First Year Reflection

A year ago I started the Professional MBA program at Texas A&M University.  On Friday, July 10th, the Class of 2017 started their first session by diving head first into Statistics.  Being a year in, with graduation looming in May 2016, it provides a great opportunity to reflect.  This reflection also serves as a chance to provide advice to the Class of 2017 and to all of those currently in a MBA program or evaluating the decision to take that leap.

I don’t think I was fully prepared to know how large a time commitment a Full-Time MBA program would be while working.  I guess it should have been obvious considering I was signing up for four hours of class after work every other Friday and eight hours every other Saturday, but the classes are only part of the commitment, there are the weekly team meetings, the readings, and the homework.  Those first few weeks and months of class were spent evaluating sacrifices I could make in order to maintain excellence in my work, my classwork, and my family life.  Yet, in the back of my mind I remember some advice given on the first full week of class from the Associate Dean for Graduate Programs, “You’re investing a great deal of time and money into this program, make sure you don’t invest too much.”  It was important advice, because I could have sacrificed so much more than I already have, but it kept in perspective the fact that even for something as important as a MBA program, I could invest too much.

To refrain from sacrificing things critical to my identity I made a pact with my wife to hold Sundays as a day purely for family.  Additionally, I always make sure we have dinner together every night.  While the MBA program has imparted a great deal of stress on my life, it hasn’t stressed my family life.  The sacrifices I’ve made have been to things I enjoy doing, like playing the banjo, writing, and working out.  Even though I’ve made sacrifices to things I love, I still have been able to find the time to squeeze them in, but instead of an hour and a half at the gym it’s been cut to 45 minutes... and to this point my squat strength is still increasing.

The Statistics coursework the Class of 2017 just jumped into is by far the most challenging, technically, of the courses taken in the first year of the program.  While many of the engineers may find Marketing to be the most challenging, Statistics requires a sound background in data analytics.  Having been an analyst in a previous role with my company, I was already on sound footing and found the complex scenarios enlightening.  By the time we began using Oracle for multiple regressions, I had begun using some of the techniques in data analysis for my sales territory.  It was remarkable, the concepts being taught in the course were making an immediate impact in my job.  Obviously, as a sales rep by the time I got into the Finance and Marketing courses, the level of analysis being performed in my territory was paying significant dividends.  With each class building on top of one another, the way I began viewing my job and the industry began being built up as well.

While the coursework was enhancing my understanding and technical prowess in the key fundamentals of business, at the same time my leadership skills were being developed.  Much of the coursework was done as teams.  Quite like a traditional business unit, many of the team members were from the same discipline.  My first year team was heavily weighted with members with an engineering background.  In fact, three members of my team were engineers, one was in Information Technology, and myself in Sales.  Clearly the technical aptitude of the group was off the charts.  For myself, it took time understanding how to work effectively with each team member.  While I may have been frustrated early on, by the end of the first year we had developed into a cohesive unit working towards a singular goal.  Every team member understood my strengths and weaknesses, and I understood theirs.  By the end of the first year, I clearly understood how to lead individuals with high technical aptitudes and they understood how to lead someone with a highly competitive nature.

The first year of my MBA program at Texas A&M University passed much more quickly than I would have expected.  The final year is lined up with courses like Operations Management and Managerial Accounting, but the fundamental framework of the program has already been established.  Texas A&M’s MBA program doesn’t merely provide an understanding of the core philosophies of business, it builds leaders.  Looking back on the first year, the sacrifices I needed to make in order to maintain excellence in my work and ensure that same level of excellence in my coursework were a crucial lesson to learn.  While I made some difficult sacrifices, I didn’t invest too much of my personal time into the MBA program.  I ensured my family life was still my top priority and I made time for my passions.  This process recalls an early lesson learned from my Entrepreneurship class, what is the Minimally Viable Product?  For my life, that included time to workout, write, study, sell, and of course to spend time with my family.  It’s funny, I knew that a MBA was critical for the direction I’ve planned for my career, but I didn’t know I would begin to see changes so soon.  The confidence in leadership I’ve developed in this program has opened up opportunities I couldn’t have foreseen.  That’s the biggest piece of advice I could ever offer, pay special attention to the lessons you learn in class, but take time to reflect.  The single most important lesson you learn from a MBA program is taking place in the background.