04-19-2022
An employer’s relationships with the Krannert Professional Development Center (KPDC) doesn’t begin and end with recruiting. From corporate partnerships to network building to skills training, employers engage with KPDC for talent acquisition at every level.
At the conclusion of a successful fall recruiting campaign, for example, Tiger Analytics reconnected with KPDC to coordinate recruiting efforts for spring graduates. To build company awareness on campus, the AI and analytics consulting firm proposed conducting training sessions to aid in students’ development.
The training sessions focused on structuring a business problem into an analytical solution and business decision making post-model building, says Nagendra Shishodia, head of capabilities at Tiger Analytics. “We partnered with Purdue University to simulate real-life situations to help students evolve as analytics practitioners who don’t get stumped by challenges they are likely to face in their jobs,” he says.
So that students could leverage new skills with their company partners, the timing of the sessions also coincided with ongoing work in the industry practicum course, an experiential learning course composed mostly of MS in Business Analytics & Information Management (MSBAIM) students. Two 90-minute sessions were conducted virtually in early February with average attendance from 130 students.
"The interactive session with Krannert students revolved around key topics of analytics and business value generation from data science,” says Meenakshi Morla, principal data scientist at Tiger Analytics. “It was an extremely engaging and knowledgeable session where we discussed how the key principles of analytics solutioning are applied in different business contexts."
“The sessions provided us a preview into real-world problems and the ability to connect that to what we have been learning in the industry practicum course,” says participant and MSBAIM student Apoorva Singh. “Tiger Analytics provided an overview of their delivery pipeline and gave us an understanding of the types of business challenges they face through several case studies.”
“One of the cases we discussed was how to approach a business problem and convert it into an analytical problem, followed with a discussion of the possible solution approaches. The second session focused more on the outcomes, including how to interpret model results, how to convert them to insights and recommendations, and how to present them to the stakeholders.”
Vaibhav Mathur, another MSBAIM student who participated in the training, says Tiger Analytics outlined the entire consulting process from new project initiation to final recommendation delivery and support, providing insight into the techniques they use in real projects.
“They explained in detail how to convert a business problem into a technical problem and then how to revert the technical problem into a business solution,” Mathur says. “They also explained how to assess the risks involved in each type of recommendation, and how to be one step ahead by preparing a mitigation plan. It was a true sneak peek into the life and work of a real analytics consultant.”
