Name: Jill Kliger Saliba

Education:

BS in Computer Science from the University of Michigan
MS in Media Arts & Sciences from MIT

Current position:

Coordinator of the CSAM (Computer Science Alumnae of Michigan) organization

Current responsibilities:

Finding ways to encourage and support women students pursuing the fields of Computer Science or Computer Engineering at Michigan.  This includes coordinating a scholarship and on-campus events.  I communicate with many people involved, do front-end web work, and write back-end systems to support our activities.  I also use my skills from years of being a User Interface Designer to try to improve our organization each year based on the feedback of our members, our affiliates and the students.  I also work on front-end and back-end web solutions as a freelance contractor for other companies.

Describe a typical workday.

My work day involves lots of email and planning.  Later in the day I'm able to settle into writing ColdFusion or HTML.

How do you approach challenges?

When approaching a challenge I have to first evaluate what is the goal? what is the real point of the effort?  Once that is determined in its purest form, it is easy to assemble a set of solutions ranging from the simple to the complex.  It is easy to assume that the complex solution is necessary, but very rarely is that true.  Keeping things simple goes a long way toward reaching success with other people.  This was also the case when I worked in a corporate environment.  Often the results of a plan-by-committee session were far more complex than fit the user's need or the market's need.

What experiences prepared you most for your current position?

Well I've been running the CSAM organization for nearly a decade.  Over time I've learned a lot about focusing on the goals and balancing the desires of many people.  I much prefer this to a corporate environment where the goals are often shifting under the employees' feet.

What skills are particularly important to possess in your field ?

I've learned a lot about product design and coding methods in school.  But I didn't learn about tactful communication until I left school.  Tactful communication is essential to success, but at the same time, I reject the idea that one has to depreciate one's own ideas in favor of others to be tactful.  I have no tolerance for false behaviors, even if it is intended as tactfulness.  The other important skill is to learn about marketing and market needs.  As a computer scientist I have no love for most marketing people I've met.  Still, I recognize that marketing and understand market needs is what makes or breaks both large companies and small companies alike.

Who were some of your role models or mentors?

In high school my role model was a game designer named Roberta Williams.  She was wonderful at building adventure games that were very engaging but did not focus on killing as the path to success.  I hope to design an adventure game myself one day.  Also, I've been very inspired by my husband, Nabih.  He has an innate skill for cutting through the fog and seeing what is really important for a project or endeavor.

To what professional organizations do you belong ?

Rocky Mtn SIGCHI (Computer Human Interaction)
UPA (Usability Professionals Association)
and, of course, CSAM (Computer Science Alumnae of Michigan)

How can students make the most of their experiences as undergraduates? As graduate students?

Take as many internships as possible.  I worked for 3 professors during my undergrad years, in addition to an 8-month job at IBM.  Not only did I make enough money to graduate without debt, but I was able to hone my career plan with each new project.  I believe my time was better spent working than being laid back and backpacking all summer long.  I did however get the opportunity a few years after school to take some time and have a non-working adventure overseas.  While I enjoyed that time very much and wouldn't trade it for anything, I still think I did the right thing by focusing on jobs and internships during my undergrad years.  Perhaps the balance is to take 4 weeks off per summer for personal adventures, but spend the rest of the time exploring career possibilities.  My advice for grad school is to get an employer to pay for it.

What advice can you offer on choosing a major? A career?

This connects to my previous answer.  Whatever career you're thinking of, you must give it a try for at least two internships before graduating.  There is nothing more idiotic than pursuing a major for 4 years to graduate and find out that you don't like the career path you've chosen.  This happens frightfully often.

What is your greatest achievement or your greatest success at this point in your life?

I've achieved a level of success that allows me the freedom to work from home and plan my time as I see fit.

How have you achieved balance in your career and family life?

Well, my husband will say that I definitely work too much.  But my goal is to be able to really pigeon hole "work time" and "family time" so that I can focus on each, and not let them overlap.  There is no balance when you're sprinkling work throughout the entire day.

What are your long-term goals?

To spend more of my time doing physical activities like sports, woodworking, cooking, etc and less time at the computer.  To this end, I have a near term goal of building a web-based infrastructure for the CSAM organization that will support our activities more efficiently.

Additional words of advice:

In today's tough job market I think students are more prone to take a lesser job at a large company that doesn't suit them, instead of taking a job at a small company that is right up their alley.  In particular I am wary of women in computer science taking support roles that will be a very hard track to break out of when the economy is back on its feet.