How one Pathstream and NYU Tandon student found career success after moving to the U.S. and learning data analytics

Finding a job is challenging enough, but finding a job after moving to a brand new country is even more difficult. It’s the challenge Kujtesa had to face when she first immigrated to the United States. Originally from Kosovo, Kujtesa has been living in the US for two and half years. In her home country, she earned a bachelor’s degree in Information Systems but, midway through her master’s degree, she came to the US as an exchange student and decided to stay.

Yet, she kept facing one persistent problem in the U.S. — finding a job.

The country I’m from is very small, and I think it kind of held me back whenever employers saw an international university [on my resume]. Also, I moved here when I was 22, just when I finished college, so I didn’t have enough experience. So with an international college and not enough experience, it meant not enough job opportunities.

Faced with the challenges of immigrating to a new country and struggling to find work, Kujtesa even considered returning to school in the US to complete another bachelor’s degree. She decided it would be too big of a setback since she had already earned a degree in her home country. That’s when she found the Tableau Data Analytics Certificate program offered by Pathstream and NYU Tandon, through an ad on Instagram. She had been researching data analytics bootcamps, and Pathstream particularly appealed to her because of the career services and the lower cost compared to other programs.

When she enrolled in the program, Kujtesa already had some data analytics experience under her belt through her Information Systems degree in Kosovo. Through the NYU Tandon and Pathstream program, she learned how to use job-essential tools like SQL and Tableau. In addition to getting valuable hands-on training with high-demand data tools, Kujtesa also felt her experience with Pathstream’s career services had a huge impact on her job search:

I feel like my career coach is the reason why I got my job now because we worked on my resume, and then she helped me find the right keywords to incorporate into my LinkedIn. Not even a few days after we tweaked my LinkedIn, I got approached by multiple recruiters, including for the job that I got now.

After countless job applications, a lot of persistence, and the help of Pathstream’s career coaches, Kujtesa landed a job as a Technical Business Analysis Associate at a consulting firm where she is using her skills in Excel to help various globally recognized companies improve their strategies.

Her reflections on her experience with the Tableau Data Analytics program?

The most important technical aspect I learned was definitely SQL and Tableau. But really just the conversations with my career coach and the calls we had just gave me much more confidence. I had never had an official interview in the US and I didn’t really know how this stuff worked, but my career coach sent me resources and we did mock interviews together. So really, what the experience gave me was confidence.

Discover more about Pathstream’s services and the Tableau Data Analytics Certificate program here.