Why I chose Business Analytics at Queen’s
In the age of big data, Master’s student Sneha Parajuli explains why her Master’s at Queen’s is giving her the career edge.
The decision to choose a course for your Master’s degree can be quite stressful, as it is a stepping stone towards your career. You need to consider a lot of things before deciding to specialise in a certain course like cost, future prospects, employability opportunities, course structure and so on. In this blog, I have shared a detailed overview of Queen’s MSc. Business Analytics course and why I chose to pursue this course here at Queen’s.
What is this course is all about?
MSc. Business Analytics taught at Queen’s is a new course introduced in 2019. The course modules offer a perfect blend of computing, statistics and business. I always wanted to learn how to implement analytics into core business functions and, with courses like Human Resources and Marketing Analytics, this course offers exactly that. Along with this, the course also focuses on developing technical skills such as Advanced Analytics and Machine Learning, Data Management, Artificial Intelligence and Data Driven Decision Making, which helps to develop your knowledge of addressing end-to-end business analytics solutions as well as how to use data to improve business decision making.
Course Content:
Semester 1: Statistics for Business; Data Management; HR Analytics; Operations Management
Semester 2: Advanced Analytics and Machine Learning; Data Driven Decision Making; Artificial Intelligence in Business and Society; Marketing Analytics
Semester 3: Dissertation
What appealed to me the most?
With the rapid expansion of available information, channels of business are transforming and turning Business Analytics into a fundamental skill for decision-makers at every level of an organisation. The ability to take data - to be able to understand it, process it, extract value from it and visualise it - is in high demand and this coursework has been devised to help build those skills. This course also focuses on fundamental tools of Business Analytics like R, SAS, KNIME and tableau which are in high demand in tech industries all around the world.
How will this course benefit my future career?
Today, the majority of companies are becoming data-centric businesses - meaning major activities in organisations revolve around the use of data and extracting information with the help of statistics, analytics and advanced computing tools. Multinational management consulting firms also usually project the gap between the supply and demand of people with deep analytical skills. This means Business Analysts are in high demand these days and this course will definitely open up career opportunities in companies dealing with large amounts of data. I can add database management, predictive modelling and statistical analysis and economical decision making to my CV. There’s a wealth of industries I could go in to after I graduate, for example, IT, Consulting, Project management or even Marketing.
My experience so far:
Since our batch is the first to study MSc. Business Analytics at Queen’s, our class size is comparatively small which allows us to closely interact with each other and our professors. I also really enjoy the teaching and learning methods that includes a mix of computer lab based practical sessions and lectures specifically designed to address business problems. I find it particularly interesting that the data we are working with in class represents a real-world problem and analysis can be performed on them to generate meaningful insights. Being able to access such data and generate solutions while learning at the same time is really motivating. In terms of industry links, the course work is developed and taught by staff with industry and academic backgrounds which will certainly help us prepare well for the future.
Discover Business Analytics at Queen’s
