When students enroll in the Advanced R Workshop, they will be taught by someone who stood in their shoes before them. Ravi Pandey, a 2016 Smith graduate of the Master of Science in Information Systems program, leads the class. He knows what it takes to succeed professionally, and he teaches graduate student weekend workshops on R, machine learning and Python.
Prior to starting his 16-month program in information systems at Robert H. Smith School of Business, Pandey was home in India working for an IT company. It was there that he was introduced to databases, business intelligence, and growing opportunities in R and Python. “These topics were developing around that time and it excited me,” says Pandey. “I wasn’t a computer genius back then. But I was searching for a way to blend the business and technical worlds.”
He found what he was looking for in the United States, at Maryland Smith. On campus, he says, accessible professors, academic research strength, and experiential learning set him up for success. He recommends that all students try experiential learning – solving a real problem, for a real company, with real data. “It helped lead me to success later on,” he says. And it helped bridge technical data skills with the real business questions faced by managers.
Now a big data engineer at Freddie Mac in the Washington, D.C., area, Pandey says he expects demand to continue growing for MS in Information Systems graduates. The data back him up: The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics projects a 12 percent increase in computer and information technology employment between 2018 and 2028.
Pandey offers an additional piece of advice to current graduate degree students: take advantage of networking events organized by student clubs and the Smith Master’s Programs Office. “In 2015, at the start of my Smith degree, I talked to people who actually do the work. I learned how to align what I was studying with what the job market actually needed.” That led to Pandey’s first data science and machine-learning internship – and the start of a fulfilling career.
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About the University of Maryland's Robert H. Smith School of Business
The Robert H. Smith School of Business is an internationally recognized leader in management education and research. One of 12 colleges and schools at the University of Maryland, College Park, the Smith School offers undergraduate, full-time and flex MBA, executive MBA, online MBA, business master’s, PhD and executive education programs, as well as outreach services to the corporate community. The school offers its degree, custom and certification programs in learning locations in North America and Asia.