An MBA Gave Former Blue Angel Aviator Amy Tomlinson a Second Career

Amy Tomlinson already had a successful career when she decided to go back to school for her MBA. Of her 21-year career in the US Navy as a Naval Aviator, she says, “I spent 12 years active-duty flying in the F-14 and F/A-18, including two years with the Blue Angels,” where she performed in airshows around the country representing the 540,000 sailors and marines who serve. Married to a Navy pilot, when they decided to start their family they realized that having two parents on opposite deployment cycles wasn’t conducive to creating a steady home-life or for their young growing family.

Amy left active-duty and joined the reserves to focus on raising her young family. Once her children were older and settled into full days at school, she found herself with available time and wanting to re-enter the workforce. She started looking at business schools to help redefine what she would do in her second career.

While she looked at her alma mater, she found that their online program was her only viable option and decided it wouldn’t meet her needs. “I really wanted to be able to physically attend in person.” She also wanted a program that would allow her to explore her interest in new ventures and entrepreneurship, which led her to Santa Clara University Leavey School of Business .

“I was excited to attend a top school located in the Silicon Valley focused on teaching business, new venture and entrepreneurship.”

Her experience at Santa Clara University was everything she wanted in an MBA program. From the very beginning, she was impressed with how inclusive and adaptable the administration was. The counselors worked with Amy to meet her schedule needs while making sure she could take the classes she wanted. It was because of their commitment to the individual student that helped Amy graduate in a little over 2 years with a full-time course load.

And with the guest speakers, classroom interactions and meeting a community of like-minded learners, Amy thrived. She enjoyed how hands-on the marketing classes were and realized that her future was in new ventures and entrepreneurship when she took a leadership class with Associate Professor Jennifer Woolley.

What’s more, she was able to network with the very business people in the new industries she was interested in for her second career path. The Santa Clara MBA also taught her the nuts and bolts of finance and marketing she knew she would need to be a well-rounded job candidate when she graduated.

Upon graduation, she went looking for what she calls a “unicorn”. She wanted a remote position with flexible hours, a good salary, and a great team with a shared mission and vision. She found exactly that in the clean-energy start-up, Concentric Power Inc. . Concentric Power makes microgrids and is redefining the way California and the rest of the country gets its energy.

After two years, Amy left the start-up world having learned a lot about new venture and development work. With her years of military leadership experience, a strong foundation from her MBA and a desire to lead high-preforming teams she joined Amazon Web Services (AWS) as a Senior Manager leading a global employee experience team and thriving in her second career.

“There’s no doubt that what I learned in my MBA program helps me on a daily basis.”