Information Systems

Career Profile (Salary, Job Titles, Grad School Data)

The Information Systems major provides students the skills necessary to understand and manage information, information technology development, systems analysis, e-business management, and electronic commerce. Information Systems professionals are interested in the application of information technology to business activities. They are concerned with the design and implementation of information systems to support the information processing needs of an organization.  Below are some of the career opportunities that you might pursue:

Information systems management: Professionals in this field manage information and process data to be analyzed within complex networks. A person in this position is the link between hardware/software and the people who need the data to complete their projects.

Consulting: Consultants assess, design and combine leading information management and operational processes, approaches, technologies and controls to help enable sustained business value and risk management in support of the client's business.

Business consultant/analyst: In this area, you will assess, design, and combine leading information management and operational processes, approaches, technologies, and controls to help enable sustained business value and risk management in support of the client's business -- identifying pain points in client processes and scope technology-enabled transformations in multiple industries. You may specialize in certain technologies, functional areas, or industries in this role.

Technology consultant/analyst: In this area, you will match the business objectives/requirements and assess IT needs and capabilities-- provide advice on appropriate new solutions and be a part of a team that helps deploy such solutions, thus improving the effectiveness and efficiency of business processes.

Technology risk consultant: As information becomes central to competitive advantage, the associated risks due to issues with confidentiality, integrity or availability of information systems become a big focus. In this role, you will identify risks in a firm's systems, as well as the extended value/supply chain for the firm. You will build/execute/monitor plans to mitigate such risks. You could focus on infrastructure risk (on premise or in the cloud) or you could focus on digital strategy risk.

Data/Business intelligence analyst: In this role, you will be applying your skills in extracting data, analyzing it using machine learning algorithms, and visualizing insights using languages such as Python/R or tools such as Tableau/PowerBI.

User interface/User experience designer: As a designer, you focus on what a user sees and does while interacting with a system. You may use survey research, observations, focus groups or more often A/B testing of digital interfaces to iterate and improve the interfaces or the user experience. This may also involve designing physical experiences. You do not need to be a designer to succeed at this role.  What Does a UX Designer Actually Do?

Solutions engineer: As a solutions engineer, your focus is on having technical conversations with customers and prospects to understand their business needs and challenges. You are a cross functional partner not only with sales, but also with implementation consultants, product managers and customer success partners within an organization. You will communicate with software engineers to share customer feedback and impact the future of the product roadmap. You work with the customer to communicate how your solution will solve their challenges. From an implementation perspective, you need to effectively deliver what the customer needs are and how they can make their "go-live" successful.

Learn more about the Information System major at Gies here. For additional career exploration resources, check out this page.

• Tell me how you organize, plan, and prioritize your work.
• Provide an example of a project you worked on that demonstrates your programing abilities. What was your role in the project?
• Share an experience you had in dealing with a difficult person and how you handled the situation.
• Share an experience when you applied a new technology or information.
• Tell me about an experience in which you analyzed information and evaluated results to choose the best solution to a problem.
• Share an effective approach to working with a large amount of information/data.
• Describe your experience using object-oriented programming languages and client and server applications development processes.
• Tell me about some of your most recent computer programming projects.
• Provide an example of a time when you were able to demonstrated excellent listening skills. What was the situation and outcome?
• Share an experience in which your attention to detail and thoroughness had an impact on a project.
• Would you consider analyzing data or information a strength? How so?
• Provide an example of a time when you successfully organized a diverse group of people to accomplish a task.
• Share an experience in which your ability to consider the costs or benefits of a potential action helped you choose the most appropriate action.
• Name a time when you identified strengths and weaknesses of alternative solutions to problems. What was the impact?
• Share an experience in which you successfully share a difficulty piece of information.

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