By Takshika Jambhule, Student in the M.S. in Information Knowledge & Strategy Program (IKNS), School of Professional Studies
When I told my director at a major American retail and e-commerce company that I was resigning to pursue a master's degree in the U.S., he was skeptical. “Why now?” he asked. “The job market is terrible.”
I had my answer ready: “I want to be a CTO someday.”
He didn't laugh, but I could see the doubt. Fair enough—I was asking him to understand an ambition I hadn't fully articulated even to myself. While I excelled at my job, I felt like I was operating within boundaries. I just couldn't articulate what I was really after.
That's what brought me to Columbia. And here's what Columbia has taught me since: I wasn't thinking big enough.
The Curriculum That Reframed Me
When I came to Columbia’s School of Professional Studies (SPS), I had a clear trajectory in mind: Climb the technical ladder, lead engineering teams, make strategic decisions, and sit at the leadership table. For someone with a tech background, becoming a chief technology officer felt like the pinnacle—the natural destination for ambition and expertise.
But the M.S. in Information & Knowledge Strategy (IKNS) program immediately challenged my reliance on technical skills alone. I enrolled in the course AI and the Knowledge-Driven Organization in my first semester and found that the field was evolving faster than any curriculum could capture. That pace forced a realization: technical expertise has a shelf life. What matters more are frameworks for continuous learning and adaptation.
The Digital Workplace & Digital Transformation course in the spring semester gave me language for work I had been doing for years without recognizing its strategic significance. I had helped organizations migrate from legacy systems, reorganize teams, and update processes—routine technical work, I thought. The course reframed it: When people, processes, and products evolve together, that's transformation. It helped me understand how change drives value, reshapes culture, and informs long-term competitive positioning.
Confronting My Own Cognitive Blind Spots
In my Leading Collaboration class, I worked with people from policy, business, startup backgrounds—each bringing a lens very different from mine. As an engineer, I naturally optimized for what was technically elegant or efficient. But others raised considerations I rarely accounted for: regulatory implications, ethics, stakeholder alignment, long-term impact, organizational change, culture, etc. No single perspective was more important than another, but together they revealed blind spots that a purely technical approach would miss.
With half of the IKNS coursework being elective, I also enrolled in Behavioral Economics and Decision Making at Columbia Business School. I used to think I was a good decision-maker, but the course showed me how my own cognitive biases influenced my judgment. More importantly, it taught me how people think and act, and how to apply these insights to design policies or products that account for human behavior and improve adoption and effectiveness.
Takshika Jambhule was among a group of IKNS students, faculty, and alums who were invited to attend the Nasdaq Opening Bell Ceremony.
From Execution to Vision
For most of my career, I excelled at executing decisions made by others. Columbia’s IKNS degree taught me to step back and ask the questions that shape those decisions.
The shift required my learning to ask differently. Not: “What's the most elegant technical solution?” but: “What problem are we actually solving, and does this solution align with how people will realistically use it?” Not: “How do I execute this feature?” but: “Why does this product need to exist?”
Beyond the classroom, New York itself became part of my education. Working with women-led fintech startups in New York City showed me what this looks like in practice: spotting gaps others miss, getting creative with solutions, and maintaining clarity about what actually creates value.
Expanding the Vision
My work in India taught me execution. Manhattan—the IKNS curriculum, conversations with my cohort, networking events across the city—is reshaping my vision.
I came to Columbia and New York to become a CTO. That's still possible. But now I see other paths: building products from scratch, shaping AI strategy at the organizational level, creating organizations that reflect and shape the real world, or founding something entirely new. The difference is: I'm no longer optimizing for a title. Instead, I'm building the capability to see problems others miss and the frameworks to solve them—whether that's from a CTO’s office chair or somewhere I haven't imagined yet.
I love technology, and the pace at which AI is evolving still fascinates me. But I've learned that technical brilliance without business context is just elegant code that nobody needs. The goal isn't to stop being technical. It's to be technical and thoughtful about impact: To build things that matter, with people who think differently than I do, in ways that account for how the world actually works.
Because real impact begins when we let go of our assumptions, see the world in all its complexity, and recognize our own potential.
Views and opinions expressed here are those of the authors, and do not necessarily reflect the official position of Columbia School of Professional Studies or Columbia University.
About Columbia's IKNS Degree
Columbia University’s M.S. in Information & Knowledge Strategy (IKNS) degree provides students with foundations in information science, organizational psychology, and change management as well as practical skills in project management and executive leadership.
IKNS is available full-time or part-time, online or in-person on Columbia’s landmarked campus right here in New York City. To maximize opportunities for networking and community building, our online students join our New York-based students on Columbia’s campus for three in-person residencies during their studies. The STEM-designated Master of Science degree offers International Students (F-1/J-1 visa) an opportunity for Curricular Practical Training during their studies (CPT) and 3 years of work authorization in the US upon completing their studies (OPT).
Students train under world-class faculty, including former and current executives from Google, IBM, NASA, and Oliver Wyman, and join a powerful global alumni network in coveted positions, including at Alphabet, Goldman Sachs, Nike, Pfizer, and the World Bank.
For more IKNS insights, news, and events, please go to our website, connect with us on LinkedIn, or attend one of our online info sessions. Visit the School of Professional Studies website to learn more about the SPS Student Experience.
