5 Questions with MSIS Student: Freda Li

The Master of Science in Information Systems program at the UW Foster School of Business in Seattle is a one-year, work-compatible, accelerated master’s program designed to train current and future business leaders in information systems management. View all MSIS student profiles here. 

We asked students to reflect on their MSIS academic experience and the impact it has had on their professional development and career. Meet MSIS Class of 2021 student, Freda Li, Senior Product Manager of Microsoft Teams, Microsoft.

Can you share with us your professional background and what inspired you to pursue an MSIS degree?

It’s been a wonderful journey for me studying in MSIS. Before joining this program, I have 6+ years of combined experience in engineering and product. In fact, this is my second master’s degree. My first master’s degree is also in the information management area. Even though it is a similar program, MSIS provides a completely different experience. MSIS provides a comprehensive and industry-relevant curriculum, where students learn to analyze business strategies with different perspectives, use different tools to analyze data to uncover important information, and build a database.

What is one of the most memorable team projects you have worked on this year?

During this year, I have worked with my team on about a dozen assignments. One of the most impressive assignments was when the professor asked us to find a topic and share the interesting information we found through our data analysis skills. Our team worked together on many different aspects of the project, such as finding topics, understanding the meaning of the data, cleaning the data, analyzing the data, and presenting our findings to others classmates. This is very much like a whole process that you would go through in a real job, which is really meaningful to me.

Tell us about one of your favorite classes from the MSIS 550 Leadership Series.

The MSIS 550 Leadership Series is even more diverse and amazing! I remember once MSIS invited various senior leaders in the industry for Professional Mock Interviews, which was really an unimaginable experience. There are about 100 students in MSIS, and each student had the opportunity to have a mock interview with two seniors.

Tell us about your MSIS mentorship experience.

The MSIS Mentorship Program is one of my favorite aspects of the MSIS program.

I was very lucky to meet my mentor, Angela Cooper, General Manager of West Region Sales at Microsoft. She is undoubtedly the person I want to be in the future, full of wisdom and does not hesitate to share.”

I learned from her what an executive cares about during an interview and what qualities they want to see in a candidate. She has been very helpful and patient doing mock interviews with me again and again.

Have you taken advantage of the full suite of career services offered by Foster?

MSIS has the best career coaches. From the first quarter, they began to guide us on how to tailor the Linkedin profile, how to make the resume stand out, and even helped me polish my interviewing skills over and over again. I learned a lot from the career coaches every time and got a lot of warmth.