But soon after graduating, McRuer made an unlikely early-career pivot, ditching his dependable product design job to pursue his passion for film. The 2019 graduate studied product design at Stanford's School of Engineering. The internship quickly evolved into a full-time product design position. He initially thought he could get his filmmaking fix via a hobby that played second fiddle to his engineering work. But McRuer said he was ultimately surprised by the overlaps he's seen working in both engineering and film — particularly when producing.

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Persons: —, Jason McRuer, McRuer, I'm Organizations: Service, Business, Stanford's School of Engineering, Sundance Film, Global Health Labs, City of Locations: LA, City, City of Angels, Coast, Brooklyn