Securing career promotions after earning a Purdue Global MBA

Jay Wasson earned an online master’s degree to fortify his other degrees 

Jay Wasson saw value in a Purdue Global degree to help move his career forward. He’s sharing how earning an online master’s degree has contributed to success. 

When I decided to go back to school and earn my MBA, I was senior director and chief operations officer of physical facilities at Purdue University. I already had my bachelor’s and master’s degrees in civil engineering from Purdue. 

As my career advanced, I became interested in formal business training. My technical skills were less applicable to what I was working on — responsibilities like setting strategic direction, creating budgets and managing larger, diverse and distributed teams.  

Purdue Global is the only thing that would have worked for me to enhance my education because of its flexibility. I was working full time, and my two children were in high school.

After getting my degree, I was able to be promoted. I think, in part, it’s because of the new skills that I had through Purdue Global.

Jay  
MBA / Purdue Global ’20 

I told folks that I felt like it wasn’t just myself working toward a graduate degree alone. My entire family had to sacrifice time with me to be able to achieve this. They were my biggest supporters. And leadership at work understood when I had to focus on school after regular business hours, too. 

In finance meetings, I’d be curious about some of the topics being discussed, even if I didn’t have a firm understanding of the concept. Conversations in the workplace started to make more sense as I started taking classes, and I could ask the right questions to learn more. After getting my degree, I was able to be promoted. I think, in part, it’s because of the new skills that I had through Purdue Global. 

Today, I can manage larger projects and lead larger teams with increased confidence as Purdue’s vice president for physical facilities and public safety. My Purdue Global degree is high quality and carries name recognition around the world.  

For Purdue employees, you can’t find a better value proposition out there. It’s a tremendous value and an extension of our land-grant mission. Purdue really does provide educational platforms to everyone. 

Jay is the vice president for physical facilities and public safety at Purdue. He’s worked at the university since 2015. 

My Purdue Global degree is high quality and carries name recognition around the world.

Jay  MBA / PURDUE GLOBAL ’20