Learn Today, Apply Tomorrow: From MSBA to Major League Soccer

Shobhit Makhija likes to keep himself busy. He’s a Site Reliability Engineer at Major League Soccer (MLS) by day and a Master of Science in Business Analytics (MSBA) student at UW Foster by night. Despite his packed schedule, Shobhit feels lucky to have scored a dream role where he gains hands-on data experience while completing his master’s degree.

With a winning blend of time management and determination, Shobhit joined UW Foster’s MSBA program to build the analytics and data skills essential for advancing into managerial roles. Now, he’s making the most of every opportunity – working hands-on while in school to put his classroom learning into action, elevate his resume, and set himself up for lasting career success.

Passion Meets Profession

By the end of his first quarter, Shobhit had an impressive job working as a full-time engineer in the world of U.S. soccer. Even though he was juggling a rigorous graduate program with a demanding job, the rewarding and fast-paced nature of the work made the hard days worthwhile.

“At MLS, I’m working to ensure the statistics and data that are updating during a live game is accurate,” says Shobhit. “I’m working on something that I know and understand.” He’s not just gaining work experience to grow his resume—although that’s a huge benefit. He’s working in a role that combines his passion for soccer with his career goals, allowing him to put what he’s learning in his master’s program to real use every day.

“Being a soccer fan myself, I know what data is important for having a great fan experience, and I get to be a part of that,” he continues. Shobhit is glad he’s solidifying his data analytics skills during out-of-office hours in such a high-impact and high-urgency role.

“In the MSBA program, we’re always exploring data sets while simultaneously thinking about business problems,” he explains. “Our discussions range from answering key questions with a given data set to figuring out what’s important to stakeholders.” The experience of simultaneously learning and putting his business knowledge to the test is helping him become a stronger engineer and a more competitive candidate for future jobs.

Shaping a career path with Foster Career Services

Prior to being a full-time engineer with a demanding course load, Shobhit was a brand-new graduate student looking for guidance on his next steps. After graduating from a U.S. university, he started building his career through valuable work experience. By the time he joined the MSBA program at UW Foster, he was eligible to continue working in off-campus roles through Curricular Practical Training (CPT). He knew he wanted to keep developing work experience and relevant skills, but he needed some help figuring out what he was looking for and how to go after it. This is where the Foster School of Business Career Services team stepped in.

During his first semester of graduate school, Shobhit enrolled in the Summer Career Course offered by the Career Services office. “In that course, we learned about building a stronger resume and LinkedIn presence and that experience was essential for understanding how to highlight my qualities to be a standout candidate,” he explains.

Starting to interview for local, full-time positions as soon as he started the program, Shobhit credits the Career Services team for helping him figure out his options and navigate the process of being an international student on the job hunt. “They did interview prep with me while giving feedback on ways to improve, helped me figure out my options, and gave a lot of feedback on the qualities I should focus on while interviewing,” he continues.

When it was time to start job searching, Shobhit knew how to market himself to potential employers. “While interviewing, I mentioned that I was in the middle of my graduate degree program, and the interviewers obviously appreciate a candidate who is going out of their way to learn more and improve their skillset. It showed them that I was serious about my career.”

The perfect combination of past work experience, customized interview preparation, and lessons learned (or soon to be learned) from the MSBA program helped him get the offer.

MSBA Theory Meets MLS Practice

Armed with a strategic job search plan and newfound confidence, Shobhit soon saw the impact of his MSBA coursework, not just in interviews, but also in his daily responsibilities.

“At work, I’m constantly doing data quality checks, retrieving data, and checking data sources,” he explains. “Getting the experience and exposure to all of this in the classroom first helps me in my current role.”

Many of the questions he prioritizes at work were originally presented in the MSBA classroom: How is the data being processed? Where are the different sources coming from? How often are these data sources updated? These questions and processes are discussed in the classroom in the evening and put into practice in a real-world setting the next morning. Shobhit is taking full advantage of UW Foster’s ‘learn today, apply tomorrow’ methodology – and it’s working quite well for him.

Click here to learn more about the Master of Science in Business Analytics program.