UVA Master’s in Management of Information Technology - Retrospective (Part 6 of 6)
This is the final part of my retrospective on the UVA Master’s in Management of Information Technology program I graduated from in May 2010. See part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4, and part 5 for context.
Graduation and Beyond
Graduation at UVA is a beautiful tradition. Go to it! It provides closure to the MS MIT experience.
After wrapping up Mod 4 and graduating it takes time to transition back into a normal work/life balance. Here are some tips and lessons to ease the transition:
- When you finish your project defense in May and then graduate, it will take a couple of months to unwind. You will wake up on Saturday mornings with a sense of urgency until you realize you don’t have to read and analyze several case studies over the weekend. A vacation can help a lot.
- Keep applying the concepts learned in the program. It’s much easier to remember accounting and finance when you refresh your memory often.
- Go to alumni events. Nicole Fitzwater is the Director of Alumni Relations and does a fantastic job of setting up events for networking and catching up with classmates.
Program Value
The MS MIT program provides most of its value by teaching business school topics in the context of technology. If you are in a technology field and are interested in MBA programs but do not want to study unrelated topics, the MS MIT program is a great choice.
The class is composed of a range of experience levels. My classmates had between 3 and 25+ years of experience and averaged 14 years of experience. There was roughly a 50/50 split between commercial and government positions (either consulting or employees).
A big portion of value in the program is gained by learning from your classmates. The program, particularly the Charlottesville section, facilitates interaction between classmates to assist the learning process outside of the classroom.
My One Criticism of the Curriculum
Overall I had a great experience with the MS MIT program. However, I was disappointed in one subject area. Technology and entrepreneurship is not covered in the curriculum. We learned a disproportionate amount about issues in large organizations. Many of the challenges we discussed in class were symptoms of big bureaucratic organizations.
For example, one of our case studies was on implementing a CRM system at a Fortune 500 organization. The political challenges were more of an issue than the technology problems. Smaller companies would not face the same challenges because they would be more likely to implement a standard software-as-a-service solution.
However, most of the subject matter in the program could apply to established (not startup) organizations. If you are looking to learn more about applying technology to create startups, there are other Master’s programs out there with more of an emphasis on that subject.
Conclusion
That’s my retrospective on the MS MIT program. In hindsight it was a great boost to my career and such a pleasure to have been a part of despite the heavy workload.
I hope this retrospective is helpful for prospective and current MS MIT students. If you have further questions or feedback, please email me at [email protected].
