Author: tara.norton

Treg Ogborn, MBA, Supply Chain and Services Management, Finance & International Management; MSIT; Graduate Certificate, Business Analytics; Class of 2015

 When I returned home safely from a tour in Iraq at the end of 2010, I was faced with the reality of transitioning into a typical civilian life: being a husband, getting a job, and planning for the future. I had graduated from college into the Great Recession in 2008; with few jobs available I had focused on Active Duty opportunities in the Massachusetts Army National Guard prior to my deployment to pay the bills so I had only Military work experience. This was going to be a major change!

 I was fortunate to find meaningful employment quickly and set to work as a functional manager with a research laboratory outside Boston, managing design schedules for a team of 40 engineers. This role also included a significant technology project management function as the department was in the middle of a major implementation. I had never done anything in tech so this was a major learning opportunity for me; I was fortunate to find a talent I’d never considered while in the Military.

 After successfully delivering the project, I realized that I found operational work unfulfilling – I wanted to be in technology consulting delivering projects around the globe. Having only a BA in Psychology, I knew that I needed to develop my hard and soft skills to be appealing to the major firms. I needed to go to graduate school, but I already had family obligations that would require me to work full time. I did a lot of research and determined that UMASS Boston, with its evening schedule and several honors for being Veteran friendly was the place for me. I applied to the MBA program and was thankfully accepted to begin classes in September 2012 as one of the crazy ones that would work and go to school full-time.

I was immediately taken by the campus and the student body. The beautiful view looking out over the water while eating dinner in the Campus Center before class, the friendliness and diversity of my classmates, and the quality of the faculty quickly confirmed that I had made the right choice. With UMASS Boston as my happy academic home, I requested to add the MSIT program to my academic plan before the end of my first semester. I would spend two and a half fantastic years on campus for several hours 4-5 days a week. That time flew by!

 During my final full semester in October 2014, I was finally in a position to realize my dream of going into consulting. I landed interviews with Accenture Strategy and Deloitte Digital; somewhat to my surprise I received great offers from both! After much deliberation I decided to go with Deloitte, starting in their Salesforce practice as a Senior Consultant in February 2015. In my three years with the firm, I have traveled several hundred thousand miles around the world working with some of the most extraordinary people I could have imagined. I get to build relationships with clients, guide organizational strategy, and play with cutting edge technology that is changing the way the world does pretty much everything. I love what I do, and UMASS Boston was the key for getting me to where I am today.

 Choosing to go to UMASS Boston was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made. The campus is great, the faculty is amazing, and the student body is a snapshot of humanity – people from all around the world in various stages of life. With the relatively small class sizes, especially in the MSIT program, I made meaningful friendships that have lasted well beyond graduation and got a significant amount of personal attention from faculty. The academic rigor of my coursework prepared me for the ever-changing challenges I face today in client service. I highly recommend UMASS Boston to everyone I meet, it’s a decision that you will not regret!

Sunny Tang, MSF & MSA, Class of 2013

I graduated with Master’s degrees in Accounting & Finance in 2013. One of the best decisions I have ever made is to pursue my master’s degree at UMass Boston. I grew tremendously both professionally and personally while at graduate school. I was selected as one of the first two scholarship interns at Lexington Insurance Company through Professor Chuck’s recommendation. In addition, I had the privilege of leading Bloomberg training program within the College of Management and actively involved with the Graduate Student Managed Fund. Upon graduation, I accepted an offer to join Deloitte and worked there for three years as an auditor. Recently I transitioned out of public accounting and started to work as a financial analyst at PAREXEL International. I am and always will be grateful for UMass Boston!

AJ Ferguson, MBA, Finance & Healthcare Management, Class of 2010

Entering the UMASS Boston MBA program was intended to simply assist in a bump up the career ladder.  However, soon after beginning coursework in the summer of 2008, there was to be an economic meltdown, of proportions not seen since the Great Depression, or at least that’s how the media portrayed it!  I remember about half way through the program, starting to reach out to recruiters, and past contacts, and realizing I would be re-entering a very tough job market.  One person told me that I should consider myself lucky to be “behind the walls of the ivory tower the way the economy is now,” so I didn’t give it too much worry, but made a mental note, and continued along with studies.

After graduation, it was apparent, re-entering the job market would be tough – especially with a Finance MBA, in the middle of a crisis purportedly orchestrated by Finance MBAs. I dove in anyway, but didn’t really find what I was looking for right away.  Several months past, and I realized I needed to be more creative, patient, and get through the tough times we were living in.   I had already been a real estate investor, more or less a hobby business, and went about revamping some of my existing strategies – had to increase revenues, cut costs, and incorporate for tax purposes.   Ultimately converted properties to short-term corporate rentals, increased income, and yes, swung a hammer myself to keep expenses low – even added another property to the portfolio in the depths of the Florida housing collapse!  Lido Beach is the best if you’re ever in South Florida!

Bottom line, the UMASS Boston MBA program is great place to call home…at any time in your career!  I felt energized going back to school after a decade…the quality of the professors was top-notch.  They care about students and make themselves available, and classes are fairly small to promote learning and interaction. Don’t be fooled, the program is rigorous and world-class…I was challenged in every course, and my speaking and presentation skills were tested continually!  At the end of the day, the classroom, teamwork, and case method experiences were all excellent and of high-quality.   I look forward to future studies, at some point, with a new interest in accounting and tax…perhaps a CPA.

George Gichimu, MBA Class of 2014 & MSA Class of 2015

My experience at UMB will remain forever etched in my heart. A premier institution within Boston which  offered me life changing skills. I admired the ability to  earn dual degree (MBA & MSA) while working because of UMass Boston flexibility and affordability.

Course  projects were good challenges that helped me to sharpen my research, writing, and presentation skills which are all important in my current role. I’m using skills such as Lean Management and Six Sigma in my daily life and sametime has applied them within my team and we have noticed  value add for our customers.

Besides work experience the credentials from a respected university was instrumental in getting my current opportunity at John Hancock Funds.

Vishwa Shroff, MBA Class of 2012

My name is Vishwa Shroff and I have had the opportunity of completing my MBA at the beautiful campus of UMass Boston, positioned right next to the bay. UMass Boston’s MBA program offers courses that help students understand diverse business perspectives and multifaceted contexts, in meaningful ways. There are several core courses covering a comprehensive list of specializations that facilitated picking my favorite focus areas. I chose to focus on Marketing and Information Systems. During my time as a graduate student at UMass Boston, I had access to top-notch faculty who were field experts in the classes they taught. I also had the opportunity to be a graduate assistant at the department of Information Systems, which aided alignment of my course to real life cases. My classroom was a greatly diverse group of students from all over the world, which enhanced my student life and increased engagement on worldly affairs and global economies.

All in all, I am grateful to have graduated from UMass Boston as it served as a bridge in helping me transition from an international student from India into a successful business strategy and marketing professional in the US.

I graduated from UMass Boston in 2012 with an MBA.  

Post MBA

My first full-time role once I graduated was in a privately owned, luxury travel company as their first Web Marketing Analyst. It was a hands-on role where I got the opportunity to see how a medium sized, B2C direct marketing firm runs business and created marketing & CRM success metrics for them. Later, I joined a fast paced Ed-tech firm headquartered in the greater Boston area as a Sr. Marketing Data Analyst, and worked in a B2B environment, leading several projects in the marketing analytics and marketing operations domains for the firm.

About a year and half ago, I decided to make the big move and venture out to Silicon Valley to join the high-tech industry and think it has been great career choice. Currently, I work as a Marketing Manager, Digital Strategy & Marketing Operations in the Enterprise Marketing Group at the newly formed Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) in San Francisco Bay Area. The role is a great blend of marketing operations, digital marketing strategy and program management. Thus far, I am pleased with how my career has shaped out to be post-MBA from UMass Boston.

Lori Kelleher, MBA Class of 2013

Prior, as well as during my MBA, I was working in the Pharmaceutical Industry as a Sales Representative. I knew that if I wanted to move up within my company, or transfer to another, I needed my MBA, and an MBA specializing in Healthcare Administration would make me even more valuable. Today, most everyone has an undergraduate degree, so in order to make myself more marketable, as well as sharpen my business skills, pursuing my MBA was a necessity.

I selected UMASS Boston for five reasons:

(1) It’s one of the only programs in Boston, considered the hub of westernized medicine, to offer a program with a Healthcare Management track (2) The cost was appealing, especially as a state school, and even more so with tuition reimbursement, so I never had to pay out of pocket (3) The Professors were either Ivy League grads or successful business leaders in their respective fields (4) Convenience of the school; parking, location, accessibility (5) Ability to waive core courses I already (relatively) recently completed and excelled at, which saved a lot of time, money and frustration of repetition.

My experience at UMASS couldn’t have been any better! The professors were engaged and exceptional, and the courses challenging yet realistic. I found myself surrounded primarily around other students working full time and pursuing the MBA on the side, so they, as well as the Professors, understood this intense workload. I was able to network with others in similar industries, which is valuable for career progression and determining ways this could assist me with my current job. But, my most memorable experience was collaborating with a Professor on a paper that was actually published! This was something I never thought possible, but through the MBA program, became a reality.

After graduation, I continued working at my current company with the goal of transitioning to medical devices. One month post graduation, I was able to utilize my MBA to ‘move ahead’ of others in the interview process, and successfully land a job with Medtronic, the largest medical device company in the world. Within 2.5 years at Medtronic, I have been promoted, and incorporate the skills earned during my MBA to not only move to the next level, but to also excel in my current role, everyday.