Alumni Spotlight: Harrison Browning

Harrison Browning (he/him)
- Major: PSY BA (Spring 2020)
- Position: Javascript Engineer
- Employer: BI Worldwide
What is your work like? What are your duties?
I am a full stack web developer working to help BIW build it's new recognition platform for our customers!
How would you say your psychology degree has helped you with your current job?
Although I'm extremely far from the Psychology realm, I still use the knowledge from many of my previous courses to interact with others within my team. Especially when it comes to a difference in opinion, I make use of the non-combative and personal communication techniques taught in my counseling and clinical psych classes to approach everyone with less hostility. I find that my Psychology degree has helped me navigate my adult life far better than any other major I could've gone into, whether that be in my professional, social, or personal life.
In what way has your major complemented your current job?
A lot of what we had to do for the research capstone helps me in planning and writing out what my approach will be to creating my code. Especially when it comes to reading about new technologies I'm unfamiliar with, my endless reading and sourcing of peer reviewed articles helps so much when having to search for different documentation or discussion threads.
How did you find your current position?
Internal hire, I'd previously worked at the UMN OHR as a student assistant and chatted with many of the staff working in the office. Just so happened that one of the previous staff had made their way to BIW, and so I reached out on LinkedIn about an open position at their company and got the job!
What advice do you have for our current psych students and recent grads?
Never lose your analytical perspective, it's only become more useful as I've gotten into adult life (and paying my own benefits eek!).
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