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Kelley School of Business Indiana University Bloomington
Kelley Direct Online MBA

How to Prepare for an Unknown Future Economy

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By: Terri Cramer, Associate Director with Kelley Graduate Career Services

The Greek philosopher Heraclitus wrote, “Change is the only constant in life.” It’s a potent quote to apply to your work life these days as a growing percentage of the workforce suffers job losses due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Whether it’s the market, your responsibilities, the tools you use to do your job (e.g. working from home), satisfaction with your boss, your stakeholders’ expectations, or the organization itself, you are constantly going to be in a position where you will need to decide whether it is time for you to create change, or if it is time for you to react to a changing situation. In order to be ready when change happens and action is needed, you need to have an exit strategy.

What is an exit strategy? It’s the combination of activities you can engage in now to equip you to make a job change on short notice. We are all seeing the daily headlines illustrating the dynamism of the economy—companies who are implementing layoffs and others who need to ramp up their hiring at a jaw-dropping pace. (more…)

Making the (Career) Switch with Kelley Direct

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By: Courtney Tam, MBA’20

The motivation to obtain my Master of Business Administration (MBA) changed as I progressed in my career. At first, it was because I wanted to become a better manager and advance my business knowledge. Ultimately, I realized that I had a greater interest in the entrepreneurial and technology realms, with the lofty goal of working for an innovative technology company. With only my pharmacy experience, I knew an MBA from a reputable program was necessary to even consider this transition.

After some research, in the Fall of 2017, I began my journey with the Kelley Direct (KD) Online MBA program at Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business. Kelley Direct provided not only an opportunity to gain my MBA, but also the ability for me to pursue a dual Masters in Entrepreneurship and Innovation. I did not have to quit my job while pursuing this goal. Instead, I learned the business language and concepts and applied them to my then management position – assistant director of pharmacy – while slowly building my Kelley network to understand how to make the career switch that up until that point I could only dream about.

During the program, my career coach, Birgit Newman, worked closely with me to ensure that I felt comfortable with the process and what to expect – career switching is not easy! The business field was very new to me; everything felt different compared to healthcare. Together, we worked on multiple components of my job search, from understanding the job market to building rapport, resume review, interviewing, and connecting with alums. With preparation and coaching, I was able to transition from a traditional hospital setting into a healthcare startup to gain entrepreneurial experience. After graduation, I will be making my second transition; I will be joining Amazon. I would not have advanced and switched my career without the experience, business knowledge, and concepts that I learned from Kelley. Most importantly, I am grateful for the mentoring, preparation, and encouragement from Birgit and the Graduate Career Services team that has helped with my career transition.

Another aspect that sets KD apart is the amazing students from a wide variety of backgrounds. I have had classes with NFL players, engineers, and presidents and CEOs of many different companies. Such a diverse group of students allows for better class discussions and excellent teamwork. This was evident during our two Kelley Connect Weeks (KCW), during which we took part in domestic and global case competitions on the IU Bloomington campus. This experience enabled me to build memorable friendships with my teammates, build stronger bonds, and learn how to address different team dynamics.

During my second year of the program (you can take two to four years to complete it), I decided to participate in an international case competition event advertised by KD’s Consulting Student Leadership Association, one of ten dedicated online student associations available to KD students. With the experience we had gained during KCW and being able to work with diverse individuals (my teammates were in different states and time zones), we placed Top 10. I highly recommend joining a student organization, because it expands your opportunities to network, ask questions about different industries, and take part in a variety of fun challenges with other Kelleys.

My Kelley Direct experience has broadened my views about business, provided me with the skills to work for an innovative company, and given me friendships that will last a lifetime! I’m proud to be a Kelley!

Courtney’s story reflects a typical academic year in the Kelley Direct Online MBA program. The coronavirus pandemic could impact courses and experiences offered. You can always expect a high-quality, memorable experience that builds lasting momentum for your career.

An Immersive Experience to Help Solve the Unemployment Crisis

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By Damien Potocnik, MBA’20

My first experience in the Kelley Direct Online MBA program—one of two on-campus Kelley Connect Weeks—was both eye-opening and exhilarating. I was out of my comfort zone, realizing how much I leaned on my technical knowledge to be effective in my current role, with little to fall back on when preparing for the proposed business case. It required effort to find a working dynamic with people from diverse fields, with different skillsets and ways of thinking. By the end of the week it was clear; my classmates were talented, driven, and generous. Together we could formulate real solutions to real business problems. (more…)

Get the Most Out of Your Online MBA Graduate Career Services

Posted on by Kelley School

 

By: Stephanie Gray, Associate Director of Graduate Career Services, Kelley Direct

The Top 5 questions you should be asking when narrowing down your online MBA search

Planning for your future career and how to make yourself the most marketable in your industry has never been more important. During times of economic uncertainty, we often see an influx of MBA students, and given the nature of this particular situation, an online program may be even more appealing. So, if you’ve decided to pursue your MBA online while still working, congratulations and welcome! It is going to be challenging but fulfilling, especially if you are managing competing priorities like family, health, and employment.

My guess is that you are taking this step for one of two reasons: You want to move up, or you want to move over. Maybe in order to get a promotion, you need an MBA, or maybe you want to make a move from the technical side of the business to a more strategic role. This rationale definitely makes sense for online students. More and more, however, we see students also want an online MBA because they want to pivot into a new industry or function, and two years away from the job just isn’t going to cut it. If one of these situations sounds similar to yours, then it’s important that you compare what each school offers in terms of career support.

As an advocate for students throughout all stages of the academic and professional journey, I get a lot of questions about how to best utilize career services. After many years of hearing all the questions, here are the questions you should be asking: (more…)

The 10,000-foot View of Business

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By Jenica Acome, MBA’20

I initially began my online MBA program to advance my career at my current company. I knew that for at least the short-term I’d be staying put but had looked around and seen some of my peers advancing a little more quickly than I was. The online MBA helped me in several ways:

  1. It gave me focus and drive that I may have been a little lax on prior to beginning,
  2. It showed my coworkers and managers that I was driven and eager to learn, and,
  3. The courses and associated readings and work gave me more of a 10,000-foot view of looking at business problems, enabling me to bring a fresh perspective to the work I was doing by being challenged to think about things differently and outside of the box.

Since starting the program, I’ve moved roles in the company once and have been promoted twice.

During my undergraduate degree, I had the option of finishing a semester early or doing a semester abroad. I chose to end early, and while financially this has continued to make a lot of sense, I’ve always felt a pang of regret at not traveling abroad. When looking at MBA programs I knew I wanted one that was online, but I wanted one with in-person and international components. The immersion courses offered through Kelley Direct’s online MBA were a huge selling point for me. I traveled to Vietnam last spring and participated in a networking weekend in Chicago.

I have gone to Bloomington for both Kelley Connect Weeks (one of two intensive seven-day, in-person courses where we work in a team to develop a solution to a business challenge facing a real company) and will be traveling to India this spring. These experiences have not only given me the “do-over” that I missed out on during my undergrad, but they’ve also allowed me to learn so much about different businesses and cultures, and most importantly connected me to my fellow students, who are so diverse in where they live or have come from, and the work they do. The connections I’ve made with my classmates during these experiences are ones that I will take with me for years to come.

I started my online MBA journey in the fall of 2017, beginning with Kelley Connect Week in August before fall classes began. I’m nearly done with the program, currently taking two of my final three classes, ending in spring 2020. Throughout the program I’ve had a routine of doing two classes, then one, then two, and so on, to keep me on track with my initial goal of completing the program in two and a half years. At my company, our busy seasons tend to be spring and fall, so I’ve tried to coincide those periods with one class quarters. This schedule has allowed me to build in some easier quarters to give myself a bit of a break. I’m immensely glad I had the foresight and that Kelley allowed me to have this flexibility because it has really saved my sanity throughout the program as I’ve continued to work full time.

The Best Choice for All the Wrong Reasons

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By Carrie Hoefer, MBA’19

When starting an online MBA program there are a lot of personality tests you take. I personally love these tests and I take them for fun. Some of my top traits are “Woo” and “Competition.” In fact, there is always the joke that I woo people in, just to beat them later. I like to think this is a lie, but then again, I started my MBA for all the wrong reasons.

See, my husband moved two hours away to get his MBA and I didn’t want him to have the letters “MBA” after his name without me having the same letters. Granted, I have my doctorate in Pharmaceutical Sciences, but I wanted more. More is what I got at Kelley Direct. Sure, I learned the basics of business, accounting (never make me do debits and credits again!), supply chain, information technology, finance, etc., but the best part was the “more.”

Let me start with the Kelley Connect Week residency experiences where you get to visit campus. These two weeks were by far two of the best weeks of my life. I met amazing people that lift me up daily. Being a science “nerd,” we sometimes forget how to work with people in different fields, but these people, friends, made it so easy. Meeting them in person made the online classes so much better. We would get to see each other via Zoom video conferencing, and chat about work or family. It made the online program feel like it was not online, and that was incredible.

Next, I cannot give enough praise to the immersion class where we went to Moffitt Cancer Center to work with the COO of the hospital. How many MBA programs do you know that provide such an opportunity? We were able to help investigate current hospital projects that would improve patient experiences. This one class changed my whole career outlook and provided me an opportunity to develop a business plan to implement in my current workplace.

I recently graduated, and the leadership team and faculty from Kelley Direct have been unbelievable, especially with the project I am working on post-graduation. Not only are they eager to help me succeed, but they also want me to succeed. It only took one email and I had numerous meetings set up to help me create a business plan that is failproof.

I may have started the MBA program for the craziest reason, but it changed my life. It will change yours too. I promise.

My online MBA experience with Kelley Direct

Posted on by Kelley School

 

By Jeremy Zurawski, MBA’18, MS’19

In July of 2016, I received an exciting package in a big red box: my Kelley School of Business acceptance letter and a new branded backpack to mark the occasion! The Kelley Direct (KD) Online MBA program through Indiana University was the ideal fit for me. I had originally planned on going full-time to earn my MBA, but I wasn’t ready to step away from my career, and my family with four children was not in a position to support that lifestyle. Kelley Direct was the perfect alternative. It was consistently at or near the top of the most prominent business school rankings, was within a 4-hour drive from my home in Nashville, TN, and offered the most flexibility for someone in my position with a demanding full-time job and a growing family.

In my opinion, the best features of the KD program are the face-to-face interactions that are built into the program through Kelley Connect Weeks (KCW), the global immersion courses, and the variety of dual degree options that are available. One of the benefits of the KD program is that you have a high degree of flexibility. I was able to arrange my plan of study to maximize these various aspects on a timeline that aligned with my busy schedule.

As part of my dual MBA/MS in Entrepreneurship and Innovation degree, I chose to have two of my electives be immersion courses to Greece and Ireland. Greece was a consulting experience that put me into a team solely dedicated to helping an Athens-based meal kit delivery service expand its footprint globally. The in-country schedule was very open, allowing our team to focus our time on activities that we felt would help us to provide the best proposal to our client.

Ireland, however, was different in that it was an exploratory course that involved the study of high-performing organizations (HPOs) in the context of Ireland and the European Union. The main in-country activities were visits to HPOs in Dublin, including Google, Facebook, and Storyful. Both courses provided unique insights and valuable, alternative perspectives to what I knew going in. The relationships developed with classmates and professors during these courses were of some of the greatest value to me from the entire KD experience and far exceeded my expectations.

The coursework at Kelley is broad and challenging. Most courses included opportunities to work on teams, live and prerecorded sessions with instruction from professors and diverse, contemporary readings that helped to make the subject matter more meaningful. Each professor’s approach was a bit different, but the quality and experience that they brought to the table was world-class.

I truly enjoyed and value my time spent at Kelley in the KD program. I have applied my knowledge to benefit my current company, which yielded me a promotion during the program and another immediately following it. I am now a well-rounded employee and capable business leader.

Building Personal Connections with Global Connect Night

Posted on by Kelley School

Joseph Hwalek, MBA’19

One of the most rewarding aspects of any MBA program is the opportunity to network with your peers. While the Kelley Direct program is taught online, there are an abundance of opportunities for students to build personal connections with both current students and alumni through organized events such as Kelley Direct Week, AGILE, Kelley Direct Student Leadership Association events and Global Connect Night.

On October 4, prospective students, current students, and alumni gathered in 30 cities around the country for our Fall Global Connect Night. This student-led initiative brings Kelley Direct students together twice a year to build our network and meet new people. Organized and hosted by students, we met up at bowling alleys, restaurants, and social clubs to discuss everything from our classes and professors to our jobs and lives outside of the program. Attending a Global Connect Night is a valuable experience because it gives students the opportunity to remove the technology that we usually interact through and build personal relationships with our peers. (more…)

Summer Academy in Germany with Daniel Laisi

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Daniel grew up in Southern New Jersey outside of Philadelphia and graduated from Rutgers University with a BA in Political Science.  He lives in Washington DC and works as a Senior Strategy and Operations Consultant for Deloitte Consulting.  School and work occupy most of his time these days, but he always makes room for travel, fitness, reading, and trying new restaurants.

Daniel was one of four Kelley students who participated in The German Graduate School of Management and Law (GGS) program and is sharing his experience with us.

 

Can you briefly explain what the GGS Summer Academy 2016 consists of?
The German Graduate School of Management and Law (GGS) is a leading graduate school that specializes in management education.  The school is located in the city of Heilbronn in the state of Baden-Wurttemburg in southwestern Germany.  This area is in the heart of the German wine region and boasts beautiful scenic landscapes and picturesque German towns.  It is also home to many of Germany’s most successful companies to include Audi and Mercedes Benz.

The school hosts a week-long course in the Summer taught by GGS faculty and guest lecturers from companies and civic institutions focusing on Germany‘s Mittlestand companies, small to medium-sized enterprises that specialize in niche market and serve as the backbone of Germany’s economy.  During the course, you’ll get a chance to tour some of Germany’s Mittlestand companies and get an opportunity to see what makes them successful in their field.  You will also get a chance to visit a variety of sights including the city of Stuttgart, the Mercedes Benz Museum, and you may even get a reception by the mayor of Heilbronn himself.   Mixed in will be a number of social activities and excellent German restaurants, so bring your appetite.

(more…)

Kelley Entrepreneurship and Innovation Student, Chris Hanahan, Turned his Passion into a Company

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Chris grew up in Wisconsin and moved to San Diego in 1998 with about $400 in his wallet and without a car. He started his business on an idea that he could sell two extra tickets to pay for his own, and over 10 years later it has grown into a wild success. His passion and interest in music and sports led him to attend over 300 events. His ticket reselling business buys large blocks of inventory for professional sports events and resells them on the internet through three aggregator websites.

Please describe your business and how it started.
I wanted to see the Green Bay Packers play and tickets were sold out. I really wanted to go to the game so ended up figuring out some technical wizardry that enabled me to buy tickets for face value. I ended up buying additional seats and thought I could sell them and ended up making some money. Next year I kept buying more tickets and selling them while I kept my day job as an analyst. Two years later, in 2005 I quit my job to focus on growing my business, which has been profitable since day one. (more…)

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