University at Buffalo School of Management

Spring 2017 Buffalo Business 29 Nearly 10 percent of last year's MS in MIS class earned positions at Amazon — a perfect fi t for grads seeking a career in data mining, analytics or cybersecuri- ty, according to Pavankumar Mulgund, clinical assistant professor of management science and systems. "Every aspect of Amazon's business is heavily analyzed, requiring candidates who understand the tools and can use them effectively to identify and solve busi- ness problems," says Mulgund, who is also MS in MIS program manager. "Our graduates have those skills, and at Amazon, they get to work on the best technology in the industry and have an immediate impact." But, as these alumni learned, obtaining a position at Amazon is not easy, requiring at least one phone interview and several in-person interviews to gauge their technical prowess, past experiences and knowledge of Amazon's core principles. "The best part of working at Amazon is the oppor- tunity to suggest improvements or new products — even if a process is a decade old or a product is a huge hit," says Rajat Singh, MS '16, quality assurance engi- neer on the Amazon Prime team. "Am- azon looks for new ideas everywhere and will give you the support to develop your ideas." In his role, Singh works on cust- omer retention initiatives and Prime launches in new countries, which he says directly relates to his coursework in data- base management and systems analysis and design. Meanwhile, Singh's wife, Shruti Bajpai, MS '16, serves as a functional analyst in enterprise resource planning, providing business solutions for Ama- zon's accounting and fi nance customers. "Things are continuously evolving at Amazon, so we have to push our limits and be more innovative in ev- erything we do," she says. "The School of Management taught me how to better multitask and manage team dynamics with a diverse group of people." Three recent MIS alumni work in data analytics or engineering for Amazon: Jaspreet Kaur Chawla, Pranay Rao and Soumita Sen. As a data analyst, Chawla creates the pipeline that brings information from tools like Salesforce into the company's data warehouse to be used for predictive analytics. "There are many ways to approach and solve prob- lems, so designing the optimal solution on a tight dead- line can be an exciting challenge," she says. For many alumni, working for Amazon is the realization of a longtime career goal to leverage their technical and business skills to impact customers all over the world. "Working for Amazon is a dream come true," says Priyali Khetrapal, MS '16. "For me, UB was an obvi- ous choice to help achieve that goal, with a high return on investment and multiple tracks to prepare you for a versatile market." Khetrapal is one of four 2016 grads who serve as business analysts at Amazon, along with Nisha Jataniya, Shivani Jindal and Chitralekha Rathore. In human resources, Jindal works on recruiting analytics, including requirement gathering, database set- up, data modeling and stakeholder management. "The culture at Amazon is fl exible and allows me to work on any technol- ogy I feel will solve a business problem," Jindal says. "The MS in MIS program was intense, helping me learn quick- ly and improve my ability to prioritize tasks, which is critical at Amazon." For Rathore, a business analyst on the North American customer service team, the skills she learned at the School of Management, particularly in statistics and data mining, have allowed her — like the rest of her cohort — to make positive changes for the organization and its customers. "My team identifi es opportunities for new prod- ucts or policies that affect the customer experience for Amazon's largest region," Rathore says. "We receive the most out-of-the-box questions. It's exciting to answer them and drive endeavors in the right direction based on data." x — Matthew Biddle Six of the 2016 MS in MIS alumni at Amazon. From left: Rajat Singh, Anusha Amareshbabu, Nisha Jataniya, Priyali Khetrapal, Jaspreet Kaur Chawla and Shruti Bajpai. Photo: Taylor Jashinsky Do you have several School of Management alumni working at your company? Come together, snap a photo and send it to mgt-editor@buff alo.edu, and we'll share it via social media. " Things are continuously evolving at Amazon, so we have to push our limits and be more innovative in everything we do." Shruti Bajpai, MS '16 Functional Analyst

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