Student Spotlight: Isha Thakkar on Pursuing an MS in Project Management
Profile by Marcelle Santos | Header photo by Ruby Wallau
When Isha Thakkar tells people that she’s pursuing a Master’s in Project Management, the first thing they tell her is that they didn’t know one existed.
Isha didn’t know, either. When she began looking into project management education, most of what she found were online certification programs and short-duration courses. It was her sister-in-law, a graduate of Northeastern’s Master of Science in Project Management, who introduced her to the degree program. Her sister-in-law had studied at the Boston campus, and Isha found that the program is also offered at many of Northeastern’s thirteen global campuses, including Silicon Valley.
With an in-depth exploration of project management foundations, a variety of relevant electives (including Global Project Management and Leading Remote Project Teams), and focus areas (called concentrations) such as Agile, Analytics, Leadership, and Organizational Communication, the program offered just the combination of specialized and broad knowledge that Isha was looking for. “When I saw the curriculum, I thought, ‘Wow! If each course is six weeks long, there’s got to be so much material!’”
The concentrations were also a big draw. “They give an overview of multiple roles, such as product manager and business analyst, and help us explore what we want to get into.”
A media and business professional with experience in the radio, marketing, and fashion industries, Isha decided to specialize in project management when she realized that everything she’d ever done professionally involved bringing projects to fruition. “I was an accidental project manager,” she said. “In retrospect, I was managing projects when I was a radio producer, a radio host, a shoe designer, and a social media manager.”
Events that Isha helps to organize with the Silicon Valley chapter of the Project Management Institute, like this lecture on Applied Project Management Real Word Experiences, regularly bring a crowd to campus
Still, there was a lot she needed to learn to become a more competent and confident project management leader. “I had a superficial knowledge of project management. This course is helping me go beyond. It’s an in-depth study of things like budgeting, costs, how to play with technology, and what communication tools to use,” she explained. “It’s helping me to become a better leader.”
For her, one of the greatest advantages of the program is that it equips students with the hard and soft skills required to lead in global markets and in industries like tech, where projects tend to be complex and volatile. “I need to understand how projects are managed globally so that I can lead a global team, or a virtual team. I’d only lived and worked in India before, so getting international knowledge and exposure is great.”
In a professional field where social connections are an important complement to academic achievement, Isha has also benefited from training offered by the university through Global Learner Support (GLS). “I remember my first workshop had a short, 30-minute session on how to break the ice and do small talk,” she said. “I got great takeaways from that session that are still helping me network today.”
As for the hard skills, Isha has mastered scope management, risk management, scheduling and cost planning, and quality management; learned to use the latest project management tools; and is now deepening her knowledge of Agile methodology and business analysis.
She’s applying it all in her job as a program assistant for the College of Professional Studies, where she organizes events and helps students navigate life on campus. She’s also using what she’s learned to build community in the various on-campus clubs she’s involved with.
Isha leading a module at Fall 2023 Silicon Valley Orientation
“I’m managing projects in all of these roles,” she explained. “Organizing events gets me involved with management and stakeholders, and requires planning. I also have advising hours where I listen to student’s needs and concerns and address them with management.”
Her on-campus job and extracurricular activities have not only enabled her to put her knowledge and skills into practice but also helped her feel more at home, both on campus and in the US. “I feel a sense of belonging and a motivation to share and just get involved,” she said. “I have made a lot of friends and when I go to campus it feels very good to see familiar faces, and even if I don’t know a person I’ll go up to them and say, ‘Welcome to Northeastern!’”
Isha has made virtual friends, too — the MS in Project Management is a hybrid program combining on-site and online learning. Recently, she visited the Boston campus for the first time and got to meet some of them in person. She also met up with her brother and that one sister-in-law who inspired her journey.
Posing with other staff and students before a campus event