Georgia Tech Scheller College of Business students come to learn, explore, and build community. As they move forward in their careers, they take everything they’ve learned and use it to power innovation in industries and businesses across the globe. Before graduating, we sat down with a few students to find out what they’ve learned and what advice they want to give to other students.
Meet Steven Guitar, who is graduating from the Executive MBA program with a Management of Technology specialization.
Where are you from?
Paragould, Arkansas
What will you be doing to celebrate your graduation?
Catching up on spending time with my wife and kids who have graciously taken more of a back seat while I was in the program!
Who most influenced your decision to pursue business in college?
My undergraduate degree was in computer science. Over the course of my career in software engineering, there were several people who naturally challenged me to be more involved in the general business that we operated. Ultimately, it led to me wanting to be able to provide more value to business partners looking for technical partners to help them implement their ideas.
What was your favorite business course and why?
I loved all the practical courses around finance, accounting, and analytics. I never had finance or accounting classes in undergrad, and only recently started working in business analytics. I found these classes interesting and very helpful in my goals of better understanding business beyond the practice of software development.
What advice would you give to a first-year MBA student?
Try to establish routines and stay ahead of schedule on assignments as best as you can. I think everyone also starts with preconceived notions about what they know and are excited to show what they know. I think you should embrace what you don’t know and be very open minded to diverse thought.
What activities were you involved with on or off campus, and did your business education impact those activities in any way?
I have decided to pursue an internship with a local startup incubator to help them value startups they are considering investing in. What I have learned at Georgia Tech Scheller will definitely be used in the activities of that work.
Where will you be working after graduation?
FullStory
What are the top two items on your professional bucket list?
One is being involved in getting a startup running. Secondly, I would like to be able to make more educated investments in other companies.
What was a moment when you had to practice persistence and/or resilience while in the MBA program?
Starting a new job while in the program was tougher than I expected. You are trying to prove yourself in so many ways, and given my undergraduate degree in computer science, the MBA program was pretty foreign territory.
What is the biggest lesson you gained from your Scheller MBA?
Before the program, I didn’t realize the level of modeling, forecasting, and simulating that leaders do in the context of business choices. Now, I realize the amount of pre-planning and evaluation that should be done when making decisions.
What is a fun fact about yourself?
As my name may suggest, I do like to play the guitar and I was once in a band that made it onto the radio.