Tobin Management Students Learn to Manage IT

As video interviews are deployed more in business, the need for business students to master this skill is increasingly important. Professor of Management Charles Wankel, Ph.D., recognizes this by mentoring students in this function through assignments in his Managing the IT Function course.

This semester, Wankel had students interview someone in an organization about how computer technology impacted their organization and their job, among other issues.

Steffi Agbulos ‘19TCB did not have to go far to find an interview subject. She enlisted her brother, Kevin Agbulos, an application analyst at Universal Health Services in Philadelphia, to talk about the efficiency and importance of automation in the healthcare industry.

“This project really helped me expand my knowledge on computer technology in regard to how different sectors utilize it and how it really is a universal aspect that is constantly innovating. Being a current college student, it was a great opportunity to take this project outside of the classroom and really engage in how others are using computer innovations within their organizations,” she said. “In the future I hope to use what I learned from this project in my professional career since computer technology skills is definitely something I’m going to need with any job I pursue.”

Patrick Kiel ‘19TCB also found the project to be useful in helping him to understand how computers are vital for the day-to-day operations for most organizations and businesses. He interviewed Rachel DeMarco, a Philadelphia-based sales and operations planning coordinator for Wanhua Chemical Group Co., Ltd. of China, whom he met two years ago when they were student interns at a technology company in Pennsylvania.

“Rachel made it extremely clear that her job would be almost impossible without them,” he said. “I also learned how new software platforms are always being developed and pushed into the market to increase productivity and efficiently within companies’ infrastructures.”

Another Wankel student, Georgia Golding ‘19TCB, took a different tack in her interview of Danny Antin, the owner of Danny’s Chinese Kitchen in Bellmore, N.Y. Rather than conducting the interview with Antin as a talking head, Golding used panning shots to show the operation of the restaurant. In doing so, she demonstrated one deployment of computer technology; in this case, customers place their orders in English, which are then automatically translated by the system into Chinese for the kitchen staff.

“I see this kind of assignment as having students leave the traditional boundaries of a course and reach out to businesspeople for information and networking,” said Wankel.