How a Young Adult Fiction Author Uses Her Minnesota Carlson Degree

Between starting a new job as an analyst and promoting her latest young adult fiction novel, Sakthika Vijay, ’25 BSB, has had a busy summer.

After graduating from Minnesota Carlson in May with a major in Management Information Systems (MIS) and a minor in Business Law, she moved to Philadelphia, where she’s now working as an operations lead analyst in Cigna Healthcare’s operations leadership development program.

Simultaneously, Vijay has been preparing for the release of her second book, Jasmine Flowers and Pounds of Sugar, a young adult romance novel that comes out October 7. And most days, she makes time to write new material, too.

How does she balance it all? Vijay says her Minnesota Carlson education helps in more ways than she ever thought it would. Here are a few examples she shared:

1. Carlson teaches soft skills and self-advocacy.

“With that MIS degree, I learned a lot about tech and finance, but I also learned a lot about communication and those soft skills that are really important. When it comes to publishing a book, there’s a lot of back-and-forth and a lot of advocating for yourself. So, there’s a lot that goes on, and Carlson really helped me prepare for that, especially being an advocate for myself.”

2. Traditional business skills are important, too.

“When you’re getting published, you have something you wrote that’s deep and personal to you, but then you want the best product to get out there as well. Right now, I’m starting to get the book out there, thinking about target audiences and so many other things that I learned about marketing at Carlson. There is also some statistics involved with figuring out where your book is going, who’s buying it, and how much of your goal you’re making.”

3. Business school can stimulate creativity.

“The biggest thing that surprised me when I was at Carlson was that I did a lot of ideation and a lot of creative thinking, which I just didn’t expect at all when I first applied to business school. It kind of pulled the same creative muscle in my brain that writing does. … I did a case competition during my second year, and I think that’s when I really realized it. We were thinking about creative, outside-of-the-box things and putting together pieces of a puzzle to make sense of a problem. A lot of business is storytelling. They’re really intertwined, if you think about it.”

4. It’s possible to balance more than one professional interest.

“You’re always brought up thinking that your college major is everything, and that’s all you’re going to do for the rest of your life, and there’s no time for anything else. But that’s not necessarily the case. One of the best things about my program at Cigna Healthcare is the work-life balance aspect of it. They really focus on developing you to make you the best analyst that they can, but they also do focus on wellness and taking time for your passions. And it was at Carlson where I first learned that I could do this and that, to have a career and do my own personal work on the side as well.”