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MS Software Management Blog

Wondering if a Carnegie Mellon degree is right for you? Read along as our students chronicle their journey through the MS in Software Management program.

Amin is a second year grad student in the MS Software Management program, a former Software Design Engineer from Microsoft and a current Software Engineer at Adify, a Silicon Valley startup. He is passionate about entrepreneurship, software and traveling. He would love to start a software company someday.
Vineet is a second year part-time software management student, currently working @NetApp also nominated as the best place to work in North America recently. His area of expertise is Oracle ERP solutions. Other professional areas of interest are SaaS markets both technologically and business wise. @CMU he wants to grow his knowledge to manage software products and businesses. He is interested in work on start up ideas. On the personal side he loves to spend time with his family and travel.
Rene is a recent alum, a manager of operations and program manager in Cisco's software development organization, the mother of two daughters and a performing arts fan.

Monday, September 15, 2008

An Introduction to Rene

Rene
Hello, I welcome you to my blog and look forward to sharing with you my experiences at Carnegie Mellon University Silicon Valley.

I work in Cisco's software development organization as a manager of operations and program manager. My Cisco experience includes people management, software and hardware program management, manufacturing program management and finance. Prior experience includes finance roles at Apple and Northern Telecom. I have a Bachelor in Science degree from the University of California, Berkeley and a Master's in Business Administration from the University of California, Berkeley Haas School of Business.

I have two daughters, one in college in Portland, Oregon and one in high school in San Jose, California. My daughters have been active in performing arts, and a favorite pastime of our family's is attending both regional and school performing arts events.

I decided to join CMU's Software Management master's degree program in order to move ahead in my career by taking on roles that require technical, strategic and business leadership. My intent is to broaden my understanding of both the software industry and the business and technology context in which software companies are operating. CMU was my first choice for a technical graduate school program because of the strength of the institution, faculty, and academic offering, the nature of the learning experience, and the flexible structure. I was particular interested in the team orientation and project and simulation-based curriculum.

I initially learned about CMU's Silicon Valley-based software engineering programs at a business strategy presentation by a CMU faculty member at a Women in Technology International (WITI) conference several years ago. When the time became right in my life and career a year ago to explore this type of program, I started by attending an on-campus admissions open house held last winter. Almost immediately, I felt a connection with the faculty, staff, alumni and current students as they welcomed me to the open house and made presentations about the program. I started the process of organizing the admissions materials such as transcripts, letters of recommendation, and essays. I attended a second admissions open house two months later to validate my initial impression and at that time, made my final decision to apply.

After my application was complete, one of the CMU faculty members interviewed me for the program. This was a valuable two-way exchange about both my interest in the program and the evolution of the program since its inception several years ago. When CMU offered me admission, I felt that a door was opening to a new set of opportunities and challenges. As it turned out, I was right. I'll share more on what I am discovering in my next entry.

posted by Rene Newton @ 2:17 PM  0 comments

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