Professional Development Activities
Saxby’s Office Visit
This was an opportunity that was offered by AIS. We attended a meeting as a group with the CEO of Saxby’s, Nick Bayer. He first gave his experiences as an entrepreneur. It was interesting to see how he made all Saxby’s employees stick to his core values of serving and satisfying customers. He gave his goals and visions for Saxby’s in the future. He also told us that Saxby’s plans to use data more in the future to continue to satisfy customers and compete in an industry that is very competitive. Using data analytics to see performance of products and trends of customers will improve business. He also told us they were working on a new interface for Saxby’s app on mobile devices. Many companies like Saxby’s utilize apps for customer interaction and mobile ordering but he specified that he wanted to keep human interaction as a part of the Saxby’s experience because this was a part of his core company values.
Lunch with NBCUniversal’s, Joe Brown
This was another opportunity that AIS offered. I was able to attend a lunch with the VP of Strategic Insights for the NBC Sports Group, Joe Brown. He told us about what NBC looks for in their research to decide on what to broadcast on TV. He is responsible for content research. It was interesting to hear his views on how important it is to take into account all of the outside factors that could either bring in viewers or push them away. A company like NBC relies heavily on research to run their business. It seemed that it was a tough job because the sports industry can be very unpredictable. Mr. Brown’s role was to improve NBC as an organization which is the main goal of MIS professionals.
Alumni Panel On Professional Certifications
This was a professional development meeting with Temple Alumni about obtaining professional certifications. Certifications can be very helpful for a professional in MIS. These alumni earned a Project Manager Professional (PMP) certification, Agile certification, or a Scrum certification. The PMP and Agile certifications seemed to help advance your status within an organization and help you lead and guide other employees. I learned about Agile Project Management and how it can be more efficient than a waterfall method because you are testing the project more often to see if it is quality enough. Earning a certification seemed like a good amount of work as you need to take the time to study and prepare for it. IT certifications will give you the experience and skills you need to be successful as an MIS professional.