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The Summer Semester in the Tech MBA

Barak is a current Tech MBA student, specializing in Tech Product Management, Leadership, and Change Management. Before Stern, Barak led a team of Product Managers at a FinTech firm in Tel Aviv, Israel where he helped the top financial institutions around the world to provide custom financial insights to their customers. At Stern, he is involved in the FinTech Club as the VP of Alumni Relationships and enjoys organizing pickup basketball games and swimming activities with his classmates.

As a new student in NYU Stern’s Tech MBA program, I recently relocated from Israel to New York in May, accompanied by my wife, our 2-year-old son, and our beloved dog. As I approach the end of my summer semester, I find myself eager to share valuable insights and tips that I’ve gathered throughout this semester. The goal of this post is to help future students and prospects make the most out of their time in the program.

A One-Year Tech-Focused MBA Program

The NYU Tech MBA program is exciting and innovative, lasting from May to May. In just half the time of a traditional two-year program, we achieve a full MBA degree through a unique approach. During the summer semester, we complete the core courses of the first year of the general MBA and seamlessly transition to the second year in the fall. 

Design Sprint Workshop at Google

 

The Summer Semester: A Sprint to Success

The summer semester is divided into three intensive sprints, each lasting four weeks. Picture this: Monday to Friday, from 9 AM to 4:30 PM (with a refreshing lunch break from 12:00 PM to 1:30 PM),  dedicated to immersive learning experiences. With 3-4 courses per sprint, we efficiently cover an expansive range of crucial business concepts, successfully completing the 11 core courses within a single semester.

Tailored courses for Tech leaders

As someone who thrives in high-pressure environments, this program has impressed me thoroughly so far. The opportunity to immerse ourselves in numerous fascinating courses in one semester, while also mastering the foundational principles of each subject, is simply extraordinary. The university’s creation of dedicated courses tailored for tech-enthusiastic business leaders ensures we receive precisely what we need. Additionally, the incorporation of pre-work, in-class practices, and post-class assignments and quizzes enriches our learning experience.

Communication Course Final Presentation

A Cohort of Family

The people in this program are its greatest asset. With an intimate group of approximately 50 students in the Tech MBA and 25 students in Fashion and Luxury, ​​the quiet summer campus provides the ideal setting for us to come together and form strong bonds. Collaborating on group projects and rotating through different groups for each class allows us to truly know our classmates on a personal level. We don’t just feel like classmates; we’ve become one big family.

Google Office Visit

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A short pencil is better than a long memory

The summer semester can be intense and overwhelming with multiple deadlines, but it’s manageable with the right tools. Stay on top of your game by utilizing effective tools like calendars, to-do lists, and time-blocking techniques. These organizational aids will keep you on track and ensure you never miss a deadline.

Entrepreneurship Course Final Pitch

Prioritize one task at a time

Concentrate on the present importance and avoid getting overwhelmed with future concerns. Trying to handle everything simultaneously leads to accomplishing nothing. Identify high-priority tasks and tackle them first, maintaining control over essential assignments and preventing last-minute rushes.

Embrace the academic opportunities 

Take full advantage of the academic opportunities that the program offers. With captivating classes, experienced industry-proficient professors, and motivated teaching fellows, make the most of these opportunities to learn from some of the best educators in the world. 

Engage in Active Learning 

Take an active role in class discussions, team projects, and case studies, as this will not only enhance your understanding but also enlighten your classmates. The class comprises a diverse group of individuals from various backgrounds, and the beauty lies in how we enrich one another’s learning journey through shared experiences.

Uber Office Visit

Avoid lagging in the material

As classes build upon previous concepts, make it a priority to keep up, and don’t hesitate to seek assistance if needed. Like a snowball effect, staying ahead ensures a smooth progression without overwhelming yourself

Your friends are your best resource

This is always true, but particularly during learning sessions. Embrace the diversity within your cohort to leverage each other’s prior experiences and enhance your understanding of the material. Never hesitate to seek assistance when needed, as everyone is eager to support one another. It’s also a wonderful chance to deepen your connections and get to know each other better.

Multiple Support Options are available

Bear in mind that you have access to various forms of assistance to aid you along the way. If you require help, don’t hesitate to contact the faculty for support. The university offers a range of resources, such as extra office hours with professors or teaching fellows, additional practice sessions, and personalized accommodations, all designed to ensure your academic success.

Sternies Play Basketball in the John A. Paulson Center

If you only get A’s, it means that you’re doing something wrong

This is the thought-provoking statement that one of our professors began his lecture with. While academic excellence is important, a fulfilling graduate degree encompasses more. Invest time in networking, coffee chats, socializing, sports, and other activities that contribute to your overall growth and enriching experience.

Enjoy!

This year is too short to do anything other than enjoy the opportunity to live in one of the best cities in the world and embrace every aspect and moment of it!

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Beyond Borders, Beyond Expectations: Reflections of an International MBA Student

Omotoke is a recent Tech MBA graduate with specializations in Strategy & Business Analytics. Prior to Stern, Omotoke worked with KPMG as a Technology Assurance Consultant and is now looking to pursue Technology Risk & Strategy Consulting. At Stern, she was on the Board of the Association of Hispanic & Black Business Students and a member of the Management Consulting Association. Omotoke enjoys listening to good music and attending dance classes.

It’s graduation week as I write this, and nostalgia has begun to creep up on me. I have really enjoyed a great time since I arrived in New York from Nigeria a year ago to start my MBA. As I think back on the year-long experience that now feels like only a few weeks, these are tips I would give a prospective or newly admitted student.

1. Start your visa application immediately 

Backstory– I got my admission offer in January 2022, but as of May 2022, one week from orientation, I was yet to secure a visa interview appointment – let alone a visa. Even though I already resigned from my job for school, it didn’t seem like I was going anywhere 😅.

By divine providence, in that final week, I was called to interview. I finally received the visa, one day behind the official resumption for International Students. I hurriedly packed and made the 20+ hour trip within the next two days. You can imagine the rollercoaster this was, yet the saddest part was having no time to say goodbye to all my loved ones in person.

There are not many things I could have done differently in my case; however, securing my admission in round 1 instead of round 2 probably may have saved me the headache. So, if that is what it will take for you to get your visa ahead of time, by all means apply in round 1.  

Along the same lines, if you want your family or other guests present at graduation, start their visa applications very well ahead if they are from countries with long wait times. I started  making arrangements for my parents’ graduation trip 3 months ahead and by then it was too late.

2. Ensure you’re capturing all the important expenses in your budget planning

No one forgets rent, food, entertainment, utilities etc. but two expenses I find can be easily omitted are: loan interest repayments and co-curricular/leisure travel expenses.

Private loans are often very helpful for international students to cover some of their cost of attendance; however, a common oversight is to not plan interest repayments into estimated monthly budgets. Some forget this expense and some assume that it would be trivial.

Depending on your loan amount and terms, it may not be trivial, and you may need to start making payments early on. Get your estimates and factor it into your monthly budget and estimated cost of living.

Next, travel! You need to have a budget for travel. There will be lots of travel opportunities for coursework and for leisure with your classmates; planning ahead for this will allow you to take on these great experiences without much pressure.

On a road trip to Stamford with class friends

Additional tip: Request and review the school calendar for the year before starting the program to note the school holidays and make your own holiday plans.

3. Pack the right outfits

I wish someone whispered to me in the middle of my frantic packing, “Toke, you’re packing all the wrong clothes.”

I remember being unsure about how formal I would need to dress for classes and eventually settling for business based on my quick Google search. I brought in work clothes and a number of pumps…haha, but it only took a day or two to know the pumps were going back into the box. 

There’s a lot of flexibility around the dress code for classes. You can be as formal as you would like but you’ll find most people dressed in smart casuals. There will be company visits, corporate presentations and interviews, for which you could be required to be more formally dressed. 

Pack accordingly and whatever you do, make sure your shoes are “subway and walking friendly” because you can’t miss those. 

4. Start preparing for recruiting from Day 1

Depending on your target, recruiting activities may kick off really early in the programme, with applications opening in June/July and interviews rolling in by August.

As part of your early preparation, my recommendation is to make a long list of companies (not three or five) within your target industry that do not have a permanent work authorization hiring requirement (if you are an International student within this category) and get the timing of their recruitment. 

While many companies hire on a rolling basis, some have specific times of the year when they do MBA recruitment and missing that window could mean waiting another 6-12 months. 

Making this list upfront helps you identify many prospects and pace your interview preparation. Stern has very helpful databases for this research on the Careers Portal gathered from previous  years. The Careers team will be ready to help you when you arrive, but it’s nice to begin planning ahead anyway.

5. The communities really want to be helpful, ask for all the help you need

You’ve heard how fantastic the NYU clubs are 99 times already so I’ll try not to make it a hundred. The recommendation I have here is to join at least one, very early, before you travel down, if possible. You would be unable to register as an “official” member until the clubs open up for admissions in Fall but you could join the Whatsapp groups of some affinity clubs anytime after you accept your admission offer. Joining before you travel down will allow you leverage the community for the help you need with onboarding, settling in, temporary accommodation, renting, finding housemates, choosing courses and all the initial hard stuff. 

So find a community, join, and ask for whatever help you need. Sternies are always willing.

As a final note, immerse yourself and enjoy the diversity of NYU and New York. You will do great.

 

 

 

 

 

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Entrepreneurship in the Tech MBA with J.P. Eggers

J.P. Eggers is a Professor of Management & Organizations, and the Academic Director of the Tech & Entrepreneurship MBA Program at NYU Stern. His research focuses on how organizations often struggle developing new, innovative products, and how they deal with technological change. Prior to academia, he was a strategy and technology consultant working with large and small companies trying to adapt to digitization. He has a PhD from Wharton, an MBA from Emory, and a BA from Amherst College.

How does the Tech MBA prepare students for entrepreneurship?
We’ve built this program with entrepreneurship at its core, on the assumption that everyone here will want to start a business at some point in their career. From hands-on courses designed around the ecosystems in New York (summer) and the west coast (January), to foundational technology and business courses, to a wealth of electives, the program seeks to strike the right balance for future founders to get them the tools they need, and then get them out building.

What resources are available to Tech MBA students interested in pursuing entrepreneurship?
Within the program itself, you will spend time with founders, funders, and advisors to learn about their perspectives and journeys. You will get access to a growing network of deeply committed alums, many of whom have founded and even exited their businesses. More broadly within Stern, you have full access to the resources in the Berkley Center for Entrepreneurship, which hosts pitch competitions and advising network opportunities. You can also take the Endless Frontier Labs course, helping many of the top funders (VC and corporate) in the world shape brand new science and technology based companies. Beyond Stern, you have access to NYU’s Entrepreneurial Institute and the Leslie eLab just down the block, which give you access to the entirety of NYU and hosts events, meetups, competitions, and advising opportunities.

Do students interested in entrepreneurship typically have a business idea prior to the program, or do they come up with ideas through their coursework?

Our first cohort in 2018 had two students who were founders before they came to Stern. They already had companies they could build while in the program – one student started their company as a side hustle, while another was one earlier in the process. Both built their Tech MBA experience around trying to help build and launch their companies. Subsequent founders, however, have come in at virtually every stage – one had a blog post and nothing else, two created the idea together to enter the Berkley Center’s pitch competition. We’ve even had students who came to Stern after founding and exiting companies, with the idea of building new skills and a new network, and getting back out there.

How have you seen the intimate cohort size benefit students interested in entrepreneurship?
The power of the cohort is incredibly strong. Everyone comes in with a deep interest and background in technology and/or entrepreneurship, so the shared experience provides a perfect foundation. Your cohort could easily include your co-founder, your target customer and focus group participant, your connection to funding, and the subject matter expert who can help you solve that crazy challenge you’ll face in three years. The small cohort size and the intense shared experience, especially in the summer, builds exceptional bonds. Entire cohorts have gone on vacation together, and attended each others’ weddings.

What classes do you recommend future entrepreneurs take in the Tech MBA?
Aspiring founders have many options for electives, including (but not limited to) the Endless Frontier Labs course I mentioned earlier. Many students choose to pursue at least some more “traditional” MBA courses, helping them hone their finance skills and become better leaders. Some courses that are particularly appropriate for entrepreneurship include Entrepreneurial Finance, Managing a High Tech Company: The CEO Perspective, Managing the Growing Company, Technology Innovation Strategy, and Emerging Technologies & Business Innovation, just to name a few.

Can you share some success stories from past Tech MBA students?
It’s tough to limit the success stories to a few, but hopefully I can paint the picture of different entrepreneurial paths our Tech MBAs have during their next chapter. One thing that I’m especially proud of is how entrepreneurial our Tech MBAs are regardless of their role, function or company – they’ve shown that you don’t (necessarily) need to be a founder to create real change and flip a traditional process. We’ve had the opportunity to connect with alums who see themselves as “intrapreneurs” guiding new visions through a company to create real change, as well. In our eyes, both paths –  intrapreneurship and entrepreneurship – are success stories to demonstrate how our strategic curriculum supports new ideas and new ways of thinking during the program and beyond. Alums like Akanksha and Vera are driving innovation efforts at top global companies, whereas Ethan and David joined companies early on to support the launch of the business. We also have a few success stories that fit the more classic entrepreneurial path like Sam and Jeff who have completely chartered their own courses. Entrepreneurship can take many different forms and paths, and we’re proud of our Tech MBAs that are driving positive change no matter the size or scale.

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Exploring the Startup Ecosystem in the United States through EFL

Nilesh Ramnani, CFA is a current Tech MBA student, specializing in Strategy, Product Management, and Entrepreneurship. Prior to Stern, Nilesh had his own consulting firm and has also worked in Investment Banking and Private Equity. At Stern, he is a board member of Private Equity and Venture Capital Club; Business Analytics Club; Graduate Marketing Club and Adventure Club and enjoys traveling and exploring different cultures and cuisines.

I was standing in the queue for the most adventurous Velocicoaster ride at Universal Park Orlando during my spring break. I asked my wife – Are you scared? She said, “yes I am, but it will be so much fun! The excitement and a bit of fear makes this adventurous.” Once we were on the Velocicoaster, we were thrown upside down four times and all the moves were unexpected. The start-up world is no different. You just need to find your own balance of facing fear, uncertainty and enjoying the ride. You are pulled in different directions and you need to find your own path. 

Before joining Stern, I had experience working with many startups in India through my own consulting practice. But I wanted to get a deeper dive into the start-up ecosystem in the United States. That’s when I found the Endless Frontier Labs (EFL), taught by Professor Deepak Hegde. The course is a mix of lectures, working with a start-up and also meeting industry experts who mentor the companies in EFL. 

I was paired with OPTT health, a company that is trying to solve some of the biggest challenges in the mental health care space in the US and Canada. We read a lot about telehealth companies trying to make mental health accessible to everyone, but the facts are shocking. 55% of adults (28 million people) in the US with a mental illness do not receive treatment. This is partly because mental health treatment is highly subjective and labor-intensive, and treatment outcomes depend mainly on the skill of the clinician. We need efficiencies in the system to enable doctors to treat more patients and OPTT is trying to do this using a proprietary algorithm to capture and analyze patient data. It plans to transform the treatment of mental health using machine learning and Artificial Intelligence. 

I worked with founders Mohsen Omrani and Ali Omrani on the go to market strategy in the United States market. In our meetings with mentors, we identified a crucial goal: to develop a quantitative model that OPTT Health can use to effectively communicate its value proposition. I mapped out the patient journey and identified areas where OPTT can create value that could be quantified. Based on these findings, I developed a financial model to calculate the return on investment (ROI) for potential customers. OPTT plans to use this model to determine a suitable pricing strategy for the company, ensuring that the value they offer is commensurate with the price. My work will be used to communicate the value to all the stakeholders including customers, investors and partners.

Through EFL, I also learned a lot about other startups. We had multiple group sessions where we discussed the issues faced by EFL startups and brainstormed ideas to solve these problems. EFL provides a platform for students, mentors, and the EFL team, to discuss the problems startups are facing.

I think the EFL course gave me exactly what I was looking for. I got a flavor of the startup ecosystem in the United States and also learned frameworks to solve problems faced by startups.

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Demystifying Tech in the Tech MBA

Shriram HS is a current Tech MBA student specializing in strategy, marketing, and product management. He moved to New York City from Bengaluru, India. At Stern, he is the VP of Tech MBA at the Stern Technology Association. Prior to Stern, he worked at Cisco, leading product development for 5G and cloud networks. He holds a bachelor’s in electrical engineering and a master’s in computer engineering.

“Know what’s weird? Day by day, nothing seems to change. But pretty soon, everything’s different.“

-Bill Watterson, through the fabled comic strip Calvin and Hobbes.

That quote elegantly encapsulates the predominant theme of present-day reality, especially in business and technology: Disruption. It conveys a rather simple but sweeping idea that swift disruption is the new norm. What’s in vogue today is unlikely to be so in a few months. And it does not spare anything: technology, business models, or even entire firms. So how do you thrive in this new age?

Until a few years ago, the traditional MBA would set you up nicely for any target industry. But today, when you specifically want to pursue tech/tech-adjacent leadership roles:

  1. It has at most a peripheral focus on tech, which is now a primary driver of this disruption 
  2. It has a high time cost of two years

When I began exploring business schools, I had strict considerations:

  • Its program had to build on or complement my tech background
  • It mustn’t be longer than a year
  • It had to be welcoming of international students

Any tradeoff here would severely affect its value to me. As you’d expect, only a micro list of options fulfilled all these criteria. Yet, I insisted on assessing the details under the hood of each option, and that showed why the Stern Tech MBA experience stands out in this new age.

I’ll start with oft-asked sets of questions I’ve come across:

What exactly is the Tech MBA? Is it an executive program? Is it a joint degree? Is it a specialization?

It is none of those. I’d dub it an accelerated MBA focusing on technology.

Is it for someone with a tech background? Is it only for someone who wants to move to the tech industry?

It could be for anyone, with no binding restrictions on either prior background or outcome. In fact, its chief tenet is flexibility, which I’ll expand on in further detail below. I found ample preparatory content within the course for folks who didn’t work with tech before. As for outcomes, its structure allows you to specialize in any of Stern’s 27 specializations. The latest program reports would help you note this diversity, both in roles as well as industries. Given that any product or service in any industry could have a substantial digital component, the Tech MBA’s literally designed with that flexibility. Here’s precisely how.

My good friend and classmate John Bennion shared his specifics to facilitate this collation to give you a clear view of this program’s flexibility. For quick context, he worked at the US Air Force, leading product management before coming to Stern.

Core Classes

The business core comprises all foundational MBA classes at 2x the pace. Among that, a subset (strategy, entrepreneurship) is specifically tech-focused. On the other hand, the tech core comprises grad-level classes on data, modern tech stacks, and DevOps. Through these, you’d have everything you need to manage tech operations, understand systems architecture, or even build your own application. While I waived those classes in which I had proficiency, John added more electives in this space, taking advantage of both Courant (NYU’s Institute for Mathematical Science) and Steinhardt (NYU’s School of Culture, Education, and Human Development).

Electives (Selected Sample)

One highlight of tech management coursework I must list here is innovation strategy taught by Prof. Melissa Schilling. Many business school classes embody some combination of traditional/layered concepts, case studies, and professional practice. However, this class is a fine example of how primary research and years of teaching have resulted in a distinctively compelling study. Her single coherent strategic framework for innovation management seamlessly decoded any and every example brought up in class.

Experiential Learning

A fun aspect here is the near-weekly sessions hosted by alumni and visiting business leaders as a built-in part of this course. What makes it fun is their remarkably candid spirit while sharing their incredible experiences. For our cohort, these ranged from cutting-edge tech, such as pre-release 5G solutions from Verizon, to high-impact initiatives involving predictive AI at Lyft.

Another memorable class I took this fall was the Consulting Lab, engaging with J&J’s self-care division for branding and innovation. Starting out, I had no expertise in the function or the industry. But over the semester, the 10x learning in this class prodded me to advanced levels. On its concluding day, our client’s leaders commended my team, asking us to present our recommendations further to J&J’s senior global leadership. In no small part, it is a reflection of Prof. Fran Gormley, whose mere preparation for every meeting astonished me. As a result of this experience, not only did I add new skills, such as go-to-market strategy, to my repertoire, but I also feel inspirited to take on new challenges. Such felicitous experiences help you develop a refined perspective that immensely boosts your range, which is key to this new age. And no other place is primed for better exposure to this ecosystem, embracing Silicon Alley, Wall Street, and a multitude of marvels in this city that never sleeps.

 

 

 

 

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The Tech MBA Curriculum

Divya Mehta is a current Tech MBA student at Stern. Within Stern, she is part of the Graduate Marketing Association and Business Analytics Club boards. Before starting her MBA, Divya has held various supply chain roles at Johnson & Johnson, Colgate-Palmolive, and Intel Corporation. She studied Industrial Engineering at Penn State University with minors in Product and Entrepreneurship. Post-MBA she is interested in pivoting from a cost-savings role to a revenue-generation role at a B2B company. 

If you’re reading this post, you’re probably wondering how we effectively squeeze a traditional MBA curriculum in just one year. How is it structured? How does it feel? 

My classmates studying for our accounting final together at one of our apartments

One of the most unique aspects of the Tech MBA is that core classes start in the summer rather than the fall. This gave all 47 of us the unique opportunity to receive focused attention from renowned professors, early access to all of Stern’s resources, an accelerated bonding experience through 30-40 hours a week in class together, and elective flexibility for the subsequent semesters. 

In order to help frame the first semester, I’ve broken it down into takeaways and  two parts: The first 60 days and the last 30 days. 

Takeaways 

  • The first semester is difficult. By clearing your schedule for the first 60 days, you may save yourself from stress.
  • Knowledge is power. Students have opportunities to think about how each core class relates to one another and apply learnings to their experiential engagements. 
  • Everyone has unique strengths. The professors are amazing, but classmates are also a great resource for learning and support! 
  • Having fun is important! Electives are a chance to learn something you wouldn’t have learned otherwise. Don’t worry too much about specializations. Everyone’s journey is unique.

The first 60 days: 

Our first 60 days consisted of seven core courses which were already scheduled for us and required as part of the Tech MBA curriculum: 

Economics Accounting
Leadership Communications
Tech Immersion Marketing
Dealing with Data (Python, SQL)

Our days were long and fully packed with class from 9:00am to 4:20pm. Although the injection of mental and social stimulation was difficult to prepare for, this was also the portion of the summer that I had the least number of extracurricular distractions and the most amount of adrenaline to learn fast. I also was continuously re-energized by some of my favorite professors Professor Brian Hanssen (Communications) and Professor Nate Petit (Leadership) who consistently brought their passion to the classroom. 

I was also impressed by the structure of the program, which strategically weaved complementary themes through multiple courses in our carefully crafted curriculum. For example, after learning about empathy in Leadership on a Monday, we immediately practiced delivering feedback in Communications the following Tuesday. In Marketing class, we learned about Customer Journey Maps and User Personas, which we incorporated into our Tech Immersion check-ins with our respective clients. The ability to apply fresh material to concurrent courses led to faster absorption, richer discussions, and a more holistic understanding of where different aspects of a business intersect. 

The last 30 days: 

Our last 30 days ended with four courses that gradually transitioned us from learning fundamentals to implementing strategy.  

Finance Strategy
Entrepreneurship Tech Immersion (continued)

Just like the first 60 days, principles we learned in our morning Finance class (CAGR and ROIC) were being applied in our Strategy and Entrepreneurship classes. The classes had a balanced mix of hands-on experience, practical applications, and case studies. As an engineer, I initially found Finance challenging but luckily, I had a few classmates with lots of practical finance experience to help me study and succeed. After balancing seven classes in the first 60 days, and having the support of my classmates, this portion of the semester felt much lighter. We finally had a good groove and Friday classes were eventually replaced with free time for picnics, beach trips, and sightseeing!

After the first semester…

After the first semester, everything else felt very manageable. We entered the fall semester with grace. At this point I already had a rhythm, a strong group of friends, and a foundational understanding to take some stimulating electives with the rest of the 2-year MBA students. My favorite elective in the second semester was Blockchains & Cryptocurrency. The class started off with industry experts discussing current event topics (such as the fall of FTX). I was thankful that the structure of the Tech MBA curriculum equipped me with the perfect blend of technical and commercial acumen to conceptualize cryptocurrency strengths, weaknesses, challenges, and opportunities. In my last semester, I am most excited to take a course in Strategic Foresight and Predicting the Future of Technology with Amy Webb, a leading expert in future strategy and innovation, who has been featured in numerous media outlets such as CNN, The New York Times, and the Wall Street Journal!

Aside from electives, we also had more free time to join boards of clubs and participate in extracurriculars with the rest of the Stern community. With my newfound free-time, I led a committee in planning the first in-person conference for the Graduate Marketing Association in years. I also had an opportunity to attend an intimate Leadership Storytelling summit which expanded on some of the principles I learned in Leadership class. I was able to branch out and meet so many Sternies from all walks of life, with a lighter course load.

My amazing class of Tech MBAs and Fashion & Luxury MBAs after our final presentations in Strategy

Overall, if you are looking for a fast, collaborative, hands-on approach to accelerating your career, the Tech MBA is the right choice for you! 

 

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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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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!

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What to Expect From Your Tech MBA Summer

One of the most unique parts of the Tech MBA is the summer semester – there are no other students on campus, you get to bond with your cohort, and start your journey as an MBA. If you’re wondering what a typical day in the life of a Tech MBA student in the summer looks like, it’s a very busy but exciting time! It’s also a great transition from working into school, since your schedule is more like a 9-5 working day. Here’s an example of what a typical day might look like:

  • 8am – 9am: Commute from Brooklyn to campus
  • 9am – 11:50am: Class 1: Economics
  • 11:50am – 12:30pm: Lunch in the park with friends
  • 12:30pm – 1:30pm: Catch up on reading in the student lounge
  • 1:30pm – 4:20pm: Class 2: Leadership
  • 4:20-6:00pm: Work on assignments
  • 6:00pm: Head home or grab dinner/drinks with Stern friends

Classes you will take: The summer is all about Core classes, and they’re in a special format to accommodate for taking everything over the summer. You’ll take Economics, Leadership, Accounting, Marketing, Communications, and many more courses, but in essence are taking most of the core curriculum that MBA1s take in their first year. The benefits of this are that professors distill down their content to the most important information, and you get a ‘greatest hits’ experience. The challenge can be time management because you need to make time for homework in the evenings and on the weekend. One great part is that everyone is in the same courses, so it’s easy to lean on each other for support.

How to take advantage of the summer in NYC: Since everyone is more or less on the same schedule, it means you’ll get to spend many of your days together during the week! It’s a great time to get outside in Washington Square Park to study or hang out, and check out all of the amazing lunch spots near campus. My personal favorite is Court Street Grocers. Our cohort did lots of fun summer activities, including a lobster boat cruise in Manhattan and outdoor rock climbing in Brooklyn.

What I wish I had done looking back: Time management can be difficult during the summer, because there are so many classes packed into a short period. The best way to manage for me was to block off certain nights or weekends where I would dedicate myself to getting work for the week done. I also used a program called Trello to make a board with tickets for every assignment that I could group by deadline or priority, which helped me make sure I knew what was coming up. Our cohort also made a #homework channel on Slack, and someone volunteered to post assignments each Monday. Like I said – lean on one another!

The summer is a really amazing time, and was my favorite part of the whole program! For those of you about to start the program, I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!

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My favorite course this semester: Emerging Technologies and Business Innovation

I started a Tech MBA so I could “speak and understand” technology, but mainly to use it as a tool to face business challenges and scale solutions. I am enjoying the program as the mix of courses is accurate for this goal. There are incredible courses related to business and others to technology. There are many special courses, but my favorite one has been “Emerging Technologies and Business Innovation,” dictated by the professor Alex Tuzhilin.

This course wraps up what every person who wants to develop a career around innovation would need to know. It starts explaining innovation as the interaction between business, technology, and regulation. With this in mind, we discussed a framework that was present all over the course: the can-do/ should-do. This is a useful perspective to understand how and when to use certain technologies considering their feasibility, context, ethics, and business sense.

We reviewed the history of innovation and technology, watching how certain technologies faced a phase of hype due to an excitement of the market (many times overreaction), but then they lose its attention (and its capital) because they are not useful. Sometimes they just die, or sometimes they come more solid and disrupt markets. Getting to see this in a conceptual analysis, with a big picture perspective, is useful to be able to understand the nature of innovation and use it.

After this framework, we analyzed technologies that passed through the phase of gloom and now are succeeding. These technologies have the potential to shape many fields in business and human activities. We saw virtual reality, big data, knowledge management, and artificial intelligence. In each case we reviewed what industries are impacted and the challenges around them for the present and the future. We saw industries like healthcare, education, work, among others.

During the course we not only studied these conceptual topics, but also reviewed cases around each topic and received guest speakers to put what has been learned in perspective. I really enjoyed the course because it was totally conceptual – now I feel more prepared to analyze our fast-moving world. I feel I have the tools to feed my curiosity looking to the future with a more structured framework.