Masterplan Manhattan: How Ben Zulechner is paving his way into the tech world at Columbia University
UW/H graduate Ben talks about his studies in Witten, entrepreneurship courses at Columbia and Sundays in Central Park.
In the middle of New York City, between Broadway and Amsterdam Avenue, is what Ben Zulechner describes as a "little oasis" - Columbia University. From his living room window, the 27-year-old has a direct view of the time-honoured buildings, the campus that has shaped his everyday life for the past year: After completing his Bachelor's degree in Management at Witten/Herdecke University (UW/H), Ben was drawn to New York, to one of the most prestigious and oldest universities in the United States. He has been studying for a Master's degree in Technology Management here since September 2024 and, in addition to traditional management topics, is studying the basics of artificial intelligence, cyber security and how technological progress affects companies.
Make contacts, develop ideas, surpass yourself
The university is closely linked to the city, Ben explains. "In almost every course there is someone - whether as a guest lecturer or seminar leader - who works here in New York. Many have studied at Columbia themselves and are now, for example, executives at Amazon or hedge fund managers - so you get to see a little of the paths they have taken and that they are not always so straightforward."
The students make contacts, get to know companies and perhaps even meet up with the managers after the seminars. This is because the course is strongly geared towards preparing them for the labour market. Ben: "It's different to Germany, much more competitive. Many people from the USA and all over the world would like to work in New York - that's why there are sometimes thousands of applicants for one job. The personal reference suddenly becomes much more important."
The Master's programme also focuses on developing and implementing your own ideas. For example, Ben and his fellow students worked on their own projects in the entrepreneurship class and also dealt with "Columbia Case Studies". "The case starts with the business start-up and ends with a problem," he says. "We had to think about how we would solve the challenge. We discussed this and then the actual founder - a Columbia graduate in each case - came to the seminar and told us how it was done in reality and why. That was really impressive."
His highlights so far? "I'm President of the Technology and Business Association and we organised a speaker panel with the support of the university, in a location in Union Square in the middle of Manhattan. We had product managers from Google, Priceline, J.P. Morgan and HBO Max talking about their jobs and how they got there. That was really great." Ben also moderated a panel at the Global AI Summit, "in the middle of New York, in front of a skyline like this, in a huge conference hall with a helicopter flying past at eye level. That was very, very formative."
Witten - Seoul - New York
Ben laid the foundations for his Master's degree in New York in Witten. "Subjects on accounting, blockchain and data science in particular helped me to gain a good basic understanding of the content," he says. "I was able to build on all the topics, which confirmed to me that UW/H is really good at teaching."
From his point of view, the atmosphere at UW/H is hardly any different to Columbia: "The course sizes are similar, you are very close to your fellow students and the lecturers are very approachable. You can always talk to them after the seminar if you're interested in something, and it might even lead to a course - I remember that from Witten and it continues here in New York."
When he thinks about UW/H, Ben mainly remembers his first semester in 2019, when he gradually got to know his fellow students. The preliminary courses turned into study groups, and they sometimes spent late evenings preparing for examinations together at the university. His work at the Chair of Marketing and his involvement in the Bundesverband Deutscher Volks- und Betriebswirte e. V. (BDVB) were also formative for him. Through the job fair, he also got to know the consulting firm where he still works as a student trainee today.
The idea of going to New York came about during his semester abroad at Korea University in Seoul, with which UW/H cooperates. "It was my first time in a big city and it was really exciting. I got to know a lot of people and kept getting ideas about what opportunities there are for further development and what I can look out for if I want to go into consulting." Ben therefore also applied to the Technical University of Munich and the University of St. Gallen - and was accepted. "With the prospect of working in New York for a few years, I quickly decided in favour of Columbia. You only get an opportunity like this once, maybe twice in a lifetime."
Studying in the city that never sleeps
Life in New York - on and off campus - is sometimes like a film for him: picnics on the lawn, students playing frisbee, open-air cinemas in summer, Sundays in Central Park, there's always a concert somewhere and if you choose one event, you automatically miss another.
His degree programme runs until December and concludes with a practical project. After that, Ben would like to work in New York, he can well imagine consulting or process optimisation. The preparation starts now: finding a mentor, making contacts, networking - and then taking the next step and gaining a foothold in the world of work in New York.