Reddit UX Researcher Highly Recommends an Internship

Name: Carl Pearson (he/him)

PhD: Human Factors Psychology, North Carolina State University, 2019

What was your main area of research?

My dissertation was on how attitudinal trust is related to behavioral reliance in automated support tools (in lower levels of automation). My thesis work was related, on how perceptions of pedigree/prestige affect comparative trust between human and automated agents that supported decision making.

What is your current job?

I am a Staff Quantitative UX Researcher (UXR) for Reddit based in Minneapolis, Minnesota (remote work).

I am a survey specialist on the UX research team, influencing product managers, designers, and engineers to make data-driven decisions. I do some work with log data in SQL, but primarily own our survey processes, using them myself and upskilling qualitative UX researchers.

What is your favorite thing about your job?

I love that I get to make an impact on stakeholder decisions with research I run end to end. Also I love the time I get to learn new methods and models on the job.

What is the most important skill you developed or experience you had during your PhD that now helps you in your current position?

Research design as applied through survey development and statistical analysis.

How did you build the skills necessary for your current role?

I aggressively pursued an industry internship which I worked from years 3-4 alongside my PhD.

For coursework, advanced stats (mixed effects models) and psychometrics courses were valuable in addition to my core methods courses of human factors.

How did you find this position? What were the career steps you took to get to where you are now?

A recruiter reached out to me while working at Meta (the market was quite different in 2022).

PhD student ➡️ internship ➡️ PhD graduate/internship convert to full time in mixed methods role ➡️ mixed methods consulting UXR role ➡️ quant UXR role at Meta ➡️ Quant UXR at Reddit

If someone is interested in a similar role, what would you recommend they start doing now to prepare?

Get an internship if you are still in graduate school. If not, network and get referrals, consider volunteer projects in the UX space.

Why did you decide to not pursue a career in academia?

I never intended to do academia full time, so it was quite easy. I thought I may master out but enjoyed what I was learning in my PhD program so I stayed.

I do appreciate the depth I got from my program to use in industry contexts.

What advice do you have for someone getting their PhD and looking to pursue a career outside of academia?

Internships are a much easier foot in the door to industry experience than after you have graduated.