The first day

On August 13th, we started the Management Analytics program. After attending the information session, the application process and the interview, that was the day I was looking forward to for a long time. The day consisted of different and helpful workshops about cultural differences and soft skills which taught us the skills we needed to improve throughout the program. I was also amazed by the diverse backgrounds of my classmates. 

Advice on Courses

During the introduction term you will have two courses. The Analytics in Management course serves as an introduction to the functional areas of business:  Marketing, Operations, Accounting, Finance, Organizational Behavior, and Strategy. This course gives you the chance to get familiar with different fields of business. The second course is Data-Based Management Decision Making that will give you an understanding of what you will do as a Management Analyst. Within these two courses you will do individual and group assignments as well as presentations which is one of the most important skills that needs to be developed. I’ll definitely encourage you to take the optional courses that the school will provide you before the program (especially the Statistics and Python). They’ll help you to be ready and perform better in Data-based classes. In most of the sessions of classes, you will do projects within your group and try to make a data-based decision. 

Resources at Rotman

In addition to academic programs, your career coach (Jessica Yu) will help you with your communication skills and career support. By the first month, you will attend networking events and workshops. I remember at the Career Panel which took place after the networking workshop, we had the chance to ask questions from experts and tried to make connections. That was a great practice for real world work experience and gave me a view of my weaknesses and strengths in networking. Through this month you will write a one-page resume. Thus, you have an idea of how to act in business related events and also how to improve your resume while you are in the program. 
During the introduction term you will as well attend 4 boot camps in R, Python, SAS and SQL. They will familiarize you with the programs you work with in your academic courses. 

As a member of Rotman, you can join several clubs and get to know other Rotman students. But make sure not get yourself so busy with them since you are enrolling in a 9 months masters and you might not have enough time.  

There is a speaker series happening at Rotman every week. I attended the Unilever’s discussion about the Unilever digital transformation journey. It was a great opportunity to hear about one of the most well-known companies’ transformations through the use of data analytics.

Overall, it’s going to be an exciting month of preparation for the whole journey ahead of you! 

The Master of Management Analytics is designed to give students the advanced data management, analytics and communication skills needed to become an analytics professional.