Alumni Spotlight

Landing a Technical Role With Jiaxian (Neo) Cai

Management Information System, also known as MIS for students and professionals, is one of the many business concentrations that focuses on the business and technology aspects. Going into an MIS field can be daunting at first because it is a broad field where students can follow different career paths such as business analyst, consultant, systems analyst, etc.

To get a big picture of what it is like working in an MIS-related field, I reached out to Jiaxian (Neo) Cai, who was one of the active MISA members, while working full-time and graduated in 2018 a year later.

Outside of class, Neo has spent his undergraduate years working as a Program Leader at the YMCA of San Francisco, then working as an Operation Coordinator at Clover Health and Operations Support Analyst at Illumio. Upon graduation, Neo took up a new job position as a Scaled Abused Analyst at Google. As active MISA alumni, Neo hopes to give back to current students to navigate through networking with professionals and taking advantage of technical skills.

How has MISA helped you during your time at SJSU?

Neo Cai: “MISA is one of the best organizations on campus that provides students with the chance to network with students and professionals from various companies. You get to connect on knowing how to land an internship or a full-time job with other fellow MISA members by building that strong connection over a coffee-chat or lunch break.”

James Manalili: “Which MIS route did you take with your current work at Google?”

Neo Cai: “First, MIS is not as tech-savvy compared to computer science or software engineering. We can use that to our advantage in that MIS can bridge that gap between the business and the technical sides to try new ideas. The skills I utilized at Google the most are heavy with SQL and project management. Nowadays, databases are like the backbone of many MIS job positions. You are constantly using data to analyze and solve problems. Always know what you have and know how to use it.”

“Always know what you have and know how to use it!”

James Manalili: “What do you think that helped you land a role at Google?”

Neo Cai: “After I took a class on Salesforce, I have some background with that program. I was interested in knowing how to use Salesforce for my project, so I took an online class that teaches Salesforce’s CRM. I put that on my resume and got the interview. Networking has also played out a lot when I applied to various jobs too. As you know, MIS is always changing each day as technology progresses, and it’s not for everybody at the end of the day. You have to be on top of the technology because MIS is like a life-long learning commitment as you also have to apply domain knowledge. Doing something is measurable by using technology to solve a problem.”

“Using technology to solve a problem.”

James Manalili: “What is the biggest advice you can give to our MIS members?”

Neo Cai: I can give you three valuable pieces of advice for students who are still pursuing an MIS degree. The earlier students recognize what they want to follow in a technical or business role later in life, the more time they can prepare for future careers like project management or systems analyst. The second piece of advice is don’t compare yourself to a CS or engineer degree. They are two different things. Please don’t do a job that you are uncomfortable with even though they look similar to one another. Also, don’t be too worried about rejection! It happens to everyone in life, so you have to make the most out of it when it comes to professional development.

“Don’t be too worried about it!”

Summary:

One of the best things about going into an MIS field is that students can take on a wide variety of different career paths. Neo explains it very well in that it is up to students to find what they are passionate about, whether it is going into the technical or business aspects of MIS. It is also worth mentioning that they should also reach out to MISA alumni or recruiters to network with them to learn more about the company and the job position!

This article was brought to you by James Manalili and Alan Nguyen, members of the SJSU MISA Alumni Committee.

#spartanup #sjsuspartans #sjsumisaalumni

Alumni Committee