Scott Arbeitman - Life's like that sometimes....
 Scott Arbeitman
Student
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"Many clients have a hard time articulating their requirements. The MBA provides insight into the types of pertinent marketing, rather than IT, questions I can ask. For example, asking questions like 'what's your target market?' and 'how do you want to position your web site?' yields deeper insight of what the client wants."
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After completing five out of his 20 MBA subjects, a software developer has discovered a previously unknown passion for human resource issues and a new-found respect for team input.
Scott Arbeitman from boutique IT consultancy, Tricycle IT says, "I've found I'm really interested in HR."
He believes IT employees are often misunderstood. "Turnover is high and they are not managed effectively for retention, innovation and higher performance."
He says that he'd like to specialise in this area when he graduates.
Scott has been studying his MBA for a year now. He leads a busy life having just bought his first apartment and changed jobs, but the MBA's part-time format accommodates this.
"Being able to extend my studies over five years makes it easier to commit [to doing an MBA]," he says. "It means if I become very busy I can simply do fewer subjects.
"The MBS MBA is also quite flexible. Some subjects are held on weekends, which means I can study one subject one night a week, and do a couple of intensive weekend classes for the another subject."
With IT being such a fast moving field, Scott currently spends long hours after work getting up-to-date with the technology he's currently using.
He explains it's like having two study loads. "One study life is dedicated to the non-technical business subjects of the MBA. The other involves keeping up-to-date with what's going on in IT."
Throw some syndicate assignments into the mix and you'd be forgiven for thinking it all sounds fairly tough, but Scott disagrees.
"There is an African proverb: ‘If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go with others.' This applies to syndicate assignments as well." he says. "It means that you can do something more quickly yourself, but the outcome is always better if the assignment is done by a group."
As a result of his studies, Scott now has a better grasp of how his software development fits in with the overall context of the business.
He says, "Many clients have a hard time articulating their requirements. The MBA provides insight into the types of pertinent marketing, rather than IT, questions I can ask. For example, asking questions like ‘what's your target market?' and ‘how do you want to position your web site?' yields deeper insight of what the client wants."
Tricycle IT (Trike), established just 18 months ago, is a small team of developers committed to fast cycle time and high quality design. Its skills include information technology design, user interface design, and interaction design. Its parent group, Investling, is a small venture capital group.
