Executive MBA insights: How seasoned professionals can advance their careers

It’s not just college graduates or high schoolers who need help managing their careers.

Seasoned professionals often find themselves at crossroads or standstills, looking for the next move to elevate their careers.

Is an executive MBA worth it? It is designed specifically for professionals with years of work experience, so it could be the perfect choice for these crossroad moments.

Why does an executive MBA make sense for professionals?

In Olin’s Executive MBA program, seasoned professionals have an opportunity to learn in a way that drives their future careers. The Executive MBA for working professionals builds on experience and expertise while also providing a launchpad based on values and data. 

How can the Executive MBA help your career? The curriculum favors practical, hands-on learning. The foundations of leadership are tested in real scenarios where data-driven decision-making is crucial.

Secondly, the EMBA brings together diverse minds to make the learning experience a shared one. It’s both challenging and reassuring, independent and collaborative. The EMBA program is full of people who can help students realize their goals, including world-renowned faculty and cohorts of experienced business leaders. The remarkable thing about the people is that they represent limitless diverse backgrounds and industries, helping to expand one’s view of what business can be. And because the Executive MBA is for working professionals, the relationships formed in the program may become future partnerships.

Lastly, confidence is critical. With a reinforced foundation and brand-new skills, EMBA graduates leave the program with a strengthened sense of their gifts and goals and renewed visions for the future of their careers. People have a lot to do with this confidence boost. EMBA graduates leave the program with cohorts, mentors and professors they can call on when they need a network. 

What have EMBA graduates gained from the program? 

We repeatedly hear one question: Is an executive MBA worth it? This question is something only graduates of the program can answer.

“You will not regret the process.”

According to graduate Jenny Miller, the EMBA is an investment. “My MBA impacted my career and my life in multiple ways,” Miller says.

I’ve been promoted twice. I’ve been able to branch into a completely new function that I know nothing about and work with a global team. These are the factual results of the course, but there are also more intangible results. I learned so much from my cohorts, both from a business perspective but also just a general life perspective  

Jenny Miller

“A ready-made support network.”

According to graduate Vanessa Okwuraiwe, one of the benefits of her executive MBA was how it reorganized her life. As primarily a family person, Vanessa wanted an MBA experience that allowed her to contribute to her family and community. “Within your class, you have people who are going through the exact same thing,” she says. “So you have a ready-made support network. We always shared tips on how to help integrate our work and life in a way that was beneficial to not just ourselves but our families and the other people around us.” 

“An MBA opens so many doors.”

Curtis Pietzman finds that the Executive MBA provided him with “an elemental restructuring of how I look at business, how I look at life and how I see the world in general.” One of the lasting benefits of the Executive MBA for him was the strength of his cohort experience. “Just being in an MBA opens up so many doors and so many access ways,” Pietzman says. “Going through the WashU program is one of those pinnacles of my career that I’ll look back on as one of the key growth moments that allowed me to be a better leader.” 

“See immediate change.”

It is often difficult for professionals to justify a life change when they’re deep into the weeds of a career. How can they justify stepping to the side and experiencing education again? EMBA graduate Victor Fields believes that the payoff happens almost instantly. “I was able to take the data being presented in our classes and apply it real-time to my business and see immediate change,” he says. “I had doubled revenue in the very first year in the program just by the knowledge I acquired here." 

The EMBA program at Olin has been crafted and refined with working professionals in mind. Through expert cohorts, hands-on assignments and more, we have designed the curriculum to help executives today and in the future. Investing in our Executive MBA program can benefit seasoned professionals and propel their careers to new heights.