Hasta La Gadget!

For the past few years, there has been an onslaught of articles questioning the worth of higher education. Many of these have been examining the return on investment for MBA programs as well. Yet for all of the number crunching and statistics (hint: almost every major study confirms that education pays off), I found very little resources on the types of options available that new graduates can take, especially the widely discussed MBA, other than types of careers that can be pursued.

So what can you do after graduation? It turns out, a whole lot.

It’s been a little over six months after I graduated from my MBA program at Marylhurst University. During that time, I wrote/published a book, delivered a TEDx talk, gave workshops/speeches in several major universities and conferences, continued my education with additional classes, got a new job, filed a law brief, and started developing a new digital marketing program for a local college (in addition to touring with my band).

As MBA graduates, we have amazing opportunities and choices available, even if we don’t realize it. All we have to do is take some of that entrepreneurship and research ability learned in the program and apply it to our own lives as if it were a startup.

Here are some of the things that you can do with your new degree:

1. Teach at a college: Now that you have a Master’s degree, you can begin applying for adjunct positions at local colleges and universities, especially in areas where you have great experience. Of course, these institutions prefer someone with experience, so find as many opportunities to speak, deliver workshops or panels, or mentor as possible. If you have a hobby (such as cooking, dancing, or tattooing), you could teach a community education class.

2. Contact your alumni network: One of the biggest benefits to an MBA program is getting to know your cohort. Hopefully, you’ve developed relationships with classmates along the way. Continue building those relationships through your school’s alumni network so you can learn about career and business opportunities.

3. Apply for conferences: The biggest requirement to presenting at any conference is a great idea. Learn how to develop a pitch for your ideas/lessons, then work on your presentation skills (try joining Toastmasters). Create an account at ExpertFile. Update your Linkedin. Look for industry gatherings in your area and contact them about speaking. It’s great for your resume and it expands your network.

4. Learn more skills: Now that you’ve received some broad business training with your degree, you can refine it by developing new skills. Try taking courses through a MOOC or community college. With so many inexpensive and flexible programs, time and affordability are no longer valid excuses.

5. Explore career options: Now that you have a new degree, see if you have opportunities to advance in your organization. If you feel limited there, you might consider looking at available jobs – after you’ve updated your resume, of course.

6. Start a business or nonprofit: If you are passionate about a cause or a hobby, you might consider applying that business knowledge to create a sustainable career option for yourself. Talk to instructors or classmates that you’re still in touch with; they can help refine your idea or maybe even know some possible investors.

7. Take time off: Graduate school is tough. You might reward yourself with a self-discovery process such as traveling. It’s good to refresh and get your bearings. It might even help you refine your future goals.

8. Volunteer or join a board: One of the best ways to keep your skills up to date is simply using them. Nonprofit organizations are always looking for skilled volunteers and board members. They can also be a great place to network while helping a cause that you value. If you’re unsure where to volunteer your time, try using a site like Volunteermatch or contact the foundation of your alma mater.

9. Travel abroad: Consider working or volunteering for an organization abroad. It can be a fantastic way to learn about another culture, developing new skills, and creating some incredible memories.

10. Freelance work: You can take some of those specialized skills and experiences and do some freelance work as a consultant, mentor, coach, or one-off contract jobs. Not only will you get some extra income, but it’s a good way to experience multiple industries, types of organizations, and working styles while honing your talent.

11. Rotary/civc organizations: Rotary International is always looking for great members, speakers, and people who want to contribute. Local chapters are often comprised of business leaders who are also passionate about solving major world issues. If you Rotary doesn’t appeal to you, there are many other member-driven civic organizations to join and get involved in.

Graduate school is a large investment of your time and money. If you really want to get the most out of it, you should be exploring all possible options and not just waiting for opportunities to come to you. Use the same kind of resourcefulness and dedication that you applied for your capstone project or thesis. In MBA programs, we’re trained to turn around businesses, look for new opportunities, increase brand visibility, and create stable sources of funding.

Sometimes, the best approach is to treat yourself like a brand/business. If your career was a business, how would you create opportunities? Begin today — that way, you can begin paying down those student loans!

One day, your desk will be irrelevant. Your stop-and-go commutes will end. Your briefcase will sit empty. I’m not talking about changes that will come with your retirement. Workplace transformation is happening today, and its effects will continue to spread as new technologies enable knowledge workers to do their jobs from multiple devices and innumerable locations. There’s lots of good news in this shift. In terms of team productivity, enterprise overhead costs, employee work-life balance, talent acquisition and other factors, the mobile, wearable, anywhere workplace could be a big plus for business — as long as companies solve the associated data security challenges.

A cross-generational push for workplace transformation
By 2020, chances are good that the majority of your employees will identify themselves as Millennials. The workers born in the ’80s and ’90s are bringing high-tech, collaborative habits into the workplace. They are the employees most likely to add their thoughts to documents from their tablets after hours, or to throw a digital file into a folder in the cloud to share with a colleague or work on later.

In the meantime, your Gen X employees are pushing for work-from-home privileges. The hours they used to spend commuting now go to activities that increase their productivity and engagement with work. These staffers are also likely to share files in the public cloud if you don’t offer them other choices, and they’re probably accessing corporate material from insecure networks (think free coffee-shop WiFi).

Even the Boomers on your team, many of whom are moving toward retirement, are contributing to this transformational moment. They are searching for ways to communicate and store their institutional knowledge for the workers who will move up after they’re gone.

Technology trends transform, but raise security concerns
Meanwhile, technological advances are giving professionals the tools they need to untether themselves from the office and their computers. As the Internet of Things expands, for example, more and more of your teams’ devices will be connected or connectable. The mobile desktop is also proliferating, and more of the players in your company will treat their smartphones and tablets in the same way they once leveraged their desktops and laptops.

Business leaders should also keep an eye on how their employees are using wearable technology. Most of the uses for these products right now are more consumer-focused, but it’s a matter of time before wearable tech is adopted into the workplace to help professionals do their job more effectively. Services based in the public cloud have already become influential with knowledge workers, who no longer rely on IT’s approval of their on-demand content-sharing practices.

All of these advances, however, raise security questions. If a medical professional monitors a patient with a wearable device, for example, what are the HIPPA compliance implications? What new vulnerabilities are hackers finding in your network thanks to the Internet-connected devices your team uses? Are your employees storing confidential company information in leak-prone cloud folders? And if a staffer accidentally leaves his iPad in the back of a cab, what does that mean for the confidential files he had stored on it?

These are the kinds of questions that push reactionary leaders to resist change. “If the mobile, wearable, anywhere workplace is insecure, let’s go back to the way things were,” they say. But of course, it’s too late to go back, and there are too many potential benefits to moving forward. Instead, we should answer the security questions raised by workplace transformation with new approaches.

Defending the network is a constant battle. Protecting devices is nearly impossible. But securing the data? That is doable, and a data-centric security approach makes the most sense in an environment where workers want to share, edit and collaborate with peers inside and outside your organization, from any device and any location. As workplace transformation continues, secure sharing will give you the ability to protect data, set permissions, track activity and revoke access — all without hindering the mobility, flexibility and productivity your teams crave.

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