Valuable experience that can be applied to real-life

As students at a well-known university, it is oftentimes difficult to get the opportunity to apply concepts and topics learned within the classroom. I signed up to take the IS/OM Practicum course, taking a previous course with Professor Vishal, in order to get experience working on a real project with a real client, allowing me to expand my business knowledge and professional skills. Double majoring in Information Systems and Operations Management made me believe that I could gain valuable skills and challenge myself by taking the IS/OM Practicum. However, I have gained consulting experience and skills, working with a Fortune 500 company, that I would never have expected if I didn’t take this course. Being able to challenge myself with new concepts and working with a team that I have never worked with before in the class, has become one of the highlights of my college experience that I will never forget. 

Our consulting project with the client involved automation in the corporate finance department and automation processes such as Robotic Process Automation (RPA) and Robotic Desktop Automation (RDA). Although I did hear about these terms before, I was not aware of how these new technologies can be utilized and implemented in the business. My knowledge on these topics, after thorough research and valuable conversations with key stakeholders, has been expanded and has allowed me the confidence in myself to talk about automation. Getting to work closely with the automation and corporate finance teams have allowed me to step outside of my comfort zone and learn about new technologies and their use cases. Being a student, I wouldn’t have expected the opportunity to actually make a real impact and difference on a company, yet the IS/OM practicum has offered me the opportunity to work with the consulting project.  

I have also significantly improved on several soft skills, especially organization, multitasking, and having an analytical mindset. How the curriculum is taught, pushes the students to analyze the problem and carefully lay out a plan to approach and address it in a well-organized manner. This has proven to be quite useful to me in different areas other than this class, such as other group projects, leadership positions in my student organizations, and my job as an HR intern. The analytical mindset and how I approach problem-solving have significantly improved my ability to handle obstacles in my professional and personal life. Similarly, this project has taught me how to effectively communicate with your client in order to understand the breadth of the issue and problems statement you are tasked to complete. Not only will this be helpful for future consulting projects, but this skill can assist me in understanding how to  These soft skills that I have refined that can be credited to this class, will be useful in my future endeavors once I graduate from the university.

I’d like to finish my final reflection by giving a huge shout-out to my team members that have challenged me and helped me grow in ways that I wouldn’t have gotten in other classrooms. It’s been a huge pleasure to work with individuals who are passionate about the same things as I am, allowing us to bounce ideas off of each other to create a final product that satisfies us and the client. I would also like to thank Professor Vishal and our SM Amogh, for giving our team guidance and recommendations when we were lost, our team is very grateful! Overall, I would recommend taking this course for any students who are looking to apply their skill sets to a real project.