Ritchie Murray hopes that juggling his work-family-school life to complete his MBA in management of technology and innovation this June will ‘open up more doors.’ (Rafal Gerszak for the Globe and Mail)
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For James Lam, a twenty-something engineering whiz from Ontario, pushing the technology envelope to better the quality of life for others meant immersing himself in a specialized master's degree program at an Alberta university.
Ritchie Murray, another undergrad degree-holding mechanical engineer, also made a bold move west — from Nova Scotia to Ontario — to pursue his master of business administration (MBA) dreams. In his mid-30s, he studied part time while holding down full-time work in hopes of getting a leg up on the job-climbing ladder.
Meanwhile, at age 25, Sruti Chandra feels more "complete" professionally after moving from India to Toronto to earn her second MBA — in technology management — and landing a job as a hardware service analyst with Rogers Communications Inc.
In the increasingly specialized MBA world, technology programs are hot commodities, with recruiters and companies hunting for qualified and skilled professionals.
And as Mr. Lam, Mr. Murray, Ms. Chandra and other Canadians in tech-career mode have discovered, there's a growing range of specialty master's degrees, in areas such as information and digital technology, biotechnology, and tech commercialization and management.
Mr. Lam says his "entrepreneurial zest" gained from working in technical sales after completing an undergraduate degree at Queen's University in Kingston, Ont., coupled with his drive to better the health of others, landed him in the MBA/master in engineering joint degree program, specializing in technology commercialization, at Edmonton's University of Alberta.
"My initial inspiration to study engineering was a personal one," recalls Mr. Lam, a native of Burlington, Ont. "I witnessed friends who suffered through difficult diseases which were made more bearable through technology that had the ability to significantly increase their quality of life.
Each year, about 20 per cent of the 60 or so students who enter UofA's general MBA program specialize in tech commercialization, one key to advancing Alberta's economic diversification agenda, says Michael Lounsbury, director of both the nine-year-old tech commercialization program and the school's year-old Technology Commercialization Centre. He says the program "gives students the hands-on, conceptual and theoretical" know-how to "translate science into technological products and get them to market."
Numerous studies show MBA holders stand a greater chance of being scooped up than undergrads. One study released last year by the Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC), a Virginia-based group of graduate business schools around the world that counts the University of Toronto and Queen's University among its members, also suggests that just more than half of MBA students are finding jobs while still in school.
"You're seeing more and more specialty degrees, and recruiters are looking more and more for people with specialty skills [including in technology]. The value for the money to the recruiters is to get someone in immediately to pay their way," says Dave Wilson, the Toronto-born president and CEO of GMAC.
The fact that internships have become an MBA program staple also helps grads land choice jobs. Mr. Lam, for instance, says his placement at Nortel in Calgary was "fantastic," tuning him up for a job that will take him to Sydney, Australia, this summer.
Well before his graduation from the two-year U of A program this spring — at a total tuition cost of about $22,000 paid for through scholarships and bursaries — Mr. Lam was hired by Cystic Fibrosis Australia. He hopes to work toward his goal of "fostering technology to better the quality of life of many," and finding a cure for the disease that impairs the lungs and digestive system.
While Mr. Murray isn't looking to leave his job of seven years at Enbridge Gas Distribution in Toronto, he hopes that juggling his work-family-school life to finish his second and final year of Ryerson University's MBA in Management of Technology and Innovation program this June will "open up more doors.
"I have always been interested in continuing engineering and had done some courses already," says Mr. Murray, who earned his mechanical engineering undergrad degree from Dalhousie University in Halifax. Now in the asset management department at Enbridge, he "saw the competitive landscape and people were getting their MBAs, and I thought if I wanted to keep up, I had to go back [to school]."
Characteristic of the intense hands-on aspect of tech-specialty MBAs, Ryerson's program gives students "a blend of the technical expertise combined with in-depth understanding of how technology transforms markets and business," says Wendy Cukier, associate dean academic and MBA director, Ted Rogers School of Management.
Ms. Chandra, armed with a bachelor's degree in computer applications from the University of Madras in India and her master's in general business management from Lansbridge University in Fredericton, was among the first crop of graduates from the Ryerson tech and innovation program.
She completed two hypothetical integrative cases: analyzing an electric company's strategy, supply-chain management and finances as it operated in various Baltic countries with differing policies; and working on the financial aspects of the Town of Peterborough, Ont.'s bid for the world junior hockey championship.
"My class was made up of many professionals, from different backgrounds and with many years of experience in the IT or business environment," Ms. Chandra says. "It was also a male-dominated class and all these factors may have been inhibiting initially, but through the program, I learned so much from all the people I worked with or had discussions and debates with."
"Technology and business are becoming increasingly interspersed and integrated in today's ever-changing, fast-paced businesses," she adds. "An MBA may not be the key to all solutions, but it certainly is a strong learning tool and medium to strengthen one's management skills."
High-tech studies
Thinking of taking on tech MBA studies? Here are a few from the range of Canadian programs:
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Athabasca University, Alberta: MBAs in both Information Technology Management and Project Management, both 24 months and primarily online, aimed at experienced people in those fields.
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Concordia University, Montreal: John Molson School of Business, Aviation MBA, 18-course program for those interested in an aviation management career.
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Dalhousie University, Halifax: Electronic Commerce multi-disciplinary program focusing on computer science, law and management, for careers in the e-business sector.
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Université Laval, Quebec City: MBA in IT management, online.
- Royal Roads University, Victoria/Hong Kong: Digital Technologies Management is a two-year program, especially for those with workplace experience and management background.
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Ryerson University, Toronto: Management of Technology and Innovation, one year full-time, two years part-time, for professionals with technology and management skills.
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Simon Fraser University, Vancouver: Biotechnology, focuses on the issues and process of the biotech industry.
- University of Toronto: Jeffrey Skoll Applied Science and Engineering program, a cutting-edge BSc/MBA program offered jointly by the Faculty of Applied Science and Engineering, and the Rotman School of Management.
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