Lovleen Mishra plunged into the world of business analytics after earning an engineering degree in India. “I got recruited by an analytics firm right out of college,” she says. The consulting company contracted Mishra to work with Sam’s Club on a pilot project. “That’s when I realized how awesome analytics can be. I felt like Nancy Drew, solving mysteries as an analytics detective. I fell in love with it.”

Mishra spent the next few years working for similar analytics firms, serving clients such as Sam’s Club, Walmart, and Dell. Her experiences fostered a growing interest in consumer analytics. “It was so interesting to learn about what makes a customer want to buy a product,” she says. “It puts you in a unique position where you can take your own shopping experiences and apply them to your work.”

Three years into her career, Mishra realized she wanted to take her training to the next level. She applied to several master’s programs in business analytics, and ultimately decided on Haslam. “I’m really happy I got here,” she says. “It’s a unique experience coming from an educational background entirely in India, but I haven’t ever felt like an outsider. All my professors and teachers have been so supportive. It’s a very nurturing environment, and the projects and experiences are so valuable.”

Mishra completed an internship at 84.51°, an analytics firm in Cincinnati, working on a project for Kroger. “The idea was to see if we could find a way to tell when a product goes out of stock on a shelf,” she says. “I worked on Hadoop, Apache Hive and more, using ClickList data to figure it out.” The end results were promising. “As an intern, I was able to take a project from nothing to something in 10 weeks and make so much of a difference that a member of the team was taking it up when I left,” she says. “That meant a lot to me.”

After her graduation in December 2018, Mishra will return to 84.51° as a full-time data analyst working with retail clients. “For me, the work in consumer analytics is so challenging and rewarding,” she says. “My dream is to keep pursuing what I love.”