I got into two part time MBA programs, UT and A&M in Houston. Admittedly after reviewing the focus and coursework it seems more of a way to get the school attached to your name than to actually advance your knowledge, they’re both management focused.
So that being said, I work in natural gas. Traders, what are some courses, certs etc that you have thought, if I had the time, spare cash I’d take that course? E.G. Penn State has that weather cert.
I’m not entirely concerned about the cert/course ‘prestige’ more what I can personally learn from it.
Part time mba programs are really more focused on adding an advanced degree to your resume and building your network. They are not really designed towards actually instruction. Could you use your award money for something else or is it just earmarked for higher education?
It can pretty much be used on anything - from welding to getting a PhD, or a coding bootcamp.
I am just constrained by time, so limited on in person stuff, but hours being from 6/7-3 daily makes life easier for workload.
Congrats on the acceptances!
I think getting the advanced degree (whether MBA, MSF, etc) is generally a good thing if you want to go into management as most places still want an advanced degree for management roles, especially if you come from outside the company. I also think that most of the programs would be underwhelming in terms of actual learning. As you said, they are mostly to get your name attached to the school and for you to get a masters attached to your name so you aren't "behind" others when applying for jobs. If you think one place will set you up with better connections/roles in the future, that's the place to go. I don't have an opinion between those schools, I would only recommend expanding your look a little if you are thinking of going into another industry at some point. With your background in trading and the military, I think you would have a good shot at getting into some of the better programs in the northeast and that may set you up better for roles that aren't so focused on nat gas.
As for the certifications, hard pass on all of them in terms of value of the certificate. Using the PSU one as an example, my results as a trader will determine the roles I can get, not having the weather cert. If you are successful as a trader in gas, power, etc there is a presumed knowledge of the weather, no one is going to look for a cert to determine it. If you wanted to leave the trading world, I think these certs may have more use but for what you are doing, I wouldn't waste the money on them. I would add, there's nothing wrong with doing a cert, especially if you think you aren't understanding the concepts properly and think taking proper classes will help. I just don't think the getting the cert should be the main driver for the reasons you are doing it.
For general knowledge, many years ago I "took" MIT's energy economics class when they had all their stuff available for free online (not sure if they still do that) and I thought it was interesting. I don't think it did much of anything for my career but I learned some cool stuff.
My thoughts exactly. I’m not overly concerned about adding them to my resume versus actually gaining valuable knowledge. What worries me about the part time MBA is my time sink. I don’t want to be miserable for two years trudging through homework and group work without feeling like I’m actually learning something because I will lose motivation quickly.
Admittedly though I do get it, network is huge, and I’ve gotten every job from my network so maybe I’ll reevaluate.
Just remember, as a vet, your network is already gigantic.
Any school program is going to be a time suck. I thought my masters program was quite easy (target school, master of finance) and I still had to spend at least 10 hours a week just to get everything done and it would double when group projects were involved. That said, I was learning stuff most of the time because I didn't have a finance background so I was able to stay relatively motivated. Perhaps that is the route you should take, instead of a generic MBA, go with something a little more specialized but is in a topic where you aren't an expert. So if you did your bachelors in business, maybe look at something like financial engineering. The business background will help but you may be new to the programming and statistics and that will expand your knowledge and keep you motivated to learn.
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