This Certificate Alumna Adds Management Skills to Her Resume
Cynthia Hassler attributes her interest in biomedical engineering first to her father, whom she describes as “a very technical guy” who involved her in different hands-on projects at his office and their home. “I really was exposed to being able to fix things and troubleshoot from my dad,” said Hassler. “And then I always really enjoyed … being able to solve problems using science and math. In addition … I always participated, whether it be through youth groups or other volunteer organizations, in helping people, and I felt like biomed had that human-engineering interaction that intrigued me.”
She went on to earn a bachelor’s and a master’s in the field at Stevens Institute of Technology, and began her career as a research data coordinator and then a clinical systems analyst at Hackensack University Medical Center. But the Coaldale, Penn., native, now an Epic medical-records software inpatient consultant with Innova Advisers, soon sensed the need to hone her leadership skills and knowledge of workplace dynamics in a technological setting.
Toward this end, she enrolled in NJIT’s Management of Technology (MoT) certificate program. The 12-credit program, offered by Martin Tuchman School of Management both on campus and entirely online, focuses on the development, generation and implementation of technology and provides students with the background for integrating fundamental business knowledge with applications of technology. It’s designed for individuals looking to develop the necessary skills to manage organizational change associated with existing and emerging technologies.
Hassler pursued her MoT certificate online, completing it in 2015. Here, she shares the “why,” “what” and “how” of her journey.
WHY SHE CHOSE THE MoT CERTIFICATE PROGRAM AT NJIT
“I felt like my technical and analytical skills were everything I needed to get the job done, but I knew that if I wanted to start accelerating my career to potentially be a team lead or become a manager in the future, I needed to understand the business practices … how humans work together in the work space and a little bit more of the methodology and theory behind the management of technology space. Engineers are great problem-solvers and thinkers, but sometimes we need to learn a little bit more on how to lead and the structure of how things work.
“I think that the determining factor why I picked NJIT was because the professors were not just academics. They were people that had worked in the industry and were able to put the relevancy to why we’re studying different management of technology techniques. I didn’t want to go into a program that was just academic-based, where you learned theories but you weren’t actually able to apply them to real-life scenarios. The professors who had worked in the industry and could give those relevant examples in the real world for me made learning about the different philosophies more important.”
WHAT SHE EXPERIENCED AND GAINED FROM THE PROGRAM
“We had a regular weekly assignment and a meet-up once a week online, but it was definitely more [convenient when] having a full-time job to get the coursework done. … The professors … were pretty willing to work with you in getting things completed.
“Just like the workplace, we had some assignments that needed to be done as individuals, but often times we worked in groups with people from different disciplines, different backgrounds. It really ingrained the group project aspect and the teamwork that goes into the workplace as well.
“I think it cemented some of the things I saw going on in my workplace. I think a lot of the organizational structure is what hit me the hardest. I worked in a pretty flat organization and learned a lot about the hierarchy and structures and why some of the structures worked better than others based on the technology you were trying to implement.”
HOW SHE’S BEEN ABLE TO APPLY HER CERTIFICATE KNOWLEDGE
“Epic is … one large program that encompasses everything from obstetrics to pharmacy to inpatient nursing to x-ray, and we have to work together because it’s one system. All of our things are intertwined and we have to make sure our handoffs and our workload are appropriate, so it goes back to those projects that we had to do together … and understanding how each building block gets you to the end point.
“I think the most relevant thing for me is that light bulb moment: You see different things going on in the workplace and you wonder why it’s happening that way or how it could have been done differently and potentially with a better outcome. … Once you have those understandings and skill set … it can definitely help you make that leap to feel confident that you know how to be a team leader or an implementation lead or whatever the next step is in your career.”
