LinkedIn has named business, financial and data analysts among the 20 most promising jobs for 2017 based on the potential for career advancement, job growth and salary. The ranking isn’t a surprise for Rabia Baig, assistant director of Employer Relations at the Kellstadt Career Management Center, who helps DePaul University graduate business students connect with career opportunities.
“Demand for students with analytics skills is high,” she says. “Employers are seeing merit in using big data outside of just marketing and finance. Now every facet of the company is touched by the need to interpret big data.”
Baig is seeing increasing interest for analytics-educated business graduates from recruiters in human resource departments at a wide range of companies that are mining data for insights on their workforces, she explains. Graduates with these skills are also sought-after in the growing health care industry.
To help students prepare for these opportunities, DePaul offers a wide range of analytics-related degrees and an annual Analytics Career Night that brings together recruiters, alumni and graduating students interested in data-driven careers. This year’s event, which Baig co-hosted with colleagues at DePaul’s Jarvis College of Computing and Digital Media, featured a select group of 20 employers and attracted 185 graduate students.
Connecting Students to Analytics Jobs at Top Companies
Analytics Career Night provides an opportunity for students to connect with potential employers in a meaningful way, says Rhyan Curtis, a 2017 DePaul MBA candidate who attended last year’s gathering.
DePaul MBA candidate Rhyan Curtis landed an internship at Vibes, one of the firms that participated in Analytics Career Night.
“Analytics Night was great because many of my top companies attended,” he says. “The event was smaller and wasn’t too crowded. Due to the smaller size, I was able to speak with company representatives for an extended amount of time. I made a lot of great contacts from various companies."
Those companies included Vibes, a mobile marketing firm, where Curtis later completed a human resources department internship. “After proving myself at Vibes, I had more credibility in the field and became a more attractive candidate to employers,” he says. Curtis recently landed a full-time position in the HR department of Grainger, where he will begin working after he graduates this spring.
More STEM-degree Options for International Students
The Kellstadt Graduate School of Business also is helping to produce more graduates to fill high-demand jobs in the science, technology, engineering and math fields, or STEM. The school recently expanded the number of STEM-designated degrees it offers to six.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security grants STEM designation to degrees that produce graduates who help fill the gap in STEM talent at U.S. companies. This designation allows international students to stay and work in the United States after graduation, as part of the
Optional Practical Training (OPT) program. The goal of the program is fill the gap in STEM talent necessary for growth and innovation at U.S. companies.
Learn more about analytics degrees at DePaul’s business college:
Learn more about
international admission and STEM-designated programs at the Kellstadt Graduate School of Business.