by Double Masters Equals Double Opportunities
After earning a masters degree in Quantitative Economics, grad business student Amanda Walker re-enrolled for another degree in the MS Business Analytics program—and is looking ahead to a career in data analytics.
Amanda Walker is in her sixth year of higher education, after completing four years of undergraduate education at Scripps University and one masters degree at Cal Poly.
The road to Cal Poly was nothing short of windy for Walker, with many pivots due to COVID-19. For example, during the spring of Walker’s senior year at Scripps University, where she earned a degree in economics and a minor in computer science, she was torn between going into the workforce or continuing her education in a graduate program.
“Ultimately what halted my job search was COVID-19 because a lot of the companies I was looking at froze their hiring process,” she says.
This pandemic-related effect of the job market led her to look more closely at her options for graduate school. She decided on the Cal Poly Quantitative Economics program to help advance her skills in programming and computer science, and therefore accelerate her career-readiness.
Walker’s degree in economics and minor in computer science at Scripps was the ideal combination for this masters tract, and was a baseline for everything she learned in the program.
Walker describes the Quantitative Economics program as “very technical,” saying that it was an opportunity to learn more about programming, and that her classes delved into the “nitty gritty” behind economics, computer science, and statistics. Due to this, Walker can now say with confidence that she understands what goes on “behind the scenes” of models represented by data.
“People you work with will often not have time to look over whole datasets and analyze the trends or patterns. It is important to be able to display your findings in a clear and concise way so that your colleagues can quickly draw conclusions.”
In the spring of 2021, she graduated with her masters degree in quantitative economics and again, instead of entering the job market, felt that she’d be better served by Cal Poly’s Business Analytics program. This is because, after researching the courses, she felt that the skills she would gain would better set her up for the corporate world and help her reach her post-graduation goal of becoming a data analyst.
She also wanted to do the Business Analytics program to gain some skills she could use in a corporate environment. While the Quantitative Economics program is focused more on data and how to acquire it, the Business Analytics program is “more focused on how the data is applied in the business world,” she says.
In addition to many other assets, the Business Analytics program is currently teaching Walker the skill of data visualization. She says that taking data and presenting it in a way that people can understand it is an important skill to bring to her future career.
“People you work with will often not have time to look over whole datasets and analyze the trends or patterns. It is important to be able to display your findings in a clear and concise way so that your colleagues can quickly draw conclusions about the point you are trying to make,” she says.
Walker is also taking other classes she knows will benefit her in the long-run. These courses dive into data visualization and communication, two skills that are becoming more prevalent as our world is adapting to communicating through more visuals.
“The Business Analytics program has really complimented my Quantitative Economics education nicely because it has helped me build skills that are related to data analytics. They’ve made me a marketable and well-rounded data analyst.”
A unique perk to being in a second masters program is that Walker is able to take a wide variety of classes this year. She has already checked off some of the classes needed in the Business Analytics program due to the slight overlap with Quantitative Economics. That means, this year, Walker added classes in areas such as taxation and business law, both of which will help her have a diverse set of skills and be a competitive candidate for high-level jobs.
The skills Walker has gained during these programs has “pivoted her perspective” in her confidence, she says. She has always wanted to work at a tech company as a data analyst, but now is more confident she can meet the criteria of that advanced position.
She’ll also hold degrees that have propelled her to learn from both a numbers and data perspective, in addition to an applied perspective, which will set her up with the tools she needs for her next step in the corporate environment, as well her ultimate career ambition of having her own company.
“The Business Analytics program has really complimented my Quantitative Economics education nicely because it has helped me build skills that are related to data analytics,” says Walker. “They’ve made me a marketable and well-rounded data analyst.”