HKUST MBA Grads Are Flocking To Careers In Tech: Right here’s Why

Know-how is overtaking banking and finance in Hong Kong as the most well-liked vacation spot for MBA graduates from . As much as 34% of HKUST MBA graduates entered the sector in 2019. 

The MBA’s enterprise know-how monitor immerses college students in synthetic intelligence and information analytics, and a area of rising technological prowess affords loads of alternative for graduates. The enterprise know-how focus caters for the training and employment wants of candidates from all backgrounds and ranges of data. 

BusinessBecause caught up with HKUST to search out out why MBA grads are flocking to careers in tech.

1. The area is a rising technological hub

Christopher Yip (pictured proper), the assistant director for MBA/MSc profession {and professional} growth at HKUST, explains that demand from tech firms within the area is rising. 

Latest graduates have landed jobs with Apple, Tencent, Uber, and Google. Burgeoning tech firms like Gojek and ecommerce firm Shopee are additionally hiring HKUST MBAs.

Regardless of the pandemic, firms are exhibiting resilience too. Singapore’s Ninja Van, a parcel supply agency, raised $279 million in a fundraising spherical in Might. Christopher provides Unacademy, an edtech agency from India, additionally noticed a rise in income in April. These developments current new alternatives for MBAs. 

Then there’s healthcare. Corporations within the sector must adapt to an more and more digitized world. “We now have lately seen senior executives throughout Asian nations point out that below the pandemic, firms intend to speculate extra in healthcare. That ought to give some hints to MBAs the place they need to head to when it comes to alternative.”

2. HKUST has robust partnerships with tech companies 

Up to now, HKUST has partnered for recruitment occasions with firms like Fb, Apple, Google, Seize, and SAP.

And Christopher explains there’s a brand new addition to the varsity’s portfolio of company companions: Tencent. HKUST Enterprise College has partnered with the large Chinese language tech agency to carry college students fintech product administration tasks.

There’s additionally a multinational healthcare firm that has rising operations in Asia and a partnership with HKUST. Christopher explains that this new partnership has been offering rising alternatives for HKUST MBAs prior to now few years, hiring them into technique and advertising roles. 

3. The HKUST MBA equips grads with know-how expertise

In conversations with Christopher, firms have more and more expressed a need for graduates expert in information analytics with an excellent understanding of the breadth of know-how at the moment getting used of their companies. 

Some programs on the HKUST MBA are co-taught by professors from the Division of Laptop Science and Engineering. The college additionally affords versatile core programs in information evaluation, programming in Python or R, and synthetic intelligence, and worldwide examine journeys have taken college students to Silicon Valley to check entrepreneurship and innovation.

Delicate expertise are excessive on the agenda too, and college students develop these expertise at HKUST by means of group work, crew tasks, and dealing with firms throughout MBA internships.

Gautam Khattak (pictured proper), an MBA graduate from HKUST, and now the vp of data know-how at Superior Vitality, credit the MBA for serving to him mix his engineering expertise with a powerful enterprise acumen.

“HKUST’s MBA program expanded my consciousness and insights into elements of the enterprise I’d have sometimes shied away from early in my profession,” he explains.

“After the MBA, I utilized my problem-solving talents to enterprise and organizational challenges (fairly than simply technical ones), driving not solely enhancements however transformations throughout a number of departments, which led to my development to a chief info officer place.”

Gautam went from being a distinct segment engineering supervisor to having the ability to run cross-functional tasks in ways in which improved engineering, he explains, in addition to different enterprise areas like operations and advertising. 

He doesn’t imagine there’s a separation between enterprise and know-how in the present day. “The 2 are inextricably linked and, in an effort to have a profitable enterprise, one should develop a cohesive know-how technique.”

Understanding how know-how is an enabler for each aspect of enterprise is just not solely a energy and keenness for Gautam, however he believes it to be the important thing to creating worth for a enterprise in the present day. 

Understanding find out how to handle tech tasks that incorporate a number of groups is important. Christopher explains that HKUST is among the many first enterprise colleges in Asia to supply Scrum workshops for college kids to get product administration expertise tailor-made for know-how companies. 

Scrum is a framework for undertaking administration that pushes teamwork, accountability, and step-by-step progress in direction of a well-defined objective.

4. There’s customized assist for MBA college students

Each full-time scholar on the HKUST MBA has one to 1 mentorship time with a devoted careers coach from this system. They’ve common conferences—now on Zoom—to speak about their capacity, to establish their profession objectives, and find out how to attain them.

They work with employers to match candidates with appropriate job openings. They make sure that every scholar is ready to leverage their MBA and to launch their superb profession.

MBA college students even have a tutorial advisor who might help them tailor their curriculum to match their profession aspirations. These two customized coaches had been rolled out for the MBA class starting in 2020. 

The educational advisor has at their disposal the robust flexibility of the HKUST MBA curriculum from which college students can decide and select their superb profession path. The enterprise know-how monitor is accompanied by a monitor in consulting and strategic administration, finance, basic administration, and advertising. College students have over 70 versatile cores and electives to choose from. 

All of which means that college students from the HKUST MBA are properly positioned to enter careers in tech. For Gautam, the MBA additionally meant he was capable of grapple with the challenges posed to tech by the COVID-19 pandemic. 

“The COVID-19 disaster has proven that the necessity for fast decision-making, drawback fixing, and methods pondering is extra necessary than ever. These expertise allowed me to deal with the myriad issues that hadn’t been thought of even in the very best enterprise continuity plans,” he says.

“With the ability to react quick, anticipate cascading results, and shortly analyze information could make or break a company. The MBA not solely provides you a brand new set of instruments but additionally a very reworked mindset. Benefits like this will actually assist allow a pacesetter navigate this dynamic panorama, blazing the path by means of the seeming chaos.”

Learn extra HKUST MBA tales:

How My HKUST MBA Acquired Me A Consulting Job At BCG

HKUST Opens Doorways To A Booming Jobs Market For Returning Asian MBAs