Experiential Learning

Hands-on learning is central to the Informatics program, giving students opportunities to apply classroom knowledge in professional settings. Alumni describe these experiences as critical in preparing them for their careers:

• Internships: 78% of Informatics alumni reported they completed at least one internship during their time in the program, and 32% report receiving a job offer as a result of a prior experiences such as an internship, Capstone project or part-time role.
• Capstone: In their final year, students complete a Capstone — a culminating individual or team-based project addressing an information challenge for a real-world client. Learn more about Informatics Capstones.
• Career and research experience: Students contribute to iSchool research centers such as the Center for an Informed Public and Technology & Social Change Group, as well as interdisciplinary labs including those at the Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering.
• On-campus jobs: Many alumni noted they obtained early professional skills and experience as student employees in technical, research and administrative roles.
• Mentorship programs: Students can connect with Informatics alumni and industry professionals through the iMentorship program, which provides guidance, career advice and networking opportunities that support career development.

In the Classroom

The Informatics curriculum equips students who graduate with a broad range of skills and perspectives that prepare them to solve complex challenges. Graduates excel at:

• Understanding social impacts
• Computer programming
• Design
• Data analysis
• Problem solving
• Systems thinking
• Value-sensitive design
• Responding to challenges
• Communication
• Teamwork

Alumni Roles & Domains of Expertise

Informatics alumni pursue careers across technical, analytical and design fields, applying their skills to solve problems in industry, government, non-profits and research.

Common roles include:

• Software Engineer
• Software Quality Assurance Analyst
• Computer System Analyst
• Web Developer
• Data Analyst
• Data Engineer
• Data Architect
• Cybersecurity Analyst
• Information Security Analyst
• Association Product Manager
• Technical Program Manager
• Project Management Specialist
• User Experience Designer
• Marketing Manager
• Information Architect
• Management Analysis
• Financial and Investment Analyst
• Librarian

Domains of Expertise

These roles reflect several domains of expertise that connect directly to the Informatics curriculum:

• Software developers
• Data scientists
• User Experience designers and researchers
• Product managers
• Cybersecurity professionals
• Health IT professionals
• Information architects
• Researchers

Alumni Salaries

We're proud to share the salary outcomes that reflect both the immediate success and long-term growth of our INFO graduates. Our data comes from two trusted sources:

• The Next Destination Survey, where graduates self-report their first job details near graduation.
• The Alumni Outcomes Dashboard, which uses verified Washington state records to track career progress over time.

Reported salaries:

• Near graduation: Median $85,000; most offers range from $64,000 to $105,000.
• One year after graduation: Average $103,900; range $51,000-$142,000.
• Five years after graduation: Average $120,000; range $62,000-$174,000.

iSchool Career Services supports Informatics students in negotiating competitive offers and aligning roles with long-term career goals.

Where Alumni Work

Informatics graduate pursue careers locally, nationally and around the world. Many remain in Washington to take advantage of the region's tech ecosystem, while others join organizations across the U.S. and abroad.

• Washington state employment: 68% of alumni work in Washington one year after graduation, rising to 72% five years out.
• Geographic reach (5-year data): Most Informatics alumni remain in the West (86.9%), though others work across the Northeast (6.0%), South (2.0%), Midwest (1.2%), and internationally (3.9%).
• Top employers: Alumni work at leading organizations, including:
  • Tech companies: Amazon, Microsoft, Google, Meta, Oracle, DocuSign, Avanade, Expedia
  • Consulting & business services: PwC, IBM
  • Research & education: University of Washington
  • Other industries: Nordstrom, Liberty Mutual Insurance

Continued Education

Informatics students may go on to pursue graduate school in information science or related fields to deepen their knowledge in a field and advance their careers.

Graduates over the past five years have chosen to continue education in the following fields of study:

• Computer and Information Sciences
• Psychology
• Economics
• Mathematics
• Communication
• Data Science
• Human Center Design and Engineering

The top five institutions where our INFO graduates report continuing post-secondary education are:

• University of Washington
• Columbia University
• University of Illinois
• Carnegie Mellon University
• Cornell University

Of our Informatics graduates who report continuing their post-baccalaureate studies, 70% remain at the University of Washington.

Career Resources

Whether you’re just starting to explore Informatics or already in the program, we’re here to support your career journey from day one.

• For prospective Informatics and incoming UW students: Learn more about internships, job search strategies and employer connections through the UW Career & Internship Center.
• For current Informatics students: Access tailored career guidance, resume tips, job boards and more through the iSchool Career Guide for Informatics.

Planning ahead is key. We strongly encourage Informatics students to meet with the iSchool Career Services team early and often, ideally within the first few weeks of their first academic quarter or the summer before their final year, to discuss job search timelines, resume updates and strategies for standing out in the recruiting process.

Typical Career Paths

Software Developers

The Informatics focus area of Software Development is excellent preparation for a career as a software developer in consumer and enterprise information technology, preparing you to develop client and server side web and mobile applications, design databases, and architect web services.

• Combining this with courses in the focus area of Health & Well-Being can be great preparation for careers in health information technology that focus on building electronic medical records, patient portals, and medical research.
• Combining it with courses in the Data Science focus area can be great preparation for data engineering positions that use software development skills to store, provision, and manage data warehouses.
• Combining it with courses in the Information & Society focus area can be great preparation for careers in policy enforcement and government, giving you perspectives on how software is used to enforce and inform policy.
• Combining it with courses in the Information Assurance and Cybersecurity focus area can be great preparation for computer security, helping to audit and manage security vulnerabilities in software systems and services.

Data Scientists

The Informatics focus area of Data Science prepares you for the eclectic and rapidly evolving profession of data science, which brings many of the ideas from scientific data analysis and large-scale data mining to businesses, to help them answer strategic questions with data. It combines fields such as information science, computer science, statistics, design and social science.

• Combining it with courses in the Software Development focus area can be great preparation for data engineering positions that use software development skills to store, provision, and manage data warehouses.
• Combining this with courses in the focus area of Health & Well-Being can be great preparation for careers in health information technology that focus on scientific research on disease, health, and wellness.
• Combining this with courses in the focus area of Information Management can be great preparation for careers in business intelligence, which use data to help businesses make decisions with data.
• Combining this with courses in the Information Assurance and Cybersecurity focus area can prepare you for positions in digital forensics and cybersecurity defense.
• Combining it with courses in the Information Architecture focus area can prepare you for careers in using data to inform information architecture decisions, as well as data science careers that involve managing and organizing large data sets.

User Experience Designers and Researchers

The Informatics focus area of Human-Computer Interaction prepares students for careers as user experience designers, who envision user interfaces and customer experiences, as well as careers as user experience researchers, who often do foundational applied research to discover new product opportunities.

• Combining it with courses in the Software Development focus area can prepare you to either be a software-literate designer, collaborating closely with software engineers who realize interaction designs, or a design-literature software developer, who can collaborate closely with designers to realize designs.
• Combining it with courses in the Health & Well-Being focus area can prepare you for careers designing health information technologies to support health and well-being, including both consumer devices and services, as well as those used in hospitals and clinics.
• Combining it with courses in the Information & Society focus area can prepare you for careers in information policy design, which need both perspectives on policy, regulation, and sociocultural views of information, as well as design considerations about how such policies impact user experience.
• Combining it with courses in the Information Assurance and Cybersecurity focus area can prepare you for careers in designing privacy and security experiences, such as privacy settings, password management, identity management, and content moderation.
• Combining it with courses in the Information Architecture focus area can prepare you for careers in designing not just the interfaces of information technology, but the organization of content in interfaces.

Product Managers

Product managers integrate perspectives on design, technology, marketing and sales to decide what to design and build to meet a market need. Most product managers first get several years of experience in a domain, or get advanced training like the UW’s Technology Management MBA or Carnegie Mellon’s Master's in Product Management. However, Informatics can be a great way of getting a holistic technical education that makes you competitive for these advanced degrees. Courses in the Human-Computer Interaction and Information Management focus areas are most relevant, as both give you perspectives on envisioning solutions to information problems.

• Combining these with courses in the Data Science focus area can prepare you for careers in data-driven product management, using customer engagement data to improve conversion rates and identify product and service opportunities.
• Combining these with courses in the Health & Well-Being focus area can prepare you for careers in leading health IT projects, which are critical to improving the management of health care.
• Combining these with courses in the Information & Society focus area can prepare you to lead projects that intersect with policy, regulation, and conflict, such as privacy, content moderation.
• Combining these with courses in the Software Development focus area can prepare you for management positions in software engineering, such as lead developer or engineering manager, helping organize teams of software engineers around the resources and workflows they need to be productive.

Cybersecurity Professionals

Courses in the Information Assurance and Cybersecurity focus area are excellent preparation to become a cybersecurity professional, learning to create, deploy, use and manage systems that preserve individual and organizational privacy and security.

• Combining it with courses in the Human-Computer Interaction focus area can prepare you for careers in designing privacy and security experiences, such as privacy settings, password management, identity management, and content moderation.
• Combining this with courses in the Data Science focus area can prepare you for positions in digital forensics and cybersecurity defense.
• Combining it with courses in the Software Development focus area can be great preparation for computer security, helping to audit and manage security vulnerabilities in software systems and services.

Health IT Professionals

Hospitals and health IT providers are in desperate need of people educated in information technology as well as biology, medicine and health. Experts in these areas design and develop software to support individual and population health, support research on disease, and create the infrastructure used by medicine to provide care worldwide. Courses in the Health & Well-Being focus area are excellent preparation for these careers.

• Combining this with courses in the Information Management focus area can prepare you for careers in leading health IT projects, which are critical to improving the management of health care.
• Combining this with courses in the Human-Computer Interaction focus area can prepare you for careers designing health information technologies to support health and wellbeing, including both consumer devices and services, as well as those used in hospitals and clinics.
• Combining this with courses in the Data Science focus area can be great preparation for careers in health information technology that focus on building electronic medical records, patient portals, and medical research.

Information Architects

Architects structure the underlying content and its presentation of web sites, apps, and web services, helping people find and use information. Courses in the Information Architecture focus area are the best preparation for these careers.

• Combining it with courses in the Human-Computer Interaction focus area can prepare you for careers in organization of content in interfaces, but also interaction design used to access that content.
• Combining it with courses in the Data Science focus area can prepare you for careers in using data to inform information architecture decisions, as well as data science careers that involve managing and organizing large data sets.

Researchers

All of the Informatics focus areas are great preparation for careers in research, as researchers study the entire scope of all of these topics. In addition to courses, search for research opportunities during the academic year and summer, talk to faculty about their research, and try to arrange a research Capstone. Pursuing a master's degree before a Ph.D. is not always necessary, as many master's degrees are preparation for industry, not academic research. Talk to faculty for advice on pathways into academia.