Master’s in Business Analytics: Pol Borrellas i Martín, Esade

“I would recommend any applicant aiming to get into the Master’s in Business Analytics to emphasize their human side, their values, their willingness to collaborate with their classmates to make great things happen.”

Student Name: Pol Borrellas i Martín

Graduate Business School: Esade Business & Law School (Ramon Llull University, Barcelona)

Describe Yourself In 15 Words: I’m passionate about what I do, I tackle hurdles with optimism, and I’m open to new ideas. 

Master’s Graduation Class: 2020.

Undergraduate School and Major: Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, International Business Economics.

Current Employer and Job Title: Typeform, Junior Strategy Analyst.

Describe your biggest accomplishment in your career so far: My biggest accomplishment in my career so far is getting up every day to perform a job that I love surrounded by amazing teammates that help me grow both as a professional and a person.

Describe your biggest accomplishment as a graduate student: My biggest accomplishment as a graduate student is being able to leverage the specific knowledge learnt during the master’s program in my job. 

What was the key factor that led you to choose this business school and why was it so important to you? The mission and values of Esade caught my attention: I would like to become a business leader with an innovative, sustainable and socially-conscious mindset. The fact that Esade has, since its beginning, aimed at educating business people who contribute to the common good by, for instance, including a course on Business in Society as part of the curriculum of its master’s, made it clear to me that the school truly believed in its values.

The climate crisis, the increasing automation of jobs and inequality are global challenges that require the involvement of everyone, business leaders included, to ensure that no one is left behind and that progress translates into higher welfare for society. Being able to reflect and debate about these and other pressing topics with talented and socially-conscious classmates and professors made a difference to me.

What led you to choose a Master’s in Business Analytics over an MBA? I chose the Master’s in Business Analytics over an MBA for three reasons. First, because I believe that learning how to process and analyze large amounts of data is and will increasingly be a valuable skill for many roles. Second, because I believe that the technologies studied in this master’s (mainly, machine learning and cloud computing) are going to play a key role in the coming years and are going to continue being a source of disruption. Third, because it would help me build a hybrid profile in business and data analytics that could differentiate my job application in a highly competitive labor market.

What has been your favorite course and how has it helped you in your career? Artificial Intelligence was my favorite course because it made me discover thousands of exciting applications that this technology has the potential to bring to society. In addition, it allows me to contribute to the strategy of Typeform from the point of view of someone who understands both the business and the machine learning fields. Being able to apply this knowledge at work is something that I really enjoy doing.

What role did your school play in helping you to land your first job out of the program? Esade played a crucial role to obtain my current position at Typeform as a Strategy Analyst. Without Esade’s amazing Career services, it would have been much more complex to properly prepare my CV and cover letter to emphasize my strengths and the value that I could add to a company such as Typeform. Not only this, but their practice sessions and material helped me to be ready to face the several interviews and business cases of the recruitment process. Lastly, the different skills that I developed in the program contributed to make my application stronger.

How did your classmates enhance the value of your business school experience? My classmates, who became life-lasting friends, are the most precious asset from the master’s. Not only did we share great experiences outside the classroom together and got to know each other better, but we also enjoyed (and still enjoy today) many debates about a wide variety of topics, including many introduced in class. It was thanks to these intense conversations that we truly understood the hows and the whys of many intricate concepts that we are leveraging now in our jobs to make a difference.

Who was your favorite faculty member and how did this person enrich your learning? For me, Professor Marc Torrens was a key faculty member. He hardwired the massive transformational power of machine learning and cloud computing into our minds and  inspired us to love the technologies which have a purpose, especially those with the goal to improve people’s lives, not technologies for the sake of being innovative. In other words, he made us passionate about business analytics and its real-world applications. And I believe that with passion, it is much easier to have an impact with what you do.

What is your best advice to an applicant hoping to get into your school’s graduate Master’s program? I would recommend any applicant aiming to get into the Master’s in Business Analytics to emphasize their human side, their values, their willingness to collaborate with their classmates to make great things happen.

What was your best memory from your Master’s program? If I had to choose only one memory from all the great ones that I lived throughout the year at Esade, I would choose the study tour to Columbia University in New York. We had the incredible chance of attending one-week course over one of the most prestigious schools around the world and learning directly from some of the greatest minds in the industry. Moreover, those were extremely intense days with my friends, which made us bond with each other even more. In addition to classes and learnings, we shared a bunch of wonderful experiences and moments together around the streets of Manhattan.

DON’T MISS: MEET THE MASTERS OF BUSINESS ANALYTICS