Alumni Reflect at Preview Day on EMBA Program ROI from Classmate Network

At the EMBA Preview Day January 22, several alumni participated in a Q&A with prospective students. Here are highlights related to networking and career, ROI and job transitions-- questions that are fair and not at all surprising in a still sluggish economy.

Question: You’ve talked a lot about what you learned from the program, but what about the value of your degree after graduation?
Len Jannaman, EMBA 07, Managing Director Lake Point Consulting (former DuPont lead of the safety consulting practice during his EMBA program) commented: ‘The contacts the school has are international and impressive. When I was still with DuPont, I got a $10M order resulting from coming to hear the CEO of US Airways [alum Doug Parker] talk as part of the Distinguished Speaker Series. Later when I went out on my own, I attended one of the business breakfasts hosted by Professor Germain Boer. That has since turned into leads for my consulting firm.”
Phil Frerking EMBA 06, Technical Manager Scepter Inc., shared that a classmate helped him when his industry went south, resulting in Phil finding a new job that brought him back from Maryland to the Nashville area where he wanted to be.
Jennifer Hutcheson, EMBA 07, VP Corporate Accounting and Tax at Gaylord explained that she was encouraged to do the program by her bosses who had MBAs from Vanderbilt. She was both promoted from director and given the added departmental responsibilities of the tax group since attending Owen.

Question: How many of your EMBA classmates went through job transitions during or after the EMBA program?
Other alumni panelists chimed in, namely Alan Hutcheson EMBA 07 OneAlbany Business Transformation Lead, Albany International whose role has grown leading global teams and projects; and Marshall Leslie, EMBA 2010, now promoted to VP Operations, Healthcare Performance Partners. The consensus was that you couldn’t be in a better place if you were in a job transition, planned or not.
The alumni who have been out of school 3-4 years estimated about ¾ of their classmates are in different roles than they were in during school, even if at the same company and less than half had changed companies 3-4 years out. (In fact, only about 20% have changed employers 3 years out, probably because the rate of promotion has been so high.)