The ability to find resources, synthesize and narrow down with the most useful ones from literature is an essential skill that makes me an employee able to work on projects from a wide variety of spheres, come up with viable solutions to them and stay up to date with trends in industry and market demands.

One of the main reasons that I chose to do an MA program was to get an academic background and justify my design decisions with the literature. I have learned and practiced applying literature throughout one year working on 5 educational products. The process became something I value as a Learning Engineer - the ability and practice of learning and building on others, which assures you take thousands of hours of work other people have put as a part of your design, which has an invaluable contribution to the quality of the design. There are several big takeaways when building on others for me:

• It is not a one-time activity, you go back to the literature in several parts of your design, in the beginning, and in critical moments you need more grounding throughout the process

• You have to be open and not cherry-pick. It is important to keep an open mind when researching literature, as well as being ready that what you personally believe might be contradicted by data is essential

• Each project has its specifications, and it is important to know what to look into and what to choose from. Reaching out and taking advice from professors, professionals in the field might be one of the best places to start

Working in teams is a norm in many workspaces. One of the most important ways to contribute and learn from your team members is by giving and receiving critiques on ongoing projects. I will be able to work in teams in addition to working individually which contributes to me being a good addition to the team.

I have enjoyed learning to receive and give critiques throughout my time in the Learning Engineering program. Once I started seeing the value of critique, and how much my design has evolved, I realized that it is one of the most critical components of the design.
I have learned to value every critique, even in cases where I might disagree with it; I have learned to see the point of other people and what is the lesson I could use from it to make the design better.
Throughout Design Studio projects, especially the Hug Bug, my design has evolved so much due to the critique I have received from my peers.
I have also learned to give critique as a team member. In giving critique, and designing, I would usually look through the lenses of the values we all share as a group to see which of the components could benefit more from a change or a small tweak.

Whether it is human resources, specifically chosen direction, budget, or time, constraints are inevitable in workplaces. I was learning to account for them and enjoy working around them.

During this period, one of my main accomplishments was learning to be friends with constraints and failures.

Although people say thinking outside the box is hard, thinking inside it might be more challenging. Moreover, innovation and creativity can be found inside the same box.

• Working with constraints embraces your creativity as you learn alternative ways of using the available resources by digging deeper and understanding what you have to the fullest.

• Designing, and probably many things in life, cannot exist without failures. I have learned to enjoy failures and view them as indicators that I will be less wrong in the next iteration.

Knowing when to go next when something goes wrong is also important.