>> Hello and welcome to today's informational podcast on the Weekend MBA here at Purdue University's Krannert School of Management. My name is Nick Rambo and I am a recruiter here, and I'm joined by a great panel of guests this morning, first of which is Gerry Janecko. Gerry is the program manager for the Weekend MBA and not only that, he is a graduate of the program, so Gerry thanks for joining us this morning.


>> Good morning, Nick.
>> Tell us a little bit about what you do here and what your role is as a program manager.
>> So, as a program manager, my job here with the Weekend MBA is to work with prospective students, helping them get admitted to the program, seeing that their academic success is achieved and then helping them graduate and look to better career pastures for themselves.


>> Excellent, well, thanks for joining us. We'll certainly talk with you more this morning. Heather Goodwin is here with us a well. She's actually the recruiter for the Weekend MBA. Heather, welcome.
>> Good morning, Nick, thank you for having me.
>> Thanks, tell us a little bit about what you do as a recruiter for this program.


>> So I do recruiting for the full-time MBA as well as the Weekend MBA and my job is really to find those students who are interested in pursuing a Weekend MBA and help them through the process, show them Purdue, show them what they can get with us here and then help them throughout their process of being admitted.


>> Excellent, thanks, but I want to start with a conversation on really what makes this program unique, so, Jerry, we're going to rely on you for this. Talk to us about what makes the Weekend MBA at Purdue University unique.
>> Sure, first and foremost, it's a cohort format which is different than some of the programs in the regional area in the sense that you start with the same people you graduate with.

So you forge these connections with your colleagues and classmates, and these friendships and bonds are forged that throughout the 21 months of the program. I think that's one of the biggest points that stands out our program, and the second one is the hybrid format. What the hybrid format is is a combination of both in-class and online instruction.

Approximately two-thirds of the instruction is in-class and another third is delivered online, asynchronously, which means as long as you have an internet connection that you could engage yourself with the curriculum that's delivered online. Another important part that we like to feature of the program is the flexibility of the program.

We understand that these are working professionals with obviously full-time jobs, families, other interests outside of the classroom and our faculty and administration understand this. Even though the program is challenging, we do understand that life experiences happen over a 21 month period. We have flexibility in terms of if something comes up personally that you need to take off, that does not subject you to removal from the program, in fact you can take up to two semesters off and not be removed from the program.

The biggest part of that, the overall reach is that we are flexible, we want to work with the student to get them from their very first day of class to graduation and help them through any challenge that they may have outside of the classroom, and inside the classroom with tutoring or anything of that nature.

And then, lastly, the A-list faculty that we do have teaching in the program, we're proud of the fact on the Weekend MBA is that the same faculty that teaches. For instance, I know you referenced the fact that I am a graduate from the program. I did a sort of calculation for the instructors that I had had in the program and it was on an average of 22 and a half years of higher education instructional experience with the professors that had, so I think that that is a fantastic feature of the program.


>> Excellent, well, we talked about a lot there, so let's kind of dig into each one of those one at a time, so we talked about the hybrid format, right? This is the weekend MBA, so I think it's important for people to understand that, basically, they're going to be in class every other Saturday, correct?

And that's a change from previous years and previous years of the program that have been a Friday, Saturday mix, but really responding to the market and to the demands of our students, which we had set to a Saturday only format, correct?
>> Yeah, that's correct.
>> And so students were in class-


>> There's two classes per every Saturday, 8:00 to 12:00 is the first class and then one to five is second class. We do take care of full breakfast and full lunch, one of the features of the program is that a lot of the students look forward to, and the 8:00 to 12:00 there is typically a break right in the middle of there, the same as the 1:00 to 5:00, but the key from that is the every other Saturday.

Many of our students have families and have other activities outside of the classroom, obviously, having every other Saturday available to them. It still does not have to change too much of their personal life.
>> And that's fantastic, because we talked about the flexibility. Obviously, you have a career, you have a family, potentially other interests, other engagements, and so keeping things flexible is very important, but let's dig into the hybrid format a little bit, all right?

So we talked about how some of the program happens online.
>> Mm-hm.
>> And some of it happens in the classroom, but you've been through the program.
>> Sure.
>> Walk us through how that works, exactly. What kind of requirements from a time standpoint should students expect outside of the classroom?

Talk to us about really how that works.
>> So the in-class in pretty standard, what you would expect with the online curriculum, that's delivered through various forms. The instructor can decide what they'd like to use, whether it be online lectures, whether it be applications, whether it be a simulation, whether it be online message boarding to simulate class discussion.

It could be a multitude of platforms that instructors will use. The general rule is about ten to 12 hours a week that you have to commit to the program and that includes this online instruction as well for various subjects that will change on your learning skills and on the subject matter, but on average about ten to 12 hours a week outside of your in-class instruction would be a good number that you would need to set aside for your studies.


>> And the great thing about that is that that can happen at your pace, whether that's in the evening, whether that's in the morning, after they're off to school or after they're down for the night, or whatever it might be, there's a lot of flexibility.
>> Sure, and one of the points that I make to prospective students is that think about where those ten to 12 hours are going to come from, in advance, when you start a program.

Your family, or your friends, or your other interests, some of those hours are going to come out, so it's important to strategize and decide where those ten to 12 hours will come from.
>> Excellent, but as we transition here, Heather, I wanna bring you in. Let's talk about, now that we understand what makes our program unique, who's the right fit for this program, right?

So talk to us through a little bit about, as you're out there recruiting students, what kinda students are you looking for?
>> So, what Jerry hit on it first a little bit, we are looking for students who have some significant work experience. These are normally mid-career type of professionals.

They know that they need some additional education in order to elevate themselves maybe up into that executive type of a level. So most students have at least three years worth of experience and a lot have as much as eight, ten, even, 12 to 15 years of work experience.


>> Well, that's our average currently, right? It's about eight years experience, yeah?
>> About eight years experience, yes. We usually get several students. We're obviously here regionally, since you have to drive to campus every other Saturday, so not only do we have great students that come from West Lafayette, we also pull a lot of students from Indianapolis, Chicago, Fort Wayne, even some from Cincinnati, down in Kentucky, even as far away as Michigan and Wisconsin.


>> Wow!
>> And, again, there are people who are wanting to change their career. They may have had a very technical undergraduate degree, say in something like engineering and they know that they need to increase their business skills. They may have missed several business courses during their undergraduate degree and realize as they're interacting with executives and people that are higher up than they are, that they need to really refine and learn something of those business skills.


>> So you're talking about very interesting set of people that are the career changer, right?
>> Mm-hm.
>> Someone who's spent a long time in one lane, let's call it, and they wanna change lanes, we also talked to people who are thinking about the Weekend MBA who, like you said, wanted to elevate their career, right?

They see a level above them they can't get to without more skills, without an MBA, but I think there's also an interesting alternative group here that I refer to as the career revitalizer, right? Someone who maybe has worked and has done something for a long time, but really just wants a fresh start, right?

It's an opportunity to add new skills and do that, so I think it's important to remember that there are a variety of reasons why an MBA might be the best of choice for you.
>> Absolutely, you don't need to have a lofty goal of elevating yourself a couple different levels, some, like you said, they are looking to revitalize, they are just looking to brush up on skills that they may not have had to think about for several years.


>> And I think we focus on the skills you're gonna get coming out of this program, right? You're gonna be taking courses on accounting and analytics, and business law, and economics and finance, and up and down the list, right? But let's talk a little bit about what kind of traits people are bringing into the program, those who are most successful, what are we looking for as far as personality traits go?


>> Well, most of our students have a very high level of communication skills, so they're used to working in such an environment where they're required to communicate well. They're used to working in teams, they're used to solving problems, so coming into a program like this where they are gonna get such real world applications to be working on in our classrooms, that is a huge benefit.

If they have the type of personality where they're used to being able to function in teams, whether as a leader or as someone who is following the leader on a project.
>> A participant.
>> A participant, someone who listens well, who can make themselves heard, who can conduct themselves on a professional manner as they would in a workplace, those are all things that we're looking for.


>> But I think, obviously, one of the baseline things is that they need to have an interest in growing their business skills.
>> Absolutely.
>> Right? To take 21 months to do a program, you're going to have to have some interest in that, right?
>> Absolutely, and most of them realize that, they look at our list of the classes in the core areas and they know right away the ones that they really need to focus on and the ones that they really need the most brushing up on.

So, yes, it's the people who are aware of what exactly what they need in order to reach whatever goals they have.
>> And to go back to the original idea of what the goal of the program is, right? We're talking about problem solving, so I think you have to sort of have a natural bend toward problem solving as well, or at least a willingness, if it's not a natural bend, a willingness to at least brush up against it, because that's what we're talking about.

In the world of business problem solving is one of the most important factors to success because you're going to encounter challenges, so that's going to be an important thing as well.
>> Absolutely, and we focus on that, we emphasize that when we're talking to students who are considering coming to our program, being able to solve the problems in the case studies is a big requirement and we talk about that.

It's not just a program, where they're going to be reading a textbook and taking an exam by themselves. These are people who have to be able to solve problems, so it is something we discuss with each applicant.
>> Excellent, and, Jerry, let's kick it back over to you for a minute, just as we talk about the fit, I want to talk about prerequisites.

You mentioned that just a moment ago, obviously, we are looking at people that have at least three years of experience, professionally, that's a prerequisite of sorts. And we also in some cases will require a GMAT, so why don't you talk to us about the GMAT and why that's important, and also how we handle that here at the Weekend MBA level.


>> Sure, well, first and foremost, to talk about the work experience each student needs to bring some sort of real world experience that other students can learn from. And that is what makes our program very unique, in the sense that, people are, again, learning not only from the instructor, but from their group mates, their classmates, either of those, you're gonna learn from different areas in the program, so it's critical that we have those minimum of three years.

We obviously like to have more that allows the student to bring more into the classroom, and in terms of the GMAT, again, we want to ensure that the students that are admitted into the program have the ability to be successful, and a GMAT can sometimes measure that skill.

However, as you mentioned we sometimes have GMAT waivers, and the GMAT waiver typically is based on the work experience, which we talked about, as well as your undergraduate or graduate GPA. Typically the marker is a 3.0, this is not a hard and fast rule. We have to look at applicants holistically, when did you graduate from college?

Some of our students, 20 years ago, so maybe a lot has changed in those 20 years, maybe that work experience, if they've shown an upward, a rise in their work experience, that can defer any sort of GPA challenge that they might have had. The bottom line is we look at it holistically, the marker is the minimum of three years and a 3.0 GPA.

The institution you graduate from and the major that you graduated with or a graduate degree also factors into the equation.
>> Excellent, well, thanks for sharing that with us. Let's talk about some of the resources that we offer here, how do we actually connect people? Cuz we understand if you're gonna spend 21 months and several thousand dollars on adding new skills and differentiating yourself, let's talk about what sort of resources we offer here.


>> In terms of with the Krannert family, and you'll hear that term quite often, but the Krannert family is real. Heather and I talk about this all the time on our preview days is how Heather, when she goes on recruiting trips, the Purdue and, even greater, the Krannert family is everywhere and I think what I've done with my classmates when I graduated from the program and the classes I've seen graduate, is you can see how they lean on Krannert alums.

First and foremost, when either looking to find talent if they're in a leadership positions to fill or if they're looking for a new position, or if they just want to talk to somebody in a different industry if a graduating student wants to pivot into a new industry, that's the first place we always look, is to connect within the Krannert family to help further our career and our network.


>> Well, I think you hit a key note there, so to wrap up today, I want to talk about some of the resources we offer for career success, so one of the great resources that we have here is the Krannert Professional Development Center. We call it the KPDC, and they offer variety of great resources for all of our students but also for our weekend MBA students, because I think we have to understand the changing in landscape of a part-time MBA program, a Weekend MBA like the one we offer here at Krannert.

Historically, that was an opportunity for a company to invest in their employees, to really build them up to keep them, and that still exists in some ways. But I think that we have seen over the last five to ten years, an emerging market of people who are looking to change careers while they are in a career.

Does that make sense?
>> Absolutely.
>> So talk us through a little bit about some of the resources we offer and some of the outcomes that you're aware of having been a graduate of the program.
>> So, first and foremost, we get the KPDC representative in front of our students during orientation week.

I think it's critical to at least let the students know that the services are there and when we talked about the services, it is a wide ranging assortment. So if you're looking to brush up your interview skills, if you're looking to work on your 30 second elevator pitch, design your resume, cater it to a specific job posting, if you're looking for job postings that are private postings through the Krannert network, if you're just looking for coaching, leadership coaching, any of these, among other services are offered by KPDC.

And the services that are offered through them, it's specific to the weekend MBA, whereas, because our students are full-time employees, they have to make arrangements outside of the normal KPDC appointments. So these students typically arrange Skype appointments or phone calls with their career coach, you're paired with right at the get-go And I think it's It's important to work with your coach, put the effort through as much as you want.

You have to put some sort of effort into this because they have to dig in to find out what you want. If you want to pivot mid-year, as you said, Dick, there are different tests you can take, different personality traits, different skill tests, to identify maybe there's a skill set that you didn't know that was within you, or if there's an interest within you that you sort of followed your path and just done what you've been good at instead of what's your passion.

Whatever it may be, if you put some effort into it and work with your peer coach, you can unearth some skill sets or some interests that you didn't have and pursue those with the guidance, obviously.
>> Obviously we talked about the opportunity for success through the program, with the addition of the KPDC, well, let's close with some of the success you've seen, both personally and in those you were in the class with.


>> One of the things, all of these schools like to track with the salary ranges or job placement level, Well, it's a little bit different with all professional MBA programs in the sense that everybody already has a job, obviously. So there's no hard evidence in terms of salary gains or placement, but what I can tell you from my experience being as a program manager and being a student in a program, when I graduated from the program, three quarters of the students had gotten a promotion within their company or with another company within six months of graduation.

And that doesn't even include, I believe, a few of my classmates were actually promoted while they were in the program, and I've seen this in subsequent program cohorts, I should say, since I've graduated. There's something about putting in this extra effort, taking the knowledge that you learn from the program, bringing it back to work, and it feeds this energy in some people where you're putting in more effort but you're actually getting more energy from all this dynamic atmosphere that you have.

And I've seen multiple people get promoted while in the program because they're using the skills that they're starting to build in the program itself. And most recently, I've seen some students pivot, change job markets, industries, one current student actually took an internship. You rarely see this in Weekend MBA students, someone took an internship working with their career coach at KPDC, did an internship this past summer in between his first and second year, found an industry that he liked, now he's in the industry and couldn't be happier.


>> Excellent, well, thank you so much for kinda walking us through that. As we close today, I wanna keep you aware, as a listener, that you can find lots more information on our website, that's crannert.purdue.edu. There you can find application information, deadlines and requirements, current costs, class profile information and a handy FAQ section, so for anything you need please click on over the crannert.purdue.edu, and, again, thanks for joining us for today's podcast and we'll catch you next time.