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Dear Student,

College is a fun time in your life. You’ve experienced the freedom of living on your own, made new
friends, and enjoyed once-in-a-lifetime experiences. However, at this point in your college career
you’ve begun to realize that a life transition is on your horizon. You will graduate and you will
need to find a career—not just another job. Now is the time for you to start thinking about that
career and how to prepare for it.

Most students say they want a successful career. But defining successful is different for each
person. Most students want an exciting, stable, well-paying job. You owe it to yourself to think
about what that job is and how you’re going to get it. Which jobs pay the salary you want? Are
some jobs more stable than others? What type of work do you want to do for the next 40 years?

This MIS course is important for answering those questions. Over time, technology creates new
jobs . . . examples today are mobile application developers, social media analysts, information
security specialists, business intelligence analysts, and data architects, to consider just a few jobs
that didn’t exist 20, even 10, years ago. Similarly, the best jobs 20 years from now probably don’t
currently exist.

The trick to turning information systems to your advantage is getting ahead of their effect.
During your career, you will find many opportunities for the innovative application of
information systems in business and government—but only if you know how to look for them.

Once found, those opportunities become your opportunities when you—as a skilled, creative,
non-routine problem solver—apply emerging technology to facilitate your organization’s
strategy. This is true whether your job is in marketing, operations, sales, accounting, finance,
entrepreneurship, or another discipline.

Using technology in innovative ways enabled superstars like Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Larry Ellison,
Mark Zuckerberg, Larry Page, Sergey Brin, and Jeff Bezos to earn billions and revolutionize
commerce. You may not be such a superstar, but you can exceed beyond your expectations by
applying the knowledge you learn in this class.

Congratulations on deciding to study business. Use this course to help you obtain and then thrive
in an interesting and rewarding career. Learn more than just the MIS terminology—understand
the ways information systems are transforming business and the many, many ways you can
participate in that transformation.

In this endeavor, we wish you, a future business professional, the very best success!

David Kroenke & Randy Boyle