UCC MBS Business Information Systems

seadnamac

Posted this in the Postgrads forum but have gotten no replies......
Does anyone here have any experience or information on this course? I'm just finishing up my undergraduate degree in Architectural Technology and looking at my options at post grad level.

As the immediate future in my current field is not looking prosperous, I want to branch out into something different and this, being one of the courses subsidised by the government to satisfy the lack of IT graduates, might be worthwhile.

Anyone know what the course is like? Is it hard to get into? What the oppurtunities are like afterwards?

Also it requires an undergrad degree containing some "computer technology", I wonder would a proficiency in computer design programmes but not neccessarily actual programming satisfy this?

Any help would be appreciated.

http://www.ucc.ie/en/study/postgrad/...w/masters/bis/

doyler442

Hi

I did this last year alright but I came from the BIS undergrad.

When I was doing the course I actually really enjoyed it. Your in a group and nearly all of the projects are group based so the whole working in a team is something the employers should be happy to see. They also break the groups into different skills so there will be programmers, marketing people and designers in each group (of course depending on the skills of the people who do the course).

You can get unlucky as well though and get put into a group where the others don't do much work which can reflect badly on you although you can sort this out by naming and shaming - I got very lucky and put into a good group where we all got on very well. In fact I think most groups were grand, just one really where is all fell apart.

You must do a innovative project as well and my advice on this is to try and come up with something wacky and you'll do very well - if its a really good idea you'll get to stay on working for UCC to further develop the idea - friend of mine is currently doing this where they got 150k in funding or something like that to develop their idea further and their now resting it in two organisations.

There really isn't too much emphasis on the technical side of things as there was certainly a lot of people in my class who were very poor at programming but they got on fine in the software development module. You should be perfect in a group as a designer.

I haven't really looked for any jobs from this though as I'm gone on to do a PHD but a number of friends of mine have gotten jobs after it, mostly in London. There are a good few as well who haven't and I suppose this is down to the current job market but in a years time (after you have this done) hopefully things will be better.

When I look back at the year now I think what an easy year it actually was but I still really enjoyed it and learned a lot about business as our mentor made us set up our own business for our project. I quite enjoyed most of the modules also, but I know others think the year was a waste of their time.

If you want to know anything else ask away.

seadnamac

doyler442 wrote: »

Hi

I did this last year alright but I came from the BIS undergrad.

When I was doing the course I actually really enjoyed it. Your in a group and nearly all of the projects are group based so the whole working in a team is something the employers should be happy to see. They also break the groups into different skills so there will be programmers, marketing people and designers in each group (of course depending on the skills of the people who do the course).

You can get unlucky as well though and get put into a group where the others don't do much work which can reflect badly on you although you can sort this out by naming and shaming - I got very lucky and put into a good group where we all got on very well. In fact I think most groups were grand, just one really where is all fell apart.

You must do a innovative project as well and my advice on this is to try and come up with something wacky and you'll do very well - if its a really good idea you'll get to stay on working for UCC to further develop the idea - friend of mine is currently doing this where they got 150k in funding or something like that to develop their idea further and their now resting it in two organisations.

There really isn't too much emphasis on the technical side of things as there was certainly a lot of people in my class who were very poor at programming but they got on fine in the software development module. You should be perfect in a group as a designer.

I haven't really looked for any jobs from this though as I'm gone on to do a PHD but a number of friends of mine have gotten jobs after it, mostly in London. There are a good few as well who haven't and I suppose this is down to the current job market but in a years time (after you have this done) hopefully things will be better.

When I look back at the year now I think what an easy year it actually was but I still really enjoyed it and learned a lot about business as our mentor made us set up our own business for our project. I quite enjoyed most of the modules also, but I know others think the year was a waste of their time.

If you want to know anything else ask away.

That's a great response thanks very much. From what you've said it sounds fairly appealing to me. I was worried it was going to be very IT based and I'd just be bored for a year. I do like the idea of the group work and the creative sides to it along with the business theory.

Do you know if it's very competitive to get into? What type of jobs do you think graduates end up in and what reasons do you think the others would give for saying it was a waste of their time?

Again, thanks for your reply.

doyler442

Do you know if it's very competitive to get into?

There was 55 in my class last year, and the feeling I got from it was once you applied and had a good degree you would get in. Maybe this will have changed slightly now that more people will probably be applying to do a masters as it seems to be the norm these days.

What type of jobs do you think graduates end up in

The job that I think is most common is IT consulting. You usually start off as an IT analyst and work your way up. Companies such as Accenture, Deloitte, and JP Morgon is where you would be looking at.

A lot of people also join IT teams as analysts where you work within the organisation on their IT systems and again this title is usually IT analyst. Kerry Group, Glanbia and Credit Suisse are companies you could look at.

I find it to be interesting work (and sometimes they require a bit of programming which I wouldn't really like myself but you'd get used to that) but you could also look into things such as project management.

what reasons do you think the others would give for saying it was a waste of their time?

I was only talking to a girl who was in my class about this a few days ago and she was just saying she didn't think the year was worth the effort, that she didn't think it was worth too much to her. But as I mentioned above I felt it was well worth doing and I learned a lot from the experience.

If you need anything else ask away.

kmick

Most of the people I know who did it ended up in Sales and IT Consulting. Did not do the course myself but it seemed pretty intense with lots of projects and deadlines. It helped if you had done a business degree as there was lots of accounting also. As far as I could see it was manily commerce graduates who wanted an IT qualification for their CV.

doyler442

kmick wrote: »

Most of the people I know who did it ended up in Sales and IT Consulting. Did not do the course myself but it seemed pretty intense with lots of projects and deadlines. It helped if you had done a business degree as there was lots of accounting also. As far as I could see it was manily commerce graduates who wanted an IT qualification for their CV.

I didn't find it too intense myself because nearly all the projects are group based so the work is shared. The only tough part really is getting together and talking about what to do and who takes what sections but that usually ends up being easy enough.

The accounting module in the course is financial and runs for half the year and is extermely basic - it deals with profit and loss, some budgeting and the balance sheet. I didn't think it was worth anything in the end as I done pass accounting for the leaving cert.

For the innovative project you wil be expected to put together projections and create profit and loss accounts and some budgeting but htats part of the learning I suppose.

seadnamac

Thanks for both of ye're replies. Plenty food for thought there. I think I'm going to apply anyway. Should give me plenty options in the future having qualifications in two different fields.

JeremyH

You should have a chat with Brian O' Flaherty - he's the course director for the MBS BIS.

D'Agger

Agree with JeremyH (lecturer in BIS perhaps?) Brian Fla is a bang on fella and should give you solid advice. Only thing I've heard of a masters in BIS from mates of mine doing it is that it's basically like doing another Final Year Project - just finished mine and have no intention of putting myself through it again! Apparently Brian can be tough on his masters students too but that's just what I've heard