Class of 2019, one year later: Haris Syed turns to global opportunities
One year ago, the Class of 2019 graduated from Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar, a Qatar Foundation partner university. We are catching up with just a few of these young men and women to learn what they have done, and what they will be doing next.
Haris Syed graduated in 2019 with a degree in Business Administration from CMU-Q, but when he was in high school and considering universities, he wanted to keep his global career options open.
“I was deciding between universities in the US and CMU-Q. Then I realized that when you graduate from the Qatar campus, you get the same degree you get at CMU in Pittsburgh,” he said. “The classes are small, and I also had the opportunity to go to Pittsburgh for a semester, so it was a good decision.”
Haris studied Business Administration at CMU-Q, but as part of a small campus community that includes students in computer science, information systems and computational biology, he was inspired to take some coding classes. With the encouragement of CMU-Q’s Career Development Office, he developed a LinkedIn profile to reflect both his experience in business and interest in technology.
An Ernst & Young (E&Y) recruiter in Houston, Texas saw the LinkedIn profile and reached out to Haris. After graduation, he was hired as a technology consultant in the robotics process automation division.
“I felt very prepared when I joined E&Y. During our one-week training program with ‘the best of the best’ from different universities in the US, I felt I could step through the door and do whatever they do.”
“The job market, for bigger companies especially, is changing from looking for a certain set of skills to whether a candidate can learn quickly and adapt. I think it’s great that CMU is able to kind of bring that type of student out into the real world.”
While he grows in the tech consulting space, Haris also finds time to run a side business. In the long term, he hopes to grow his e-commerce store and explore the possibilities to work on innovative and entrepreneurial consulting projects.
“I didn’t come in with this mentality. I became a product of a good CMU education. It’s not only the knowledge, but the skills you learn at CMU-Q that really take you far.”