MBA Grad Parlays Analytics Skills Into Frontier Airlines Job

Sang Tong came to the U.S. from Vietnam to learn about other cultures

Sang Tong

After working in the marketing field for three years in his native Vietnam, Sang Tong (MBA 2022) was ready for a change. Born in the Mekong Delta and raised in Ho Chi Minh City, Tong decided to truly expand his horizons.  

“I always worked in the airline industry, and I wanted to witness different cultures and people and to study abroad,” Tong said. “I got a good program offer in the U.S., so I decided to move here.”

So far, making the leap from Ho Chi Minh City to Denver has turned out well. After completing his MBA at the Daniels College of Business, Tong was hired as a data analyst for Frontier Airlines in October 2022. Serving on the customer intelligence analytics team, he helps analyze customer data, particularly that of loyal customers. It’s a role he loves.

“I want to learn more technology and advance my analyst skills with technician skills,” Tong said. “I’m working to learn tasks that involve more complicated coding skills.”

When he arrived in the U.S., Tong first attended an MBA preparation program at California State University, Long Beach. He discovered he enjoyed the American higher education system and, when a cousin in Colorado gave him a list of schools in the state, he quickly landed on Daniels.

“I went to the website and checked out the curriculum for the MBA,” Tong said. “It was really interesting because there were a lot of practical classes, diverse electives and international trips for students to learn about business in other countries.”

Tong focused his Daniels studies on both marketing and analytics, but one class in optimization changed the direction of his career.

“Before I came to Daniels, I worked on the creative and branding management side of business,” he said. “In that class, I learned different coding languages, and I now have the ability to better understand the numbers.”  

As an international student, Tong took advantage of the support and activities offered by DU’s Office of Internationalization and its International Student and Scholar Services, which offered numerous events and social opportunities. He also bonded with the other four international students in his academic cohort.

“The MBA program needs diversity, and Daniels always supported us by encouraging us to speak about our thoughts and experience,” he said.

When it came time to find a job, Daniels Assistant Dean of MBA Programs Lowell Valencia-Miller was instrumental in helping Tong. He learned more about Tong’s passion for hospitality, travel and tourism and introduced him to his contacts in the industry. The resulting meetings enabled Tong to learn more about different job opportunities while also explaining his own interests and experience. One of those contacts worked at Frontier Airlines and helped Tong land his current job.

“Sang leveraged the connections that I made for him into securing an internship and then a full-time job in the travel industry,” Valencia-Miller said. “Sang proves that if you are determined and are given an opportunity, you can succeed in achieving your goals.”

As an analyst, Tong is able to draw upon his MBA training and insights to understand and interpret the data more deeply than some who solely specialized in data analytics.

“When I create a report for my manager, I combine it with solutions that I learned in my MBA because I understand accounting, financing and other areas,” he said.

Indeed, Tong attributes much of his U.S. career success to the skills and connections he gained through Daniels. He still spends time with friends and colleagues from his academic cohort and values the network he developed. He also hopes to give back to the Daniels international community by serving as a mentor to new international students, helping them explore future career opportunities in the U.S.