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Joining the Tech MBA as an International Student

Alina Vrsaljko is a current Tech MBA student at Stern. Within Stern, she is part of the Stern Women in Business Club‘s board. Before starting her MBA, Alina gained professional experience in Digital Strategy Consulting at McKinsey in Europe and in multiple roles at Hewlett Packard Enterprise in Germany and Singapore. She holds a BSc in Business Informatics and a MSc in Management. 

 

In May 2022, the day finally arrived. I loaded my suitcases onto the luggage belt in Frankfurt, Germany and got on the plane to start a new chapter of my life – the Tech MBA at NYU Stern in my favourite place, New York City. 6179 kilometres away from my hometown in Germany. 

Moving to New York for the Tech MBA can come with a few unique challenges especially for international students. But once those are overcome, it gives you the opportunity to have an amazing experience that you wouldn’t get at home! To make the transition a bit easier, I’ll give some insights on my personal experience during the last 7 months.   

Finding a NYC family to celebrate holidays with is amazing

After you have found a place to live in New York, you obviously should make sure that you feel at home in the city. An especially lonely time for international students can be the holiday season, especially if you usually spend this time with your family at home. 

Fortunately, your NYU community will have you covered. My most favourite experience during the last few weeks especially leading up to our Thanksgiving break was celebrating “Friendsgiving” with the Tech MBA class (see picture below). Even though your family might not be there for the holidays, you’ll be able to celebrate with your classmates and especially with your international classmates – more than half of the Tech MBA students are from abroad so you will have friends who are in the same boat as you and will be able to support you.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Early visa application is everything

Especially international students should ensure to start preparing early on as there are a few things to look out for. One of the major processes you’ll have to go through is the visa application process, which varies based on your home country. One amazing resource NYU provides is NYU’s Office of Global Services (OGS). Even before you’ve officially started your MBA, OGS is by your side and will provide you with step-by-step guidance for the visa application, and can even take 1:1 meetings for specific questions. The process can take up to several months, so it is highly recommended to start applying for your visa as early as possible after being admitted. Further things to read up on are US health insurance and work authorization – here again the OGS provides a lot of material to read up on and assists with personal advice. 

Finding a home in the city from abroad might be challenging

Finding an apartment while living in New York can already be challenging – from abroad, with a potential time difference, it might be even harder. Thus, I can recommend two different but very effective strategies on how to pursue the apartment hunt for internationals.

1) Rent a sublet until the end of May to ensure you’re covered but have enough time to look at apartments in person. A lot of international students choose this way to find an apartment to make sure their new apartment is exactly as it’s advertised and to allow a stress-free move from their home country to the US. Since the full MBA experience anyways requires you to rent a place for 13 months (beginning of May Year 1 to end of May year 2), this can be a great way to rent an apartment with a regular NYC contract that runs for 12 months.

2) You can rent an apartment from abroad, but it’s helpful to have a friend go check out the apartment first. It’s important to do your due diligence and rely on the current MBA students to guide you through the process! Stern will send out a spreadsheet that can help you find a roommate in the program, and you can even rent apartments from graduating students.

Perks of having a large international community: International potlucks!

And last but not least – while it can be a bit more challenging to come to NYU as an international student, there are also amazing perks that come with it. The most important aspect for me is that you get to meet classmates from all over the world with different backgrounds. In our case, our full class benefited from all our differences, and we enjoy discussing different cultural backgrounds and learning from each other. One great way to learn about one another obviously is food! We regularly have international potlucks within our class, where everyone brings a dish from their home country and we have a delicious meal together. In the picture below you can see a few of the national dishes from our current Tech MBA class – Brazilian cheese bread, German cheese pasta, French apple pie, Austrian pancakes, Ukrainian pancakes & fish, Brazilian chocolate cake and of course Indian Samosas!

 

 

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Benefits of a Tech MBA in NYC

Aafiya Jamal is currently an MBA Candidate in the Tech MBA Program at the NYU Stern School of Business. She recently moved to New York City from Dallas, Texas. Prior to Stern, Aafiya worked in technology consulting and supported clients in the financial services space, from traditional, global banking institutions to FinTech companies. Outside of the classroom, Aafiya serves as one of the Cohort Leaders for the Tech MBA and is involved in the Stern Technology Association and Stern Women in Business. 

As you explore your business school options, you may find yourself wondering whether New York City is the right place for you – especially if you’re very interested in pursuing a career in technology and torn between Stern and options on the West Coast. Trust me, I’ve been in your exact shoes and can tell you what drew me to NYC:

Breadth of Professional Opportunities

  • New York City offers a broader range of professional opportunities, which holds especially true for tech. Companies in any industry or domain, from financial services to fashion, require technically fluent individuals; what differentiates New York City over the West Coast is the pure breath and scale of these opportunities. Given that a majority of firms are either based in or have a major presence in New York City, this lends itself to even more opportunities at your disposal – far more than the West Coast can offer. For example, I had the opportunity this semester to engage in a client project as part of the Tech Solutions course, where I partnered with Roku to build a solution to better leverage product analytics data to support the company’s ad-tech strategy. Roku sits at the intersection of media and entertainment and technology, while the project gave me exposure to the advertising and product management domains – an opportunity I would not have had without Stern. 
Stern not only offered us the opportunity to work alongside Roku this semester, but also spend time with our project sponsor, in-person, in the New York City office!

Overlap of Existing Network

  • There is no doubt that Stern’s brand is very strong; however, there is a certain degree of comfort associated with reaching out to a familiar professional connection rather than a pure cold call (which can feel transactional in nature). Prior to Stern, I worked in consulting, and New York City is where my prior employer is based. As a result, I have a number of professional mentors and connections within the city, which enables me to keep up with trends in the workforce and broader market. These existing relationships, coupled with my Stern MBA, open doors to additional professional connections and employment opportunities in technology. It is likely that you, too, have personal and professional connections in the city, and I highly recommend that you capitalize on this.

Culture of New York City

  • Finally, New York City is unlike any other place in the world. As cliché as this sounds, I have never been around such ambitious, gifted, and hard-working people – both at Stern, as well as in the broader city. Engaging in this kind of environment pushes me to hustle and expand outside of my comfort zone in a way that no other business school could have. New York is arguably the most exciting place to live, and I’ve tried to make the most of my time here, from exploring incredible and diverse cuisine, to picnicking in Central Park, to attending sports games to celebrating the holiday season – all with my cohort. While one year is certainly a decent amount of time to experience the city, I hope that your chapter here extends beyond the length of the program. 

    Despite the busy schedule of the summer semester, we always made time to picnic throughout various parks in New York City! Central Park is cliche, but certainly a personal favorite!
Celebrating Friendsgiving with the cohort was definitely one of the highlights of my holiday season.
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Preparing for a Rapidly Changing Industry

Eugenio Prati is an MBA Candidate in the Tech MBA Program. He moved to New York City from Ann Arbor, MI. Prior to Stern, Eugenio worked as a R&D Program Manager in the automotive industry. His team was responsible for leading new vehicle development from digital prototypes through to mass production. Outside the classroom, Eugenio is an avid runner and a member of the NYU Cycling Club.

Deciding to pursue an MBA can be a scary process. Initially I agonized over when it would be most strategic to quit my job to return to school. Later, I spent months drowning in MBA info sessions and marketing material desperately trying to understand the differences between schools and programs. I drove everyone around me crazy. One week I would tell them about the program I was most excited about and the following week I would tell them about a different program that was now atop my MBA list. The process was maddening, but once I chose NYU’s Tech MBA, I never looked back – and here’s why.

The world is changing and so should MBAs

Working in the automotive industry, the rise of EVs, autonomous vehicles, and car sharing, was a constant reminder of tech’s ability to drive change in any and every industry. From the pharmaceutical industry to financial services, the entire world is being shaped by technologies like cloud computing, machine learning, 5G, blockchain… The leaders of tomorrow will need to have more than business acumen. They will need to understand these technologies and their potential in order to make the strategic decisions their organizations expect from them. By combining tech and business fundamentals into a one year MBA, NYU Stern’s Tech MBA is tailor made for these changing times.

Best parts of the experience and curriculum

Our cohort is composed of people with and without tech experience from all over the world. The differing professional backgrounds provide insights into how to bridge the gap between those fluent in tech and those fluent in business/strategy. The international backgrounds provide insights into the differing levels of infrastructure, development, and tech adoption around the world. Combined, the eclectic group makes for invaluable debates and discussions. 

The experiential learning within the curriculum, Tech Immersion and Solutions, includes company visits on both the East and West Coasts, guest speakers from Google, Uber, Amazon, BCG, Skillshare, and others, as well as semester long group projects with companies such as Waze, Pfizer, KPMG, Roku, PayPal… This hands-on experience provides clarity on the direction Tech is headed in and the nature of MBA roles within it in ways that no lecture or Google search ever could. For example, while partnering with Pfizer, we got a first hand glimpse of how they think about digital innovation and the roadblocks they face when deploying innovations in a tightly regulated industry.

Finally, the curriculum pairs all the business fundamentals one expects from an MBA, with all the tech fundamentals one could want. Courses like Dealing with Data, Data Science for Business, and Foundations of Networks, gave us the SQL, Python, HTML, CSS, and JavaScript overview needed to collaborate with SW Engineers, Data Scientists, and Designers. Courses like Digital Currency and Blockchains are teaching us about the history of currency and the technology underpinning the future of finance. The list goes on…

Who would I recommend the Tech MBA to?

If you are excited about the future, fascinated by the technologies shaping the world around us, and hoping to make an impact, the Tech MBA is for you.

Be prepared to work. This is a one year program but it is a full MBA. Your summer will be intense, but if you grit your teeth you’ll get through it and you’ll be one step closer to having the skills you need to thrive in these changing times.

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Networking with Alums & Current Students

Steven is a current Tech MBA student, specializing in Financial Instruments & Markets and Management of Technology & Operations. He comes from a background in tech consulting at Deloitte where he was implementing financial software to complete full cycle digital transformations. He is involved on campus with many clubs including OutClass and Management Consulting Association.

At my last job, my coach told me when we first met, “Networking is part of work,” and this insight has always stuck with me. Networking is so important in all of our interactions because it open doors and leads to so many opportunities. I started my networking with Stern Alumni and current students about a year before I came to NYU. I wanted to get a feel of what the experience was going to be like, both from an education and social perspective, and to see where their MBA took them. These interactions led to so many lasting friendships and great professional relationships. 

At the end of the day, people like to help other people when you reach out. I would say don’t be afraid to ask others for a quick call or coffee chat, because you don’t know where this will lead. In part of my networking, pre-NYU, I learned about so many great opportunities that Stern had to offer such as specialized courses, clubs and recruiting. Now that I am at Stern, I have been able to broaden my network with so many clever aspirational classmates that have come from a wealth of industries. Having these friends with so much experience across different business backgrounds feels like I am being set up for success to easily and effectively execute professional dealings in the future as my career grows.

Through networking with current students and alumni, I realized that so many of us come to NYU without a clear understanding of what we want to do post MBA and how so many of us fluctuate with what will do professionally throughout our time at Stern. I was able to get insights into so many different industries and hear what others did through these connections. When I decided that I wanted to pivot careers from all of these chats, I was able to leverage my relationships with current classmates that came from the industry to help set me up with what I needed to do to be successful in this transition and actually get me ramped up for the career change. I was then able to lean on alumni to help connect me with leaders in the industry that would support me and be willing to take me under their wing. Ultimately, it has led for an easy transition into a new role. 

Overall, networking is important! You never know who can help you or who you can help one day. Be confident in reaching out to others because this will lead to so many lifelong friendships and professional relationships that will always be part of your network.

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Company Visits & Beyond

Christy Kim is a MBA candidate at NYU Stern’s Andre Koo Tech MBA program, specializing in Business Analytics and Product Management. Prior to Stern, she worked at Deloitte Consulting, driving large-scale data and analytics transformations for clients across various industries. She additionally brings a background in product marketing, alliances, and tech sales and graduated from Duke University.

As a prospective candidate, you have two options:

  1. MBA experience with a summer internship (traditional 2-year program)
  2. MBA experience with multiple in-semester projects for top companies (welcome to our world!)

If I were presented today with the same options above, I would still choose option B in a heartbeat. Here are the 5 reasons why I believe our experiential learning curriculum provides above and beyond what can be gained through a summer internship alone:

1. GUARANTEED ‘INTERNSHIPS’ WITH TOP COMPANIES – and no recruiting or interviews required! Our 2-year MBA counterparts spend their first year recruiting for their summer internships; however, we fortunately had the following in-semester project opportunities land in our laps as part of our experiential learning courses:

A Dream Team: Pfizer Group A!
  • ‘Tech Immersion’ (Summer): Pfizer, KPMG
  • ‘Tech Solutions’ (Fall): 13 companies across various industries and of all sizes – including Waze, IKEA, PayPal, and Roku
  • [Optional] ‘Endless Frontier Labs’ (Fall & Spring): In place of ‘Tech Solutions’, you have the opportunity to take this course for hands-on work with Life Sciences, Digital Tech and Deep Tech startups

Through the above, some students have even found full-time employment opportunities with their respective companies!

2. BOOST YOUR LINKEDIN/RESUME. Through our experiential learning projects we act as consultants to the companies listed above. This is outstanding real world work experience which helps build our skills and our resume. We can also share our success during the recruiting process.

3. LEARN, APPLY, MAXIMIZE. The beauty of our experiential learning curriculum is that the course lessons are directly aligned to our project expectations and deliverables. For example, we had the following interactive sessions over the summer to help with our client deliverable preparations: 

In addition, we also had the opportunity to apply our learnings from our core courses (e.g. Entrepreneurship, Strategy) to our projects as well. This chronological, methodological yet practical approach to learning is one that I have yet to experience in my undergraduate years or professional life.

4. FAIL SAFE, LEARN FAST – a key, unique benefit of the experiential learning experience. With formal summer internships, there may be less opportunity for interns to ‘fail safe’ as their individual return offers are on the line. Through the Tech MBA program, our experiential learning curriculum allows us to:

  • Consult for top companies with a focus on innovation, experimentation, and learning (shoutout to our professor, J.P. Eggers, for always ensuring that our client project direction stayed on course for learning maximization!)
  • Receive continuous direction and feedback from our clients and project leadership (e.g. we had review/feedback sessions every 3-4 weeks)
  • Collaborate and lead in a small group setting with our classmates (e.g. my group maintained rotating leaders on a weekly basis)

    On-site visit and guest speaker session at Google!
Myself and Divya Mehta’s mock pitch for Goldman Sachs Accelerate!

5. TIME TO EXPLORE (& CONFIRM). The summer ‘Tech Immersion’ course served to be a great kickoff to the exploration of my post-MBA career path. I had planned to use this time in the MBA to confirm my continued career in tech consulting or explore other paths (specifically product management) that may be a good fit with my long-term career goals. The course not only  helped re-confirm my continued passion for client services (i.e. Pfizer project), but also provided a great introduction/sneak peek into the world of product management. I plan to build on these experiences and continue the exploration through the rest of the program; I am excited to see what the future holds for not only myself, but also for our entire cohort!

 

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Moore’s Law & the Tech MBA

Nicholas Imbriglia is a Tech MBA candidate specializing in Tech Product Management and Sustainable Business & Innovation. Prior to Stern, Nicholas worked as an engineer and engineering manager at companies such as Siemens, athenahealth, and Intel. He is passionate about technology’s ability to improve lives and, upon graduation, plans to return to the tech workforce to help deliver novel solutions with a positive impact for society.

Moore’s Law (admittedly, more of an observation than a law of nature…) states that the number of transistors that can be fit onto a microprocessor doubles about every two years. Every 18 months, if we’re being technical. And we ARE being technical. This is the Tech MBA, after all! But nitpicking aside, Mr. Gordon Moore’s famous doctrine is meant to illustrate just how fast technology can progress in a short period of time.

I didn’t want to play catch up

It was this thought that was going through my head as I considered my options for business school. After over 10 years of working in technical roles, ranging from semiconductor development to healthcare SAAS products, the prospect of going back to school for two years seemed excessive… extravagant, even. Especially for someone old enough to remember using floppy disks and playing with tamagotchis (look them up). And with the way things move in tech, I wondered if I wouldn’t be falling behind while getting my MBA. Could I afford to be out of the tech scene, not to mention without a salary, for such a length of time? Would I be playing catch up when I returned? As someone who planned on going straight back to the tech industry after business school, there were parts of me that wondered if it was worth it, both from a financial and a developmental point of view. 

Beyond the standard

That’s where the Stern Tech MBA really shone through for me. I’ll admit, when I first started researching NYU Stern, I didn’t even know they had a focused, one year MBA program. When I found information about it on the Stern website, I recall thinking “huh, that’s interesting,” and quickly brushing it aside. At first blush, it seemed too different. It deviated too much from what I considered the “standard business school” experience. But as I went through the application process (at Stern and elsewhere) and the reality of two years out of the workforce hit me, I realized I didn’t want the standard. In fact, I wanted a program catered more towards the tech industry, with an immersive curriculum, a quicker turnaround, and a superior ROI. And that’s exactly what Stern’s Tech MBA offered. When the moment of truth came on my Stern application, I selected the one year program and never looked back.

Staying in the game

And, in many ways, it’s not just the shorter program length that ensures you are “back in the industry” quicker. If anything, the Tech MBA curriculum ensures you are at the cutting edge of it. Regular visits to tech offices (Google, Uber, and Pfizer to name a few) and guest speakers from a range of tech fields (fintech, healthcare, smart cities, Web3, etc.) guarantee you have your finger firmly on the pulse of the tech scene in New York. NYU also has a history of offering classes that focus on the newest trends in technology and business. Many of my classmates are taking electives on blockchain and extended reality. I myself am enrolled in a renewable energy markets course.

So, with all that in mind, I was able to rest easy with my decision to enroll in the Stern Tech MBA. The focused experience has been an enlightening one so far and our cohort has been having a truly wonderful time. The irony of it all may be that, come graduation in May, we won’t want it to end. But when we wrap up our one year and enter back out into the wider working world, we will do so armed with new tools and insights, ready to supercharge our careers after a fraction of the time of a traditional business school offering. After all, Moore’s Law waits for no one.

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Community within the Tech MBA

Alina is a current Tech MBA student at Stern. Within Stern, she is part of the Stern Women in Business Club‘s board. Before starting her MBA, Alina gained professional experience in Digital Strategy Consulting at McKinsey in Europe and in multiple roles at Hewlett Packard Enterprise in Germany and Singapore. She holds a BSc in Business Informatics and a MSc in Management. 

 

How quickly can you bond with 54 other Tech MBAs? Well, apparently it only takes days after meeting them. The first time I got in touch with my classmates was even before the official start of the program. One bold classmate decided to invite all of us over to her building for a party which turned out to be one of the first nights we bonded as a class (see picture below).

Now, the community within our Tech MBA can be described as especially close. Our class profile is made up of 55 individuals with different backgrounds, from over 15 different countries, with between 1-15 years of work experience, different personality types from very introverted to especially extroverted, and with an age difference of more than 12 years between our youngest and oldest class members. Still, we have similar values – we truly embrace Stern’s emphasis on community which is one of the essential reasons why our class climate is especially welcoming and friendly. 

To me, the community within the MBA class was an important factor in deciding on a grad school. I came to New York as an international student from Germany with only a very small network in the city. Especially when leaving family and friends behind on a different continent, the strong bond within a class was particularly critical for me. The Tech MBA at NYU Stern was the perfect choice as the MBA community was there for me from Day One. A few highlights have been finding roommates on our class Slack channel, apartment search hacks and personally curated restaurant / bar lists shared with the class from our NYC-based classmates (New Yorker’s equivalent to gold), and finally, that we got to know each other through our Slack channel even before the start of the program. 

As we are a small cohort of 55 students, it is possible to get to know your classmates quickly. Additionally, as classes start in the summer semester, it is incredibly effortless to connect within the Stern buildings as it’s only Focused MBAs on campus. During the summer months, we had an intense syllabus with 19.5 credits – but this also allowed us to get to know each other through numerous group projects and more intimate MBA events. Of course, we also got to explore New York City after class and on the weekends.

Besides classes, the community within the Tech MBA offers tremendous support to help prepare  for recruiting. As all of us already have strong backgrounds in different industries and roles, we regularly take the time to share our experiences within our classes, and there are even several interview practice groups where classmates help each other with interview prep. 

The summer months created a strong bond within the Tech MBA. Besides connecting in class and during group projects, our incredible social committee organizes regular class events as well as a class trip to the Finger Lakes during the summer months. 

In the fall, club activities pick up again which will allow us to connect with 2-year MBA students. We get to choose a range of electives and have more space in our syllabus, so this time can be used to connect within the wider Stern network. 

For the spring semester, we already have the next class trip planned – this time we will explore the home country of one of our classmates, Colombia!

All those small but valuable things make up the strong community within the Tech MBA as part of the bigger, incredible NYU Stern network. This community made the first months of the program especially fun and helped me to create a home in the city.

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Advantages of a One Year MBA

Carlos Rincon is a full-time MBA candidate in NYU Stern’s Andre Koo Tech MBA program. Before Stern, Carlos worked in management consulting at Bain in Colombia, Brazil, and Chile. Upon graduation, he plans to work in strategy at a tech company. 

 

 

 

 

Why an accelerated tech MBA program at Stern? 

For me, there were several elements for why an accelerated program focused on tech was the best decision. The two foremost are: (1) Having a clear vision that I want to focus my future career in tech and (2) being an international student, I was eager to gain experience in the New York City and US tech scene. Some of the advantages I see include: 

Tech is a fast-moving industry: To be ahead in tech, you need to be building permanently.

  • New opportunities generated by Internet penetration: This creates an environment where technology developers can create and change things anywhere at any time. This “coding offer increase” is a complete market shift from the past, where one of the main constraints to develop was to have more coders. 
  • The duration of the program not only means you will return to the market faster, but the program design allows you to be constantly updated on what the New York tech ecosystem is doing.

More interaction with the tech cohort: The tech cohort is not only small (just ~50 people) which allows deep bonding, but also has more experience and general interest in the current tech trends such as the metaverse, blockchain, decentralization, intelligent cities, crypto, etc.

  • The Tech MBA class profile also attracts people with more experience (6.2 years against 5.0 years of the regular MBA), leading to more knowledge on how to approach and leverage classes.
  • The experience of the class concentrates on tech trends that will address the future of the world, creating compelling environments in the classroom conversations on these topics.

Return On Investment: As an international student, I was very focused on the program’s ROI. Although there isn’t time for an internship, the recruiting season begins in the fall, when Tech MBA and second-year MBA students are ready to be back in the market upon graduation in May. 

  • This results in a great recruiting season with second-year MBA students returning to the workforce in only one year 

Entrepreneurial spirit: A significant group of students in our tech cohort have experience in startups or entrepreneurship, or are interested in pursuing this in the future. If you are interested in looking for co-founders, having exciting conversations, or understanding how startups work, you will find a group of people with experience in this field.

  • Joining the entrepreneurship groups is also a great way to acquire some experience and gain exposure to how the VC world works.

Things to keep in mind:

Networking

  • Not having a summer internship requires more focus on the type of industry you want to pursue during the recruiting season. Define the industries and companies you want and begin to build relationships to be updated on job offers and recommendations. Spend energy generating authentic relationships with the companies you target. 
  • My advice – leverage ALL of the Stern network. After defining the companies where you want to work, contact the Stern alums at that company doing relevant roles to the ones you target. The sense of community of Stern is such that most of the time, you will receive an answer and indeed some availability to have a coffee chat and understand better how the company works and if it indeed adjusts to what you want to do. (They have been incredibly helpful to me)

Summer is intense, but don’t stress out!

  • Don’t miss the opportunity to know more of your classmates and do fun things. The program is fast and busy, but putting in the extra time to explore the city with your cohort and get to know one another is beneficial both personally and professionally! 
    • Advice: If you need help with the summer classes, don’t hesitate to ask. One of your classmates will be familiar with the subject, and everybody is receptive to help. You are all in this together!
  • If you’re interested in pursuing consulting or banking, spend time refining your skills over the summer so that you are prepared when the club activities start in the Fall and full-time recruiting ramps up. Don’t miss any opportunity to travel with your cohort! 
  • Unfortunately, time goes rapidly, so understand when your breaks take place and organize all the trips you can with your cohort!
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Tips for Prospective Tech MBA Candidates

Carina is a full-time MBA candidate in NYU Stern’s Andre Koo Tech MBA program, specializing in Product Management and Strategy. Prior to Stern, Carina lived in Boca Raton, FL and has 6 years of experience in account management at a hospitality tech company. Upon graduation, she wants to utilize her passion for great UX and years of customer-facing experience within the technology space to pursue a product management role. 

Applying to business school can be daunting. There’s a lot to do between preparing for the GMAT/GRE, keeping track of the various application components, and juggling everyday life! You spend a lot of time in self-reflection: What are your goals? What have you accomplished professionally? What direction do you want your career to take? To help you kick off this journey, here are my top 10 tips for prospective candidates when applying to business school:  

 

  1.     Do Your Research

An MBA is an investment in your future self, it’s important that you take the time to do research about the program you are applying for to ensure that it’s the right fit for you. What electives interest you? What clubs would you be interested in joining? Does the program curriculum align with helping you achieve your post-MBA goals? 

Take your time to walk through the Stern Tech MBA website to read about the specific components of the program, watch videos and check out resources like this blog to read about student experiences.

When doing my own research, the Tech MBA program stood out to me because it provided exactly what I was looking for: a one-year program in a city, a strong tech-focused curriculum, and resources that would help me develop the skills to transition into product management. For me, the reading about the tech-focused curriculum with classes like Tech Product Management and Dealing with Data combined with several experiential learning opportunities helped solidify that the Tech MBA made the most sense for me.

  1.     Attend Admissions events

The Admissions team hosts a variety of events throughout the application season. One of my favorite events I attended was the mock application session. It helped me tremendously as I worked through the application and set a clear expectation as to what the AdCom was looking for! Another favorite was an event organized by the Stern Women In Business club – hearing the passion and excitement from the students about their time at Stern really helped solidify my decision to apply. Keep an eye out for Stern club-hosted events that align with your interests to get a feel for the student body at Stern.

Coffee Chats are another student-hosted event that provides you with the opportunity to hear about their experience and ask questions!

  1.     Reflect on Your Why

Research and attending events helps you craft your “why” behind why you’re applying to NYU. But it’s also important to know why you want an MBA, why Stern, and why, specifically, a focused one-year program. This will not only help you with your essays, but your interview as well!

  1.     Ask Questions

Based on your goals, your research and your why for business school – ask any dire questions you may have! Utilize Coffee Chats, Admissions events or even reach out to a current student. Clubs are also a great resource to learn more about the student experience. This all works towards helping you make an informed decision and crafting your message throughout your application.

I leveraged the Coffee Chats I attended to ask questions about students pursuing product management roles to see how they shaped their Stern experience. The students I talked to not only gave me ideas about clubs to join and electives to consider but also explained how specific required courses supported the building skills key to pursuing product management.

  1.     Be Authentically You

You’ll see throughout Stern admissions events and the websites the mention of “EQ” – how you represent your emotional intelligence is so important and the best way to demonstrate that is to authentically represent yourself. The best essays and answers are the ones that truly represent who you are as a person – your passions, your goals, your experience, your personality. This is seen throughout your application components, but nothing can duplicate the uniqueness you demonstrated in your Pick 6 essay! Take the time to brainstorm how you can best represent this throughout your application and do not stress about what you think the admissions team wants to see!

  1.     Your contribution to Stern

What clubs do you want to join and how do you see yourself getting involved? How can you leverage your previous experience and contribute to your class? The Stern community? What resources do you strive to utilize while at Stern? Community is such a large part of Stern, I can say with certainty that it is the greatest part of my experience so far. 

The summer semester of the Tech MBA dives into the business core and technology core classes, it is intense, but it was also a time where the Tech MBA community leaned on each other to succeed. There was always a fellow Sternie willing to spend extra time talking through a topic if that meant their knowledge could help you develop a better understanding – I saw this throughout the summer as we jumped from classes like Dealing with Data to Finance. Outside of class, we are always arranging social gatherings. Moving to New York and starting business school was certainly a transition, but this community has tremendously impacted my experience so far! 

  1.     How will you benefit from your time at Stern?

Beyond an MBA degree in hand, how will the Tech MBA at Stern help you achieve your goals? 

In the short time I have been at Stern, I’m already working toward goals I have set for myself: continue to build technical skills, explore areas of tech I’m unfamiliar with and prepare for recruiting for a product manager role. This summer, I continued developing SQL and Python skills during Dealing with Data, and I’m excited to take Data Visualization this fall to continue developing data-related skills. While the Fall semester has just started, the Stern Tech Association has already begun hosting helpful sessions like a knowledge management session about full-time recruiting for tech roles and highlighting job postings in their weekly newsletter. 

  1.     Organization is Key

Create a plan to ensure you have all required paperwork, letters of recommendation, essays and your application completed and submitted by or before the deadline you are aiming for! Choose a deadline and use that as your guide as you work to complete all application requirements. I personally found maintaining a Google Sheet and calendar alerts helped keep me on track! Make sure to ask your recommenders with plenty of time before the deadline so that they’re not rushed, and allow yourself plenty of time to write the best version of your essays.

  1.     Ask for a second set of eyes

As I finalized my essays, one of the most helpful things I did was ask friends I trusted to read through them. This helped me catch anything I may have missed, and they provided good insight as well! As you work through this process, it’s easy to get overwhelmed and a fresh perspective is so helpful! Whenever I got stuck, I found brainstorming with someone and talking it out helped as well. Lean on your community!

  1. Brag about yourself

This is your time to show everything that’s great about you! Show it off with pride and confidence. 

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Immersion Programming in the Tech MBA

Kaitlyn Murdock is a Tech MBA candidate, specializing in Healthcare & Strategy. Prior to Stern, she worked at Deloitte, supporting strategy and analytics engagements for Life Sciences & Health Care clients. Kaitlyn is passionate about improving care outcomes for patients with technology and data. 

 

 

 

The Tech MBA is an incredible opportunity that packs all the classes a traditional 2-year student would take into 12 months. When evaluating MBA programs, one major reservation I had about the Tech MBA is the lack of a summer internship. However, the curriculum and programming is designed in a way that exposes students to many companies around New York City, setting us up to build our network and transition into a post MBA role. One of the hallmark classes of the program is the NYC Tech Immersion course, an all-day, once a week class during the summer. The NYC Tech Immersion consists of two main parts: 

  1. A real-life consulting project for a New York-based company, and
  2. Guest speakers and company site visits 

In today’s post, I’ll focus on the latter. Over the summer, our class heard from product managers and professionals in Digital Health, FinTech, EduTech, and more, and had the opportunity to visit the offices of Google and Uber. 

NYC Tech Landscape

In our very first session, professor J.P. Eggers gave an overview of the New York tech scene. He explained how a successful startup ecosystem requires strong talent (universities), desirable employers (to retain that talent), and sources of funding. Over the last decade, New York’s tech and start-up scene has boomed. It’s a very exciting time to attend school in such an active ecosystem. Hearing from guest speakers like Andrew Chang and Christophe Gillet helped me better understand what New York has to offer and how to break into the start-up scene.

Understanding Tech Trends

By speaking with experts in the industry, we got a glimpse into which emerging technologies businesses really care about. Given the technology landscape changes daily, it’s important to stay current and be able to speak to technology trends in interviews. Joshua Ness from Verizon’s 5G Labs explained the history and importance of 5G-enabled distributed computing and its relation to Web3 technologies. As technology progresses, public policy does too; in another session we had Mike Posner and Paul Barrett from the Center for Business and Human Rights speak about ethics and the responsibilities of a tech company to protect its users.

Networking & Company Culture

Each guest speaker offered a valuable chance to connect with someone in the industry. In addition to visiting Google and Uber, we had guests from Amazon, Goldman Sachs, Facebook, Pinterest, Skillshare, and BCG to name a few. Each guest was willing to chat with students to offer advice and be a resource in the future. These sessions also provided a ‘peek behind the curtain’, giving our class a better understanding of the operations and culture of each business. 

Drawing Connections 

In hindsight, perhaps the most valuable part of our Tech Immersion programming was the ability to draw connections with our other summer classes. We went through a real-life marketing case for Skillshare’s rebranding, and applied what we learned in Entrepreneurship to give a mock pitch to a speaker from Goldman Sachs’ incubator, GS Accelerate. Fitz Maro, a specialist in Design Technology at Amazon, taught us how to make better decisions as a leader, reinforcing what we learned in our Leadership course. We also had the opportunity to utilize the skills we developed in our Strategy course to a case on Uber’s product expansion. Making these connections across courses enriches the MBA experience and helps us appreciate the value of what we learn.

I LOVED our NYC Tech Immersion class. Many of my peers connected with our speakers on a personal and professional level. For me personally, our session with Dr. Sarah Zweifach, AliveCor product manager, illuminated that joining a mid-size digital health startup could be an exciting career path. I’m currently pursuing part-time internships in this space. 

This class was a fantastic way to get to know New York’s tech landscape and is just one of many reasons to pursue the Tech MBA at Stern!