I graduated in 2002 from BYU’s business school with a master’s of information systems management. I absolutely loved the school (except for the lack of parking) and the program, although there was plenty of room for improvement.
A while after I graduated I read an article in Connect Magazine about Northface University. What I read about was similar to the program I had recently graduated from, but in some ways it sounded better.
Last week I had the opportunity to interview nine students from Northface University (now renamed Neumont University due to a trademark dispute with a certain outdoor clothing manufacturer who shall remain nameless…) and I was seriously impressed, and I don’t impress that easily.
The first difference I noticed between the nine students from Neumont and the students I went through the MISM program at BYU with was that these students could actually do something. I wouldn’t be surprised if some large changes have been made to BYU’s MISM program since I graduated, but at the time I graduated most of my classmates couldn’t actually program anything. We took one Java class, one database class, a class in Powerbuilder of all things, one PHP class, one VB class, etc. By the time we graduated we knew a little about a lot of things, but we didn’t know a lot about any one thing.
The students I interviewed from Neumont were all skilled .NET programmers. I would say they weren’t just skilled, but most of them could immediately be hired as senior-level programmers. On top of that, they could also be hired as project managers, because they all had multiple experiences as project managers on real-world projects.
Whereas my program has trained me to be a manager, it hadn’t trained me to work in the trenches. I believe good managers almost always manage those they used to work with. If they’ve never worked with them, then how can they understand them? Neumont’s program appears to do a great job of developing individuals who can not only be great developers, but great project managers and possibly great executive-level managers.
By the time I was done interviewing the nine students my biggest problem was trying to decide which ones I was most interested in, because my intention was to find 2-3 potential hires. None of the students was someone I wouldn’t consider hiring. Not one failed to impress me. The truth is I’m still not 100% sure who the top picks are. I guess this is a good problem to have.
I also have to give props to Gavin, the student placement coordinator, who set everything up for me, and Bernd, one of the students who has been doing work for my web development firm and who referred me to Gavin. Gavin contacted me and asked me what type of candidate I was looking for and how many I would like to interview. Within one week he had set up interviews and as I mentioned, the candidates exceeded my expectations.
My roommate Derek is an undergrad in IS. The program now focuses more on programming. He has taken 3 java classes, 2 project management classes, 2 database classes, one data communications class. The program focuses only on one language, java, and it is very respected now. He is heavily recruited.
And, this is only the undergrad program, and he isn’t even a senior in the program. He says switching to .net is also pretty easy. He understands .net without having learned it.
So, if you want to look at BYU grads again, you can!
Lorin,
I am afraid you did not address any issues that would make an Employer desire to look at a BYU student over a Neumont Student. Anybody can switch from Java to .Net and vise versa because both languages and their corresponding Environments are very similar.
Also the number of classes you take in Development and Management does not make you skilled. It is real word experience that makes you skilled. Neumont focuses on Project Work. By the time a Neumont Student has graduated they have worked on about 7-8 projects and which 3-4 are real world. They also are working on these every day and students are at school from 8-4 M thru F all year round. It’s basically like having real world job and by the time a Neumont Student graduates they have what is equivalent to 2-3 years of real experience.