Alumni - Northern Kentucky University

 
  • Name: Shayne Estrada
  • Undergraduate institution: Northern Kentucky University
  • Position: Senior Business Analyst
  • Company name: Convergys
  • Industry sector: Information Technology

Shayne currently works on forecasting, budgeting and modeling for a Research and Development group; he has been in this position since May of 2004. He is also the main point of contact between Convergys and DST Output - one of Convergys’ partner vendors. Shayne was able to move into his current position due to his experience and relationship with DST Output. He did not have a finance background, but went back to school to receive an MBA in Finance to help prepare him for a career change. He has been with Convergys for 7 years, 6 of those in software development and implementation. Shayne’s job mainly consists of closing the books each month, forecasting revenues and expenses for future months and performing financial analysis on R&D investments. He also performs project management activities in working with DST Output and serves as the Project Manager for some internal audits.

Besides the basics, Shayne uses a lot of formulas to develop financial models and forecasting. Some of them contain multiple variables and they are all created using Excel and some VBA macros. Since Shayne works with the R&D group, he has worked with pricing models of new products. This would include Break-Even Analysis, IRR, DCF and NPV. A strong understanding of variables, formulas, and estimation are key mathematical concepts for this position. Project Management, critical thinking, problem solving, and estimating are other skills that are necessary to be successful at this job. A background in Finance and Accounting is required.

Shayne received an MBA from the University if Cincinnati (2004), a bachelors degree in mathematics and teaching certification from Northern Kentucky University (1994) and also studies History at Muskingum College.

Shayne writes that he has been able to change careers from Teaching to Software Development to Business Analysis due to having a degree in mathematics. A student interested in IT and/or Finance/Accounting would be at a significant advantage in the job market if they had a double major or minor in mathematics. Shayne believes that he has been fortunate enough to get positions over others who were better qualified in these three fields. Although it has not been directly said, he believes that this it is due to having a degree in mathematics with the associated critical thinking skills that are so important in business today.