From a combined major in science to the creative web

Like many alumni, Alyssa Sangalang had a couple of options up her sleeve when she graduated with a BSc in 2021. Ultimately, she chose to blaze an unconventional trail by founding a web design studio that helps credentialed professionals and growing businesses close the gap between the expertise they've built and the way that expertise reads online.

“My clients are experts at what they do. The problem? Their website doesn't show it,” Alyssa says. “I help close that gap so the people who need them can actually find them, trust them, and work with them.” It's a theme she's now turning into a book—exploring why so many experts remain invisible online, and what it takes to close that gap for good.

In this Q&A she talks about how her time at UBC Science prepared her to launch a career on an unmarked path, and offers words of advice for others contemplating charting their own course after graduation.

Q: When you came to UBC did you have a particular field of study in mind?

Alyssa: I knew I wanted to be in tech, but I didn't just want to make profit for myself. I wanted to have a positive impact on people. I thought studying and specializing in computer science would be the way to go. I could help model data for climate analysis which—spoiler alert—I actually got to do at UBC. But I'm so glad that I explored the Combined Major in Science, because where I am now is far better than where I imagined myself to be.

Q: How did your studies help you to start your own company?

Alyssa: It wasn't a specific science discipline. It was the ability to translate complex expertise into language that non-experts can trust. The skills that I picked up at UBC Science were critical thinking and going through massive sets of information.

When I started the Combined Major in Science, it was a very new program. What interested me was how the program incorporated new media—podcasting, producing videos—and taught us how to frame what we were learning in other science courses for the general public. User experience (UX) design was still relatively new. I found out about it through UBC’s Work Learn program when I worked as an intern in the IT department of BC Children's Hospital Research Institute. There, I was involved in a lot of different projects—data visualization, data organization, and, eventually, UX. My supervisor was kind enough to point me to UX design which sits at the intersection of development and implementing designs for people to understand and to take action.

Q: How did you get your company off the ground?

Alyssa: While I was finishing my studies at UBC, I was a founding designer for a local startup. Right after I graduated, I was at a crossroads: Did I want to pursue the traditional nine to five or further my startup experience. I had that skillset in my tool belt so I could go corporate, do another startup, or pursue my own design firm. I thought, I'm a science student, what business do I have starting my own business? But I saw a gap in the market that called out to me.

At the time, websites were either heavily focused on the aesthetics, or the other side of the spectrum: communicating information or a set of prices and services, without understanding that people are visual. But there was that middle ground where I could utilize my practical experience as a UX designer, and also my ability to think critically, analyze data and infuse it into a website. Leading my company Contrast Collective Co, I've learned to ask clients questions and bit by bit, shave away at the superficial, surface level message that they’re communicating and get to the root of why they exist as a business. That work has a measurable impact: clients whose hard-earned expertise was undersold by their website, leave with something that qualifies potential clients and opens doors—without them having to justify themselves every time.

Q: How did you go about building your client base?

Alyssa: Dealing with people is super important. I had to, and still have to, get out there in rooms where it can be uncomfortable. So if it's a networking event—which I did a lot at UBC as an undergraduate—I had this mentality of showing up as if I were applying for jobs. Putting my best foot forward. Not being fake, but practicing how to talk to people in different positions, different seniorities, different fields.

Q: Any advice for current science students contemplating unconventional career paths?

Alyssa: Find a way to tailor the skills that you've picked up from different courses so that it becomes a marketable skill for that position. There’s no such thing as a wasted skill. There's always a way for you to use it some way, shape or form. Softer skills are what helps set you apart, especially in a sea of other applicants who are competing with the same hard skills that you have. Maybe you'll be a great presenter and tell stories from data in a way that doesn't make your eyes gloss over. With AI at our fingertips, critical thinking—being able to parse through information and data, and cross reference it across fields—is more important than ever.