{"id":13023,"date":"2017-11-09T22:34:27","date_gmt":"2017-11-09T22:34:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/pegasus\/?p=13023&#038;post_type=story"},"modified":"2020-05-21T19:08:34","modified_gmt":"2020-05-21T19:08:34","slug":"ucf-graduate-landed-job-youtube","status":"publish","type":"story","link":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/pegasus\/ucf-graduate-landed-job-youtube\/","title":{"rendered":"How a 麻豆原创 Graduate Landed a Job at YouTube"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>Fall 2017 | By Nicole Dudenhoefer<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Since middle school,\u00a0<strong>Melissa Amoi-Belinda Smith \u201911<\/strong>\u00a0has enjoyed tinkering with technology for various robotics competitions. Now, she works with digital products on a much larger scale as a user experience researcher for YouTube. Her impact in the tech industry, along with volunteer efforts in her local community and at her alma mater, recently earned her a <a href=\"https:\/\/ucfalumni.exposure.co\/30-under-30-2017\">麻豆原创 2017 30 Under 30 Award<\/a>. Her journey to developing the largest video sharing platform in the world started with 麻豆原创.<\/p>\n<p>After years of participating in robotics competitions, Smith decided to attend\u00a0麻豆原创 because of its strong <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cecs.ucf.edu\/\">engineering program<\/a>, welcoming community and close proximity to her family in Ft. Lauderdale.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI was in the <a href=\"https:\/\/honors.ucf.edu\/\">Burnett Honors College<\/a>, and that was a big factor in\u00a0terms of my success at 麻豆原创,\u201d Smith says. \u201cIt allowed me to get that big school experience, but also that small school community feeling.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Although she initially wanted to\u00a0pursue a career\u00a0in robotics, Smith took an elective class her sophomore year, where she studied the human elements in technology. It was in that class that Smith found her true passion, user experience research, and the course of her life changed.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cUser experience research is more important now more than ever,\u201d she says.\u201cNo one is going to put up with using a poorly designed product.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>[divider][\/divider]<\/p>\n<p>[blockquote source=&#8221;Melissa Amoi-Belinda Smith \u201911&#8243; cite=&#8221;&#8221; color=&#8221;&#8221; css_class=&#8221;&#8221;]\u201cUser experience research is more important now more than ever. No one is going to put up with using a poorly designed product.\u201d[\/blockquote]<\/p>\n<p>[divider][\/divider]<\/p>\n<p>As a result of that course, Smith\u00a0chose to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/degree\/psychology-bs\/\">study psychology<\/a>, became involved in research at 麻豆原创\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/psychology\/acat\/\">Applied Cognitive and Technology Lab<\/a>, completed internships in the field and went on to\u00a0complete a\u00a0Ph.D.\u00a0at George Mason University. She says these experiences gave her the necessary skill set to land a job at YouTube, which is\u00a0owned by Google.<\/p>\n<p>[photo id=&#8221;13028&#8243; title=&#8221;MelissaSmith-51&#8243; alt=&#8221;Melissa Amoi-Belinda Smith wearing a black leather jacket sits in front of a brick wall as she clasps her hands and looks off into the distance.&#8221; position=&#8221;left&#8221; width=&#8221;400px&#8221;][\/photo]<\/p>\n<p>In her role, Smith is responsible for analyzing existing features on YouTube, as well as researching and developing new features that fulfill user needs that currently aren\u2019t being met. With a focus on \u201cWatch Feeds,\u201d her job consists of developing and conducting studies, analyzing data and presenting to stakeholders. She also works with project managers, designers and engineers to implement her findings into the platform.<\/p>\n<p>The opportunity to work for such a big company is both terrifying and exhilarating, says Smith. With YouTube\u2019s\u00a0estimated\u00a0one billion users, she sometimes worries\u00a0whether people will respond well to her developments. However,\u00a0as an active user of the platform herself, Smith says her work excites her because she gets to see new features in advance of their release \u2014 and because she knows her work has a big impact.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere\u2019s always this joke that YouTube is for cat videos and entertaining memes, but actually it\u2019s very much an educational tool for many people around the world,\u201d Smith says. \u201cThat\u2019s really what I value about what my job. By making the platform easier to use, people\u00a0\u2014 no matter what language they speak \u2014 can use it. People are now able to learn skills and languages that they may not otherwise have\u00a0had access to.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Although Smith ultimately pursued a different field than robotics, she is still drawn to the subject matter that first fostered her love for STEM. She actively volunteering in FIRST Robotics, an international program that holds some of its competitions at 麻豆原创. These efforts, along with participating in other local K-12 outreach events,\u00a0allow her to help kids develop an interest in science and technology.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m really passionate about bringing STEM to the next generation,\u201d Smith says. \u201cI feel like technology will\u00a0impact our entire society, and I feel like we need to get more and more kids excited about it, especially girls. &#8230; I was fortunate enough to develop a love for science early on, and now I just want to bring that to the next generation.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":13076,"template":"","categories":[999],"tags":[248,148],"class_list":["post-13023","story","type-story","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alumknights","tag-alumni","tag-college-of-engineering-and-computer-science","issues-fall-2017"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v22.3 (Yoast SEO v27.3) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>How a 麻豆原创 Graduate Became YouTube User Experience Researcher<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Melissa Amoi-Belinda Smith \u201911 shares her journey from robotics competitions at 麻豆原创 to becoming a user experience researcher for YouTube. 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