From Humanities to Technology: Alumna Cristiana Cordova

On March 29, the Institute for Entrepreneurship welcomed Cristiana Cordova, a JCU alumna who received a B.A. in Art History with a minor in Entrepreneurship in 2017. Cristiana went on to earn a B.A. in Business Administration from JCU the following year. She currently works at Accenture, a global professional services company with leading capabilities in digital, cloud, and security. The presentation largely focused on her journey from the humanities to the technology sector, and how her background in art history became vital to her current role.

Cristiana Cordova

Cristiana began her presentation by providing students with information on her academic background and professional career. After graduating from JCU, she received an M.A. in Art Gallery and Museum Studies from the University of Manchester in 2019. There, she took a course on how technology can be applied to museums. She found the course very interesting but realized she knew little about the underlying technology. Once she completed her degree, Cristiana enrolled in an intensive programming course designed for women with humanistic backgrounds run by Accenture. She was subsequently offered an internship that led to a full-time position as an Application Development Analyst. She currently works as part of the Intelligent Platform Services, on a project in the field of IoT (Internet of Things), to create a platform to interact with the client’s smart office-building.

Cristiana stressed the importance of her background in the humanities in providing a diverse and valuable perspective to her current role. Coming from an Art History background, which encourages creative thinking and visual skills, has enriched her profile and contributed to Cristiana’s current position, which not only demands analytical thinking, often associated with jobs in STEM, but also creativity and visual thinking. When asked if she would change her academic career to match her current role, she said “No, I wouldn’t change a thing” because it “taught me how to think in very complex and different ways.”

The presentation gave students a unique perspective on the professional career of an alumna whose studies did not align with her career. However, Cristiana pointed out that this is often a good thing, as the skills she learned through her studies in the humanities gave her a unique perspective that was valued by her employer.