Dr. Ram Gopal, department head of Operations & Information Management (OPIM) at the University of Connecticut School of Business, accompanied by OPIM faculty members Ramesh Sankaranarayanan, Sudip Bhattacharjee, Dmitry Zhdanov, and students Walid Namane, Imrus Sadiq, Carlo Guerriero, and Lily Elawar chatted with Neena Satija of NPR News about the overwhelming need for MIS (IT) skills in the state job market.

The department is finding that IT skills are favored across industries, even those traditionally known for recruiting in certain majors. For example, during a recruiting visit, “Internal Revenue Service recruiters said they’ll hire all that they can find. And the list of skills that they wanted read like our course list over here: Databases, Visual Basic…” according to Sankaranarayanan.

The MIS major at the School of Business has seen 100% job placement for all of its students over many years, and has the highest average starting salary among all business majors. Walid, who has just a year left in the MIS major at the University of Connecticut, says, “I feel no anxiety or stress whatsoever.” He feels confident in the many options available. The demand among employers is high, and UConn MIS professors can only supply companies with about one intern for every four positions they’re looking for.

“A lot of the challenges with IT deal with not just the technical aspects of IT, but how to fit IT within the business,” Gopal explains. “And that’s what we train our students to do.”

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