I am born in a middle class family in Nepal. As a child I wanted to be a civil engineer like my Father. He worked as a civil engineer in a remote area in Jhomsom, 9000 feet elevated, in the foothills of Himalayas of Nepal. My father did not finish his degree in Engineering. He worked as an engineer in that area, because no engineers in their right mind would want to go there and work. That is why the Nepal government appointed him as the civil engineer of the district. The town has less than 3000 people, my father was the “engineer” and I was the “little engineer” then.
I completely forgot about engineering after high school, during summer 1993, I took some computer classes that in some ways changed my career plans. However, I did not take it by heart, because I didn’t even enjoy going to those classes, but my parents were spending fortune, so I had to finish. Taking it one step at a time, I started to realize that computer is useful and I should learn more about it. Although I was enrolled in a local university for two years Bachelors in Commerce programs, my mind was flying all over in search of place to study "computers".
There is a need for me to go to America, so I told my parents about it. However, I don’t have any means to go there. My family was not rich. My parents barely had enough money for my travel expenses. They probably could have managed for my travel expenses and a semester's tuition fee if they stretch it out. I have to find a college where I can get some scholarships. For the next two years, that's all I did. Finally, in July of 1995, my two Years of hard work paid off. I got admitted to University in Iowa, a private University that gave me free room and board plus some grants for tuition. At I decided to do Computer Information System instead of Computer Science in the hopes that I will get best of the 2 worlds "computers" and "business" with one degree. That was my first real attempt to hash out a career for me, a technical business leader, or something like that.
Ambivalences
I have heard everything and I was too skeptical about it. I have always believed that acquiring does not mean a person needs to gain a fancy degree and for a long time I felt that studying MBA is nothing but hype. I still feel the urge to do it. The only reason I have is that I want to do it! I consider my self as a “techie", I have felt that you do not get the boarder picture of the business world. We only make the systems work but the whole purpose of systems and decision as to why we even do projects always eluded me. Sure they wanted the faster and reliable systems, but how does it play with the overall goals of the organization. I want to learn about businesses, management, finances that basically make up the business world.
I Love my job. It’s allowing it to hone my IT and Project management skills together. But it's not challenging enough. I feel like I am capable of so many things. I need to challenge myself. I like to move up to the corporate ladder so to speak. I like to get into the corporate strategy or business development side of a technical company. Frankly, they hire MBA’s most of the time and choices for people like me who don’t have MBA’s are very limited.
I want to learn more about marketing and communications. In the marketing concept, there are many approaches that can be used in order to make a company more competitive and successful. One of these approaches includes the notion of strategic management. As this definition entails, strategic management gives emphasis on integrating management, marketing, finance, production/operations, research and development and computer information systems to achieve organizational success
I know it's vague and clichéd. But I really want to learn more about finances, operations, management. I think the classes I will be taking, the projects/home works and case studies of a MBA Program, will make me a very well rounded person.
I need to acquire specific business domain knowledge and skills that will not be acquired as an IT specialist. Instead a formal training will be needed that MBA can provide me with the training in core business areas, including finance, accounting, and general management. Furthermore, as a future technology manager, I will need to learn mange the business effort with strategic initiatives and how IT can make different. Working on case study problems in a team environment will develop important communication and analytical skills. The case study method will expose me to a broad range of real company problems. Working on case study and team projects with a diverse group of professional will give me exposure to business practices, techniques and differences thought process. Finally, I also want to finish what I started out with my CIS degree at Drake. Be a technical management/business leader.
How MBA fits with my experience and education
My experience in major aspects of software development and web hosting, from writing code to designing applications, from systems administration to web hosting, from customer support to project management is broad. I work for a small company, a web company that had a consulting as well as in-house software development business. I worked for this small company for 7 years. My responsibility are to write codes, provide customer support, managed projects, prepared course materials for technical class the company was going to teach, represented companies in trade shows and so and so on. I also worked over time for some client consultancy. I am working for a company, which is a member of the big fortune 100. I was able to earn the trust of the client in a very short period of time that they made me the “technical owner” of the project. I would like to find a position in Corporate Strategy or Business Development in technical company. Tackle some of the toughest strategic and operational challenges faced across all of company's business groups. Business building strategies will shape the future of leading technologies and help define new ones. Work with business groups, analyze technology trends and data, interview customers and stakeholders, and develop creative solutions to key business issues. In the near future, I may establish a Brach of a company like IBM or Microsoft in Katmandu Nepal. Or, may be venture out and do some of those things on my own. There's a lot of talent to be used in Nepal - especially in science and technology.
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