While increasing knowledge and skills are fundamental goals of advanced degrees, oh, what a wonderful feeling when a degree helps land a sweet promotion or a great new job.
Recent graduates of the Chapman Graduate School in the College of Business Administration at Florida International University (FIU) shared their success stories, made possible with their Master of Science in Management Information Systems (MSMIS) degree in hand.
Luis Blandon advances on career path.
“One hundred percent of the questions I was able to answer in my job interview were thanks to FIU’s MSMIS program,” said Luis Blandon (MSMIS ’11, BS ’02). “The questions included everything from project management and programming to infrastructure. I literally owe my job to my MSMIS.”
A former systems analyst at American Airlines’ Miami office, Blandon was promoted to application development team lead in the company’s headquarters in Dallas, where he now lives.
“I went for my MSMIS to remain competitive in a tough job market and to drastically improve my chances for management/administrative positions,” Blandon said. “It worked.”
Blandon added that it was important to receive a degree from a business school with a strong reputation where he could get a quality education at a reasonable cost.
“The reputation and value FIU has is unmatched by any other university in the region,” he said.
Travis Ramsey moves up.
With his Bachelor of Business Administration, Travis Ramsey (MSMIS ’10, BBA ’04) had been working in the IT industry.
“But I felt undervalued,” he said. “I wanted to prove that I knew a lot more than my one year of experience would indicate. So I decided to get my MSMIS.”
Ramsey, still active in the FIU chapter of Alpha Kappa Psi, chose his alma mater for his advanced degree.
“The one-year structure of the program was a big selling point,” said Ramsey who earned his MSMIS and a spot as a software integration engineer at Intermedix, a provider of business and technology solutions for the emergency healthcare system.
“FIU’s MSMIS program covers all aspects of an organization’s IT infrastructure—software, hardware, databases, networks, security and more—and that’s exactly the diversity companies want,” he said. “The talented professors and totality of the program give you critical skills to succeed in today’s IT industry.”
Raktim Saha starts new position.
For Raktim Saha (MSMIS ’10), earning his MSMIS degree resulted in a new position as business intelligence development manager at Sears Holdings Corporation.
“I already had rich, progressive IT experience that spanned various domains but was primarily related to data management and business intelligence,” Saha said. “I was looking for a graduate program to connect the dots among business, management, and IT.”
Saha chose the highly ranked Chapman Graduate School.
“I made sure the program I chose covered a broad area of information technology operations and management, a program that is also current with market trends,” said Saha, who identifies Business Intelligence, Project Management and IS Policy and Strategy as particularly useful courses.
