Tech and IT are definitely the career fields of the future -
and the present, to be fair. Any forward-looking industry of our modern time is
vastly tech-dependent. The trick is, these fields encompass so much more than
hard coding and engineering.
If you're wondering about other ways to propel your IT or tech career, consider adding business administration to your skill set. Here's why.
Developing data management skills
Knowing the ins and outs of harvesting, analysing, managing,
and utilising data is an enormous boost to anyone in any tech position. It is
an especially prizedskill set in a leader or manager. As a graduate of a business
administration program you will be able to develop those skills.
They come in especially handy if you plan to build a career
in a product space. You need to understand specific data structures as well as
its overall flow. With an MBA degree you learn not only how to analyse data,
but how to apply your analyses.
Being able to make data-driven decisions in real-life
business contexts will dramatically improve your chance of advancement. If you
already have a solid set of technical skills, like coding, maths, engineering
etc. adding data-centric know-how is a great doorway into leadership positions
in tech and IT.
An entrepreneurial perspective
Of course, not everyone in tech and IT fields aims to get
cosy in a corporation. Some prefer to strike out on their own. For example, if
you would like to start a career as a software developer, you might decide to open your own agency
instead of working for someone else. An MBA can go a long way towards
furthering that goal.
Many business administration programs foster a sense of autonomy, innovation, and initiative in their graduates. These are important instincts to have in a highly dynamic, rapidly advancing industry. Look for a program that offers actual entrepreneurship courses and/ or provides opportunities for students, graduates, or alumni to start their own ventures.
Direct work experience
Some of the most common tech careers actually have a lot to do with administration. Consider
IT managers or data scientists. Accordingly, you should seize every chance to
get actual work experience during your studies, and MBAs offer plenty of those.
This is especially useful for those who want to advance in tech and IT, which
are notoriously competitive industries.
Business programs offer various formats of gaining practical
experience. There are internships, consulting projects, starter placements for
the best performers, and such. On top of all that, you get invaluable tools,
resources, and contacts.
Just remember that most of these situations are starters. In
other words, they're stepping stones to a dream job. Don't pass up an
interesting or promising internship or consultancy because you'd rather aim for
a traditional desk position.
The point is to put your skills on display so that the right
people will have you in mind. Word travels in all industries. Learn whatever
you can from any given placement and be ready to job hop until you get on your
ideal career path.
Leadership skills and team management
One of the biggest benefits of an MBA degree is that it
usually involves a lot of group work. This means communication and networking
on top of traditional assignments. Administration courses throw you into
scenarios where you suddenly have to manage human resources just to get your
own tasks done.
This is especially true with programs that are available
internationally and remotely. You can choose from the best MBA in Australia and attend online from, say, the United
States, along with dozens of peers from all over the world. This exposure to
diversity in fellow business admin students prepares you for working in diverse
teams in actual business situations.
A modern workplace will feature employees from all
backgrounds and walks of life. You have to be able to navigate all the nuances
between people. That kind of leadership is highly valued in tech companies,
because research and development usually requires bringing in experts from
around the world.
Interacting with your MBA peers is priceless soft skills training. You learn how to cooperate, lead, and follow, and how to determine which one is necessary in the given circumstances. This develops your interpersonal flexibility. You learn how to adapt your approach to people, work, and problem-solving.
Building a transferable skill set
The tech world keeps advancing at warp speed. If you want to
stay in the field for any considerable length of time, you have to focus on
skills that you can apply for a long time to come. An MBA empowers you to stay
relevant by teaching evergreen skills.
These include problem-solving, creative thinking, innovation, communication, etc. As much as programming, finance, marketing and such are profitable and valuable, they're still fairly rigid subjects. To truly thrive in your IT or tech career, you have to balance those hard skills with human interpretation and implementation.
Wrapping up
In conclusion, a business administration degree is the
perfect balance to your traditional IT skills. It gives your tech-centric
background more flexibility, versatility, and future-resilience.
On top of improving communication and leadership skills, you
become better at strategizing and handling data. Both are essential to grow and
succeed in the disruptive tech market.
By Brigitte Evans
