Yamuna Bhajana: Building an Advanced IT Management Career

Yamuna Bhajana had been working in information technology (IT) for 11 years when she moved to New Orleans. She quickly landed a job as a business intelligence (BI) architect at Tulane University, where she has been using Microsoft platforms to analyze and mine data for business insights.

Still, Yamuna also saw she had the opportunity to take her career to the next level by pursuing leadership positions in her field. To prepare herself for these roles, she enrolled in the Online Master of Professional Studies (MPS) in IT Management program offered by the Tulane University School of Professional Advancement (SoPA). SoPA helps working professionals develop advanced skills in a range of fields, such as cybersecurity, liberal arts, and public administration.

Since the program is entirely online, Yamuna can continue her education without sacrificing her job or personal responsibilities. “I get the ability to use my time as I wish,” says Yamuna, who is married with two young daughters. “I can spend a majority of my weekends on my coursework without disturbing my regular work hours or family time.”

The Online MPS will be Yamuna’s first international degree, following her previous education in India. Most importantly, it will arm her with the knowledge and experience to pursue advanced IT management careers.

Gaining Real-World Management Experience

The MPS in IT Management program complements Yamuna’s more than a decade of experience in software development with new management and leadership competencies.

“This program has really augmented my skills by helping me see the big picture and understand software architecture across an entire enterprise,” she says. “This prepares me for leadership roles, such as IT director, senior project manager, portfolio manager, or even enterprise architect.”

Yamuna has gained hands-on experience through lab assignments and courses, which are conducted using the remote conferencing service Zoom. In her business of IT course, for example, Yamuna learned how to create proposals for new clients and C-level executives by generating request for proposal (RFP) and request for quotation (RFQ) documents and building a business case for her project.

“That’s what you might do if you were really on a portfolio management level. You would fight for your own project and budget,” says Yamuna. “So that’s very relevant in the real world if I ever get the opportunity.”

Yamuna has also been learning about new software, adding to her knowledge of SAP and Microsoft platforms. “The program truly makes you technology agnostic, so you can see which software, hardware, or infrastructure would be best for the enterprise as a whole,” she says. “It helps you be more objective and think beyond the software you’ve been working with.”

Complementing an International Education

As an international student, Yamuna is particularly grateful for the writing and presentation skills provided by the MPS program. She has learned not only how to better package her work but also how to better communicate with colleagues and business stakeholders.

“The technical writing skills in this program are outstanding,” Yamuna says. “I’m so much better now than I was three years before.”

Yamuna has also received individual guidance from faculty and advisors. “The faculty were really helpful in honing my skills and helping my writing skills in a way that it’s more presentable and more professional,” she says. “And all of the advisors follow up, give feedback, and answer all of our questions.”

Applying IT Management Career Skills On the Job

While on the job as a BI architect at Tulane, Yamuna is already putting her new knowledge to work. “By getting more exposure on cloud computing through hardware infrastructure, it’s now easy for me to understand a new tool or a new topic, because I already learned about it in my courses,” she says.

For her bimonthly data governance meetings, she also pulls from things she has learned in her IT governance course. In these meetings, her team might discuss data ownership and approvals for certain departments, such as the registrar’s office, alumni office, or retention office. They also display dashboards of their work progress for key stakeholders. “The majority of the information I studied in the course is relevant to my day-to-day work here,” Yamuna says. “I can really relate, make suggestions, and add value to these meetings.”

Going forward, Yamuna will use the MPS program to continue enhancing her job performance and pursuing IT management careers. “Tulane has been a really amazing experience and has expanded my skills greatly,” she says. “I was only thinking of my perspective as a developer, but this program has given me an overall picture of how to interact with the business stakeholders and generate added value from regular IT operations.”

Prepare for Leadership Roles in IT Management

The Online MPS in IT Management offered by the Tulane School of Professional Advancement provides working professionals with the technical training and business acumen they need to pursue leadership positions — online and on their own schedule. Students complete coursework in critical subjects such as enterprise architecture, IT governance, and cybersecurity law. They work with accomplished faculty to understand current IT challenges and real-world strategies and receive mentorship for the next phase of their careers.

Discover more of what the Online MPS in IT Management program has to offer, and embark on an advanced career in information technology.