2 Reasons to Major in IMB at NYU Shanghai
New York Univesity has three primary campuses, in New York, in Abu Dhabi, and in Shanghai. I was fortunate to pursue my undergraduate career at NYU’s global network with NYU Shanghai as my primary campus. In 2017, NYU Shanghai’s Interactive Media Department introduced a new major, Interactive Media and Business, and switching to that major was the best decision I could have made during my journey at NYU. Before I give you the three reasons why IMB is a phenomenal major, I’d like to cite how NYU Shanghai describes it below:
“The Interactive Media + Business (IMB) major is where innovation + business meets through emerging media technology. It teaches how innovative ideas combine with technology, creativity and business principles to yield viable products, services, and experiences.
The IMB major welcomes interest in entrepreneurship in all forms — large organizations or startups, for-profit or not-for-profit — that bring about disruptive changes and create positive social impact.
Students of IMB will acquire a design-and-build mindset and gain experience by implementing creative solutions to real business problems in order to graduate well prepared for stimulating careers or future learning journeys in diverse organizations across the globe.” (NYU Shanghai)
Now that you’ve read the official description, I’d like to indulge you in my reflection as to why IMB is an excellent choice:
Reason #1: The perfect major for future Product Managers.
Products Managers wear multiple hats and sit at the intersection of UX, Business, and Engineering. Thanks to its project-based coursework, IMB prepares students for working on numerous cross-functional teams, tracking metrics, and being fluent both in the language of Business and technology.
Most entry-level Product Management jobs mention how applicants should have a background in Computer Science and Business, or Business with a minor in Computer Science or Engineering. IMB allows students to be highly proficient in all of those fields in addition to UX, Finance, and Marketing.
Additionally, the IMB coursework includes Minimum Viable Product, Design Thinking, and Negotiation, thus equipping IMB-ers with an outstanding cross-cultural communications skillset, which is necessary for efficiently completing multiple tech-driven group projects. Thanks to weekly user testing sessions, students learn how to deploy user-centric products as a part of agile teams.
Thanks to being proficient in a variety of programming languages and established and emerging technologies, IMB majors have a holistic understanding of the costs and timeframes associated with deploying technological solutions, which makes them excel at bridging communication between engineering, UX and business teams.
Overall, I’d call IMB the perfect major for future Product Managers as it prepares its students for wearing multiple hats thanks to their experience on international cross-functional teams and practical experience in engineering, Business, and UX.
(If you’d like to learn more about Product Management, follow Product by Women)
Reason #2: Excellent preparation for future startup founders.
In addition to Design Thinking and Minimum Viable Product courses, Interactive Media and Business prepares its students for launching their own companies thanks to courses such as Entrepreneurship Explored and the previously-mentioned business and tech-driven group projects.
Since most NYU Shanghai IMB projects include working with cross-functional teams across different departments, including engineering and business and finance, IMB majors are used to working with students from other majors. This makes finding co-founders quite simple as most project teams have at least one business, engineering, IMB, and IMA (Interactive Media Arts) student.
Thanks to those experiences, I co-founded LiveRoom Media, live streaming, and networking platform for music professionals, with my fellow NYU Shanghai Alumni, including Konrad Krawczyk and Sara Bruszt as well as Klementyna Bohdanowicz whom I first met at NYU in New York. Moving from an idea to joining an incubator and deploying the product was a rapid process, thanks to having co-founders who collaborated on multiple projects together at NYU/NYU Shanghai, despite specializing in different fields.
(Join LiveRoom HERE, follow us on instagram and check ous out on LinkedIn)
Conclusion
Being at NYU Shanghai and majoring in IMB gave me a unique opportunity to gain a more in-depth insight into tech differences across Asia, Europe, and North America. When I compare the way NYU Shanghai IMB majors view technology, I see that we have a certain level of understanding of Chinese platforms that those who didn’t study in China have not developed yet. So, if you’re considering IMB or IMA, I’d say — go for it. IMB and IMA are the perfect majors for future Product Managers and Entrepreneurs!
