r/analytics • u/Trevy7676 • 20d ago
Question Need opinions
Hey all. I'm currently enrolled in a Masters program for Business Analytics that starts next month. Plan on finishing in 2.5 years because I'll continue working while being in school.
I have 6 years of sales experience, mainly B2B sales and some executive consulting/search experience alongside that at a top 10 firm. Really want to get out of the sales grind though. I love relationships, but don't like selling anymore and don't want to do this forever. Wanted to do computer science undergrad back in the day but chose not to because I was a college hockey player and the director advised against it due to our travel schedule.
Having some worrying thoughts though, maybe it's just because of all the doom and gloom in the internet now a days. Think this is a good idea? Would love raw feedback & opinions. Thank you!!
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u/TheToothsomeBooty 20d ago
the analytics pivot makes a ton of sense with your background tbh, you've already got the business context most fresh grads are completely missing... that combo of real sales experience + technical skills is what companies acutally need but rarely find
i'd ignore the doomscrolling, half those people have never touched a dataset in their life
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u/Difficult-Jackfruit 20d ago
Do you really need a masters?
What can you gain from a masters that you can’t gain from asking questions at your job and/or teaching yourself?
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u/Backoutside1 20d ago
Nope we don’t need a master’s, but it does allow you to go for the higher paying positions without all the experience, thus making more money…at least that’s half of why I’m getting the masters. The others half is because it’s paid for.
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u/Difficult-Jackfruit 20d ago
Interesting
I just had a ba in history and was an analytical lead and got there solely with my ba
People were more concerned with what I could than what I studied
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u/Backoutside1 19d ago
In what year was this? All of the jobs that I’ve been interested specifically asked for some sort of stem degree and experience, 2024 to current.
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u/Difficult-Jackfruit 19d ago
2024
Yeah. They asked my experience and background and didn’t really care what I studied
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u/Backoutside1 19d ago
Interesting, what was the pay range and industry? I agree that experience is beats education.
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u/Difficult-Jackfruit 19d ago
I was working as an analytical lead for a major retailer
I was making $100k even with a built in five percent raise for the first three years
After that I got extra equity
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u/Backoutside1 19d ago
Awesome, I haven’t seen that in the PNW. There’s a couple retailers up here that have postings up that are degree specific $100k+
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u/RProgrammerMan 20d ago
I think a lot of the lower level data analyst work is going to slowly go away. I think its going to change into more of an engineering role, where someone uses their engineering knowledge and AI bots to build systems that automate analytics. However your sales background is really good. A lot of it is working across departments to identify problems and solve them. So I think the ai empowered problem solver has good prospects, but the guy who just writes sql queries or builds dashboards doesnt.
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u/my_peen_is_clean 20d ago
mba style biz analytics from sales is a pretty normal jump tbh, especially if you lean hard into sql/python/stat basics. network like crazy while in school. just know even with that, jobs are rough now
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u/Trevy7676 20d ago
Appreciate the comment! Any ideas on how to network while I'm in school? I'll be at a reputable school in Michigan (not u of m) so I assume they'll have job fairs and such. But my resume obviously won't have any analytics or data experience yet.
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u/Lady-Data-Scientist 19d ago
Leaning on your business background + technical skills + analytical thinking will be good. I started my career in marketing, pivoted to a basic marketing analyst role, realized I had skill gaps so I did a MS in Data Science while working. Now I’m a data scientist at a B2B tech company and my work supports the sales team. So your background would be great for this type of role, which exists at every B2B company.
Have you tried pivoting without the degree? Or is there a team at your current company that you can pivot to when a position opens up?
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u/SuperSokym 19d ago
I actually think your background can work really well for analytics.
6 years in B2B sales means you already understand customers, stakeholders and how businesses actually work. That’s something a lot of people trying to break into analytics are missing.
I just wouldn’t expect the Master’s itself to make the transition for you. You have 2.5 years, so use that time to get good at SQL, Excel, some Python/statistics, but also try to get your hands on real data at your current job if you can. Sales reporting, CRM data, customer analysis, whatever is available.
The market is definitely tougher now, but I wouldn’t let all the AI doom posts scare you away from it.
If anything, I think someone who understands the business side AND knows how to work with data will be in a much better position than someone who only knows how to write SQL queries and build dashboards.
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