By Kara Sherrer
About 300 years ago, knowing how to read became critical to interacting with people in modern society — and Meredith Broadway thinks the same thing is going to happen for programming and data analysis. As evidence, the Business Information and Data Analysis Librarian at the Walker Management Library points out that many high school graduates are now required to take a programming course before they graduate.
Meredith Broadway
“In the next few decades, you will have to know a programming language in order to communicate with people,” Broadway said.
Employers recognize this shift, and frequently look for technical expertise among MBA candidates they’re vetting for internships and jobs. More and more, the Walker Management Library is becoming a resource for not only books and information, but also training for these technical skills.
Learning Programming Literacy
Employers’ desire for expertise in programming and data analysis — particularly in Python and R, two different programming languages — spans a variety of functions and industries: finance, operations, marketing, healthcare, and so on. Even if the MBAs won’t be working with the programs themselves, they will probably be managing a team who does work with them.
“Employers across industries have access to an ever-growing amount of data in this highly digitized and quantified environment we all live in,” said Emily Anderson, Director of the Career Management Center. “This means the more exposure, education, and analytical skill development a current student can gain while they are in the program, the more valuable they will be to their new potential employers.”
While many students start off working in data interfaces that provide some level of organization and interpretation, learning how to extract what information they need from raw data is another critical skill.
Hilary Craiglow
“More and more, people are interested in manipulating data the way they want to, as opposed to how some vendor’s interface does it,” said Hilary Craiglow, Director of the Walker Management Library. “We’re going to need to not have an interface if we really want to get to analysis and data that makes sense for us. We’re going to have to create the queries (ourselves).”
This training also equips students to think critically about data that’s presented to them by others, a key skill for anyone working in the business world. “There’s so many ways to manipulate data in how you show it to people,” Broadway said. “Even the small decision of either choosing a median or a mean can drastically change what you’re looking at.”
Gaining the Skills
No matter students’ initial level of skill, the Walker Management Library offers programming to help them learn, well, programming, as well as data analysis. “We are in the business of creating a low barrier to entry,” Broadway said.
Broadway helps run lunchtime workshops that help give students a taste of important tools such as Tableau, R, SQL, Git, and GitHub. She also coordinates the R working group, intended for students who want a deeper dive into the programming language. In addition, Broadway is working on putting together a series of more in-depth, co-curricular trainings for spring 2019. Intended to build on one another, these longer workshops will help students get familiar with version control, managing data, and more critical skills that today’s employers want.
The library also offers many databases for students to reference for projects and pitches, such as Hoovers and Bloomberg, and staff are constantly seeking to acquire the best databases possible. And of course, librarians are always available to provide in-person consultations or help out with research questions via email.
The librarians don’t just want to teach the skills requires to work in these programming languages and databases; in the process, they also seek to educate students about broader issues surrounding access to data and user privacy. Many business school students go onto to work in tech or tech-enabled companies after graduation, making these questions extremely relevant to their real-life jobs.
“Hopefully students will be able to go into these (tech) positions and speak to not only the ethical nature of the software and technology that they’re using, but also what they’re doing with people’s data,” Broadway said.
The library is also dedicated not only to encouraging these trainings and discussions, but also making sure that students feel comfortable asking for help in the first place, whether that’s with programming and data analysis or another reference question entirely. “We need spaces where people can say they don’t know something,” Craiglow said. “We have people here (at the library) that can say ‘Well I may not know that either, but we can help you figure it out.’”
Want to learn more about getting an MBA at Vanderbilt Business? Visit the program page or request more information.
