There are lots of students who want to get involved in business, want to get involved in the management, want to get involved in running things in the future, they want to be sort of part of that process. What you need to do is be technically competent. You need to be able to understand the numbers, understand the software, understand models, be able to analyse, be able to make decisions, and you need to be able to work with people and run projects and integrate with an organisation and be creative as well. So all of those things work into a business analytics framework.
The one major surprise I had is that you don't need to have a core idea or core knowledge about analysis when you join this course, because every single thing is actually taught from scratch, because in analysis you need to calculate numbers you have to present it and you have to present a lot of stuff to people. This is what surprised me a lot. Everything is taught from scratch, so you don't have to worry about anything you just have to come here and work hard and have a good time.
It brings together lots of different ways of teaching. It's not just a theoretical sort of topic-driven type of degree. It's got lots of practical aspects to it. The application side, negotiation side, working with people, project management, as well as the stats and the programming and all that sort of thing but it brings it all together in a whole.
I would say this programme helped me a lot in developing my language, developing my confidence, because in this programme you have to stand up and speak for yourself. So tomorrow, if I have any interviews or anything, I don't have any problem facing a person or facing an employer and projecting my skills.
To describe a business analytics graduate. In a way, you have to describe what the business analytics world out there is and what it requires and what it needs. Organisations need clever, capable, committed, enthusiastic individuals, but they also have to be technically competent. Someone who's going to go into that meeting room, going to go into that project room, to go into that sort of organisational problem has to be technically competent, has to be ready with all of the tools necessary to be able to make decisions. That's what a business analytics student has above and beyond any sort of general management type degree.
The way I was two years ago and where I am right now, my analysis skills, the way I present everything, has completely changed. And this is one of the best parts about this degree.