My Life After Graduating From Viterbo's Dahl School of Business:
Bojan Dzikov

Despite graduating from Viterbo Universtiy only a year ago with a Computer Information Systems major, and starting my career only ten months ago, I have to say I’ve done some pretty interesting things already. I progressed through two job positions and started my own non-profit organization. When I returned to my home country of Macedonia (the capital Skopje) I was able to find a job in just three weeks, thanks to my education at Viterbo, combined with my experience as an intern at the Trane Company (BOS – Parts). To someone in the US this might sound normal. However, with about 30% unemployment and people waiting two to three years to find a job, I am a success story.

I started working for a financial institution owned by Opportunities International from Chicago, Illinois. There I worked as a Financial Risk Officer for five months. In addition to doing the regular financial risk estimates and creating tons of reports, I felt like I was retaking my Computer Information Systems (CIS) senior capstone class - only this one was the accelerated version. This was because in the very first month, I recommended the implementation of Microsoft SharePoint, having added that I have already done this project as part of my senior capstone class. The project was approved and completed with 100% satisfaction in only three months. In the meantime, I received a job offer to work for one of the largest Austrian banks, Sparkasse Bank. I now work at Sparkasse Bank Macedonia as part of their Risk Department and provide risk monitoring and develop strategies to maintain stable risk level. I have been part of Sparkasse Bank for six months and believe that it is thanks to the quality of my Viterbo education that I am making good progress. I am currently working with our parent bank, Erste Bank from Germany, on transferring information from risk analysis to our data warehouses in Austria. It is a project that requires a lot of data normalization, validation and filtration. This is another project that is going well because I am able to apply what I learned as a CIS student at Viterbo.

Besides my full time job, I started a non-profit organization. The non-profit works on student educational development, which reflects my four-year involvement with the Viterbo SIFE team, both as member and as president. In just a couple of months the organization includes more than 30 active members working on some pretty amazing projects in cooperation with local companies. We are expecting support from the US Embassy here in Skopje as well, so I foresee the organization and community involvement growing in the future.

My education and time spent at Viterbo have given me the foundation to continue building myself on a professional level, and also to build my self as an individual who is honest, ethical and socially responsible. With this said, I will continue to proudly represent Viterbo University wherever I go!