Entering Mohawk College’s Analytics for Business Decision Making program, Nicholas Rosewarne ‘19 was looking to expand his technical skills and theoretical knowledge he had obtained through his university studies. “I hoped to come out of the program with the skills necessary to get a foot in the door to begin my career development in the field of data analytics,” says Nicholas.
While at Mohawk Nicholas had the opportunity to compete in the inaugural Higher Education Analytics Data Competition hosted at the college. Teams of students from various schools were given the task of developing insights of the opioid epidemic in Canada. “We were each given an initial dataset but could access any publicly available data that we could find,” explains Nicholas. The competition lasted two days. On the first day, each team presented their findings from the work they had completed over the previous two weeks. They were then given multiple new datasets to elaborate on their findings. Working through the night, teams created a presentation they would show to a panel of judges the following day. At the conclusion of the competition, Nicholas and two of his classmates placed first.
For his final semester capstone project, Nicholas had the opportunity to work with a cloud-based accounting firm in Hamilton. The goal of the project was to create a website and interactive portal for clients that would provide a new do-it-yourself level of access to their services. For this project, Nicholas worked with a team of software developers coordinating the technical needs for the project. He also designed the data model for a website, with the goal of training an AI chatbot to collect appropriate data. “My capstone project was probably the closest to a company-specific job I experienced during my time at Mohawk,” says Nicholas. “It mirrored the role of a multidisciplinary consulting firm.”
Upon graduation, through his program coordinator, Nicholas was able to secure a job with Gerrie Electric as a business intelligence analyst. In this role, Nicholas is responsible for collecting, preparing, and presenting data to members across all levels of the organization to facilitate better-informed decision making. It provides him with the opportunity to face challenges and problem solve on a daily basis. “I am thankful that Gerrie supports the personal development of their employees,” he says. “As my first job out of school, it allows me to continue my training to expand my responsibilities and knowledge over time.”
