Alumnus Bobby Gray graduated from SHPRS in 1998 with a bachelor’s of arts degree in philosophy and a bachelor’s of science degree in psychology. He also earned a master’s degree in business administration in 2010 from the W.P. Carey School of Business at ASU.
Gray now works as the Director of Digital Transformation at the ASU University Technology Office. Although he oversees an IT department, he said that many of the skills that came with studying philosophy and psychology have allowed him to not only be cognizant of cutting-edge technological advances but also to approach everything with innovative and critical thinking.
Tell me about your time at SHPRS. How did you get to your current position?
It was through the symbolic logic courses in the philosophy degree. Out of high school, I was tired of reading, writing and arithmetic, so I went down the psychology and philosophy routes. There weren’t a lot of philosophy job postings, so I decided to take a look at IT. I found the computing coding and symbolic logic were pretty much one in the same. Everything was an “and” statement or an “or” statement or an “if/then.” So it was really easy for me to pick up on coding. I got a student worker job, started coding and that turned into a staff job, which turned into a manager job and that led to a director job. It really sets you up for a managerial role and IT. Not only do you have that logic side, but you also have the writing side because philosophy is writing-intensive.
Can you explain what your role is in UTO now?
I am the Director of Digital Transformation, so I lead a team of about twelve computer programmers around emerging tech. I’m over the mobile internet of things, the E-advisor suite here, so it's really about finding emerging IT trends and how they can relate to support students’ success here at ASU.
What would you say is the most fulfilling part of your career in IT?
It’s being able to be in service of ASU. Of course, money is always bigger and better in other places, but in higher ed, you feel like you’re impacting the community as a whole. We're not making better widgets or faster gizmos, we’re educating the populace and I find that extremely satisfying. Being able to leverage IT, and where all that’s going to service ASU is fascinating.
You mentioned being tired of regular math and English in school. Was there anything else as a child or through high school that influenced your decisions?
Philosophy to me was really interesting. It was one of those passion callings where if money wasn’t an option, I could have seen myself going to the graduate school route. Everyone thinks you’re going to talk about if there is a God or not, but just learning about critical thinking, logic, arguments, understanding the reasoning behind other people’s essays, being able to break that down into arguments is really just a trend that you can find applicable across many different genres. It’s about sharpening the analytical side of your mind, along with the heavy prose. You had to be able to write long papers with beginnings, middles and ends with correct grammar. You got both of those skillsets through philosophy.
When you were in high school, was there anything in particular that attracted you to SHPRS at ASU?
I grew up in Tempe, in the shadow of the campus. My parents met at ASU, my grandfather went to ASU so it was pretty much where I wanted to go after graduation. Then I found myself shying away from the more traditional studies for something a little different, and that was how I found psychology and philosophy.
Did you have a defining moment in your academic career?
Probably the two defining moments were when I decided to get the second major in philosophy, which was definitely aligned with who I thought I was, who I wanted to be. Once I made that decision, my grades improved dramatically. Realizing I could transfer these skills to something that was more in demand was the second ah-ha moment. I realized all that effort learning logic and symbolic logic was highly transferable to the IT world.
Is there a person, or a dream, that has helped you succeed, personally but also professionally?
I think it has been striving for that kind of balance, the work-life balance. The giving to society, that’s really what led me to work at ASU, but also the balance between the analytical and the emotional is kind of where the philosophy and psychology fell. I didn’t really want to pursue math and physics because that was too cold and analytical. History didn’t really appeal to me either. But that grey line in between was that balance that I found of being able to synthesize both sides of your brain, so to speak. That’s where I really found my happy medium in academia. Being tied to an institution that has a greater good was kind of what led me to my professional roles here.
Do you have any tips for current students in general?
Your degree is not your profession. I think you can get a lot of value in transferable skills out of the degrees offered here. Here, with the philosophy degree, you’ll learn how to think, you’ll learn how to analyze arguments, you’ll learn critical thinking. When I hire people, having the right technical skills isn’t that hard because if they’re smart and they’re willing to work, we can train them. It’s finding people who know how to think, who have the critical mind, who have that capacity that is in higher demand that just knowing a certain programming language.