Career opportunities both in tech companies and beyond are in abundance for MBA graduates with digital skills.
UBC MBA grad George Psiharis opted to stay on in Vancouver after his MBA, where he is now chief operating officer (COO) at Clio, a cloud company for the legal sector. He credits much of the TAL track with the skills that have got him to where he is today.
“The applied, interdisciplinary focus was so helpful for me because it taught me how to interact with a lot of different functions that I use in my role at Clio,” George says.
“In addition, courses on go-to market strategy, business plans, raising money, a lot of the things I rely on to be successful at Clio, I learned during my MBA.”
DJ believes that UBC MBA graduates are well-positioned for a number of roles and responsibilities in companies. The product management focus of the course gives them the understanding of the multiple responsibilities of managers and c-suite executives.
“They learn how to have responsibility for everything and autonomy over nothing, and ultimately learn how to manage and coordinate many moving parts,” he says.
Vancouver was recently ranked number one for high-tech software job growth in North America, even beating Silicon Valley. Amazon is just one big tech company continuing to grow their Vancouver presence, with 3000 more jobs coming in the next few years.
He also sees a number of students with specific niche interests launching their own businesses. UBC Sauder’s proximity to Vancouver’s startup hub—that has seen the birth of startups Hootsuite and tech unicorn Slack—is particularly helpful to new venture founders, who can lean on fellow entrepreneurs for mentoring, as well as tap into angel networks, incubators, and accelerators that have fuelled startup growth in the city.
Much like technology itself, digital skills are really opening up the possibilities about what MBA graduates can achieve.
READ MORE: How I Went From MBA To Tech Startup CEO
