I Didn’t Want to Get Pigeon-Holed in My Career

With an undergraduate degree in speech communications, Julia Wise (MBA 2019) was feeling somewhat limited in her skill set. “I wanted to be more marketable as an employee, and I was concerned about being pigeon-holed as having one skill. I believed having an MBA would allow me to move within my department,” Wise said.

Wise chose the Millsaps College Else School of Management Executive MBA program for her graduate work. “I was attracted to the EMBA program for a number of reasons. I could continue to work, and I knew I would learn a lot from my fellow students who were also professionals. Also, the faculty were wonderful! Very knowledgeable and helpful.”

The Merida experience, which takes the EBMA cohort to the college’s facilities in the Mexican state of Yucatan as part of the program’s international component, is one of Wise’s favorite memories of the program. “Not only did we get the experience of working on a real-world project as a team, but we also became closer as a group,” she said.

Wise believes prospective EMBA candidates should know the program is certainly worth the work required. “While it is a shorter program than a traditional MBA program, it is still packed with information. It is a lot of work, but totally worth it. You are also in a class with other professionals. Everyone comes to the table with different backgrounds and strengths. You learn from their experiences and share your own.”

Julia Wise is a communications specialist at Entergy and was recently named as one of the Mississippi Business Journal ‘s Top 50 under 40.