"I feel very pleased to be the part of the BI-family"
“The first thing you have to understand about Business Informatics is that BI is not about programming. Programming is studied during the first years together with different mathematical subjects and economics; this time is devoted to formation of the knowledge base, which will be further used to solve complex tasks. I like this freedom to choose the method you use to complete the task: you may either describe the model and calculate the result yourself, or write the program, or find the application that already exists and find out how it works in order to adapt it for your task.
When I was doing my bachelor program, I realized that some of my mates didn’t understand what their future professional track is, why we were taught these or that things. Probably, this can be explained by the fact that system and business-analysts in IT appeared quite recently, and enrollee’s parents are not acquainted with people who can share their experience with children. Maybe, I also realized all the importance and usefulness of these people only when I became the intern in IT-department in “Kaspersky Laboratory”. Even though, in the end I became the developer. To avoid surprises and misunderstanding in the study process one should thoroughly look through the study plans and programs of the main subjects while entering the university. All this information is available for all on the faculty web-site.
It is possible to mention kind of inconsistency between my words that programming is not the most important part of Business Informatics and the fact that I became the programmer. The thing is that I was lucky in mid-third year to participate in ERP-systems and systems for organizational resource planning development. This sphere is very demanding in terms of understanding how the business processes are organized in the company, that is why all the knowledge obtained in BI are very helpful for me. Twice I had to choose between Business Informatics and Program Engineering (while entering the bachelor and master programs) and now I am sure I made the right choice. Furthermore, the flexibility of the master program allowed me this year to select one subjects from PE.
It is hard to study the first one and a half years, from the third course many students are searching for part-time jobs. Working and studying at the same time is not easy, but, in my mind, it is important to try it while studying since this allows you to understand what else you have to learn, realize if you need to continue your studies in the master program and choose which one you have to enter.
The faculty, as well as the HSE in whole, provides students with the variety of extracurricular activities. This especially refers to Juriy Klimenko and “Business in .RU style” club which is one of the oldest faculty organizations, giving you a chance to become IT-guru in the future.
Scientific activities are also supported here. Each spring the faculty organizes conferences on business informatics and e-business. Of course, these are conferences where students participate, but this is a good start, because it might be useful to hear the professors’ and invited experts’ opinions and publish the theses in the digest. What is more, our quarterly journal «Business Informatics» is included in the list formed by the State Commission for Academic Degrees and Titles; this is definitely a high level, but I managed to publish my article there. Moreover, last autumn I got a grant from HSE to finance participation in Japanese conference (before devaluation of ruble this grant covered all the expenses, but now I am not sure it does). Also once every semester students can apply for Increased Academic Scholarship awarded for scientific activity (it is granted also for advanced performance in studies, cultural and social activity).
By the way, I already passed the portfolio competition for graduate school, so, it is possible I will meet some of the enrollees on the lessons.
In conclusion, it is worth mentioning that I am glad I spent 6 years in the School of Business Informatics. I obtained a huge amount of valuable knowledge, plenty of useful contacts and made use of the opportunities which couldn’t be provided by any other university in Russia. I feel very pleased to be the part of the BI-family.