Kajal Lachhani
The Master of Engineering Management graduate has been directly applying her area of study to her career.
Qualification: Bachelor of Engineering (Honours) in Software Engineering; Master of Engineering Management
Role: Software Developer
"I am currently working as a software developer in a software engineering firm. My undergraduate experience at the University of Auckland, where I studied Software Engineering was great – it was practical and we learned about the latest technologies, and postgraduate study was very applicable to my current job.
"I made a decision to do postgraduate study because I wanted to accelerate my career path towards management, to continue gaining industry experience, and because I love being a part of the software industry, but wanted to be more involved in the business side of IT. I ended up doing a project on cost estimation strategies of IT projects and learned a lot about IT project management. I enjoyed learning from lecturers who had high level of academic knowledge and also on-the-job experience.
"The Master in Engineering Management gave me the right edge for those purposes. I developed an understanding of business and commerce, accounting, marketing and management. This degree has given me an acceleration path for my career and I still continue to apply the principles that I discovered in the programme in my day to day operations."