Spotlight on MBA Programs with Dr. Eric Motycka

May 6, 2022

 The following is an interview with Eric Motycka – Director of Graduate Programs at Capitol, about his background as an educator as well as our MBA and TMBA program offerings. We are grateful that Dr. Motycka has taken the time to sit for this interview, please enjoy reading!

Q. Please detail your professional background:

A. My background is eclectic, and I have had the great opportunity to hold many positions in multiple industries. At the start of my career, I was an applied chemist working through my undergraduate degree in literature and writing. After completing my degree, I left the powder coatings manufacturing industry and pursued my finance Master of Business Administration (MBA) while working the equivalent of full-time as a graduate assistant and as a financial and statistical analyst. After completing my MBA, I had a choice: I could go back to private industry, or pursue an opportunity to continue my career in higher education. I decided on higher education and served as the Director of Development for Indiana State University's College of Technology. During this time, I began pursuing my Ph.D. in higher education leadership, where I studied academic entrepreneurship and technology transfer, specifically on faculty in the hard sciences (chemistry, physics, biology) and how they adhere or do not adhere to traditional norms of science. While in higher education at both Indiana State University and DePauw University, I have had the opportunity to work in fundraising, project management, operations, college-level board development, college governance, and leadership development. It's been a great ride, and along the way, I also had opportunities to work in the personal financial planning industry where, as I told my children when they asked, I helped people make good decisions with their money. 

 

Q: What brought you to Capitol Tech?

A: Over the past few years, I have watched Capitol Tech closely as President Sims has continued to roll out and implement his vision. The more I learned and saw how the University was repositioning itself for the future, the more interested I became. When I learned of the need for a director of graduate programs, I jumped at the chance and applied. It's an opportunity to be part of a university that is entrepreneurial and driven, and first and foremost, to serve students pursuing degrees in highly sought-after fields like cybersecurity and counterterrorism. There is no more critical time than now, and I'm excited to be part of the team. 

 

Q: What are your goals for our graduate (MBA / TMBA) programs?

A: We are here to serve students, and to help them position themselves for the best future possible. I firmly believe advanced degrees and advanced education can help prepare people for the future and best position them for durable success. Our role and goal is to ensure the MBA programs are the absolute best they can be. We will accomplish this by not only attracting the best and brightest students possible to the program, but also through working with the best faculty we can find to deliver the courses and to continue updating the programs, so we are delivering what students need for tomorrow, not just what they needed yesterday. It's a process of continuous improvement that results in MBA programs that push and challenge our students to excel and to embrace their future career prospects with confidence. 

 

Q: How has having an MBA served your career?

A: For me, since I had been working in business and industry before entering my MBA program, the MBA helped to formalize some of what I already knew and exposed me to a multitude of items that helped me better understand business in general and to better understand the important work my colleagues in other departments were doing. The MBA also helped me understand how other departments in a business, or large organization, work together and impact each other, both positively and negatively, to achieve outcomes. Regardless of your position within a business, your work and output are connected in some way to the work and output of every other person in the organization. It's all interwoven, and your decisions do impact not only your customer, externally, but your colleagues who could be considered your internal customers. Having an MBA and having taken courses in human resources, finance, accounting, marketing, operations, and strategy helped me be a more proactive team player because I was able to see how our work directly and indirectly impacted the work of others. Ultimately, I believe the MBA helped me become a more productive and more valuable employee. 

 

Q: Can you go into detail as to what an MBA / TMBA is? What careers align with these degrees?

A: As I kind of mentioned earlier, the MBA program helps people build the necessary skills they will need for higher level management and leadership positions. Our particular MBA can apply to both the private sector and the government. The TMBA programs are a little different, in that they are tailored to business analytics and data science and also to cybersecurity. The business analytics and data science track integrates the technical aspects of big data, statistics, visualization, and decision analysis into the core MBA program. It helps a student specialize in decision analysis using analytic systems.  

 

Q: What are the benefits of having an MBA / TMBA? Why are these valuable, especially from a STEM-focused university like Capitol Tech?

A: Many undergraduate degrees get people started in their careers. Depending on the degree, the career path can be specific. Capitol Technology University tends to attract a lot of students with computer science backgrounds, cybersecurity backgrounds, intelligence backgrounds, engineering, and other technical fields which can be specific and, to a large degree, niched. Depending on who the student is, an MBA or TMBA can broaden their scope for growth tremendously. For instance, a cybersecurity practitioner 5 to 10 years out of college, will be able to keep the company's IT infrastructure safe from external and internal attacks, but they might not have a clear understanding of how that impacts the company's bottom line. Maybe this person would like to manage a group or an entire division, but they have never built or analyzed a budget. Maybe they did not have the opportunity to directly work with human resources in making hiring or firing decisions, or planning for departmental growth, or being part of discussions that set the strategy for growth of the organization. The MBA and TMBA will help broaden their understanding of how businesses work, and more importantly, how they can position themselves for growth within their company or for growth in future career moves. 

 

Q: Do you have any advice for prospective students looking to enroll in these programs?

A: First and foremost, any person considering an MBA must first ask themselves why. Boredom or looking for a magic bullet for career growth are probably not the best reasons to pursue an MBA. If, however, the reason for pursuing an MBA is to broaden one's understanding of business, to build a skill set in management and leadership, and to look for opportunities to leverage the degree for future growth, then they should join our MBA program immediately because they are ready for the challenge and for the opportunities it will provide. If they are ready, then I highly recommend they reach out to me directly to learn more about how Capitol Tech’s MBA can help them, or attend one of our graduate open houses, which are held one Sunday a month. The open house is a great opportunity to not only explore the MBA program, but also to learn about other fantastic graduate degrees offered by Capitol Technology University. 

 

Q: What types of MBA / TMBAs are available at Capitol Tech? 

A:

 

Q: Where can students go for more information about MBA / TMBA programs? 

A: They can call 800-950-1992; email gradadmit@captechu.edu; or sign up for one of our monthly Master's virtual open houses to learn more about the programs.