Your university should nurture you as you grow personally, professionally, and academically. In an insightful first blog, Student Ambassador Nhat Huu Dai Tran (Sunny) gives us the low down on the award-winning business courses at UCC and shares his aspirations for the future…
IT, business, and education fascinate me endlessly, and they always provide fresh challenges. Nine years leading tech start-ups and social enterprises in Vietnam has made me realise that digital innovation, my greatest inspiration, is our biggest ally in shaping the near future. Ireland’s world-class education, vibrant entrepreneurial ecosystem, and site of Europe’s global digital hub are the ideal incubators for my passionate pursuit of a Business & Technology Master’s degree.
I envision enabling sustainable development models for organisations, by taking full advantage of digital innovation with a practical sight to become a Digital Transformation Manager. This position requires outstanding capacities, so I needed to strategically select a course to enhance my skills and qualities.
UCC Campus (photo: Sunny)
An Award-Winning Postgraduate IT Course:
The UCC Quadrangle (photo: Sunny)
Thankfully, through the University College Cork, I came to see the answer lying in MSc Information Systems for Business Performance, the “Best Postgraduate IT Course” winner from 2013-2018. This is a 12-month intensive, multidisciplinary course that values both technology and business. We are taught from beginner-level to understand the contemporary digital landscape, examine how organisations can derive value from digital transformation, and contribute to the adoption of novel technological solutions.
I enjoy coming to class, sitting at the front, taking any chance to debate with our professors and my peers, and keep quenching my thirst for exploring the next big digital questions: “How can we use tracking information to improve the users themselves, not only user experience? How can we use big data to not keep billions addicted to click-baiting apps, but to prevent a disaster?”.
Loving Ireland (photo: Sunny)
The course is indeed intensive. We have hybrid online and offline classes, have to read dozens of texts, as well as having writing assignments, and, my favourite part, “scratch our head” to solve real-life problem statements from leading tech companies. Every week, we embrace a unique opportunity to welcome the CEO, vice-president, manager from industry-leaders organisations to share their insights and pitch their problem statements. It’s thrilling to gain experience from working with Dell, Accenture, Ernst & Young, VMWare, and many emerging tech startups.
Ready to Step into the Tech Industry:
Statue on campus (photo: Sunny)
Having IT working experience allows me to “bite the bullet” through assignments and devour the materials as much as I wish. I also cheer for my non-tech background classmates who despite the initial challenge, also overcame semester one with valuable takeaways. We have learned database analyst, data visualisation, data-driven decision making, business analyst, e-business models and how to derive IT business values.
We also had the chance to network with the course alumni. Seeing where they are working now, I am intrigued by the thought that at the end of the course, we too will proudly become either business analysts, project managers, auditors, researchers, business intelligence consultants, marketing managers, or technological consultants.
In a world where technology has infiltrated every industry, skilful IT staff are always in high demand. Therefore, achieving a Masters in Information Systems is an extremely attractive choice.
I used to have the fear of missing out, due to the crazy-fast advancement of the tech industry. Today, I still have that fear, but by studying this course at University College Cork has cultivated my courage to tackle the tech industry. I feel ready. And you will too.
Sunny is working towards a Masters in Information Systems for Business Performance at UCC.