During my time as a Fuqua student in the MQM: BA Marketing track, much of my coursework focused on the customer—such as my favorite class, Customer Relationship Management. In this class, we took a very technical, hands-on approach to solving real-world problems similar to ones we could expect to encounter after graduation.

Now that I’ve reached that after-graduation stage, I am even more thankful that my classes at Fuqua were so customer-focused. In my role as a business intelligence analyst at Wayfair, I work primarily on improving and optimizing the website to make it more user-friendly and efficient. To draw these insights, I run tests and create analyses. I then draw on the skills I learned in my Business Communication courses to relay the meaning behind this data to company stakeholders so that they can make high-level decisions about the business.

Thanks to the technical skills I’ve learned at Fuqua, I’ve been able to hit the ground running at Wayfair. We frequently use SQL and Tableau, and not only do I feel confident with both of these after completing the MQM: BA program, but I can also help my peers on my team to sharpen their skills in these areas. So far, in my job, I have recently been able to leverage these skills to create a performance dashboard to be used by various stakeholders showing various web analytics KPIs.

In addition to gaining technical skills, I was also able to leverage the leadership skills I gained at Fuqua. I served as the Marketing Track Chair in the MQM Association, the program’s student-run government. This meant I was responsible for representing my classmates’ opinions and acting as a liaison between my peers, faculty, and staff. I consider this experience to have been invaluable both professionally and personally. Through this role, I gained the confidence to speak up and let my voice be heard, along with an understanding of when it’s best to sit back and listen.

Overall, I found the Marketing track to be a good decision. Although I was initially unsure about the Marketing track when I entered the program, I quickly found that the hands-on experience I gained was very thorough in preparing me for my future career, which I am thrilled to have started at Wayfair. I owe a lot of tangibles, such as my technical skills, to Fuqua, as well as a lot of intangibles, such as learning to work and share ideas with people of extremely diverse backgrounds. I am sure I will apply all of these lessons throughout my career.