MIS coursework preparing students for IT careers.

This semester has been my first as an official MIS major, and I have already found that the coursework in 2502 Data Analytics, and 2501 Enterprise IT Architecture have prepared me for my career interests.

MIS 2502: Data Analytics

Throughout this course I have a learned a great deal about an organization’s information infrastructure and creating data models based on business rules.  Using the SQL software I have demonstrated creating a transactional database from a model, and then extracted relevant data from this database to create an analytical data store.  Using the data mining techniques we learned in class, clustering, association, decision trees, and segmentation, I was able to find trends in analytical data stores and am also familiar with SAS Enterprise Miner, (the software we used to perform these techniques).  One final aspect of this course was being able to present data visually for clear communication to an audience.  An example of this is that students were required to complete and submit the Temple Data Analytics Challenge, which went towards our final grade.

I believe that this class overall has prepared me for a career interest of mine which is to work in a field of data mining and data visualization.  After this course I have found that creating and analyzing big data is something I excel at and also enjoy doing at the same time.

MIS 2501: Enterprise IT Architecture

The objectives of this course were to learn the basics of modern enterprise architecture that is integrated into business, and how to discover the trade-offs between technologies and how they relate to business value.  A major component of this course that I believe will help me succeed in my career interests is the Flash Research Assignments that I have written over the course of twelve weeks.  I have learned a great deal about how to sell a technology or platform by writing concise informational and persuasive papers to fictional CEOs and CIOs.  Our first three exams in this course were in the form of these papers, and this forced students to perform in high pressure situations that they may find themselves in after graduation.  Although at first these papers and exams were extremely intimidating due to limited studying techniques, I am now grateful for having to write them.

I have always struggled with writing concise papers and I believe that this writing skill will carry over into any career I pursue after college, not just in the field of IT.