Developing Guidance for Approaching a Professional Job/Thesis Project in Business Informatics
Ellawala, Wasana (2024)
2024
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Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2024052817254
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2024052817254
Tiivistelmä
This Master’s thesis focuses on developing a guidance for approaching a professional job/thesis project in Business Informatics (BI) on the example of international Master’s students searching a job/thesis project in the field of BI.
The case organization is a Master´s Programme at one of Finland's most prestigious Universities of Applied Sciences. Even though the case organization has a range of current guidance on approaching a professional job/thesis project, practice reveals that Master's students, especially those unemployed and of foreign origin, may find it difficult to find a job or thesis project, and the documented guidance is currently missing within the case organization, on how to do it.
This study followed the Applied action research strategy supported by qualitative research methods as this involves developing a solution for an existing problem where the solution can be immediately applied in the practical world. After constructing the conceptual framework based on the literature review, the current state analysis is done that identified the limitations of the currently available guidance. The proposal is built focusing on the four key areas identified in literature review, namely, understanding BI as a professional area, exploring industry needs and job markets, understanding employability and its ways and the best practices in approaching a job/thesis project. The proposal is based on the data obtained from interviews with stakeholders, responses to a questionnaire, and combined with the literature findings and CSA data to build a “Self help guide”.
The outcome of this study is a set of guidelines on approaching a professional job/thesis search in BI, in the form of a self-hep guidance book. The outcome is significant for the case organization, as it should help to Master’s students in BI when approaching a professional job/thesis project.
The case organization is a Master´s Programme at one of Finland's most prestigious Universities of Applied Sciences. Even though the case organization has a range of current guidance on approaching a professional job/thesis project, practice reveals that Master's students, especially those unemployed and of foreign origin, may find it difficult to find a job or thesis project, and the documented guidance is currently missing within the case organization, on how to do it.
This study followed the Applied action research strategy supported by qualitative research methods as this involves developing a solution for an existing problem where the solution can be immediately applied in the practical world. After constructing the conceptual framework based on the literature review, the current state analysis is done that identified the limitations of the currently available guidance. The proposal is built focusing on the four key areas identified in literature review, namely, understanding BI as a professional area, exploring industry needs and job markets, understanding employability and its ways and the best practices in approaching a job/thesis project. The proposal is based on the data obtained from interviews with stakeholders, responses to a questionnaire, and combined with the literature findings and CSA data to build a “Self help guide”.
The outcome of this study is a set of guidelines on approaching a professional job/thesis search in BI, in the form of a self-hep guidance book. The outcome is significant for the case organization, as it should help to Master’s students in BI when approaching a professional job/thesis project.