Jonathan Kim, AB’21, AM’21; Heather Rivera, AM’05; and “Cherry” Yue Ying, AB’21, AM’21, offer advice for humanists considering careers in tech.

Jonathan Kim: There will always be people in any industry who recognize that people with humanities backgrounds have plenty of skills that are valuable. Even though there seems to be a bit of a gap between the classroom and the professional world, there really isn’t too much of it if you bring a willingness to learn about other fields—the way a lot of humanities students do when it comes to their own studies.

Heather Rivera: If you think about algorithms and search functions and all the other things that get built upon them—at the end of the day, they’re built by people. Having a very diverse group of employees writing code is really important. It’s natural that you’re going to miss things if you’re only looking at a problem from one perspective. People who bring critical thinking and questioning are so vital to any discussion.

Cherry Ying: I just started my career, so I’m used to other people giving me advice! It’s useful to have some technical background, so take some coding classes. And always have the mindset of continuing to learn. Don’t be afraid to step out of your comfort zone and be your authentic self. It’s worth trying new things—they might work.