What do the Encyclopedia Britannica, a Dutch mother, and boredom have in common? That would be yours truly. Two years ago, I posted a blog about investing in your professional development with academic degrees and tech certifications. I’m circling back to delve into what my executive clients have accomplished or are pursuing so you can investigate the merits for your career investment.
Executive MBA (Master of Business Administration)
While a traditional MBA typically supports early professionals seeking a management career, according to U.S. News & World Report, the average executive MBA student is 38-years old with 14-years of work experience. The College Consensus “2021 Best Executive MBA Programs” composite ranking revealed the top 10 prestigious degrees ranked in order:
- University of Chicago – Booth School of Business
- University of Pennsylvania – The Wharton School
- Northwestern University – Kellogg School of Management
- MIT Sloan School of Management
- Columbia University – Columbia Business School
- University of California – Berkeley Haas School of Business
- University of Virginia – Darden School of Business
- Yale University – School of Management
- Cornell University – SC Johnson College of Business
- Duke University – Fuqua School of Business
And the cost of attaining that EMBA at these prestigious B-schools? You’ll need to find $200K, not exactly pocket change. If you’re looking for a less expensive alternative in Seattle, I’ve got you covered.
University of Washington: 1-Year Accelerated MBA Program
My client Christopher is a US military veteran with a Bachelor of Science Electrical Engineering degree from UCLA. His technical background included 10 years of operational leadership experience as a turnaround artist for startups, small businesses, and enterprise companies with Fortune 500 clients. He was skilled at strategic planning and business development for e-commerce, technology, training, and wireless verticals. After attaining VP and COO roles, he created his B2C e-commerce startup for digital media. When Covid hit, it impacted his business so he pursued career next steps to work for a Fortune 500 or startup in Seattle.
We collaborated on his career development plan targeting Fortune 500 companies. His top candidates were Prime Air (drone delivery service in development by Amazon) plus T-Mobile and Alaska Airlines. While Christopher developed his new implementation plan since it was just the beginning of Covid, the Seattle interview opportunities trickled in. As you can imagine, since companies and recruiters dealt with their work-at-home challenges, the majority didn’t place hiring as a critical initiative.
Fast-forward to 2 months later, Christopher messaged me with the following note:
“Happy to let you know I was accepted to an MBA program at the University of Washington, Foster School of Business starting June 22. It’s an accelerated 1-year full-time program. I also found out the VA will help me pay for some of it. Big thanks for suggesting thinking of ways to enter programs that strengthen the resume and develop my skills! Hoping this will bridge a gap while setting me up with solid networking opportunities.”
There have been several clients who have started or completed this Seattle-based MBA program. Below are the highlights for the 1-year University of Washington accelerated MBA program optimized for global participants for your consideration.
- Term: 1-year
- Learning Process: in-class lectures, case studies, interactive classroom experiences, executive speakers, and visits to area companies
- Topics: Global strategy, cross-cultural communications, finance, leadership, operations, and management
- Student Profile: Average age 37 years with 12 years business experience with the top country of origin participants from Korea, Japan, and China
- Tuition: $90,000 full-term
- Requirements: Bachelor’s degree from a regionally accredited institution in the United States or an institution in Australia, the Bahamas, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, Singapore, Trinidad and Tobago, or the United Kingdom. Documentation verifying that the applicant’s undergraduate degree is from an institution where all instruction is in English. The candidate must take the GMAT and submit the score as part of the application process.
There are other University of Washington degree options like a 2-year distance learning hybrid MBA for $78K, 18-month technology management MBA for $87.4K, 21-month executive MBA for $120K, and 21-month full-time MBA for $105K non-resident or $71.2K resident 2021 rate.
In May 2021, I checked with Christopher, who’s now at Microsoft collaborating on a new business development project for Azure’s commercial marketplace. It shows that an MBA can parlay into new career opportunities.
In Fall 2020, I met my client Arjun, a VP of software engineering at a 27 billion euro German-based multinational company. After 14 years at the same firm, he was ready for a career change. His professional goals were two-fold. First, he pursued taking on board member roles for startups and VC (venture capital) firms. Second, Arjun desired an IT domain senior executive function to elevate an organization to the next level of its growth. Arjun was an experimental person seeking his next leap into corporate leadership using his combined experience in IT and real estate investing.
Instead of landing his next VP role, Arjun decided to attend the University of Texas at Austin Post Graduate Program in Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning: Business Applications. Arjun is projecting to complete this program later this year.
Arjun’s now serving as a technology and business growth advisory member for a California-based IT consulting firm for his board member goal. Income isn’t a hurdle since he had a side-hustle of a family-owned million-dollar real estate investment company while working for his former company. Oh, did I tell you? He upped and quit the other company to pursue these courses of action.
The University of Texas at Austin Post-Graduate Program: Artificial Intelligence
- Term: 6-month
- Learning Process: Online recorded video format offers personalized interactive mentorship sessions, hands-on projects, and career development support. 5-7 hour weekly time investment to complete the 11 modules and 8 projects.
- Tuition: $3,500
AWS Certification
As an executive director of cloud architecture and customer engineering at a top cloud platform provider, my client Krithi had her eye on transitioning to high growth Fortune 500 companies recognized for their AI and cloud portfolios such as Amazon, Google, Microsoft, and Salesforce.
Back in late 2020, targeting an Amazon level 8 role, she proceeded to attain 2 AWS certifications: Certified Cloud Practitioner (before interviewing) and Certified Solutions Architect Associate (after interviewing).
She landed the Head of Solutions Architecture role after 4 months. How? It started with knowing a former work colleague now employed at AWS, who Krithi had impressed. She enhanced her personal branding by revamping her resume, LinkedIn profile, and hours of interviewing practice tailored towards Amazon’s 14 leadership principles. She finalized her decision between 2 offers by connecting with another client who had previously been employed at AWS and knew her boss.
Krithi tackles large-scale digital transformation initiatives for multinationals, government, and Fortune 2000 clients as a passionate customer advocate. What impresses everyone is her advocacy for employee growth plus diversity and inclusion.
AWS recommends acquiring 1-2 years of hands-on experience before taking the certification exam. If you can set aside 2 months of intense study preparation, you’re ready to take the test. The AWS Learning Library offers free access to video courses. The certification costs are relatively inexpensive, with Cloud Practitioner exam at $100 while professional-level and specialty exams at $300.
Combination Certifications: AWS, Azure & Google
Gasper is a 4-prong threat to his competition when seeking employment since—besides being 1 of my most intellectual clients coupled with a dry sense of humor—he has dozens of up-to-date certifications. Within the past 5 years, he attained the following items while serving in leadership roles as Accenture Managing Director, AWS Principal Architect, and Microsoft Senior Technology Director:
- AWS Cloud Practitioner
- Azure AI Fundamentals
- Azure Data Fundamentals
- Azure Power Platform Fundamentals
- Azure Solutions Architect Expert
- Google Cloud Certified – Associate Cloud Engineer
- MCSE Cloud Platform & Infrastructure
Executive recruiters flock to Gaspar because he’s a true visionary, collaborator, and mentor with a platinum reputation within the industry.
As you can see 1-size doesn’t fit all. There are different learning opportunities from full-time pursuit or while you are working with budgets that scale. The bottom line is the ROI for your career to invest from $3,500 for a technical certification up to $200K for an executive MBA. The good news is that most employers will subsidize these costs. I have clients without college degrees that have stellar careers. I obtained my traditional MBA right after completing my BBA from the University of Texas. I can say that the MBA did enhance my career opportunities.
How about you, ready to hit the books?
