MSc Business Analytics

Eoghan41

Hey guys, have a conditional offer for the above course in Smurfit. Has any other boardies applied yet? Any thoughts from past students of the course? Has it helped to get further in the field you work in? Or did it help get the job in the first place? Also, I'm a little concerned about the programming element of the course. Does anyone have any thoughts on how one may go about preparing for the entrance exam? Thanks, Eoghan

stevedublin

Eoghan41 wrote: »

Hey guys, have a conditional offer for the above course in Smurfit. Has any other boardies applied yet? Any thoughts from past students of the course? Has it helped to get further in the field you work in? Or did it help get the job in the first place? Also, I'm a little concerned about the programming element of the course. Does anyone have any thoughts on how one may go about preparing for the entrance exam? Thanks, Eoghan

There's an entrance exam?!

Eoghan41

If you haven't done any programming in the past it is necessary that you take the exam to prove you can cope with the work required. You must have given some evidence of previous programming experience if you do not have to take it!

DirkVoodoo

There is a lot more programming involved than they make out.

I'd recommend doing a few Java courses over the summer if possible (I presume you start in September?). There were two long-ish days of Java given, but it wasn't really enough to prepare you for some of the assignments.

If you have time between and now and your start date, definitely try and get ever advantage possible.

Eoghan41

DirkVoodoo wrote: »

There is a lot more programming involved than they make out.

I'd recommend doing a few Java courses over the summer if possible (I presume you start in September?). There were two long-ish days of Java given, but it wasn't really enough to prepare you for some of the assignments.

If you have time between and now and your start date, definitely try and get ever advantage possible.

Im currently doing my undergraduate and will be finishing in May but I plan on practicing pretty heavily during the summer. Are you a current student?

DirkVoodoo

Eoghan41 wrote: »

Im currently doing my undergraduate and will be finishing in May but I plan on practicing pretty heavily during the summer. Are you a current student?

Yep. I did mechanical engineering beforehand and the maths is of a fairly similar level. It's quite competitive so the more feathers you can add to your cap before it starts is going to be quite advantageous.

Java is the language of choice, there is no shortage of online material, classes, books, etc. If you can become comfortable with it beforehand and are already good at maths, it shouldn't be too hard.

danthefan

DirkVoodoo wrote: »

Yep. I did mechanical engineering beforehand and the maths is of a fairly similar level. It's quite competitive so the more feathers you can add to your cap before it starts is going to be quite advantageous.

Java is the language of choice, there is no shortage of online material, classes, books, etc. If you can become comfortable with it beforehand and are already good at maths, it shouldn't be too hard.

Are you finding the course worthwhile? How do you rate your employment prospects afterwards? I've been thinking of doing this course, also a mechanical engineer but been working for the last 3 years or so and looking for a change. Actually contacted the admissions office to talk to them about the course earlier today. Once my references are sorted I reckon I'll submit my application.

DirkVoodoo

danthefan wrote: »

Are you finding the course worthwhile? How do you rate your employment prospects afterwards? I've been thinking of doing this course, also a mechanical engineer but been working for the last 3 years or so and looking for a change. Actually contacted the admissions office to talk to them about the course earlier today. Once my references are sorted I reckon I'll submit my application.

Well, I know a few people who would be more objective and rate the course highly, as far as I know everyone gets a job even in this environment because analytics is such a "hot" field at the moment.

My opinion is always going to be biased, I'm giving up a year of my life to do this so of course I will say it's worthwhile. Is it for you? Only you can answer that one, have a look at some of the potential jobs on offer and see how they compare to your current path.

danthefan

DirkVoodoo wrote: »

Well, I know a few people who would be more objective and rate the course highly, as far as I know everyone gets a job even in this environment because analytics is such a "hot" field at the moment.

My opinion is always going to be biased, I'm giving up a year of my life to do this so of course I will say it's worthwhile. Is it for you? Only you can answer that one, have a look at some of the potential jobs on offer and see how they compare to your current path.

Thanks. I'm considering giving up my job (which I don't particularly like) to take the course so just trying to gather all the information I can on it, it's a big decision to make. You're enjoying it anyway? I haven't really heard anything bad about it anyway as of yet. And roughly what size would the class be?

Eoghan41

DirkVoodoo wrote: »

Well, I know a few people who would be more objective and rate the course highly, as far as I know everyone gets a job even in this environment because analytics is such a "hot" field at the moment.

My opinion is always going to be biased, I'm giving up a year of my life to do this so of course I will say it's worthwhile. Is it for you? Only you can answer that one, have a look at some of the potential jobs on offer and see how they compare to your current path.

I keep hearing that Analytics, like you said, is a "hot" field at the moment, but other than Accenture and other consulting companies, where are most of these jobs occurring?

stevedublin

It would be nice to get the views of people who have already done this course.

ucdperson

If you have time between and now and your start date, definitely try and get ever advantage possible.

Sound advice. Every effort is made to convey that there is programming involved in this MSc (this helps get you the reduced €2750 fee under the Advanced Skills programme!!), but sometimes people convince themselves that only token programming is involved. The latter is not true, so practice in the meantime is indeed wise.

I keep hearing that Analytics, like you said, is a "hot" field at the moment, but other than Accenture and other consulting companies, where are most of these jobs occurring?

Everyone with data needs Analytics and most people nowadays have data. This includes the financial sector, and multinationals like Google, Linkedin, Facebook, Intel etc. But people get employment in Paddy Powers, Analytics is one few sectors in the public service where there are jobs (fraud reduction needed by Revenue and Social Welfare), airlines and logistics companies, car hire and hotel operators and booking agencies, retail, semi states like Bord Gais, Coillte.... And beyond that, there are companies that you or I have never heard of, that need an Analytics person or two, this isn't a field with only a handful of employers.

Have a look on Linkedin.

Eoghan41

ucdperson wrote: »

Sound advice. Every effort is made to convey that there is programming involved in this MSc (this helps get you the reduced €2750 fee under the Advanced Skills programme!!), but sometimes people convince themselves that only token programming is involved. The latter is not true, so practice in the meantime is indeed wise.



Everyone with data needs Analytics and most people nowadays have data. This includes the financial sector, and multinationals like Google, Linkedin, Facebook, Intel etc. But people get employment in Paddy Powers, Analytics is one few sectors in the public service where there are jobs (fraud reduction needed by Revenue and Social Welfare), airlines and logistics companies, car hire and hotel operators and booking agencies, retail, semi states like Bord Gais, Coillte.... And beyond that, there are companies that you or I have never heard of, that need an Analytics person or two, this isn't a field with only a handful of employers.

Have a look on Linkedin.

Thanks for the reply, it seems that its definitely a worthwhile masters in that case. I just don't want to be doing a masters for the sake of it but by the sounds of it, the skills you learn are valuable to many employers!

dogsouljah

Hi, quick question on this course. I am working my way through the application process and I've come to the section on math results - I have an engineering degree from a UK university - do I need to complete a GRE exam due to my overseas degree?

ucdperson

Hi, quick question on this course. I am working my way through the application process and I've come to the section on math results - I have an engineering degree from a UK university - do I need to complete a GRE exam due to my overseas degree?

With a UK degree, I'd just apply. The GRE is really needed for applicants from places where the system is quite different or unfamiliar.

FCGIT13

Hi there, my undergraduate degree is in civil engineering. This course did have a small component of programming to it in second year. I'm wondering what level of programming experience would be needed for this Msc?

DirkVoodoo

There are a lot of people with no programming experience, but it just makes things harder because you are either relying on the few programmers on the course to get you through assignments, or you spend a lot of valuable time during the semesters trying to get to grips with Java.

To give you an idea, in semester 1 our first assignment after a 2 day Java "refresher course" (which I found fairly basic, didn't trouble me) was an absolute nightmare. We had to implement a program to read a very large matrix (1000s of rows and columns) from a source file, save it in a compressed storage system depending on whether it was dense or sparse, and then use this to solve the black-scholes equation for an imaginary stock.

I'd really recommend you do a course beforehand, either online or find a course offered by an institution locally.

Also, don't buy a mac. I did after asking was it suitable, but a lot of software is windows only and either requires emulation (may or may not work) or you need to get a copy of windows (expensive depending on where you look). Buy an ultrabook and save yourself the hassle, but make sure you have a decent laptop, you will be using it a LOT!

MagicWanderer

Anyone recommend any online Java courses?

danthefan

MagicWanderer wrote: »

Anyone recommend any online Java courses?

Stanford have made all the resources from one of their programming classes available online, it's a Java course, there videos of the full lectures, etc.

http://see.stanford.edu/see/lecturelist.aspx?coll=824a47e1-135f-4508-a5aa-866adcae1111