A Career Pivot Into Business Analytics
Eric Kessel '23 MSBA didn't start his career in business analytics. Before enrolling in graduate school, he worked in medical laboratory science at Allina Health.
While working there as a laboratory supervisor, Kessel realized there were opportunities to use data analytics more intentionally in the lab. "I noticed there were business problems that didn't have clear ways to get the information to answer them," he said.
Kessel had been considering a master's degree as the next step in his career. By then, he had transitioned into a quality and safety advisor role at Allina and was taking on more reporting responsibilities. The St. Thomas MS in Business Analytics (MSBA) felt like a natural fit.
But Kessel was also entering new territory. He had never written a SQL statement or worked in R, Tableau, Power BI or SAS, and it had been years since he'd taken statistics. He applied anyway.
Approaching Analytics Differently
Once he was in the St. Thomas MSBA program, Kessel found the classes moved at a pace that allowed him to learn those topics and not feel overwhelmed.
He liked that the coursework wasn't centered on just learning the new tools, but understanding the full analytics process.
"Most tools you can learn by doing data camps," he said. "But if you don't understand how to talk with a client, it won't matter how great you built the dashboard if the customer won't use it. St. Thomas does a good job getting students to critically think through the whole process - from choosing the tool that best fits the situation to communicating those findings."
Kessel also appreciated that ethics was woven throughout the program's curriculum.
"Ethics help build confidence and trust in what you create," he said. "If you create misleading graphs, you lose that trust, and it's really hard to build that back."
"The St. Thomas MSBA program just clicked for me, and I understood what I could really do with my skills."
Translating Skills in Real-Time
One of those moments for Kessel came in BUAN 620 - Data Life Cycle for Analytics. After learning SQL, he started writing his own queries.
"As my skills got better, I could write my own queries at work and customize the data myself," he said. "I really enjoyed understanding how a database was put together."
During his business analytics practicum, Kessel worked with a company client on a live analytics project. At the end of the course, his team presented their recommendations to company leaders.
"What I realized after meeting with the company is that executives have little time to look at a dashboard," he said. "You don't need to have the most advanced visuals. Sometimes less is better."
Since then, Kessel has customized his dashboards based on the audience, keeping overview pages simple and using color to draw attention to important changes.
Life After the MSBA
Today, Kessel is a senior information management analyst at Allina Health, where he began his career as a medical lab scientist. He works with teams across the organization to build reports and dashboards that answer questions about quality, regulations and organizational goals.
Every day, he uses some combination of SQL, Excel, PowerBI and storytelling to do it.
"Personally, I look at every request as a story," he said. "Why do we want this data? Why do we want this dashboard? Why do we need this question answered?"
Considering What's Next
For working professionals considering the MS in Business Analytics program, especially those coming from a different field, Kessel offers this advice:
"You might be nervous because your undergraduate or current occupation hasn't had you work with analytic tools, or you feel that the classes will be too fast paced and you'll get lost.
As long as you're willing to put in the work and understand that a few classes require more time, you can be just as successful."
