteristics of of that would be being responsive to emails and Slack messages. Also, when you have a meeting with your role manager, have things to ask them. Additionally, since you’re an intern, you should bother everyone! What I mean by that is you should schedule one-on-ones with everyone. Just get to know people and hear their stories because there are a lot of interesting people that work at companies. At Duolingo, one of the animators used to be a professional baseball player, and another one has a degree in Microbiology. There are just a lot of really interesting people out there you should get to know and learn from.
I struggled with self-confidence, so my advice for people who might also be dealing with imposter syndrome is to know that if you’re at CMU, performing well, and getting along with your peers, chances are high that you’re a good person to work with. Don’t feel nervous about going into the workforce. I think the education you get at CMU really prepares you for working in industry. I’ve found that the group projects in the HCI curriculum definitely help me get to know more people and become more used to working on a team.