Bill Murphy, MBA’20
When I made the decision to go to business school, I knew what I wanted out of it; a career shift that would bring me more job satisfaction and more money. I’m fairly certain that I’m not the first person to attend B-school with those simple goals in mind. I’m also pretty sure that I’ll still achieve those goals.
What I’ve come to learn though is that I should have set my sights higher, because now – a little more than halfway through – I realize that I’ve gotten a lot more out of the decision to pack up my life and move to Bloomington, Indiana than I expected. Here are a few things that I appreciate, but definitely didn’t see coming:
- Accounting and Finance can actually be really interesting. Okay, maybe I should have prefaced that by mentioning that I’m a marketing major who remembers daydreaming about the next tailgate during those classes in undergrad. My point is, don’t dismiss a course or subject just because it doesn’t fall into the wheelhouse of your perceived strengths. Shout-out to professor Billett for keeping Finance interesting enough that I signed up for more.
- The application of what you learn can be an experience like no other.
One of the first places that I got to put my newfound skillsets to use was on the other side of the planet. This past spring, 24 of my classmates and I traveled on a GLOBASE experience to Jakarta, Indonesia to meet with a group of clients to present consulting projects. I’ve known for years that travel is a passion of mine but getting exposed to industry and business culture while doing so is a twist that I couldn’t have found more rewarding … (spending spring break in Bali didn’t hurt either). - Faculty and staff can really enhance the experience if you make them a part of it. Getting a master’s degree differs from getting a bachelor’s degree for a number of reasons. The most impactful reason for me is that this time, you’re an adult interacting with other adults. They understand some of the challenges that come with that. I’ve been fortunate enough to establish relationships with a few members of the staff at Kelley that have given me a lot to be thankful for when it comes time to look back on my time here. The wisdom and kindness that I’ve received will go a long way as I progress through my career and my life.
All in all, I’m confident that my decision to get an MBA from the Kelley School of Business will be well worth it; both for the reasons that I intended for it to be as well as for the reasons that I didn’t know existed.