The MBET Experience

The University of Waterloo – Master of Business, Entrepreneurship and Technology Program

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MBET Alumni – The Entrepreneurial Journey

June 26th, 2008 · No Comments

I was back at CBET this evening for an interesting discussion with this year’s MBET class. It is that time of year when students are starting to see the program coming to an end, and are starting to think about their next steps.

In an interesting event, the staff decided to bring back a number of MBET alumni to share their experiences with the students, and answer questions they had about life after MBET and how things worked out for various people.

There were 9 of us on the panel, and overall seemed to represent a nice mix of the various roles that people end up in after MBET. For any prospective students who were curious about where MBET grads end up, here’s the list of people who were there tonight:

The Entrepreneurs

  • Dan Donovan (that’s me), V4.0 with my bootstrapped software company, HealthSpoke
  • Jen McLellan, V4.0, who has a number of businesses

Big Business

  • Bob Mersereau, V2.0 – IT Services at Bell Canada
  • Kurt Gooden, V2.0 – Applied Innovations & Research at RBC
  • Andrea Eltherington, V1.0 – Risk Consulting & Regulatory Services at Deloitte

High Tech

  • James Moncarz, V4.0 – Project Manager at Strategic Mapping (startup company, employee #7)
  • Ray Reddy, V2.0 – RIM (corporate mergers / acquisitions – big high tech)

Institutional

  • Ben Rogers, V2.0 – Technology Transfer, Mount Sinai Hospital
  • Saeed Bagheri, V4.0 – Technology Transfer, University of Waterloo

As you can see, there is quite the mix, and most people seem to be able to land a good gig. One good question I heard was “how do employers view the MBET?” The best answer: it’s all in how you sell it. Having an “MBET” begs people to ask the question – what did you do? What did you learn? This is where you get to sell the employer on all the great things you’ve done.

All in all, a fun night, and nice to be back at CBET, meet some fellow alumni, catch up with old friends, see the students, and get an idea of what some of them are up to next year.

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