MS in Business Analytics Jobs and Career Potential

By training to become a fluent and strategic data translator in the Online Master of Science in Business Analytics program at Seattle University, you will open the door to some of the hottest business analytics jobs on the market. The Online MSBA program prepares you to pivot into one of many desirable roles by offering the technical training to analyze data effectively and the communication and visualization skills necessary to lead your organization to act on it.

Video Transcript

Krysten Griggs:
All right, so we'll go ahead and dive right in. So first, I'd just like to welcome all of you on this Saturday afternoon to Seattle University's Albers School of Business and Economics online graduate business program, a special topic webinar today. Again, my name is Krysten, I'm thrilled to be here to host with you this Saturday afternoon, learning more about how you can unleash your potential for the rapidly evolving landscape that I'm sure many of you are seeing. I'm sure you all have heard or are privy to the drastic shifts that are taking place in business and tech industries.

So today, I am happy and excited to have joining me some very incredible guests who can hopefully offer their industry experience and knowledge as it relates to challenges a lot of these broad markets are experiencing. So please join me in welcoming... First we have with us Dr. Tracy Kosa, who is an adjunct professor, privacy advocate, practitioner and researcher who finished a postdoc at Stanford University on predicting privacy regulation. She also holds several publications and works for Meta as a privacy product manager. Hi, Dr. Kosa, thank you for being here. Would you like to share any additional information about your background or your relationship to Seattle University?

Tracy Kosa:
Sure I also have a bit of a tour of duty in government as well. I'm originally from Canada and so I did the first 15 years of my career as a bureaucrat working in regulation and administration in privacy as well. So happy to answer questions about either side. I was lucky enough to come to Seattle U about six years ago now teaching in the law school out of sheer persistence and tenacity. I managed to also get into the business program as a teacher and I've really enjoyed working with the students over these past few years so.

Krysten Griggs:
Excellent, awesome. Well, thank you again for joining us today. Next, we have Sharda Kumari, an accomplished global business technology leader with 15 plus years experience in CRM and Enterprise Architecture, who also has been prominent in ventures that support women and non-binary tech talent. In addition to that she serves as a mentor to women and underrepresented groups in the technology industry and currently works as an engineering leader for Airbnb. Hi, Sharda. Welcome. Thank you for joining us. Anything additional you'd like to add about your background or your relationship to Seattle University as well?

Sharda Kumari:
Thank you, Krysten for the introduction. I think you covered most of it and in addition to what you said, I'm currently a business technology leader at Airbnb and I've been there for about six years. And I'm really excited to be a panelist in this event. And also along with being a board member of Seattle University I also sit on the board of four other universities. And it really excites me to and interests me to learn more about the students like to help them, to mentor them and also to give back to them and also to learn about, you know, the latest trends and technologies and what the kids these days are learning. So excited to be part of this.

Krysten Griggs:
Beautiful, love it. Thank you so much for sharing. And finally we have a familiar face. Some of you may know Dr. Nathan Colaner, assistant teaching professor, Program Director of the Master of Science in Business Analytics program, in addition to being the managing director of ethics and technology who holds specializations and ethics of artificial intelligence, data, ethics, and also business ethics. Dr. Colaner, thank you for being here. Anything additional that you'd like to share before we kind of dive in?

Nathan Colaner:
Thank you, Krysten. I've been at Seattle University. This is actually my... Started my 13th year. I started out just doing ethics and then I realized that, oh, business ethics is really where it's getting interesting and then I realized that ethics of business analytics is where it really really gets interesting. So I've been the director of this program, this is my fourth year now.

Krysten Griggs:
Excellent. Awesome. Well, again, thank you, Dr. Colaner, and again, a kind welcome to our esteemed guests. Before we dive into the topic of discussion today, for those of you who don't know much about Seattle U, I'd love to share a little bit about it. Seattle University was founded in 1891 and is currently considered the largest private university in the Northwest region with over an impressive amount of 81,000 alumni in 42 different states and 88 nations, a Jesuit Catholic Inspiration. Seattle University as an institution is dedicated to educating the whole person, empowering leaders for a just and humane world and is dedicated to being a premier university in academic quality.

In addition to this, Seattle University students who aspire to embody this mission and vision are doing so in a fashion that could be said to be a form of economic altruism and are approaching a regional economic impact of nearly $525 million which is incredibly impressive. Now I'd like to shift gears now and talk a little bit about a program that may potentially offer you the opportunity to mirror these advancements while becoming a part of the analytics movement in the tech and business world, Seattle University's online Master of Science in Business Analytics. Now, this program does work to provide prospective students with a big picture mentality that is essential in today's data centric business world.

The goal of the program is also to prepare contemporary professionals to face challenges that arise from complex and unstructured datasets. Now in addition to this, the goal is to also equip prospective students with the abilities of visualizing strategic recommendations with an added layer of global awareness while honing your ability to sort, organize, analyze and act on data's hidden insights. Now, you'll also have the skills that will allow you to communicate these findings with incisive strategy and clarity to both technical and non-technical audiences. Now, the program design also includes methodologies that work to enhance a wide range of quantitative competencies that include mathematical modeling, database management and the database proficiencies that are required for data manipulation, visualization and analysis.

Now the fully online flexible programmatic structure of the MSBA program consists of 15 courses, 48 credit hours, one required online R and Python programming prep course, and it's also designed to be completed in as few as two years. Now there are three annual starts per year and 10-week quarters of classes. Now, students in this program are offered an invaluable opportunity to develop into fluent data poets or data translators. This program will also prepare you as a student to thrive in the newly integrated business and tech landscapes that have shifted their modalities to incorporate the value offered by business analytics graduates. Now, if you have more questions about this program and to determine if this program aligns with your needs, my contact information will be at the end of this presentation. And I highly encourage you reach out to me as I'd be delighted to help you determine if this program is a good fit for you.

Now, I'd like to turn it over, to Dr. Colaner and guests, and allow Dr. Colaner to talk a little bit more about, this rapidly evolving tech landscape that we're seeing. Dr. Colaner.

Nathan Colaner:
Thanks, Krysten. You all can just call me Nathan. So happy to have you here. I am getting ready to learn some things from our guests. You know, I've been in academia my entire life, and as much as I try to stay relevant to the business community there's just something about, like, I've always seen it from the other side, like from the perspective of students looking for jobs. So, it's gonna be interesting for me to get to be able to talk to the two of you who spent your life in and out of industry, different positions, job searches on the other side, seeing what's happening. So you can go ahead and... Yeah. That's it. Okay.

So let me just start with what kind of, just a general question about how you understand the change. I mean, I think everybody understands that there's changes happening right now, and right after Covid there was maybe an uptick, and now it seems like there's some big tech layoffs. Can you just contextualize that in a big picture way? Like what's been happening recently? Let's start with Sharda.

Sharda Kumari:
Yeah, sure. Thanks, Dr. Nathan. Maybe I'll give a... I'll try to transform this into like a story of what happened since 2020. So, when the pandemic hit in 2020, like the initial knee jerk reaction within the tech industry was to start the layoffs. People were not very sure on what's gonna happen next. However, like it soon became apparent that the industry like quickly regained stability and subsequently like a shortage of skilled workers emerged triggering a fierce competition for talent among the major tech companies. So companies kept on hiring, like they went on into an excess of hiring spree after the first round of layoffs in 2020. Now, given the low interest rates at that time, companies took advantage of that opportunity to work, like borrow significant amounts of money, and they were also able to justify their spending to their investors and shareholders.

But now, however, the situation like eventually changed. And when the Feds decided to increase their interest rates, companies were like compelled to reduce costs and they were having a hard time like either, justifying their spends and all the hiring to their investors and stakeholders. So that's how this recent layoffs and recent trends of layoffs started emerging, where, like, every company, like all these big companies were, I would say forced to layoffs, to do layoffs because they were not able to justify this spends. But now the good thing is that fortunately, the, like we did not actually hit into recession. The outcome appears to be like a smooth transition without a significant recession. And like the customer spending also remains high so the hiring trend is picking back up. And I see a lot of companies starting to hire and I do see like a lot of positions opening up. So, yeah, that was like my take on the current job market.

Nathan Colaner:
Sharda, that's really interesting. I wanna follow up with one thing you said. So do I understand you correctly that in your analysis it's not just purely like, oh, here's how many data analysts we need. It's also a question about like interest rates and what it's gonna cost us to hire and borrow, that sort of thing. You think that's playing a significant factor as well?

Sharda Kumari:
Yes. Yes. That's... Yeah. That's what, like my analysis and like my opinion about this is that, like from our perspective we only see like the positions and the hiring, but then there's like a whole, bigger world out there where people, where these companies and they have to make a lot of decisions around the cost and pricing and justify their expense. And yeah, interest rates do play a higher amount, like a larger role there.

Nathan Colaner:
Okay. Very helpful, thank you. Let me ask Tracy about the hiring trends. So we get this picture, maybe some... It seems like conflicting information 'cause the jobs report keeps coming out and everybody seems to be hiring. And then you read the New York Times article about all the layoffs in big tech. How can we make sense of that, Tracy? Are there trends in like what industries are hiring and what are laying off right now and why is that?

Tracy Kosa:
Excuse me. That's a great question and I would be happy to share, again, just my opinion on things, and I'm definitely not an economist. But I think that what we're seeing is a pivot towards a maturation of the tech industry and I think that piece is also influencing how hiring is happening and for what. So what I mean by that is you see other industries like pharma or finance that have been heavily regulated for years and therefore have mature compliance programs, mature analytics programs those kind of sectors are used to taking data-driven decisions, particularly in the area that I work in, which is compliance. And so that has been the standard in those places, and I think they tend to be more stable in these fields as a result. Whereas I think in Tech, the culture and the focus has always been grow, grow, grow, be faster, be better, get there first. Alpha and beta phases of products are acceptable.

I think as a comparison you wouldn't necessarily want to fly in an alpha plane that had just not been tested yet. So what we're seeing now is a pivot towards how do we make data-driven decisions and what are the skill sets the people who are supporting the business need to have in that space? And particularly in compliance, where nobody's gonna be a 100% compliant with everything they're required to do, but you do need to make informed and risk-based decisions about that in the context of fines. So the trends that I see are much more heavily focused on pushing everybody from product managers to program managers to the raw research and analytics folks, to making those kinds of decisions which necessitates a different kind of skillset and a comfort with statistics and analytics that we haven't seen before.

Nathan Colaner:
I'm really getting an education here. I'm glad that you two are on this panel. So what I'm hearing so far is that things like interest rates and regulations are actually driving a lot of the changes in trends in hiring and layoffs. Like these factors behind the scenes that we're not thinking about so much. Okay. Let me go to the in-demand skills, and let me ask it this way. So you know what, like, at least in education, I'm not sure if we do a good job of communicating this, but especially at jazzy universities like Seattle University, what we focus on is critical thinking, decision making, asking the right questions, thinking through problems, being ethically sensitive, thinking about social justice. And our conviction for a long time has been that those job skills always translate. So there's obviously additional things with analytics. The biggest one, probably the biggest technical one, I would say would be statistics. But I'm wondering if you're seeing like additional things that have been popping up in job ads besides the basics. And I'll leave it for either of the two of you. It looks like Sharda wants to say something.

Sharda Kumari:
Yeah. Well, this question looks like a good segue to talk about like AI and emergence of AI and how it affects the different industries in terms of the latest skills and what people should be focusing on. I feel the introduction of AI is like a transformation event that occurs maybe once in a couple... Once in a few decades, as in, like, the last one I remember was the emergence of internet and the world going crazy over internet and now the next one is AI these days. And job demand will be definitely much higher for people who are able to use this AI to fasten their skills and to use their products faster. And it's very imperative for all individuals to gain proficiency in leveraging AI in their daily work in order to optimize the performance and accomplish the desired results more efficiently.

Nathan Colaner:
Okay. Thank you for that, Sharda. I'm curious if, Tracy, if you see AI as integrated in... I mean, I think long term there's going to be certain ability to harness these technologies. Do you see that coming up already? Do people already need to be proficient in these things? Is that actually helpful in getting a job?

Tracy Kosa:
Yes and no. I mean, I think to some extent, yes, the technology is advancing far more rapidly than we thought and thanks to the outsourcing of some of the models that are being used, and I'm sure there's a lot more going on that we'll hear about in the next few years. But if we think about sort of the core definition of AI as machine intelligence and the ability to deal with spontaneity, that's already been the core of a lot of web search engines. So if you fused Google, you could argue that you know how to do AI, right? It's really all in the framing of your skillset.

But I do think the impact to everybody comes down to what is the essence of machine intelligence. And that's really a lot of math, a lot of statistics, a lot of, I would hope to see more of, the ethical aspects of using this data and the context for which it's used. So I think those basic skillsets that SU is about are the ones that are actually the most transferable. We'll all have to be in positions in the use of these technologies, in whatever role we have, but also be gatekeepers of them because we've seen the unintended consequences that come as a result of using a lot of this technology as well.

Nathan Colaner:
Great point. And I think we're getting close to moving to the next slide, but I do wanna say something about the word trend because trends, trends by definition always have a beginning and an end. Right? And so we need to think about which, like the length of the trend that we're talking about. And I know that when you're searching for a job the... It's very immediate. Right? And so like you're thinking about, man, this was a hard day. I applied to 10 jobs today and like no one said anything. No one's responded in three months, you know. And so there's that. But according to Bureau of Labor Statistics, data analytics professionals, that industry is still projected to grow 25% from 2020 to 2030. So, I mean, if you like step back from the immediacy, like there's still an overall, like we... It might, there might be times where it's like this, but it's overall, you know, still projected to go way upwards, sky high by 2030. So we're still in that trend, decade long trend where businesses are still adding data analysts.

And Krys, yeah, there we go. Tech industry in Seattle. Okay. So since Tracy is based in Seattle and Sharda is based in the Silicon Valley, let me start out with Tracy and then go to Sharda for the Silicon Valley, Seattle compare, contrast. But let me start with Tracy about what has been like the impacts in this region just of the layoffs. I think a lot of people have been surprised. Obviously it's, I'm sure, caused a lot of pain to a lot of people. What's the, I mean, as an insider at Meta, like what are you seeing among your tech colleagues?

Tracy Kosa:
I think, you know, even beyond Meta, frankly with the network I've looked, I've looked to often at Google and Amazon and Microsoft, there's tension in the air, I think is the best way to describe it. You know, we've all had that feeling of walking into a room and you just have an immediate reaction to what's happening. And I find more and more meetings, coffee conversations, launches are sort of tinged with this. Do you know what's gonna happen? Do you know who got laid off lately? Do you know what the latest trend is gonna be? Or do you think this company will be doing more layoffs? I think what's been really interesting is to take a slightly different approach to work, and I'm starting to see that evolve as well.

Because I used to work in an environment that was very stable and largely unionized, my compare and contrast from coming from Canada to the United States had always been to assume that I could lose my job at any point in time. Now, I know some of that is just a stereotype Canadians have about Americans but some of it is also true. You know, the notion of a two week recurring contract is a better head space to sit in all the time than riding the wave, I think, as it comes and goes at any particular company and on any particular day. It's also a culture question. So some companies handle this very differently than others. One approach is to let people know they're coming and then have set dates and everybody just kind of drives towards that date. I think there's pros and cons to that. Of course the other approach we've seen play out is surprise, it's Tuesday and you don't have a job anymore which is equally unsettling but in a different way. So in my mind, what I see now in Seattle and in the Seattle area is a tinge of uncertainty, certainly trending in the right direction and a lot better than it has been for the last year or so.

And also I think a lot of reframing how you think about your career and your job and what your work life balance is and those are fascinating conversations to have. And if you're early in your career or about to change careers, it's an excellent time to start to think about what you actually want to do. A wonderful person who shall remain nameless once explained it to me as the trifecta. You have to think about your job as a triangle. Do you want money, do you want power or do you want something else? Like whether that's work life balance or flexibility or something creative because it's very often difficult to find a career path that has all three of those all the time.

Nathan Colaner:
Wise words. Thank you. Yeah, Sharda, from the Silicon Valley perspective what are you seeing?

Sharda Kumari:
Yeah, yeah. Thanks, Tracy, for the triangle example. That's really great and I'll keep that in my mind as well when I'm looking for jobs next. Yeah, Dr. Nathan, to answer your question, like Silicon Valley, it had a like very high percentage. It has a very high percentage of startups. We did see a large number of layoffs, and I would go back to my initial point about cap interest rates and stuff. And as I said, like with the increase of interest rates, startups with... Startups suffered a lot and startups which had like less cash they suffered the most. And since we have a lot of startups in the San Francisco Bay Area, we did see like a lot of layoffs.

And also like in terms of trend, the trend like layoffs, trends in smaller companies, or the companies which had like low cash on their balance sheet as opposed to like larger tech companies like Apple, like, which hasn't done any mass layoffs as such yet. So I think that's the main difference that I've seen in terms of the companies which are laying off. Like startups, initially they borrowed a lot of money when the interest rates were low, and then now they cannot, they are not, they cannot do now the same type of like product in hiring with the high interest rates. I believe in contrast between Seattle and San Francisco, I think Seattle has mix of more the larger tech giants like Amazon and Microsoft, while San Francisco has still like 50% like it has more of startups in this area, which are seeing like larger impacts.

Nathan Colaner:
Great. Thank you for that. And I wanna ask this question... I'm gonna actually take a stab at this myself, this one. And then I'll just kind of get your reaction to my take on the industries, companies actively seeking MSBA graduates and maybe sought after skills and qualifications. When you're seeking a degree like this, it's a technology degree, and so you think, Okay, I'm going to tech. And almost automatically you think, well, I'm going to big tech. Right? And that can happen. But the thing about business analytics is that like, as time goes by, more and more businesses are more deeply incorporating analytics people into their just daily processes. So that means like the domain knowledge, and by that I mean like business, so if you're doing healthcare analytics you would need to know about healthcare. If you're doing sports analytics you would need to to know a bit about sports. If you're doing business analytics like the sought after skills like would be able to apply these techniques in a business settings. And that doesn't have to be designing fancy products at Airbnb and Meta, that's just like using data to solve problems at traditional businesses, just like insurance companies and these kind of businesses that have been in operation for decades and decades. Would you correct anything I said there Sharda or Tracy?

Sharda Kumari:
That's very well said. And like the world is producing data to huge rate, and that's where analytics will like always be in demand.

Nathan Colaner:
Yeah.

Tracy Kosa:
Nothing to add except a hard agree. And I also see those skills popping up as requirements for doing well in a job where you aren't even technically in analytics. So product managers, for example, specifically at Meta are very strongly driven by data, and that data has to be provided in a meaningful, consistent, ongoing basis. Now, I look at them and think those, these skills, these qualifications in this program are exactly what you would need for the prep side of that. But they all have a variety of backgrounds. So it'll depend by role, but largely it's in everything.

Nathan Colaner:
Great. Thank you.

Sharda Kumari:
Yeah, one more. Sorry. Quick point to add onto this is like, data is increasingly being recognized as a very valuable resource and professionals who can like organize, manage, and extract insights from those data, like, especially in high demand.

Nathan Colaner:
Yes. Yes. Well said. Okay, Krysten, I think we're ready for our next slide. Okay. So this is about proximity, meaning physical proximity, like how like close you live. So I guess I'll just start with Tracy and Sharda just went, but how important or not important is it? You know, like it, so we just talked about how like every industry, every business industry like needs business analytics people, but if you're looking for a certain type of job, if you're looking to be in big tech, like how important is it to actually live in the Silicon Valley or live in Seattle?

Tracy Kosa:
So I'm gonna take you on a very small ride of my thought process on this. When COVID first started, as a classic self-proclaimed introvert, I was delighted at not having to interact with people any more than necessary and having the complete control of deciding even in this moment I'm gonna shut my laptop, I'm done now. You know, it was very empowering to me. I think what I've realized over the past few years is particularly if you're early in your career or about to switch, there's something really valuable about being near other people and with other people in physical proximity to them. I think it helps you learn more. I think you can, as I like to say, take the temperature of the room and be more integrated faster into the company culture.

I think a lot of the tech companies are getting pushback from folks on a demand to be in the office, but what I'm starting to see is a lot of compromises around that, like three days in the office at a certain location for a certain role or a little bit more flexibility, shall we say. So I think if you're the way I would TLDR, is if you're new in your career, it's probably not a bad idea to look for something in person. If you want a specific industry, being in and around Seattle is just full of tech people, I'm sure much the same in the Valley. And the opportunity to bump into people, to network, to talk, to grow your career, to find out about opportunities that might not even be posted yet, and you get an inside scoop because you bumped into somebody at a coffee shop who introduced you to somebody else, etcetera, etcetera, is actually pretty valuable. So I am reluctantly 50/50 on this.

[laughter]

Nathan Colaner:
Excellent. Yeah, I wanna follow up on that, but first I wanna hear what Sharda has to say about the proximity question.

Sharda Kumari:
Remote work is definitely great, but for interactions and regular meetups, definitely what Tracy said. I would say about maybe five years ago, proximity or being co-located at any of these tech hubs, it was of higher significance and it had its own value. But I feel after this pandemic hit, and after we all started living in this new world, every company had this profound realization that remote work can be equally efficient. And while being situated in a technology hub, it does offer its own certain advantages of meeting with people and getting that perspective of being around your colleagues and stuff. But then the landscape these days has shifted compared to what it was a couple years ago.

And especially, being part of a company which promotes remote work and we have this live and work anywhere culture, I would say... I mean in my opinion, it is good to be like in terms of socializing and in terms of doing meetups and meeting more people and get... It's good to be initially, as Tracy said in the beginning of her career it is good to be in the vicinity of some tech hub, but then overall it doesn't really matter and remote work is equally as productive, or in fact, I would say more productive than being onsite at any office.

Nathan Colaner:
Okay. I'm glad you both answered that way. I did not know what your answers were going to be. We have not practiced any of these. [chuckle] And I'm... [chuckle] Because this is maybe gonna sound selfish, I hope it doesn't sound too selfish, but being at Seattle University I've always thought one of the really cool things about being here as opposed to having university just in some low populated state. Like, "Why Seattle?" I've always thought one advantage is that there's so much better networking here and there's more job opportunities. And so with the remote work, I agree with Sharda and with what Tracy says, you can be as efficient remotely, but that doesn't mean that there's no advantage to proximity, especially at the beginning of your career. So what I took away from what Tracy said it's like a continuum. It's like, the earlier you are in your career, the more advantages there are to being around people, being around the office, maybe not even going every day, but just like a couple days a week even if that's the bare minimum. And then as you become more senior in your career and you can make more demands and say like, "Hey, I'm the person who can deliver this service," then you have more option to be more flexible.

Okay. So let me just also, I guess ask it this way. So if someone finds themselves in a situation where they're just really remote, like they live in the middle of Idaho and their job's in Seattle, what tips would you have for them to actually be able to be more integrated? And the flip side of that is if someone finds themself like, "I'm working at Amazon, I also live in South Lake Union," what kind of advantages should they be taking? Because they might be like, "Oh, I have a mostly remote position, so I'll just stay in my apartment all the time." What advantages do you have when you're in proximity and how to take advantage of those and what disadvantages are when you're remote and how can you overcome those? I know that's very broad, but I did that intentionally because I wanna just get your high level thoughts on that.

Sharda Kumari:
Yeah, I can start on this. Maybe, one trend that we have in my company is coffee chats, and we randomly pair up people between different teams and set up these sometimes 15-minutes or 30-minutes coffee chats where people just get to meet each other and know and bond with each other. And so I would encourage people to set up these casual one-on-ones without any work topic or set up more meetings with your peers or colleagues or even with people maybe who you do not know. So find opportunities to connect with people. There are many online networking events as well going on these days. And having regular one-on-one with your own team members or even members outside of your team.

Tracy Kosa:
Yeah. I think that's good advice whether you're remote or in person, and the way you would overcome it I think, for the in-person side, if you are in the middle of nowhere, would be different than the way you would do it in South Lake Union in proximity to all of these other tech companies. Having been in both of those positions before, it's much more challenging when you're literally away from everybody, if you're the only one. If the company is like that then I think the culture starts to shift accordingly and you can network with your colleagues in this new way that we all know of now. One of the things that we used to do a lot during COVID when I was at Amazon is we would have water cooler conversations. Just open time on your calendar, a couple of people could drop in, it was nothing formal, and you would end up chatting about movies or dinner or whatever. And I think that's a good way to just build those relationships. The in-person piece though gets you the spontaneity. And that's sometimes the best way to get to executives is, "Do you happen to have 15 minutes to chat right now?" 'Cause you bumped into each other in the hallway. And those are the pieces that I think become harder to figure out a corollary for when you're virtual.

Nathan Colaner:
Excellent advice, appreciate that. Krysten, I think we're ready for our next slide. Strategies for job seekers, so some practical advice. Before we get into what our guests have to say, let me put on my director hat for a moment and I'll just say a couple of general things that I feel like almost all people need to hear and I've learned most of these the hard way. But applying for jobs is is exhausting, it's physically exhausting and it's emotionally exhausting. So there's that. Just know that you're getting into that but a couple of things to kind of help with that exhaustion. One thing is, you know, the good news is that on your resume, you don't have to put down all the jobs that you didn't get and this is fortunate for me. People look at me, it's like there's no big gaps on my resume. It's like I moved right from my PhD program, I got a job right away. It looks like, oh, this is a very successful guy. I'm not...

I think it's embarrassing if I tell you how many jobs I applied for in academia. It's hundreds and hundreds but I don't have to say like I don't have to say all that. And I didn't not get those jobs because I was dumber than the other candidates, and I didn't get this job because I was smarter than the other candidates. It was just that finally that persistence paid off and it's like there's the right buzzwords and my application met up with what the committee thought they wanted, and then it was like, boom. I guess I'll stop there and let me ask Sharda about maximizing job prospects in the current market.

Sharda Kumari:
First of all, I would say, believe in yourself, be confident and be positive. Learning the in-demand skills based on whichever part you're applying your job into is one of the crucial things here. Connecting like directly with the posters of the jobs on LinkedIn, that's another one very helpful way. Maybe you come across a job opening and then you send them a direct message or trying to be more connected and enhancing your network, that is another key thing in my opinion. Doing more homework about the company that you're trying to apply into so that you, for those great first impressions with the recruiters or the hiring managers, so even like before your first call with the recruiter, it is very important to like understand everything and like know everything about the company. And yeah, and also jobs is like just a numbers game as Dr. Nathan you said like you should not be disappointed with any negative responses and just be confident and keep going.

Nathan Colaner:
What's your high level advice, Tracy?

Tracy Kosa:
Well, I really want to know how many jobs you applied for and didn't get first of all, since we're making data driven decisions here.

Nathan Colaner:
I could look it up and give you an exact number. It's north of 500.

Tracy Kosa:
Well, I can tell you right out of the gate because I still have them that I was rejected from 27 PhD programs before I got accepted to one. So I'd say my top level advice, building on everything that Sharda has already said, which is on point, is be brutally, brutally kind to yourself during this process, because applying for jobs is like dating, like it's just you put yourself out there, you're vulnerable, you're asking someone for something and trying to present some leverage, and it's hard, it's really hard. And I think to Nathan's point, it's really important to remember that it's like dating, like some of it is just serendipity, time and place, right person, right role, right hiring manager. You take any one of those variables and turn it slightly to the left and it's no longer going to work. So just be persistent. I mean, I sat outside of the dean's office for about six hours before the law school would talk to me and let me teach, so get comfortable with waiting, get comfortable with rejection, and be nice to yourself.

Nathan Colaner:
No, I'm glad you brought that up because I often think like there's a similarity there, and even like the job application apps and dating apps even look the same. They're even formatted the same. And so for those of you who are listening who have had the misfortune of like trying to muddle your way through dating apps, it's very similar. And I'll add on to something else because we're making this analogy, is that it's really dangerous to look at a job and think like, "Oh, this job is my destiny. Like, this job ad was written for me. Like, they had me in mind when they wrote this job." You look at the job, you're like, yes, yes, checkmark, checkmark, boom, it's me. This is for me. And then you apply and they don't even get back to you. So that's going to increase the emotional burden of like looking for a job as if you get yourself all worked up. Like, this is it, this is it, this job ad was written for me. I'm going to be moving to the Silicon Valley in April and like, it is like, you just can't get excited like that. It's just like, you just be persistent, you just do your thing, you're like, maybe this is going to work, maybe it's not, the percentage chance is it won't and that's okay. But yeah, that's the difficulty of the search.

Sharda Kumari:
And persistent is the keyword.

Nathan Colaner:
Yeah, yeah. There's another point here that I think we haven't really addressed, which is, do either of you have any advice about aligning yourself with employer's expectations and preferences? So the job ad is written there, there's a description, there's required qualifications, there's minimum qualifications, so then you've got your resume obviously, and then you got a chance to write a letter, probably, I think not everybody, but some people still expect that. How do you look through a job ad and sort of match up who you are and what skills you have with what they're asking for? Or should you just not even overthink it and just don't worry about it 'cause it's just a numbers game?

Tracy Kosa:
Do you want... I can start with this one. So I think there's two parts to this question, there's aligning yourself with the employer's expectations and preferences and figuring out the cover letter and the right words and all of the buzz stuff you need to put in there, but there's also then the follow up piece of that. So be very careful how you twist or change or represent yourself to the extent that if you do get this job, you're then gonna have to work with these people and be like you've presented yourself. So I guess this is a long-winded way of saying the authenticity part matters most. So yes, you can use whatever words you need to, and my very tactical way of doing this is to literally take the job advertisement, all of the qualifications and descriptions, move it into a Word document, break it down line by line, and then go through my resume and say, okay, this maps to this, this maps to this, this maps to this, and inevitably there'll be things you don't have. So you just sort of put them aside and then mash it all together into a coherent paragraph or two and that's literally how I do it every time for any job I want.

Lots of tech will not ask for a cover letter or an introduction or a summary statement, but I think it's never a bad thing to provide one, especially as I see the trend being, you also have to write an essay at some point during the application process, or you have to solve a question or propose a product, or do some kind of analytics assignment and a lot of companies are doing that. So you may as well let them know that you know how to write and read and think right out of the gate, so that's the approach I've taken.

Sharda Kumari:
Very valuable advice, Tracy. Thanks for sharing that with us. And thanks for the great advice, and just maybe one small thing to add on top of what Tracy said, maybe we should also look at the, what are in demand skills, if there is certain skillset which is appearing in a lot of job postings and maybe it's something... There are so many courses out there these days as well, so if... It might all as well be words going through that course and like learning that skill if it's appearing in a lot of job posts.

Nathan Colaner:
Yeah, I think that's really important. I mean, the lifelong learner thing, we've known this for a long time that it's important but when you're in technology, it's important times 10. Things are changing all the time and you just have to be in the head space that like, I get to, it's gonna be fun to learn and grow, like the skillset I have next year is gonna be a little bit different than the skillset I have right now. And that's cool. That's not a burden, that's not like, oh, something else I got to learn. It's like, oh, there's this new thing. Cool. I get to experiment with it, understand it.

Tracy Kosa:
Well, and to your point there, well, to both of your points, I think the other piece is conferences, professional associations, put yourself out there. I mean, the entire reason for the last 11 years of my career here in Seattle is because I went to a random academic privacy conference and met someone there from Microsoft who liked what I was presenting about. It was not the goal, it was not the point. I was just interested and excited in my field. And so I started looking for those opportunities to present at a conference, to talk at a conference, to attend a conference, to network. And the professional associations are growing by the day, so most of them will also have student discounts. I know IAPP, which is the Professional Association for Privacy folks does and a lot of times those conferences also have volunteer opportunities if the funds are not available to attend them. And if you're a speaker most of the time you get to go for free and it's a good way to hone your skills. People will always provide you feedback even if you don't ask them to. So those are great opportunities and pretty easy to find.

Nathan Colaner:
Good advice. Okay, Krysten, I think we're ready for our conclusion phase of...

Krysten Griggs:
Sure. And I did just wanna use this opportunity to plug Seattle U's career resources. So if you are in the midst of transitioning, looking for ways to kind of format, write your resume, tips on cover letters, career transitioning, they're a great resource as a student with Seattle University to be able to help with chartering that change, in addition to Seattle U's access to their handshake job board, to also help with potentially kind of sourcing for opportunities that you're interested in or even connecting with other professionals or hiring managers who are making the job postings.

Nathan Colaner:
That's a good point.

Krysten Griggs:
So yeah, I just wanted to kind of offer that.

Nathan Colaner:
Yes, so as a Seattle University student, you'll have full access to those resources. We have like four or five full-time people who their only job is to help you get a job and they're good at what they do. So that is a very valuable resource if you're an SU student.

Nathan Colaner:
Okay, key takeaways. Let me just give a couple of reflections that struck me from our talk. I started out by saying that I was looking forward to learning some things and so I feel like I did. Though the one thing I learned right off the bat is there's a lot going on in the job market, like under your feet, right? Is that a good analogy? I don't know. But like, that you certainly don't control that you're probably not even aware is happening, things like interest rates, things like inflation, things regulations and how that's changing industries. So it's not even... It's probably not even... Well, it's definitely not worth your time to worry about those things because you can't control them, but you can't even, the trends are complicated enough that like you just have to be persistent, do your thing and yes, like just step back and trust that the decade long projection, 25% increase is still on track, it's still projected to happen.

Nathan Colaner:
And yeah, that my fellow panelists agree with me that searching for a job is not something that you would do for fun. It's not something that you would do if you want to have a lot of self-esteem. It's not an easy way to get self-esteem, let's say it that way. It just requires a lot of persistence and a lot of perspective. And just thought of not letting yourself get discouraged or overburdened. Key takeaways from either of you, from our talk this hour.

Sharda Kumari:
I guess you summarized it all really well, Dr. Nathan.

Nathan Colaner:
Sorry, I'm sorry. What did you say, Sharda?

Sharda Kumari:
Sorry. You summarized it all really well, so I don't have anything, Dr. Nathan.

Nathan Colaner:
Yeah. Okay, great. Anything to add, Tracy?

Tracy Kosa:
I think the only thing I'd add is that we've been really open and transparent with folks on the call about all of our experiences and some of the negative associations with them, definitely, and the need to be persistent. Maybe we flip the narrative a little just to end this part on a happy note and say that through the job process, through the applications, through the interviews, through the rejections, you do get a real opportunity to know very clearly what your boundaries are in terms of what you want in a job and what you're disappointed by. And so if it's simply just, I got rejected again, well, that's a very different problem than, no, I really wanted to work with this person at this company in this role. And so every time you go through this process, you have another chance to sit back and say, "Okay, what did I learn about myself? And where are my boundaries? And where am I willing to stretch and grow and where am I not?" And specifically in this space, I think a lot of it is about ethics and what you're willing to do or not do, and what team you wanna be on when you get out there and start working in this space, so maybe that's the positive part of all of this.

Nathan Colaner:
That feels like some great advice to end on.

Krysten Griggs:
Oops, I'm sorry. Well, now we'll go into a few questions. So the first question we had was from Nagasai, who wanted to know about data engineering, job opening percentages, and from you all's experience which cloud platform is the most demanding?

Tracy Kosa:
I can take the cloud part of it, and if Nathan or Sharda wanna do the job openings piece. So it kind of means, it depends what you mean by most demanding. So when you're an engineer running any service 24/7, is gonna be hard. Amazon has perfected the operational side of this for AWS. Probably Azure would be the hardest because a lot of Microsoft's cloud adoption is for legacy migrations. So it's gonna kind of depend what kind of work you wanna do and what your specialties are. But the numbers are pretty clear that AWS is still the most in demand cloud service for anything new.

Sharda Kumari:
Totally agree with you, Tracy. AWS, Azure and like to add on to that, a couple more technologies like Google Cloud, Salesforce, and Tableau are the other ones which are in like super high demand these days.

Nathan Colaner:
And I wanted to add, the question in the chat made me think of this. And this is how I kind of think of it. I wonder if you wanna... If you think of it the same way or you wanna correct me, but like, so the question was about data engineering, and we have data engineering. We have, there's jobs that say data analysts. There's jobs that say data scientists. There's jobs that say information technologists. There's jobs that just say analyst. There's jobs to say technical business analyst, business process, business system analyst, business intelligence analyst. And to me, these things kind of come across as like a word salad, meaning that people just gonna throw in whatever. So, do you think there's any there? Well, there you have to look at the job description obviously, but just like if you're just using search terms, you say data engineer, I'm interested in how many openings are there specifically, do you think there's like companies actually have really meaningful distinctions in mind when they post like engineer versus an analyst?

Tracy Kosa:
So I'm extremely biased by this, so let me just start there. Big tech, like the fang kind of companies tend to have job ladders and those job ladders are very narrow and specific. And then the titles just kind of get thrown around depending on what you're looking for on those specific ladders. So you're an engineer, you're a program manager, you're a product manager, you're a lawyer or a policy or a compliance person and then over here is a growing set of analytics slash research slash data stuff that hasn't been standardized yet, so I think it's word salad, but underneath it, it's pretty clear line of job categories.

Nathan Colaner:
Okay.

Tracy Kosa:
Sharda, do you disagree with me?

Sharda Kumari:
No, I totally agree with you, Tracy. And also Dr. Nathan, I agree with the word salad analogy as well. And it also totally depends from company to company and even within the same company between like orgs within the same company on how do they really look at all these titles.

Nathan Colaner:
Yeah. And then, Krysten, should I go ahead and answer John's question?

Krysten Griggs:
Sure, definitely.

Nathan Colaner:
The question in the chat was, how will the class curriculum keep pace with the rapidly changing tech landscape, ie, AI, etcetera. So two things to say about that. One thing is that, yes, there are changes happening, but as we were kind of alluding to earlier, a lot of the core skills are actually not changing as much as you would think. You still need to be able to communicate, you still need to be able to ask questions, understand, you still need to be good at statistics. You still need to be able to have that mindset of getting to know new tools as they come along. So a lot of those are actually remarkably stable. However, yes, you're right, there are some curriculum changes that are necessary. And so me as director, I have this really valuable resource. The board of directors for analytics, Sharda is on it. Tracy is not, although maybe if I beg her in the right way, she'll come join us and share her wisdom on the board. But there's about 12 professionals at different companies. Obviously, Airbnb and Meta. We have someone else at Meta. But Boeing, Amazon, all the classic Seattle companies are on the board. And from time to time there's... So you can imagine a triangle. There's me and then there's the board of directors and then there's the rest of faculty.

Nathan Colaner:
And so we often come up with a course that needs to be added. So recently, we did this in the context of how analytics is changing management and marketing. So we added a course to the program. We did that also with how analytics is changing finance and accounting. We're working now, this isn't gonna happen next year, but we'll do a course on advanced machine learning because that the techniques are becoming more sophisticated and important. So I bounce all that off of our faculty, but importantly the board because they are the people in the trenches in these companies who see the trends and to, see like, "Oh, now we need something a little bit different here. Now we need this, now we're emphasizing this more." And so we're constantly consulting with them about what kinds of changes do we need to our program to have. Thanks for that question.

Krysten Griggs:
Yes, definitely a great question. And just in terms of what it sounds like you're saying, Dr. Nathan or Nathan, is that the program essentially kind of teaches those foundational skill sets which are necessary even as these things are changing, which is also very valuable and important, especially if you're looking to make a transition or start your career, or maximize your career within the analytics field.

[music]

Get Expert Insights on the Evolving Business Analytics Job Market and In-Demand Skills

Gain a career advantage by watching this recent webinar recording about the current business analytics job market. It's an excellent resource for valuable information on topics such as in-demand skills, hiring trends, and industry-specific nuances.

Featuring three Seattle University experts with inside knowledge of the Seattle and Silicon Valley tech landscape, the discussion also covers how to create business value for employers and position yourself as an MSBA graduate in the tech industry.

Watch and get their insights on how to align yourself with employers' expectations and preferences to maximize your job prospects in the current market.

Hiring Trends for Business Analytics Jobs

Numerous roles across the field of business and data analytics rank among the most desirable jobs in the U.S. according to numerous career and hiring authorities, and the skills you will acquire in the Online MSBA program are some of the most marketable in contemporary business:

No. 2
Data engineer is the No. 2 job in America, according to Indeed1
23%
projected growth for operations research analyst roles by 20322
72%
of organizations intend to hire master’s in business analytics graduates, as of 20233
Five Online MSBA skills are among LinkedIn’s most in-demand hard business skills for 2023:4
  • Software develppment
  • SQL
  • Finance (Financial Analytics)
  • Python
  • Data analysis

Data Analytics Salary Potential

Analytics careers are not just plentiful; they are some of the best compensated jobs on the market. With the technical skills and communication-driven leadership potential you will develop in the Online MSBA program, you could find yourself in line for an extremely lucrative role, including:

$100,000
Average base salary for a data engineer5
$104,662
Average salary for an analytics manager6
$86,670
Average base salary for entry level data scientists7
$99,681
Average base salary for all data scientist roles7
$116,400
Average base salary for a machine learning engineer8

Albers MSBA Graduates Are on the Move

Albers’s MSBA graduates from 2017 to 2019 reported a remarkable rate of new career opportunities after completing the program:9

43%

changed roles or companies upon graduation


72%

changed roles or companies within 3 months


95%

changed roles or companies within 6 months


98%

changed roles or companies within 12 months

Employers who embrace Albers’ MSBA graduates include:

Albers MSBA graduate employer logos

Sources
  1. Retrieved on October 30, 2023, from indeed.com/career-advice/news/best-jobs-of-2023
  2. Retrieved on October 30, 2023, from bls.gov/ooh/math/operations-research-analysts.htm
  3. Retrieved on October 30, 2023, from gmac.com/-/media/files/gmac/research/employment-outlook/2023_gmac_corporaterecruiters_report.pdf
  4. Retrieved on October 30, 2023, from linkedin.com/business/talent/blog/talent-strategy/linkedin-most-in-demand-hard-and-soft-skills#operations
  5. Retrieved on October 30, 2023, from payscale.com/research/US/Job=Data_Engineer/Salary
  6. Retrieved on October 30, 2023, from payscale.com/research/US/Job=Analytics_Manager/Salary
  7. Retrieved on October 30, 2023, from payscale.com/research/US/Job=Data_Scientist/Salary/3eb9c016/Entry-Level
  8. Retrieved on October 30, 2023, from payscale.com/research/US/Job=Machine_Learning_Engineer/Salary
  9. Based on a limited sample of self-reported data from Seattle University’s MSBA alumni from graduating cohorts between September 2017 and August 2019