PATRICK THOMPSON

Financial Services

Associate, Asset Management at Abbot Downing

I decided I wanted to get an MBA to get a broader perspective on business. I felt it would help me, not only with my career progression at work, it would also help me with my professional development, help me become a better investment manager, a better employee and a better manager.

When I was looking at MBA programs, one of the features of MBA@UNC that really appealed to me was the fact that I could start a top-quality MBA without compromising on my career goals and without compromising on my ability to take opportunities professionally while I was in the program. Taking classes online through MBA at UNC has allowed me to take a top 20 MBA program and take a career opportunity that moved me to another part of the state while I was in school.

My experience at MBA@UNC has already raised my profile within my company. I have gotten recognition from my co-workers, from my peers, and most importantly, from people in other areas of the country. My manager’s manager is aware of the fact that I’ve gotten into a great MBA program, and it’s allowed me the opportunity to take on new projects at work. I’ve gotten recognition from upper management that I’m moving forward, and it’s allowed me to apply what I’m learning at my job in real time.

The MBA@UNC learning platform has helped me significantly in the program so far. It reverses the order that a typical classroom would be. Instead of going to class, listening to a professor lecture, then doing the homework afterwards, you get to watch the lecture in advance, you get the ability to go back and re-watch things that you don’t get the first time, and then you go to class and discuss what you learned, you work through the problems, you discuss the problems as a group, and it helps me really understand and learn new concepts.

The feature that sold me on MBA@UNC was the flexibility that it offered as a program. It, more so than any other MBA that I looked at, gives you what you want to get out of an MBA. The flexibility that if offers me allows me to take classes on my schedule; it allows me to apply what I’m learning at my job on a regular basis. The global immersions give me a global perspective on business and the opportunity to experience those on my schedule in a way that works with my family and my job.

The fact that it’s a flexible MBA program brings in, in my opinion, a higher caliber of student. I’ve been in class with people that are in Afghanistan, and I’ve been in class with people that work in oil fields in Alaska, and that gives me a very unique interesting perspective on business that I would not have gotten at a local part-time MBA program.

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