以利沙Coad
Programmer Turned Designer Finds the Best of Both Worlds at Apple Internship 和 More
Although art 和 technology don’t seem to go together on the surface, Elisha’s deep passion for both forced him to carve his own path in combining the two. Both a programmer 和 an artist, Elisha’s story combines STEM 和 the humanities in fascinating ways.
以利沙Coad is a University of Idaho alum with a B.F.A. in 工作室艺术与设计. He attended U of I between Spring 2018 和 Winter 2022. He currently works at John Deere as a user experience (UX) designer.
When he first arrived, Elisha was drawn to a double major in Virtual Technology 和 Design 和 计算机科学 since he was great with computers 和 fascinated by virtual reality 和 3D modeling. 在高中时, Elisha cultivated his skills in computer programming 和 design, even working on freelance job opportunities by building websites for clients.
“I liked that world of design 和 technology, 和 mixing those two,他说. “I would work with my brother on projects. 他会做后端... 和 then I would do the front end, which is the visuals of the code.”
A love of technology ran deep in Elisha’s veins, with his father being an inventor 和 his two brothers being computer scientists. “That was kind of the general path [for me],” he admitted.
Art was an unexplored territory considering his family background, making it more difficult for him to reconcile his passions for art 和 his love 和 familiarity with technology.
His parents were very involved in his education 和 provided opportunities for him to explore his passions. Elisha said that this set him up with confidence 和 space to do what he loves. “If I really put my mind to something, I can do it 和 I can achieve it. I think that’s helped a lot,他说.
“Some people have the mentality of… ‘don’t make your job your passion because you’ll lose that passion,’ but I feel like I was always raised up with ‘find the job that you’re passionate about 和 you never work a day in your life,’”以利沙分享道.
对于他的研究领域, he ultimately settled on interface design, figuring that it was the perfect intersection of technology 和 art. “It was the right kind of challenge that I was looking for, so I ended up switching my major… into an art [degree],他说. He dropped 计算机科学 as a second major 和 went fully into 工作室艺术与设计, with an emphasis on interaction 和 graphic design.
“我仍然喜欢编程. I program games on the side,他说. It gave Elisha comfort to know that he would still be involving himself with the tech field while doing what fulfilled him most.
“Usually its designers going into [user interface/experience design (UI/UX)], so having that programming background already 和 doing internships as a programmer… I was able to have a stronger position [in the field],以利沙说.
Elisha was involved in “makerspaces” throughout his middle 和 high school career, which are programs designed to let young people express creativity 和 explore different mediums.
“I worked there for a long time 和 found a passion for creating things,他说. “That ability to create beautiful things is just something I hold really dear to me.” Since his love of art was always present 和 encouraged by those around him, he found his place easily with the College of Art 和 Architecture.
On campus, Elisha was a part of the 校园基督徒团契 for all four years of his enrollment. “I feel like a large part of my success in college can be attributed to having that support network,他说.
他还开创了 发展商学生社团, a Google-sponsored program for programmers. 他也是 大学荣誉课程, which gave him a strong sense of community when he first arrived on campus.
在大学, Elisha still worked on freelance website design projects, which helped pay for a portion of his tuition. One of his biggest projects was creating a br和 for a cryptocurrency education company, which allowed him to practice being firm in project timelines 和 pricing expectations for his work. He also worked on br和ing for the TEDxCoeur d’Alene event in 2020.
Elisha appreciated the teachers in the 艺术与设计专业 that “had high expectations for students” 和 gave a “higher level of underst和ing” to the field, specifically naming Greg Turner-Rahman, 戴夫Gottwald 和 戴尔芬Keim. He said that his professors would allow him to modify projects if he thought they aligned with the freelance work he was doing. “I was really thankful for those opportunities where teachers allowed that,他说.
He also took on several internship opportunities each summer, most of which involved programming until he realized his passion for design. Elisha found most of his job opportunities through his incredible network that was created 和 sustained by his freelancing projects.
One of the employers he worked for over the summer allowed him to shift his position from a programmer to a designer. Because he had insight into the design field, Elisha was able to step into the new role with ease, therefore showing them Elisha’s “value as a designer.”
Elisha had an amazing opportunity to intern as a UI/UX designer at Apple the summer before his senior year. He traveled to California 和 got to engage with the design system team, who helped him figure out his strengths 和 weaknesses as a designer.
“A design system is something for interface design. It's the building blocks from which other designers use to build [a website],他解释道. “For example, buttons, a dropdown or dialogue menu, or pop ups. All that stuff would be a piece in the design system.”
“I feel how my brain works is well-positioned for design systems because you have to think of all the details of each component,他说. “I also really like it because I can support other designers. I see myself as a support role for the whole design team.”
“I helped [Apple] redo their website [in what’s] called the information architecture of the website,他说. “How do we organize [information] in a way that makes sense to people using this website?” Since Apple is a very high-security company, they don’t rely on cloud services to store their information. Instead, they created their own internal system, which is what Elisha fixed during his time there.
Elisha now works at John Deere as a UX designer for their farm management platform. This platform is used by farmers who want to keep track of the goings on of the products they’re using for work.
“They can have a high-level overview of what's happening at any given moment, see where their machines are on a map, [和] they can see… what kind of work they've done over the year,他解释道. Elisha creates 和 manages the design system of that platform alongside some product advertising design.
长期, Elisha says he’d like to work for a startup tech company, an ode to his childhood growing up with a love for technology 和 programming. 通过他的关系网, he knows many people interested in starting tech companies, 和 Elisha says he looks forward to seeing where that journey takes him.
He espouses a “learner’s mindset”, in that he believes everyone would benefit from exploring passions 和 skills in their daily lives. “Having a positive connection [to] learning is important… Every experience will get you closer to where you're meant to be. There's never wasted moments,他说 to future V和als.
He added on, “Just enjoy the experience. Take classes that are outside of your comfort zone or that you wouldn't normally take… College is the time to do it. Some of my favorite classes were ones I took on the history of anime or archery, stuff like that.”
Elisha’s story is one of a persistent desire to follow passions, even if they take you in seemingly different directions at first. Future V和als should take to heart the importance of doing what you love — if you’re passionate about it, you will find a way to make it work for you. Here at 职业服务, our mission is to help make it work for you too. Keep an eye on this artist — we can’t wait to see where Elisha goes next!
维多利亚金斯默尔
职业服务 Marketing Intern
