Saraya Hyder – 2012 Student Achievement Award Recipient
Saraya Hyder, a former MIS student came back at the IT Awards 2012 to accept an award for Student Achievement. She currently works at Deloitte as a Business Technology Analyst (BTA) after her graduation on January 2012. In order to achieve a good job in her career, she had to work really hard during school and participated in many associations such as AIS and Gamma Iota Sigma. Aside from that, she also attended to one of the MIS classes called Co-Op Experience where she had a great opportunity to intern for Lockheed Martin in the summer of 2010. She improved her leadership skills through this internship and was a Teaching Assistant for Professors Mart Doyle, Doug Schutz, Than Lam, and Richard Flanagan. Saraya worked very hard and she deserves this honor.
I had the great opportunity to ask her a couple of questions below:
Q: As a former MIS student, how did you feel when you receive the MIS Student Achievement Award?
A: It was truly an honor winning the award. It’s always a great feeling to be recognized for all of the hard work that I put in when I was a student. It makes you realized that the department truly does care and that you aren’t just another nameless student.
Q: How has MIS helped you to achieve your career now?
A: When applying for my current position, I learned that it wasn’t just my grades that companies cared about. It was also experience, leadership, and overall knowledge. By being an MIS major, I was able to gain knowledge throughout the curriculum, especially during the capstone class but being an MIS student also assisted in the other criteria. At my first IT Awards ceremony I attended, I met someone that connected me with the manager of my internship at Lockheed Martin. As for improving my leadership skills, I gained experience through being a Teacher’s Assistant for Mart Doyle, Doug Schutz, Than Lam, and Richard Flanagan at one time or another.
Q: How often do you use technology in your work-place and why is technology important in the work-place?
A: At Deloitte, I am a business technology analyst (BTA), meaning that I am in an entry level position and possess technology skills. Although, my current role is not extremely technically compared to what other BTAs are doing, I do work with excel and other programs on a daily basis. However, in the future, I could be in a role that would involve implementing technologies, coding, maintenance of technologies, etc.
Q: What is your advice to the students?
A: As a recent alumni, most people’s advice to me tends to be “network, network, network.” However, in my opinion, as great as networking might be, it is truly your work that speaks for you and those connections you make that truly benefit your network. So, my advice to students would be advice I actually received my Junior year and always try to live by – “Just say yes.” What I mean by this is no matter what the opportunity is that someone is offering to you, just say “yes.” A lot of people think too much in the moment and how boring or hard the task is or just how they don’t have the time but it is those moments that you are truly recognized for assisting those around you. So, whether it be a teacher asking for a helping hand, a boss, or just some person you happened to meet at an event, by saying yes, you open a whole new set of doors for yourself and by doing that, you aren’t just another person that someone shook hands but rather, a person that is known for going the extra mile even when the task isn’t always the greatest.
Saraya mentioned that being an MIS major has allowed her to be able to gain knowledge throughout the curriculum, especially during the capstone classes. Students should take her advice and saying “yes” to any opportunities because it will open different doors for you in the future.
Who is Paul A. Pavlou?
Graduating with a Ph.D. from the University of Southern California in 2004, Paul A. Pavlou is currently an associate professor of Management Information Systems (MIS) at Temple University’s Fox School Business. Besides a professor, he also has held many other roles such as a Stauffer Senior Research Fellow and director of Fox’s PhD Program in Business Administration. Recently, Dr. Pavlou has been ranked no. 1 MIS researcher in the world for 2011. Even though, his schedule is very busy, he still makes time to share his experiences with students. He hopes that we will have a different view about technology especially in MIS.
I had the pleasure to ask Dr. Pavlou some questions recently. From just his answers, I could tell he is very wise and knowledgeable and I can learn a lot from him. Being ranked #1, he clearly knows what he is talking about and we should take that as a huge advantage since he is apart of the MIS community.
Q: As the top MIS researcher in the world for 2011, could you share with the students why you chose MIS for researching? What did you find interesting about it?
A: The domain of MIS with the intense study of technology in business is a very fascinating area because it marries technology with organizations, individuals, and markets. The fast-changing pace of technology makes research in MIS particularly exciting and interesting, and this is why I chose to conduct my research in MIS. Technology not only changes rapidly, but it also changes the dynamics of organizations and entire industries. Think of the world’s most successful companies (e.g., Apple, Facebook, Google, Amazon), and evaluate how technology has played an immense role in their success. Accordingly, any viable business strategy must include technology at its core, including social media, data analytics, e-commerce systems, large enterprise systems, proprietary technologies, and emerging technologies. Some of my recent research stresses the importance of explicitly integrating technology in an organization’s business strategy, something we term “digital business strategy.” Our premise is that effective organizations must include digital in their business strategy in order to succeed in today’s rapidly-changing environments.
Q: What is your advice for students if they want to achieve their dream?
A: Recent studies show that global investments in Information Technology (IT) total over 4T (trillion with a “T”) annually and comprise over 50% of a typical company’s capital investments. Therefore, it goes without saying that companies and governments need people to decide and manage all these investments in IT, creating an increasing demand for IT labor. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), some of the fastest growing professions include MIS at their core. Most important, IT is not only a necessary burden, but a source of strategic differentiation by developing and using information systems in innovative and novel ways, such as data analytics (see Google), Web 2.0 (see Apple iTunes), social media (see Facebook), inventory management systems (see Amazon), and logistics systems (see UPS and FedEx). Accordingly, careers in IT are promising and exciting. Most important, with the rapid advancement of technology, the next wave of successful companies will certainly have IT at their core, continually allowing MIS majors and graduates to enjoy employment in high-tech, high-pay, high-excitement jobs!
Having Dr. Pavlou here is a great honor for our school and a fantastic advantage for students. Dr. Pavlou also applies of what he’s doing in researching through his teachings to share his experiences with the students. Make sure you do not miss the chance to meet with him, hear him speak, or even be in a class he is teaching.
Joseph Musumeci – An Outstanding MIS Student
We are all busy with our lives, both academically and personally. So it is great when we can take some time to recognize an outstanding MIS student, Joseph Musumeci. Joesph is an honors student at Temple University’s Fox School Business majoring in MIS and Finance. He is currently working for Lockheed Martin as the technical senior since February 2012. He is also a member of AIS, Phi Beta Lambda, and National Society of Collegiate Scholars at Temple. His academic and experiences make him the top amongst his academic class.
I had the pleasure of having a quick online chat with him to discuss about his current position and the factors that lead him to it. He noted that Temple’s MIS program and professors has helped him to prepare for the future:
“My MIS classes have taught me the language necessary to communicate effectively in the business world. More importantly, I have found guidance in my career. Joe Allegra and Laurel Miller both helped me to secure my position at Lockheed Martin. The professors themselves are the best tools as many of them have first hand experience in the industry and are all willing to share. Speaking with professors, like E. Carey O’Donnell to name one, have shaped my career goals and path to reach them.”
He also shared some advices for students who are undecided major:
“Pick a major that you’re good at and enjoy. If you enjoy your work, you will be motivated to do your best and will naturally go above and beyond. Also, you are going to be working 8 hours a day, 5 days a week at a minimum, why not enjoy it. Explore all the majors, research career options, and talk to people from the industry. It’s never too early to get a jump start on the competition.”
Joseph is the bright student who always takes advantage of networking opportunities with professors and recruiters. He works hard in his studies to maintain a high GPA while actively participating in activities, which allows him to stand out from the crowd.
It seems there is a good majority of student who do not start to think about their career until they graduate or near graduation. Getting ready early and preparing for it would make a big difference for your career as in the case of Joseph. If you take the time and effort to do more than just go to class, you will put yourself in an advantageous spot. As we know, Temple’s MIS program is one of the best, but it will only help you if you are willing to put in the work.
Haoren Yu – The Most Practical Dreamer
Have you ever visit the website: http://www.dreamcamel.com? You will be amazed with the ideas and full of innovation of the users. Haoren Yu, a Temple Student and the most practical dreamer, and her partner have created a website based on the concept of creating the dreams for young people by helping them realize their goals. This website was established about six months ago and already has more than 1000 users. In this website, you will see multiple interesting features such as an online diary, accomplishments bar, and even SMS. Users can interact and communicate to each other by sharing the same interests, ideas, or career goals. As Haoren puts it, “this website is about developing young people towards to the right path.”
They are still developing new features for the site. Right now they are working on a new tool called the “growth path map”. This tool will be helpful for a lot of people by aiding them to design a growth map for themselves. In the end, the hope is to reach their goal by finishing the map.
She also shared with me about how MIS has given her the idea about this website. As the entrepreneur who always is anxious to make ideas become reality, Haoren feels that from learning the various technologies by talking the MIS courses has helped her a lot and make her dream come true.
What make this website very popular? The meaning and ability to help people realize their dreams is what this website is all about. The time that she and her partner put on the website by keeping an online forum and constantly talking to the users. She also has an advertisement team from China who help her promotes the website and posts fliers. She also has a lot of plans for aggressive promotions such as in TV or making a small film that will use in the near future.
Although the website is in Chinese, it is not only for Chinese people. You can simply use Google translate to see what people write about and join with them. You can take a tour from here, I am sure you will enjoy it.
Easier Access to the MIS Careers Website
FoxMIS Careers is a fantastic site for students to research and discover new job or internship opportunities and events. More than that, this website contains a lot of inspiring stories from current undergraduates and alumnus. I wrote a post titled “MIS Careers…Where to Find a Job!” last November and introduced this helpful website. Today I want to remind students keep checking it more often because it was just updated with more widgets and resources. On the left, you can see the Fox MIS Career Resources, Fox School, and Temple Resources etc. Also, there are more stories from students about how MIS has helped their career.
In case anyone does not know, I would like to show you how get easier access to the site by either bookmarking or the RSS feed. As you know, students mostly have the access internet on mobile phone, laptop, or home computer. It is nice if you bookmark your favorite sites on your mobile phone so you can keep yourself up to date from the site. However, not a lot of students do it because of many reasons. But if you keep it as a favorite, you will be reminded to visit the site occasionally. The step of doing this is extremely easy, below are the steps that I would like to share:
- Go to website: http://community.mis.temple.edu/miscareers/
- Go to main menu under the bar or tap on the bar: select “Add Bookmark”
- Select a title for this website, if you don’t see this option then go to the bookmark command
If you use some RSS reader you can also subscribe to the feed via this link :http://community.mis.temple.edu/feed/.
You are done! You don’t want to miss any opportunities from the FoxMIS Career website.
How MIS has helped my career
For this post, I just wanted to take some time and share my experiences on how MIS has helped me in my career. I graduated on December, 2011 with a major in Finance and minor in MIS. I was blessed that I was able to find a job quickly under this economy. I have been working for Citco Fund Services on December of 2011 and I really enjoy it. Citco is the leader in hedge funds industry where they concentrate on hedge funds, private equity, and real estate services. Citco has many divisions not only in the United States but also in the Canada, Caribbean, Europe, Middle East, and Asia Pacific.
I work as a regulatory reporting accountant and my department concentrates on reporting international accounts and trades. We ensure that all records follow the regulations of the Federal Reserve Bank. My department is considered “new” when compared with Citco’s other services. What set me apart from the other candidates was my MIS background. Not only they wanted a candidate with knowledge in finance and accounting but they also wanted someone had strong database and excel skills. There is a lot of involvement with programs like Access and Excel. After a while, my understanding of ERDs and database schemas (SQL server) allowed me to quickly learn and get to a point where I was making suggestions on how to improve their Access table structures and streamline operations. As I continue to work, I try to always keep an eye out for ways so that I could apply my MIS knowledge to improve our business.
MIS has brought me a tremendous advantage and I strongly encourage students should consider MIS as a minor or major. This will give you a different perspective about technology and make you stand out from the rest of the crowd.
iPad for students pilot course
How would you like to not spend $400+ on new textbooks each year? What about not having to carry them around to class? Well there will be a possibility of some relief in the future. Fox MIS is currently piloting a study using iPads. What a surprise it was for the lucky students, of the Honors Information Systems in Organizations course, to find that they were the ones chosen for this study. Professor Carey O’Donnell, who has been teaching at Temple University for 10 years, developed the idea and applied to his honors course.
According to Professor Carey, there are many benefits of using iPad in the classroom:
- Students will save a lot of money ($40 eBooks vs. $100+ textbooks)
- It helps students to come as a small group in the class, exchange and share information, and work as a team
- It also allows MIS student to learn the new technologies and ways to collaborate with each other
Professor Carey wants students to collaborate together as a team because he knows that teamwork is very important in the real workplace and especially communication skills. His idea brings Fox MIS to the next level of embracing new technologies and more contemporary learning methods. We are living in 2012, an era where technology is continuously changing.
Professor Carey also thinks his idea of using iPads in the class will challenge his students. He said “They are our best and our brightest, so I wanted to challenge them to show me how creative they can be in terms of using all forms of multimedia to deliver content.”
What do you think if Fox school will offer the iPads for every student?
For more information about this article, here is the direct link to it: www.fox.temple.edu/cms_about-fox/technology/
Image Credit: foundermachine.com
What Do You Know About Databases?
Has a recruiter ever asked you about your database experiences or to generate an ERD (Entity Relationship Diagram) on the spot? If not, you should be expecting database related questions when you go for those IT/IS related jobs. Aaron Stibel, Senior Vice President of technology Dun & Bradstreet Credibility Corp, expressed his opinion through the article “Why College Need to Better Prepare IT Grads”. He was amazed at the amount of people he interviewed that have little to no experience about databases. In most of his interviews, he was carefully looking for skills ranging from writing SQL to designing ERD diagrams.
Mr. Aaron stated that “SQL has been with us about 40 years and it’s time to add database courses to the mandatory curriculum” Yes, he is right in every aspect because it is the time for students to be prepared. Technology moves so quickly and whether your profession is IS/IT related or not, you need to know the basics of a database because it is used in every business. It is actually a surprising that some IT students don’t understand how to write SQL statements.
Mr. Aaron also wrote about the top five rated computer science programs such as Carnegie Mellon, Stanford, UC Berkeley, and Cornell. Unfortunately, those schools did not require any database course for its undergrad students and only offer a single database course as an elective engineering.
As you know, the Fox School Business offers an MIS database course where students can learn everything about databases including how to create SQL queries and ERD diagrams. I strongly encourage all students to consider taking more MIS courses even if you are not a MIS major. For all MIS majors, make sure you take advantage of the courses MIS that has to offer and not to take too many “easy” electives. If you prepare yourself during college, it will help you a lot in getting the job after you graduate.
For more information about MIS, please visit the home page at: community.mis.temple.edu
Image Credit: mashable.com
MIS in Top 10 Degrees with High Earnings Potential
At Yahoo.com, there is an interesting article talking about a research done by PayScale.com about the 10 college degrees that yield high-paying jobs in 2011. Not surprisingly, Maths and Sciences degrees are near the top with Engineering being #1 (median starting salary from $51k to $97k). Computer Sciences is second place with a median starting salary of $56k, followed by Physics, and Mathematics degrees.
More importantly, a degree in Management Information Systems (MIS) is considered to have high earnings potential with a median of starting salary of $51k. According to Nathan Lippe, from the CarreerRookie.com, companies without a team that can analyze data and understand what it can do to change the business will lack competitive advantage. Therefore, MIS wielding graduates will come to rescue for these businesses that may start lag behind in technology. MIS holds a major role in organizations by analyzing databases, managing projects, and helping companies become more efficient. It is not surprising when MIS majors enjoy what they do since the salary is very competitive. Also, looking for internships or jobs with MIS degree is easier because colleges often keep good relationships with businesses and companies.
No matter where you come from, Fox MIS Temple University offers the great program for MIS major where students can develop the skills and talents through the materials and apply it in the business world. With the year of 2012 already here, I strongly encourage all the students who are currently with non-decided or just considering a new major/minor to consider MIS.
Image Credit: healthcareitnews
Bob Keogh: A Successful Story On & Off The Field
Do you know Bob Keogh? About six months ago, he placed 13th overall in the NCAA Outdoor Championships for the hammer throw event and earned All-American second team honors, Bob Keogh Becomes Temple Track & Field’s First All-American Since 1994. On top of being an athlete, Bob was also a MIS student at the Fox School of Business. Bob graduated in Spring 2011, and Sabre Systems Inc. hired him as a logistician. At his new job, Bob was able to apply all the information that he learned while at Temple as a MIS student.
He was kind enough to share his experience with us below:
About two months after graduating this past spring, I managed to get an interview with Sabre Systems, Inc., a contracting company that specializes in IT, engineering, and logistics services for government agencies and private sector. A week later I was hired as a logistician. My initial responsibility was to support the engineers of the Visual Landing Aids (VLA) for NAVAIR in Lakehurst, NJ. Now I am being prepped to work in the Automated Logistics Environment for NAVAIR because of my IT knowledge and experience. Logistics is a specialization that thrives off information systems and technology, and I’m so grateful for the quality of education that Fox MIS has given me.
-Bob Keogh Class of 2011
Bob’s story is just one of many alumnus who went from being a MIS student to having a great career. His story has inspired me to try to replicate his achievements. To do so, I must take advantage of the opportunities that Fox MIS has to offer. As a Temple alumni, Bob brought prestige to the University through his academics as well as athletics. We are proud to have him representing Fox MIS students.
If you guys have a story like this or know anyone like Bob, don’t be afraid to share. The MIS community would love to hear from you!
Binh Tran
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