That’s the word from Dr. Jim Wyse, professor in the Faculty of Business, to students who choose the Information Systems concentration in the Bachelor of Commerce degree.

With strong prospects of employment after graduation, Dr. Wyse also advises students not to feel pressured to accept their first job offer. According to a Department of Labour publication, “employment of computer and information systems managers is expected to grow faster than the average for all occupations through the year 2014.”

Finding work after graduation wasn’t a problem for the two students who took IS as their concentration in the B.Comm. class of 2007. Susan Gillingham, from Mount Pearl, is working in Waterloo, Ontario as a project coordinator for Research in Motion, the makers of BlackBerry. Andrew Brewer, a native of Salt Pond, Burin, is a computer programmer with Service Canada in St. John’s.

Information Systems (IS) is a little-known concentration within the Faculty of Business. Students in the IS concentration learn how businesses can use computers to transform the way they operate and learn how to design computer systems that make businesses and people more productive.

As Mr. Brewer explained, “every organization has a need for information systems. A concentration in IS gives you the technical computer skills and the business skills you need to find solutions that work for a particular organization.”

Students who focus on Information Systems in the B.Comm (co-op) program can gain practical experience in IS before they graduate. Ms. Gillingham spent two work terms with RIM, applying the concepts she learned in class to real world applications.

“Co-op really helped me succeed in the program,” she explained in a phone interview from Waterloo. “When I was project coordinator in my last work term I was able to apply concepts I had learned in class to the software development life cycle. I got to see first hand how it’s applied to real world projects.”

Before coming to Memorial, Ms. Gillingham was interested in technology but unsure of what she wanted to study. “I considered engineering, computer science and business, but once I took courses in information systems, I realized that was what I wanted to do,” she said. “I was interested in the management side of technology as opposed to the pure technical side.”

Students who are interested in finding out more about the information systems concentration in the Bachelor of Commerce program can do so by visiting www.business.mun.ca/programs/is_contact.php.