Can I Make a Career Pivot into IT with a BU MET Computer Information Systems or Computer Science Degree?

Sometimes, you just need a professional change. Things grow stale, interest wanes, the promise of greater opportunity elsewhere beckons. In times such as this, there’s little more valuable than an educational partner that’s proven capable of supporting people like you as they make the transition toward greener professional pastures, helping to develop the skills, credentials, and confidence it takes to succeed in a new field.

At Boston University’s Metropolitan College (BU MET), we know what it takes to successfully provide our students with the lessons, experiences, and support that power career pivots like these. Beyond being home to world-class faculty and cutting-edge programs in high-demand fields like data analytics, cybersecurity, and health informatics, we are also deeply attentive to the role access plays in opportunity. That’s why since 1965 we’ve found ways to provide working adults the kinds of educational access that allows them to better their circumstances through a process that begins with learning something new.

Once upon a time, part-time higher education for working adults strictly meant in-person night classes. Nowadays, BU MET students join our programs from all across the country and world, studying at their own pace at hours that work for them, thanks to the power of our online learning offerings, which we first began to provide all the way back in 2001. In addition to our on-campus options, our online graduate programs have grown especially robust in the years since, maintaining a leadership role in worldwide distance education—just ask U.S. News & World Report, which has consistently ranked many of BU MET’s online graduate programs among its top 10 since 2014. We’re not ashamed to say, we’ve gotten good at what we do—teaching you everything you need to know to make a substantial career change, wherever you’re coming from.

Of course, some fields come with higher barriers to entry than others. In a world where technology touches nearly every industry, you may be wondering: Can a graduate degree in computer information systems, computer science, or health informatics from BU MET truly help me transition into an IT career?

The short answer is: yes. And the most compelling proof comes from BU MET alums who began in entirely different fields and successfully built careers in CS & IT.

The Commodity Trader Turned Google Technical Account Manager

Harunobu Ishii (MET’22) had 10 years of experience in the commodity trading industry, serving in various roles from the front desk to the back office, before he decided to retool his skill set and pursue an education in data science. Chief among his goals was to bridge traditional industries like the one he was involved in with emerging technologies. Ishii had seen firsthand how sectors outside of tech and finance often lacked the digital acumen and support needed to leverage the transformational power unlocked through data science and machine learning.

“Many industries nowadays are exploring digital and data evolution,” he says. “I wanted to be able to provide both the infrastructure that provides a foundation for industry to innovate, and the data science technology.”

Ishii was drawn to BU MET for our openness to students who previously lacked an undergraduate computer science degree, our commitment to developing industry-ready professionals from diverse backgrounds, as well as our emphasis on hands-on, project-based learning.

The BU MET Department of Computer Science in particular stood out to Ishii. “I got the impression that the department understands real-world needs and is committed to training people like me from scratch to become industry-ready,” he says.

Now, with his MS in Computer Information Systems with a concentration in Data Analytics under his belt, Ishii has completed his career transition, today working as a technical account manager at Google. “The CIS program gave me comprehensive knowledge to get on board in my new career path,” he attests. And while it might have been possible to become acquainted with some of what he learned outside of a formal graduate program, Ishii has come to believe that it was the challenges and practices he tackled while at BU MET that set his education apart—what he calls a “comprehensive style of education” that offered the most valuable lessons of all.

“I believe that you can immediately transfer those new skills to the industry,” Ishii says.

How COVID Led This Pre-Med Undergrad into Health Informatics

Christel El Hayeck (MET’23) completed her undergraduate degree at a crossroads. She’d earned a bachelor’s in biology on a pre-medical track, but worldwide catastrophe forced her to reevaluate her plans. “The global COVID-19 pandemic and the unprecedented economic crisis in my country made me reassess my career aspirations. I realized that being a doctor wasn’t my true calling,” she says. “I also understood the importance of data handling, which sparked my interest in transitioning into a data-related field.”

Now, El Hayeck, armed with a new objective, “to acquire concrete data skills and develop a deeper understanding of medical informatics,” was at another intersection—figuring out where to pursue her education. Ultimately, she chose BU MET because of the comprehensive nature of the MS in Health Informatics program here, and how its concentrations in Applied Data Analytics and Health Information Management encourage a broader understanding of the field. When she arrived, she was pleased to discover just how encouraging BU MET could be.

“The learning environment at Metropolitan College and its support system catalyze success,” she says. “It offers exposure to real-world projects and the opportunity to learn from passionate professors and industry leaders.”

For El Hayeck, one of the most valuable parts of her BU MET education was the practicality of the coursework, which gave her studies a real-world grounding that proved to be of aid.

“Since I enrolled in the master’s program immediately after completing my undergraduate studies, my professional experience was limited,” she explains. “However, the projects I worked on through my courses provided me with a substantial body of work that reinforced my résumé and interview performance.”

Things have gone as planned for El Hayeck, who now serves as lead associate at Strategy&, the strategy consulting business unit of the PricewaterhouseCoopers network. She credits her BU MET program for equipping her with a foundation solid enough to build on.

“It facilitated a seamless transition from biology to health informatics and data analytics,” El Hayeck attests. “I gained not only exposure to the healthcare industry, but also delved into other realms.”

A Marketing Graduate Student Who Found Her Path in Analytics

Chen Han (MET’24) was already a BU graduate student, at the College of Communication, when she learned that her program offered the opportunity to earn a Graduate Certificate in Data Analytics through MET. She’d found that, in searching for a job as a marketing analyst, many companies expected prospects to be familiar with advanced data analytical tools such as Python, Java, and similar system processing skills, so she opted to pursue the advantages the certificate program offered. Then, after she’d taken courses like Foundations of Analytics and Data Visualization (MET CS 544) and Foundations of Machine Learning (MET CS 555), Han had a realization. “I found this area quite interesting and not as difficult as I had expected,” she says. “This sparked the idea of pursuing a second master’s degree in a related area.”

After deliberating with her parents and advisors, Han decided to pursue a degree at BU MET. “I chose the MS in Computer Information Systems program because it encompasses all the essential skills I sought as a data analyst while also delving into areas like enterprise management, which I found particularly fascinating,” she says.

With a graduate certificate already in hand, Han opted to forgo a degree concentration, deciding against tailoring her studies more narrowly in favor of keeping maximal future opportunities open. Instead, she leveraged elective courses to help advance her qualifications and set her apart from the competition. “These electives proved to be very beneficial once I entered the industry, as they provided a deeper understanding of company structures and operations,” she says. Indeed, BU MET places a premium on applied knowledge that can prove useful in the working world. As Han attests, those elective courses are still paying dividends today, citing a forum she participated in not long ago that put her blended education to the test.

“Many of my colleagues, who had backgrounds solely in media or data, found it challenging to grasp the concepts. However, thanks to the Enterprise Risk Management (MET AD 503) course, I was pleasantly surprised to find that I understood all the theories and principles being discussed,” she says. “This course, along with others, provided me with a comprehensive understanding that bridged the gap between business and technology, allowing me to apply these concepts effectively in my job.”

Today, Han is employed as a program manager at YPCommunities, putting her education to work in a role that utilizes both data research and database management techniques. She credits her BU MET degree for helping her set her course on a winning path. “I believe this program has provided an excellent foundation for pursuing a wide range of careers, from data analyst to system manager or software engineer,” she says. “We live in a century characterized by rapid change, and I believe in continuously challenging and improving myself on a lifelong journey to stay competitive.”

This Working Mom Went from Interior Design to Natural Language Processing-Oriented Data Science

For Maryam Asghari (MET’22), going back to school was no easy decision. “I was sacrificing my time with my family to attend classes and study,” Asghari says. “I needed it to be worth it.”

Asghari had been looking for support in writing the next chapter of her life. “I have a degree in architecture engineering and interior design, and I was working as a designer. But my job was not satisfying and I needed a change,” she recalls.

After shopping around some, to see who would be best qualified to help her make a career change and what field she might pursue, Asghari found herself inspired by the graduate certificate programs in computer science & IT offered at BU MET, and opted to enroll. “I started to take computer science courses and as I learned more, I became more passionate about the field,” she says. “It was then I decided to continue and go for a master’s degree.”

Asghari would go on to earn her MS in Computer Science from BU MET, having made Natural Language Processing (NLP) and object detection algorithms the focus of her studies. Studying computer science at BU MET, under its expert and attentive faculty, helped Asghari find her own definition of the field. “Computer science is the art of solving complex and challenging problems, and creating something new,” she says, adding that she came away from the program impressed by “how our lives can be enriched by computation.”

Asghari’s education didn’t end in the classroom—she also got a chance to put her newfound skills to work through an internship. That hands-on learning opportunity led to Asghari taking a full-time position with the same organization, completing her professional pivot in a few short years.

“I started my career as a data scientist right after finishing my master’s program,” Asghari says. Today, she works as a senior data scientist at Telenav, a global leader in location-based services, and credits her successful transition with her alma mater. “Joining the BU MET master’s program was the best decision of my life—and changed it for the better.”

How Free Labs Serve as Skill-Developing Onramps to Your Career Transition, Defray Degree Costs

By now, you might be wondering: BU MET helped these alums transition into CS & IT — but what if I don’t come from a technical background? In fact, as an incoming student today, you’ll benefit from opportunities that were previously unavailable.

To reduce barriers to entry for motivated students, BU MET offers a series of free, online, hands-on, preparatory laboratories. These labs are designed to help you build the foundational skills in mathematics, probability, databases, and programming before beginning core courses.

The complimentary labs, which have been adapted from once mandatory, for-credit prerequisite courses, are available to all admitted and enrolled students. For students, this shift means fewer required courses, lower overall costs, and a faster path to completing the degree — helping you move more quickly into your next career.

By taking BU MET’s free prep labs, you will be taking the first steps in developing the technical skills needed for a tech-driven career transition. Whether you’re honing concepts and terminology, mathematical foundations and combinatorics, SQL, or programming and JavaScript, these labs will allow you to get yourself acquainted with program materials at your own pace, making it easier for you to transition into the CS field.

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While making a successful change of career course surely presents its challenges, there is just as surely no shortage of BU MET alums willing to tell you about how much their degree program assisted them in navigating just that.

If you are looking to make a career transition into the computer science and information technology field, consider chatting with our BU MET Admissions team to go over your options. As these alumni stories show, no matter your starting point, Boston University’s Metropolitan College offers the tools, knowledge, and community to help you redefine your future and move confidently towards your next career chapter.

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