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Economics Homepage

Economics Department Undergraduate Program

Career Advice from our Alumni:

What's it like to work for a management information systems consultant?

1. What is your current position?

   Associate Consultant at Synygy, Inc. in Bala Cynwyd, PA. Synygy designs, implements, and manages incentive compensation plans for Fortune 500 companies with large sales forces. We create customized reports for each salesperson that easily break down the details of their compensation and how they are paid. We also create different types of management reports that detail different aggregate aspects of the data.

2. What is the nature of your work?

   My work is basically split evenly among a few major items:

   • Verifying data and reports. All of our reports are verified for accuracy before they are sent to our clients.
   • Implementing changes. Anytime there are changes to the compensation plans, we must change how we process our data as well as make changes to the reports that we send out. I perform this implementation using Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Foxpro, and our own proprietary software.
   • Interact with our clients to satisfy their needs and requests. Often this consists of creating ad-hoc reports that they request.
   • Problem solving. There are always instances when there are problems processing our data and I must use problem solving skills to identify and fix the problem.

3. What does a typical day consist of? What do you do? When do you start? How late do you work?

   I typically work from 9AM until 6:30PM, although there are always a few days per month when I work later than that. A typical day consists of processing data, verifying its accuracy, interacting with clients, and making any changes necessary.

4. What's the best way of learning more about the work you do?

   Speak to people at our company. Feel free to email me at mittler@synygy.com.

5. Looking back at your undergraduate days at Rochester, what courses or activities were particularly valuable for your current position?

   There was no single course of group of courses that prepared me for my current job. The most important things that I learned at Rochester which are of immense help now are problem solving skills (strengthened during both my Mechanical Engineering and Economic classes). Also, the few computer programming courses that I took have been helpful.

6. In retrospect, were there things you wish you did more of?

   Certainly more computer programming classes and database theory classes would have helped.

7. What do you think is the next logical career step for you?

   The next logical career step for someone in my position is usually to stay with the company. It is still a very young, fast-growing company with a lot of room for personal growth. However, I am personally leaning towards going back to graduate school to study economics.

8. Is there anything that you would like to advise our majors today about their future?

   If you are not entirely positive about what you want your career to be (and this probably incudes most of you) then the best thing is to try something that you think you would enjoy based on your skills and interests. The only true way to know what you want to become is to take as many opportunities as possible.