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How to get a 6-digit job using an online MBA degree

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To Lake sydneyApril 7, 2022 12:26 PM

There are many reasons to go to business school, but according to the 2021 Future Student Survey of the Graduate School of Business Admissions Council, salary increases are one of the biggest motivations for pursuing an MBA. Also, according to the 2021 survey results on mba.com, the median starting salary offered to MBA graduates in 2021 was $ 115,000.

But for some people, a salary increase is just a “by-product” of getting an MBA. Former professional soccer player and financial services expert Jared Singleton has decided to earn an MBA degree and pursue his goal of taking his career to the “next level” and creating impact.

Singleton enrolled in the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (Kennan Fragler) online MBA program in 2019 and considered switching his career to the consulting industry, but in the process discovered another interest in environmental services. .. As he says, it was a “COVID proof” career path, as so many industries (except environmental services) were suffering from the pandemic.

After earning an MBA in 2021, Singleton landed its current six-digit salary role on Republic Services. This two-year program spends time on sales, maintenance, operations, human resources development, and rotation of other functions. At the end of the program, he will be assigned as general manager and will lead the team. According to Glassdoor, the average total manager salary for a waste management company’s Republic Services is $ 157,285. Former AFL and NFL players are also college football commentators on ESPN +’s Southern Conference Game of the Week.

“If you focus on influencing others, everything else will take care of yourself,” says Singleton. luck. “Everything: salaries, job opportunities, promotions, titles-they will take care of themselves.”

luck I sat down with the Singleton and learned how to take advantage of the UNC Kenan Flagger’s online MBA. luck He is ranked as having the No. 1 program in the United States to land his current job and return on investment so far.

The following interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.

The MBA “really can take your career to the next level”

luck: Why did you decide to get an MBA in the first place?

Singleton: I played college football at Woford University. Then, before starting my professional career, I had the opportunity to play in the AFL, or simply the NFL. I love working with people, so I started working in the banking sector and then moved to corporate finance. At that time, I realized that I needed to get an MBA and take my career to the next level.

Why UNC? What were you looking for in the program?

Many of their core values ​​are in line with my core values ​​in my professional and personal life. Two of the main core values ​​that stood out to me were inclusion and impact. I think teams work best when they have different people, different backgrounds, and different perspectives from different experiences. Teams can thrive with inclusions.

Whatever your background, we all have the ultimate goal of creating influence. It has an impact on the communities in which we operate, and obviously on our personal lives. The fact that it’s really important to me and also to Kenan Fragler really attracted me to them.

When you got your MBA, were you looking for a job change or were you looking for a higher salary?

Going back to Kenan-Flagler’s reason, I always wanted to make an impact. I always wanted to lead the team and help make a difference.

That said, I realized that in order to reach a certain level, I need to get an MBA to have such a direct impact. I had an early career and many successes, but not enough compared to my peers who were competing for a particular job. I noticed that one of the biggest differences between me and the people I was competing with was that they had an MBA. I made an investment to stay working full time, but through this online program I found time at night and made it possible to get an MBA.

Once in the program, I wanted to move on to the next step in my career again. And that was one of the questions I asked some of the UNC admissions and counselors: what does the career process look like? What does the timetable look like? What is your relationship with the world’s top companies that can recruit students and provide a platform to get the exposure they are looking for?

UNC provided all of this through career coaches and academic advisors.Even the professor provided great feedback on how to navigate and perform those next steps in your career and the relationships they already have with different things. luck 500 companies and different sectors of the business world have made the entire process worth the trip.

Make the most of the opportunities of your online MBA program

Did you feel that you learned as much from an online program as a full-time face-to-face program?

We can meet anywhere in the world and even log in and watch the classroom live online. It really filled the gap. The quality of education is very parallel and we do not miss many opportunities just because we are educating from technology platforms.

Many of the jobs that were done onsite are now being shifted to remote platforms, as the quality of the work still seems to be done in the office. Whether you’re doing it online or in the classroom, the same can be said for the MBA’s education department. Quality is still there, especially in places like Kenan Fragler.

At what point on your MBA journey did you discover your passion for a new career?

I shifted about half. At first, I participated in the program because I wanted to go to the consulting industry, which was fascinating, but other fields such as the environmental industry I currently belong to were also interesting. There, the experience of our career coaches, academic advisors, and professors actually provided the right feedback and insights on how to navigate it, providing countless opportunities for exposure.

Why did you get interested in the environmental services industry?

It was a COVID-19 pandemic. Many industries have been heavily affected by the pandemic and are still recovering. One of the sectors that remained relatively strong is the environmental services industry, as people and businesses still produce garbage and waste, with or without a pandemic, and someone has something about it. Must be done. There is no doubt that trying to find a COVID-friendly career after an MBA changed my mind about what I wanted to do after the program.

Post-MBA salary is an “ultimate goal by-product”

How did your online MBA help you get a 6-digit job?

Data is data. Most people can study what MBA graduates can expect. As for the actual salary, I think the salary part is a by-product of the ultimate goal. I think it comes with the territory. When I talked with my colleagues about why you have an MBA, you didn’t say anything about “because I want to make more money”. Most people wanted to be a boss that they didn’t have.

They wanted to be a leader they had never experienced before. That way, you can make the lives of others more impactful, actually autonomous, in your community, or in the business itself.

What was your job hunting like?

The university does a great job of providing access to job fairs, companies, job fairs, and daily updates through the Career Services platform. Recruiters, how to prepare for an interview, how to prepare for a job fair.

They also have a great job with career coaches and are completely confident in job fairs, briefings and interviews to prepare you, get your resume correctly and perform at the highest level. Make sure you have done your research on your side so that you can participate.

After all, coaches can only be so many coaches. And it’s up to the students to offer them when they get the chance. And I felt very ready through different classes and different coaching sessions.

How to be a “real leader”

What do you think is the return on investment so far?

Whether it’s salary, job title, or promotion, I believe these are by-products of the ultimate goal. It’s how we affect people on a daily basis. That was my focus on getting my MBA. Because I had a good manager and a manager I didn’t like.

I always wanted to lead a team and be a manager who understands their people and the communities in which they operate. For me, it’s a return. When there are team members who have a sense of purpose, when there are motivated teams, when there are teams that can do their best because they feel they are working, it is comprehensive and people are actually An environment that cares for them and works in an environment where they feel appreciated and appreciated.

What advice would you give to future MBA students?

Understand what type of leader you are, what your vision is, and how your vision can make a difference to others. How can you serve others through your vision? When you focus on influencing other people, everything else takes care of themselves: salary, job opportunities, promotions, titles.

As MBA students, they will take the same statistics courses and more. But how can you become a real leader? By understanding who you are and being able to adapt to different personalities, you will become a true leader through introspection. To be an effective leader in the future, you need to focus on these skill sets while attending the program.

Find out how your school has reached the rankings of Fortune’s best business analytics programs, data science programs, part-time, executive, full-time, and online MBA programs.

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