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Why Most People Will Never Be Great At Colleges
When it comes to career advancement, performance is just half the equation. The other half is education. But who may have time for you to get a higher degree? Fortunately, self-paced online programs are helping increasingly more working adults build their credentials.
One of these working professionals is Amye Cole, Senior Admissions Counselor at Sierra Nevada College in Incline Village, Nevada. In 2005, Amye chose to go time for school on her behalf MBA--while working regular. It's been almost a couple of years since she completed her online MBA program, and in that period she's changed jobs, taken on more responsibility, and seen her career blossom. She covers her online MBA experience and the way it's helped her enter into her very own available world.
Q: Why did you decide to go time for school for an MBA?
A: My undergraduate degree influences humanities--in Religious Studies, using a concentration in gender issues. It's a real focused degree and it has no direct application on the job I do now. I felt I needed to develop skills I could use within a business context. My job involves management and strategy, and I work closely with all the marketing department. The MBA offered an opportunity to develop my formal trained in these fields.
Q: Why have you choose an online program?
A: At the time I lived in a small town, there weren't any MBA programs within driving distance. Also, I chose a web-based degree due to the variable hours. I needed to be effective by myself time schedule because I travel a good deal. I needed the flexible schedule of a web based program.
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Q: There are a great deal of online MBA programs out there. How did you choose yours?
A: I searched accreditation. As a college admissions counselor, I know how important accreditation is. The school I chose is accredited by four boards. It's based out of Salt Lake City.
Q: What was the fundamental format of the MBA program?
A: I did an accelerated program. It took a year plus a half. I was only able to take one class with a time--two was too much, since I worked fulltime.
Q: Can you name some in the classes you took?
A: I took these great courses regarding how to understand business coming from a management perspective: recruiting, organizational behavior, financial management, and leadership.
Q: Describe a web-based education. How does it work?
A: You read an array of textbooks, and post comments with a community forum. We posted questions, or answered the professor's study question, and chatted with each other online. There were weekly essays, and the professor gave feedback. The professor didn't grade anything--there would have been a committee that reviewed all essays and gave everyone numbers, 1-5, that corresponded to a pass/fail grade.
There were also several major exams through the entire program. They were difficult, and you had to obtain a 75-80% score to feed. These exams were administered with a proctor-approved site. The last six months from the MBA was the capstone program, and we all took the standardized C-MBA exam.
Q: What did your MBA capstone project entail?
A: For the capstone I did a business analysis of my prior employer, Squaw Valley Academy. I analyzed their business objectives from a holistic standpoint. The point of the project ended up being to understand how everything fit together--budgeting, marketing, human resources, etc.
To backup a few minutes, inside the MBA program we learned a 10-part insurance policy for focusing on how a business worked. The ten steps included accounting, finance, marketing, leadership, management, ethics, strategy, it, project management, human resources, operations, organizational behavior, communication, and business law.
For the capstone, I needed to focus on each objective individually and describe how it applied to the business I was analyzing. So, for instance, I mentioned the way the company decided to invest more searching engine optimization and Internet promotion. That marketing objective increased the quantity of clients, which experts claim impacted human resources by increasing worker salaries.
Q: And then you took the C-MBA?
A: First I had an oral defense for that capstone. The defense was conducted in the phone--a conference call between me, my mentor, plus a committee of faculty advisors.
Then I took the C-MBA test, a regular test that most MBAs can take. The C-MBA covered each of the courses and objectives I had studied. Taking that test helped validate the rigor of my MBA program. I wear it in my resume, in fact. Some people question the value of a web-based MBA, and so the C-MBA can be an objective way to show potential employers that you simply mastered the pad. I did exceptionally well in management and HR leadership, that had been my regions of concentration inside program.
Q: In retrospect, are you glad you still have your internet MBA?
A: Without a doubt. There were certainly instances when it seemed to take up every minute of my free time. I was traveling a good deal for work, in the new relationship, and I would think 'gosh, would it be worthy of it?' My friends who had MBAs encouraged me to stay against each other, though, and I'm so glad I did.

Q: Do you find that you just use the degree inside your current job?
A: I can't say enough about how much I use it regularly. Organizational behavior courses in general were useful to find out how large organizations are set up. My former company had less than 25 employees; here it's near 60 total. So I find I'm while using perspective I gained inside MBA program--getting to be able to observe departments come together, along with some cases signing up for those roles. The company is still sufficiently small that I arrive at wear different hats.
In a big company that could reach over 100 people, you tend to pay attention to your specific role in your department and lose sight of how it fits into any alternative folks are doing. I think as a possible employee it is usually all to easy to have a narrow target the day-to-day. I feel fortunate to have MBA because I use a broader understanding now of how the business enterprise works overall. So for instance, I work alongside the marketing department now, and I have a very better knowledge of the length of time it requires to obtain some things done, etc. I can work better with them because I understand their position.
Q: Since graduating you've switched jobs and been promoted. Do you think the MBA played a task because?
A: Without a doubt, the MBA solved the problem change jobs. Employers appreciate that you simply have a degree in business--it offers you credibility. MBA everyone is well-known to own that general understanding regarding how an organization functions on many levels. My undergraduate degree was focused that it would have been hard to enter new industries with out a practical degree. Also, the belief that I was working full time on and on to college full time demonstrated that I can balance many projects at the same time.
Q: So you would recommend getting a web based MBA?
A: Yes. I feel like a got a good, rigorous education. I possess a much broader knowledge of management, and thus I've been able to take on the more active role at work. I've also increased my earning power.
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