Katie Moen ’21
Education: MS Management Information Systems Internships: Professional:
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Describe your career and what led you to your current position. I originally was connected to my current company, PwC, through on-campus recruiting. Texas A&M University has an excellent relationship with many top companies, and I was able to benefit from that by having the opportunity to interview for a PwC leadership conference. This conference launched my career with PwC and my interest in cybersecurity consulting. What were your job responsibilities in your internship? How did the MS-MIS program prepare you for this position? During my internship, I worked with clients to document their current employee lifecycle management events. Then, I helped develop business and functional requirements for an automated IAM solution and drafted requirement and implementation documentation. The MS-MIS program prepared me for speaking directly with clients and translating technical requirements into language that can be understood by non-technical colleagues and clients. What was your favorite course at A&M? My favorite MS-MIS course was ISTM 631 – Information Systems Design and Development. This course challenged me intellectually and provided me a deep understanding of both SQL and NoSQL databases, which will be extremely beneficial for my career. The professor truly cared about the students’ learning and readily helped outside of class in office hours. We also had a semester project that provided hands-on learning and freedom to learn and develop our system how we saw fit. What was the most beneficial course you took at A&M? I found ISTM 624 – Advanced Systems Analysis and Design, as well as an offered directed elective, CSCE 702 – Cybersecurity Law and Policy, to both be extremely beneficial to me. ISTM 624 teaches practical and useful industry knowledge for analysis and design methods that I have first-hand seen used in businesses. As a cybersecurity consultant, CSCE 702 was extremely insightful and thought-provoking. Why did you pursue a master’s degree? I chose to pursue my Master’s in Management Information Systems in order to further develop my technical skills. The program allowed me to focus on specific topics and deepen my technical expertise while providing business applications. My MS-MIS coursework has been extremely pertinent to the technology consulting industry. What is the biggest challenge you faced in graduate school? The biggest challenge I faced in graduate school was working in group projects. The MS-MIS program is diverse, and it was challenging learning to work with multi-cultural teamwork practices and approaches. I am thankful for this challenge, as it is extremely applicable to the real world. You must be able to adjust and work efficiently and effectively with different team members and clients. What is the biggest reward for earning your MS-MIS degree? The biggest reward for earning an MS-MIS degree was the knowledge learned and connections made. I gained practical knowledge that I can apply throughout my career in industry and expanded my network with new, brilliant friends throughout the program. Additionally, this degree will set me apart from other candidates and allow me to progress through management. |
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