What is Management Information Systems?
Management Information Systems (or MIS as we call it), as a profession, specializes in enabling business processes through information technology. Our students are businesspeople who work with various technologies and systems to best run their businesses. For more info about undergraduate MIS courses, visit the MIS undergraduate course list.
I heard that there aren’t any jobs in MIS so I shouldn’t bother.
Actually, there are a lot of job opportunities for students with a concentration in MIS. Our recruiting companies are telling us that they need more students than we are currently providing! If you like technology and/or are very organized and logical, this might be a neat career opportunity for you.
Are you sure? I was told that all of the MIS jobs have been outsourced.
While there are information technology-related jobs that companies find more efficient and cheaper to staff in other locations, such as India, these jobs tend to be programming-type jobs. Our students have programming knowledge, but tend to go into systems analyst, business process analyst, and business-IT consulting positions. These jobs are much more difficult to outsource and there is currently a strong demand for good students to fill these positions.
Are there opportunities for advancement in these positions?
Very much so. As our students have strong business knowledge and information technology understanding, they have many options in terms of going into one of the functional areas of business or progressing up the information systems and technology career ladder.
I don’t want to be a cubicle captive when I go into the workforce.
Given that the role of the MIS student and professional is to understand the business processes and technologies available to better execute those processes, you won’t be spending all of your days at the cube farm. You will need to understand the business, the processes that are critical to your business, and the technologies that can enable those processes. It will be very important to be very logical and organized, but also crucial is the ability to think “outside the box” and perhaps most importantly, to work in teams and communicate your ideas to others. Therefore, you need to be creative and have excellent people and communication skills to be successful in this field, in addition to understanding the role that technology plays to your organization.
What is MISA?
The Management Information Systems Association (MISA) is the undergraduate club for students interested in MIS. They do lots of cool things, like redesign Web sites for good causes and network with recruiters and the MIS faculty. They also eat lots of pizza. For more info, visit the MISA website.
Whom do I contact for more information?
Feel free to contact the area coordinator of the MIS faculty, Professor Kemal Altinkemer, at kemal@purdue.edu.