By Jay Hodgkins
University of Virginia Master of Science in Business Analytics (MSBA) students share a desire to develop cutting-edge analytics and leadership skills, but their hopes and dreams for where the 12-month professional degree program can lead them vary widely.
While students follow the same path through the curriculum—applying learning to real-world, team-based projects—they need individual, tailored career support. What a student seeking an intercompany promotion needs is different from what a student looking to switch into a new industry requires. Fortunately, because the UVA MSBA is the only program offered in partnership between the top-ranked Darden School of Business and McIntire School of Commerce, all students have access to the elite career networks of both business schools.
“We meet students where they are professionally,” said Gopika Spaenle, Managing Director, Professional Degree Programs, at Darden’s Career Center. “We always seek to understand each student’s personal career agenda and then coach them to achieve that goal.”
MSBA career support spans career strategy, resume development, networking, interview preparation, offer negotiation, and more, according to Greg French, an Executive Career Coach for students in the program. “I’ve partnered with countless students to tailor their resumes for specific industries and roles, supporting them from early positioning through final offer.”
Four members of the UVA MSBA Class of 2025, each with different backgrounds and distinct goals, recently shared how the learning, networking, and career support they experienced helped them get from where they were to exactly where they wanted to be.
The Job Hunter
Kelsey Anderson (M.S. in Business Analytics ’25) definitely did not begin the UVA MSBA with a goal to find a new job, but she found herself in an unwelcome job hunt when she was included in a round of corporate layoffs near the end of the program.
Working as a general management consultant without a functional specialty, she enrolled in the program to grow her skill set and increase her options for the next step in her career. When Anderson lost her job suddenly, the MSBA career team proactively worked with her to make sure her longer-term growth goal didn’t get lost in the immediate need for new employment.
“Because of the support from Greg and the career team, my search felt strategic rather than chaotic,” Anderson said. “From a full resume and LinkedIn revamp to networking strategy, interview preparation, and consistent check-ins, I had both tactical guidance and steady encouragement throughout the process. I ultimately had a job offer in hand less than two weeks after graduation.”
Anderson is now thriving as a Senior Data Analyst in marketing with Hard Rock Digital.
“Without a doubt, I would not be in my current role without the MSBA,” Anderson said. “The technical foundation I developed in SQL, Python, Tableau, and other tools prepared me not only to perform well in technical interviews but also to step confidently into a data-focused role.”
The Career Switcher
After a decade in the automotive industry, Collin Mosley (M.S. in Business Analytics ’25) wanted to make a career switch into the tech industry. He was drawn to the UVA MSBA’s promise to help students make career pivots, and he said the program delivered.
Ten months into the program, Mosley made the switch, accepting an offer from Salesforce to become its Manager of Federal and Canada Sales Programs, a role in which he performs sales analytics and pipeline management and creates sales programs to address product gaps.
“The career center was a big help for me to learn how to tell a story about myself, which is frankly hard for anybody,” Mosley said. “I learned how to tell my story about my background as an automotive manager across different sales operations roles in a way that resonated with managers who are selling software in a completely different capacity and completely different industry.”
Mosley said the chance to network with UVA alumni working in tech as well as the opportunity to visit several businesses in the Washington, DC, area as part of a career trek were exceedingly valuable.
“The trek was illuminating for me because I didn’t really have a good concept of the tech companies that were in the DC area,” Mosley said. “We actually went to the Salesforce office where I work now. I could see myself there. So it was good to have that experience to vet these places where you could potentially work in person.”
The Promotion Seeker
Emily Caccamo (A&S ’16, M.S. in Business Analytics ’25) entered the MSBA program as a Senior Customer Success Manager with healthcare software-as-a-service company Bluesight, but she wanted to advance into a customer success operations role. The only problem: Such a role did not exist at Bluesight. Not yet, anyway.
“My goal was to propose the addition of the role to the team, given the rate at which we were scaling,” Caccamo said. “If I wasn’t able to get it approved, the MSBA would make me a competitive candidate to be hired for the role at a different company.”
The career team worked with her to build a formal growth proposal to Bluesight, while at the same time encouraging her to apply to other opportunities. Then, after Caccamo submitted her proposal but Bluesight had not yet approved it, she received an offer from a different company to work in a lateral role but for more pay. In career coaching discussions, French asked questions to help her weigh the pros and cons and articulate what she really wanted.
Ultimately, after Bluesight approved the new role, she chose to accept the promotion to become Senior Manager of Customer Success Operations. “I had never written a job proposal before, so I didn’t really know where to start or what format or structure was best,” she said. “The career team helped me every step of the way. They also provided guidance on the best way to present the information, and the advice made me feel a lot more confident having the discussion with my boss—and boss’s boss.”
The Post-Military Transitioner
For more than six years in the U.S. Navy, Tristan Snyder (M.S. in Business Analytics ’25) served as a technician performing military intelligence. After leaving the military, Snyder became a defense contractor but soon realized that common career path for veterans was not for him.
He chose the UVA MSBA to refine and advance his existing skills for the private sector, but also for career support to help him translate his military experience into a marketable story that civilian employers would understand.
Snyder jokes he set a record for the number of times a student has met with French. “I really started from zero. I had never done a true job search before. I didn’t know how to market myself and hadn’t gone through behavioral or case study interviews,” Snyder said. “Greg and I met regularly to discuss current opportunities, doing breakdowns of what did and didn’t work in interviews to make improvements.”
Snyder began a multi-interview process with Koalafi, a financial products provider for people with limited credit, and French was there every step of the way. “We met before every interview to talk through the process and work through some of the likely questions. The ongoing support was really fantastic.”
When Koalafi made an offer, Snyder accepted. He now serves as a Business Analyst, bridging the analytics risk and operations teams to support collections and recoveries as well as merchants.
Celebrating the Wins
For members of the UVA MSBA career support team, nothing is more fulfilling than success stories like those of the Class of 2025.
“When students achieve their career goals or simply make progress toward what they’re aiming for, we celebrate with them,” said Spaenle.
Success stories come about for many reasons: students’ inherent drive, newly developed hard skills in analytics software like SQL and Python or soft skills in leadership, the power of the UVA network. However, there is little doubt that seasoned career support is a big piece of the puzzle.
“Careers rarely come with a map,” French said. “Supporting students as they build clarity, create a plan, and move forward with confidence is one of the most rewarding parts of our work.”
