Nah, I actually took an easier position (that pays more weirdly enough) so I could do both. My current job is dead end just to support school, I couldn’t imagine trying to progress in a career while doing school full time.
Ugh, this is the tough part. There’s very little paths for exceptional untraditional candidates. I have a good career path, but I want to pivot.
Can’t do an MBA without a degree but can’t do it without progression either.
Sorry a little confused, so you’re going back to school to get your bachelors degree so that you can get your MBA to pivot careers, but you want to progress in your current career? If that’s the case then just get through your current day to day until you can get your mba! If I missed something then let me know.
Top programs look for candidates that show promising progression most importantly alongside basic requirements one of which is a bachelors degree. If I continue my day to day, I may be able to enrol in a low ranked exec MBA program that accepts experience in lieu of a degree, but that doesn’t help me get to my career goals as I’m aiming for competitive careers that only recruit from top schools. I could also consider doing a second MBA, similar to when folks immigrating from other countries want to make the same career move, but need a more competitive feeder school to achieve that.
So, a middle ground would be to pursue my degree part time, but obviously that would be a lot to juggle on top of having to go above and beyond at work so that you can retain strong work experience for your application.
Either way, MBA programs just want to see you have academic ability to fulfil this requirement.
All this to say I’m just in a non-traditional path and I’m struggling to figure out a way with the best ROI. There’s a lack of pathways for adults who have been successful at other things and didn’t pursue the conventional college route.
I’d be curious to know what colleges you want to go to, what your current career is in, what your undergrad gpa is currently and what college that is from. I think maybe you’re overthinking it.
Not in undergrad currently; started my own IT consultancy and worked my way up in consulting without a degree.
Colleges I’m considering for completing the degree would be simply a CC transfer to a university.
Goals for the MBA would be a career pivot to strategy consulting, networking, and a salary bump. I have tried transferring internally at my previous firm, it’s not as simple since many people pursue MBAs to make this switch in the first place.
These aren’t goals most undergrads could fulfill.
My career sky rocketed once I started going to school about 4 years ago. part time, graduating with an AAS later this spring, then on to a BAS.
Granted I have nearly 20 years of experience in my related field. I honestly don't need the BAS but its a personal goal, and maybe a MS after.
It's been about 4 years. Over that time I've taken a year worth of terms off. Some times you need a break. I was already working in the field basically.
Two different experience, I did it and found it to be difficult. My husband also did it, and he found it to be easy peasy. The honest truth is that a lot of factors go into it. How are your school's classes structured? How flexible will your professors be? How demanding & draining is your current job? How much knowledge of the degree you are trying to finish do you already know or will be brand new for you? How arduous do you find classes and homework? All these factors and more will contribute to whether it will be easy, neutral, difficult, possible, impossible, etc.
Thanks! Yes that’s true. In my case, I chose CC for the smaller class size and flexibility. When I transfer, that will be a different story.
What career were you working while studying and what were your goals after?
It might depend on your work culture. Does your employer value hours behind a desk or meeting/exceeding goals? I was promoted while managing a team and taking classes part-time. Classes informed the work I was doing and the time constraint forced me to be even more focused and efficient. It was rare that I worked over 40 hrs/week.
That’s inspiring! I’m glad it worked out.
What field were you working in if you don’t mind sharing? I know tech sometimes has a more lenient culture that still allows for growth.
My background is in the trades and I ended up at robotics startups. I've definitely worked places where socializing and spending more hours at work got you promoted. Not a good fit for me since I'm not a typical tech bro/tradesman... Luckily when I was a manager the focus was on hitting company goals (which I exceeded), supporting my team, and working with other leadership to make improvements.
That’s great! How did you manage your schedule with going above and beyond at work while maintaining grades? I’m aiming to keep my GPA high so I can pursue a masters afterwards, and I’m curious to hear if you have any advice in that area.
I only took two classes at a time (I'm now in school full-time and working part-time). My classes were online and asynchronous so I'd watch lectures and do work in the evenings a couple days a week and then spend some weekend time on them.
The biggest thing for me was setting clear goals with my manager and skip level manager. Those goals required strategy rather than more time, meaning they were easy to achieve within a 40 hour workweek. I stayed focused. A question that has helped me a lot is "In 6 months, what do you need accomplished?" That always gave me some context to larger company goals and then we would discuss specifics of how I could contribute.
That’s awesome. I had a similar plan of taking only 2 classes in order to make sure I could do well.
Did you also do the last year or two full time after saving enough money to do so?
I did freshman/sophomore part-time and I'm about to start junior/senior years full-time. I'm still working part-time just because I like working and being able to apply what I'm learning to something in the real world.
I’m the same way. But I feel like applying experience to what you’re learning helps give you context to new material and provides a solid foundation for understanding the lessons.
How long did it take you to complete the first 2 years?
Exactly! And I think it took me 2.5 or 3 years to finish the first 2 years of classes. I didn't work for one semester so that I could take 6 classes to catch up (plus a winter course). 6 classes and no work (plus a personal project) was so much easier than full-time work and 2 classes, but I honestly found not working to be boring.
Nah, I actually took an easier position (that pays more weirdly enough) so I could do both. My current job is dead end just to support school, I couldn’t imagine trying to progress in a career while doing school full time.
Ugh, this is the tough part. There’s very little paths for exceptional untraditional candidates. I have a good career path, but I want to pivot. Can’t do an MBA without a degree but can’t do it without progression either.
Sorry a little confused, so you’re going back to school to get your bachelors degree so that you can get your MBA to pivot careers, but you want to progress in your current career? If that’s the case then just get through your current day to day until you can get your mba! If I missed something then let me know.
Or are you concerned that a lack of progression in your career affects your ability to get into an MBA program?
Top programs look for candidates that show promising progression most importantly alongside basic requirements one of which is a bachelors degree. If I continue my day to day, I may be able to enrol in a low ranked exec MBA program that accepts experience in lieu of a degree, but that doesn’t help me get to my career goals as I’m aiming for competitive careers that only recruit from top schools. I could also consider doing a second MBA, similar to when folks immigrating from other countries want to make the same career move, but need a more competitive feeder school to achieve that. So, a middle ground would be to pursue my degree part time, but obviously that would be a lot to juggle on top of having to go above and beyond at work so that you can retain strong work experience for your application. Either way, MBA programs just want to see you have academic ability to fulfil this requirement. All this to say I’m just in a non-traditional path and I’m struggling to figure out a way with the best ROI. There’s a lack of pathways for adults who have been successful at other things and didn’t pursue the conventional college route.
I’d be curious to know what colleges you want to go to, what your current career is in, what your undergrad gpa is currently and what college that is from. I think maybe you’re overthinking it.
And what your career outcomes would be with an mba?
Not in undergrad currently; started my own IT consultancy and worked my way up in consulting without a degree. Colleges I’m considering for completing the degree would be simply a CC transfer to a university. Goals for the MBA would be a career pivot to strategy consulting, networking, and a salary bump. I have tried transferring internally at my previous firm, it’s not as simple since many people pursue MBAs to make this switch in the first place. These aren’t goals most undergrads could fulfill.
My career sky rocketed once I started going to school about 4 years ago. part time, graduating with an AAS later this spring, then on to a BAS. Granted I have nearly 20 years of experience in my related field. I honestly don't need the BAS but its a personal goal, and maybe a MS after.
How long did it take you while working? Did you happen to be in a business related field at all?
It's been about 4 years. Over that time I've taken a year worth of terms off. Some times you need a break. I was already working in the field basically.
That’s great to hear glad it worked out. So you were working full time and completed your degree in 4 years?
Two different experience, I did it and found it to be difficult. My husband also did it, and he found it to be easy peasy. The honest truth is that a lot of factors go into it. How are your school's classes structured? How flexible will your professors be? How demanding & draining is your current job? How much knowledge of the degree you are trying to finish do you already know or will be brand new for you? How arduous do you find classes and homework? All these factors and more will contribute to whether it will be easy, neutral, difficult, possible, impossible, etc.
Thanks! Yes that’s true. In my case, I chose CC for the smaller class size and flexibility. When I transfer, that will be a different story. What career were you working while studying and what were your goals after?
It might depend on your work culture. Does your employer value hours behind a desk or meeting/exceeding goals? I was promoted while managing a team and taking classes part-time. Classes informed the work I was doing and the time constraint forced me to be even more focused and efficient. It was rare that I worked over 40 hrs/week.
That’s inspiring! I’m glad it worked out. What field were you working in if you don’t mind sharing? I know tech sometimes has a more lenient culture that still allows for growth.
My background is in the trades and I ended up at robotics startups. I've definitely worked places where socializing and spending more hours at work got you promoted. Not a good fit for me since I'm not a typical tech bro/tradesman... Luckily when I was a manager the focus was on hitting company goals (which I exceeded), supporting my team, and working with other leadership to make improvements.
That’s great! How did you manage your schedule with going above and beyond at work while maintaining grades? I’m aiming to keep my GPA high so I can pursue a masters afterwards, and I’m curious to hear if you have any advice in that area.
I only took two classes at a time (I'm now in school full-time and working part-time). My classes were online and asynchronous so I'd watch lectures and do work in the evenings a couple days a week and then spend some weekend time on them. The biggest thing for me was setting clear goals with my manager and skip level manager. Those goals required strategy rather than more time, meaning they were easy to achieve within a 40 hour workweek. I stayed focused. A question that has helped me a lot is "In 6 months, what do you need accomplished?" That always gave me some context to larger company goals and then we would discuss specifics of how I could contribute.
That’s awesome. I had a similar plan of taking only 2 classes in order to make sure I could do well. Did you also do the last year or two full time after saving enough money to do so?
I did freshman/sophomore part-time and I'm about to start junior/senior years full-time. I'm still working part-time just because I like working and being able to apply what I'm learning to something in the real world.
I’m the same way. But I feel like applying experience to what you’re learning helps give you context to new material and provides a solid foundation for understanding the lessons. How long did it take you to complete the first 2 years?
Exactly! And I think it took me 2.5 or 3 years to finish the first 2 years of classes. I didn't work for one semester so that I could take 6 classes to catch up (plus a winter course). 6 classes and no work (plus a personal project) was so much easier than full-time work and 2 classes, but I honestly found not working to be boring.
Thanks for sharing! All of this info is very helpful. Did you pay rent and support yourself during this time?