Ben Koos

A career as an economist can be both rewarding and lucrative, but requires a high level of technical skills and knowledge.

Ben Koos knew his undergraduate degree in economics was a good start, but not enough to launch a career in the field. So he decided to pursue an MS Economics degree at Cal Poly, a place where he knew he could get the econometric and data science skillset needed to land a great job after graduation. And it worked.

“The course work was exactly what I wanted from an MS Economics program,” he says. The one-on- one attention from faculty was also a huge benefit. “Working with professors on research projects was a unique experience that gave me valuable hands-on experience working with data and applying the techniques I was learning in class.”

Koos also found strong peer collaboration a unique aspect of the Cal Poly program. “I was surprised by how much fun I had working with friends on difficult assignments and projects. I didn’t expect to find so many extracurricular projects to work on using the skills that I was developing.”

Koos credits the program for helping him land his first position after graduation as a research analyst at an economic consulting firm in the San Francisco Bay Area. “This is exactly the job I wanted out of college and a big part of the reason I did the MS program.” After spending some time in economic consulting, Koos moved to Uber, where he works as an applied scientist.

This profile was published in the Fall of 2017.