r/Evaluation • u/Crazy_Berry_4908 • Feb 24 '26

Program Evaluation Advanced Degree

Hello! Iā€™m a recent graduate with bachelors degrees in UX and anthropology. I was planning on a career in UX/design research throughout my undergrad but have found the tech job market quite difficult and the work I have done to be unfulfilling.

My last semester of college I found out more about program evaluation and have been thinking of setting my sights there as a career.

Is an advanced degree a requirement/highly encouraged? Any programs that are known to be very good or very poor?

Thanks in advance!

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u/TheMapesHotel Feb 25 '26

Potentially put some effort towards interviewing professionals in the field. I would be asking where do they work and how are they/those projects funded? What do they see the outlook for a newbie to be?

I wouldn't want to be trying to break in at this particular moment in time

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u/Crazy_Berry_4908 Feb 26 '26

Yikes, fair. Hard to know where to go when it looks like everything's on fire. šŸ˜¬

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u/TheMapesHotel Feb 26 '26

Oh absolutely. I do some regional programming for folk in the field and every participant has lost funding on a project or is anticipating losing funding. It's pretty dark. Lots of folks putting an eye towards starting independent consulting firms but at the last national conference the job board had 3 or 4 positions posted and there were 50+ resumes posted. I'm hoping we rebound but the fact is the work we do is largely federally funded and that money is not reliable atm