40: Going back to school for a career change

Did you know? 48% of U.S. employers offer undergraduate or graduate tuition assistance as a benefit? This means you can start making your career change NOW while you’re still at your current job! 

When Weavy Garcia’s company offered an MBA program to their employees, he went for it. It was an opportunity to learn about business, get his master’s, and switch from IT into sales, a more lucrative option for him. 

In this throwback episode, Weavy recalls what it was like to go back to school for 18 months while working full-time and how it affected his family life. 

Weavy shares how his MBA and IT experience have secured his future and how networking played a key role in making his career change. 


Episode Highlights:

• Applying for an employer-sponsored degree program
• Earning a degree to diversify
• Going back to school while working full-time
• Staying motivated
• Leaving to grow your career
• How to network socially
• Networking to open doors
• Pros and cons of alternating between two fields 
• Securing your future with a higher degree

Weavy’s podcast: The Uncanny Coconuts

Weavy’s drone business: FlyTechGuy Drone Services

48% of U.S. employers offer tuition assistance: 2023 SHRM Employee Benefits Survey

Resources:

10 Best Master’s Degrees for Career Changers: 

https://www.indeed.com/career-advice/finding-a-job/best-masters-degrees-for-career-change

These Fortune 500 companies will help pay for employee MBAs:

https://fortune.com/education/business/articles/2021/07/15/these-fortune-500-companies-will-help-pay-for-employees-mba/

50 Companies with Amazing Tuition Reimbursement Programs:

https://myscholly.com/50-companies-with-amazing-tuition-reimbursement-programs/

25+ Companies with Tuition Reimbursement Programs:

https://getschooled.com/article/5206-companies-with-great-tuition-reimbursement-programs/

How to Use—and Ask For—Employer Tuition Reimbursement Benefits:

https://extension.harvard.edu/blog/how-to-use-and-ask-for-employer-tuition-reimbursement-benefits/

Music credit: TimMoor from Pixabay

Podcast info:
What's your career switch? What do you think about this episode and the show? Tell us at careerswitchpod.com. Follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn.

Transcript

Lixandra: Hi, everyone. I'm Lixandra Uresta, and this is Career Switch Podcast. This show is here to encourage you to take action with whatever career change you've been considering or are working on. In some episodes, I talk to people who've made their own career switch, whether by choice or circumstance. They share the good, the bad, and the truth about their journey, including what worked for them and what didn't. 

In other episodes, I speak with experts who offer their best career advice on issues that can come up during the process of making a career change. After all, it takes guts to switch things up, and it's not easy. However, it is possible. I hope you hear something in this episode, an idea, a suggestion, a piece of wisdom that'll spur you into action with your own career switch, whether it's taking that first bold step or trying something new. Welcome. I'm glad you're here. 

Do you know if your employer offers tuition assistance to pursue a degree? Plenty of them do. However, only about 5% of eligible employees take advantage. If your company offers some kind of tuition assistance, you can start making your career switch now while you're still at your current job. This is what Weavy Garcia did when he decided to diversify from IT. When his company offered an MBA program to their employees, he went for it. It was an opportunity to learn about business, get his master's, and switch into sales, a more lucrative option for him. 

In this episode, Weavy tells us the good, the bad, and the truth about working full-time during the day and taking classes at night, and even on the weekend, to earn his degree. Spoiler alert, it was tough, but it was worth it for his career switch. His MBA, along with his IT experience, have helped him secure his future by always being employable, whether in IT or sales. Alternating between the two fields or combining them in technology sales gives him the flexibility and diversification he was looking for. He also shares how he had to move on from his employer after he got his MBA in order to grow and how networking was key in making his career switch. 

Hi, Weavy, thanks for joining us. Let's dive in. What were you doing before your career switch and what led up to it?

Weavy: For many years, my original career coming out of college was with IT. I had jobs like systems analyst, help desk analyst, and my jobs were helping people with their infrastructure. The IT field was very lucrative at the time. I can leave a job, I can be let go. And literally, I would post my resume that night. The next morning, I got a call from a headhunter. Within a week, I'd have a better job with more income. 

For many years, this was the pattern in the 1900s and the 2000s. And then after 9-11, I lost my IT job. After that, I remember literally about six months of looking for jobs, Monster, CareerBuilder, all the big search engines, and not getting a single phone call for six months. So this was after 9-11. Things had dried up. I was in New York at the time. Things had just dried up dramatically in terms of jobs. And I found myself, I guess, in a scary situation. To that point, I had a few years under my belt as an IT person, and I couldn't even get an interview for an IT job. That was the beginning of me wanting to expand out or not be pigeonholed. 

A few months later, I moved to Florida where some family members told me that there were many more IT jobs. And I came to Florida because I was already promised two or three IT jobs over the phone. And when I showed up, sure enough, I was able to start working right away. So that got me to move and went two years later. I wound up being at a big company, Tyco at the time it was called. And after being there a few months, they offered me an opportunity to get my master's degree that they would help pay for it. And again, that was something that I never thought of doing. I've been wanting to diversify myself and get into something new. But that for me was an opportunity that I took.

Lixandra: So at Tyco, you were still in IT?

Weavy: Yes, my title there was Senior Technical Analyst, I believe. I was the only IT person at the Florida location representing IT, which was a great benefit to me because I was so well liked and so well wanted.

Lixandra: How did the opportunity come up at Tyco to get your MBA?

Weavy: I had only officially been working there I think less than a year and this program came up. It was a special program with Nova Southeastern. Instead of us going down to the Nova Southeastern campus for our classes, the professor would come to the Tyco building every other weekend.

Lixandra: Did you qualify for the program?

Weavy: I almost wasn't able to make it because then one of the requirements was that you had to be a Titeco employee for a year. And I think I was like 11 months at the time. So I applied and then I was like, Oh, I don't know. You may not be able to make it. And one of the higher management in finance comes up to me. And he just kind of overheard and he was like, hey, what's going on with you? And I go, yeah, I was thinking of taking this master level courses, but I found that I can. And he goes, oh, you really wanted to do that? And I go, yeah, well, I wanted to learn. And, you know, I thought it'd be interesting for my career. And and he just said, OK, don't worry about I'll take care of it. And he went away and he came back like the next day. He goes, we don't sign up for it. You know, I got approval. You can take it. That was an opportunity that I didn't see and that almost didn't happen, which I'm forever grateful for.

Lixandra: Why did you want to apply for the program?

Weavy: I have been going from I.T. job to I.T. job, and every time I had to go and look for another I.T. job, I kept coming up against the same walls. They wanted you to have more and more I.T. certifications, but no one wanted to pay for it. No one wants to give you the experience, right? Like, oh, let me try you out. But they wanted you to have these additional certifications, Cisco certification, Citrix certification, more Microsoft certifications. All of these certifications you have to put in hours and hours of study. So besides the fact that you have to buy your materials, then you have to pay anywhere from $100 to $250 to take the official certification test. And if you don't pass it, you just flushed that money down the toilet. I really got tired of that hamster wheel, where you're being asked for more and more, and then the pay was getting less and less. So that started to discourage me from just staying in the IT field, which made the opportunity to get my master's degree a lot more.

Lixandra: So tell us, what was it like to go back to school for your MBA?

Weavy: It was very difficult because I did not have any of the bachelor level courses that I needed to take my master level courses. So I literally had to take twice as many courses every semester. For example, if next semester I was going to be taking master's level accounting and master's level statistics, two classes I never took in college, I would have to take the bachelor's level accounting and statistics this semester, along with my two classes, in order to be able to take the next two classes. And unfortunately, this went on for the whole 18 months I was there.

Lixandra: And what about taking courses during the weekend?

Weavy: It doesn't matter what you do. I think 9 out of 10 times by the time you get home, you're pretty tired from your day. So imagine coming home Friday, you know, Friday, everyone's like, OK, great. It's Friday. I get to enjoy my weekend. And my Friday, then I had to go to class till 10 p.m. at night the following Saturday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. And then you figure, OK, well, you got your Saturday night and Sunday. No. Then you had to work on your papers. You had to work on your test. You had to work on everything else that you needed to catch up on. And then you start work on Monday.

Lixandra: Wow. What kept you motivated during those 18 months when you were working full time during the day, then coming home to study?

Weavy: Well, to be quite honest, just the learning. It was awesome. I got to learn different aspects of business that it applied to my everyday job, that it applied to me getting a hand on the steering wheel of my destiny, let's say. That really just kept pushing me to do more and to make sure I accomplished completing the master's degree.

Lixandra: And your home life, did it take a toll on your home life?

Weavy: Thankfully, my partner was very patient with me. I mean, she knew I had to spend a lot of time studying. We would just stay home if I had to work on a big project. Whenever there's a focus on something other than your partner, the partner a lot of time gets left out or they start to resent what you're doing because you're not giving them any time. And my partner was very understanding about that.

Lixandra: Okay, so you got your MBA in 18 months. How did you move out of IT and land your first sales job?

Weavy: I was hoping that this would also lead to more opportunities at the company I was working with. But after I got my degree, I was there another year and a half, and unfortunately, they weren't able to offer anything. Not a salary raise, not a management job, not a switching to a different group. If you're at a place that you've been working for for years, it doesn't matter if you love it or not. If they're not giving you the opportunity to grow, our only option is always to leave. And it's a hard option because you're leaving that comfort of home. You're leaving that nest, you're leaving that comfort zone. But that's the only option that most of us will have if you're feeling stagnant, if you're feeling pigeonholed, if you're not happy where you're at. 

I started looking and I happened to have a peer that had moved to a up and coming software company. And she had told me of some positions that were there. So I reached out, I saw some positions to apply to, and I applied. And she was able to give me a good recommendation on the inside, which basically boils down to networking. I had to talk to friends and they knew how unhappy I was getting now that I have my MBA and I wasn't able to do anything with it at my current job. So they were able to help me expand out and apply to jobs and get my foot in the door.

Lixandra: So networking seems like it has definitely played a part in your career switch. First, that executive was able to get you into the MBA program at Tyco. Then your colleague was instrumental in landing your first sales job.

Weavy: I thought my skill set should open up doors for me. And unfortunately, they rarely ever did. The only things that opened up doors for me were talking to people that understood what I wanted to do, or that knew of a position somewhere that I can see, okay, I think I can be successful at that, and giving me the opportunity to apply and to get my foot in the door. Networking is the best way to really get your foot in your door and expand out to where you want to go.

Lixandra: How has your IT experience helped with your career switch into sales?

Weavy: I was able to be good friends with my management team and they were able to help me out. They understood maybe where I was a little bit lacking since I didn't come from a sales background. They helped me with a lot more of the sales, but they knew I had the IT chops for it, which really helped. because they knew I already understood technology. A lot of times they had to train their salespeople to understand more of the technology. And I was 100% there. If anything, I can give insights that they didn't even think about. So that really helped. When I worked at the software company, I was there almost six years. I had different sales and technical jobs while I was there. And that happened because after being in the sales and then they had to start laying some people off, but I had enough technical skills that the manager spoke to the manager of the IT department and I interviewed and I was able to prove that I had the technical knowledge and I was able to start a job in the IT department, which I did for two years. And then when there were new positions in sales, I went back. So again, that always differentiated me because obviously not everyone can do that. I was the only one that did that in that company and my work ethic and my skill set allowed me the opportunity to show them that I could do it.

Lixandra: Even now, you can alternate between IT and sales. What does that mean for you?

Weavy: So it gives me that flexibility that I can always have a job, which was one of my goals. I am completely employable. I can move back and forth between being in the IT field, a mixture of IT and sales and sales field. But sales jobs are a little easier. And that's actually part of the reason that I went into it. My strong suit is technology sales or sales of a product that you need high knowledge for. Something where you have to explain the benefits that you have to understand, do more customer analysis and a lot of questions to really understand what the customer needs and then being able to give them a product that will meet all of their requirements.

Lixandra: Are there any drawbacks to alternating between the two?

Weavy: Unfortunately, there are. The minute they see IT in my background, they start wondering, well, wait a minute, if you're an IT guy, you can't really be a good sales guy and vice versa. If you're a sales guy, you can't really be a good IT guy. So I've gotten that feedback sometimes, which just makes it a little bit harder that I have to always prove it. I usually go through more questions, especially when going for an IT field. That's where networking can really help. Once they see that someone can vouch for you, that's where you get given at least the benefit of the doubt and the chance to show them and prove to them that you can do the job.

Lixandra: How would you summarize your transition from IT to sales? And what are you doing now?

Weavy: My transition has been from I used to do all IT, to IT and sales, to all sales, and now I'm doing sales and health. I always have an overlap for some reason. Considering my skill set that I enjoy jobs where you need a higher knowledge level to do the sales job. After speaking with some friends and networking, a lot of people had suggested to me, hey, you may want to try the health field because those are usually complex products that you have to explain to doctors.

Lixandra: So what do you currently do as a physician relationship manager?

Weavy: My daily job is I call in doctor's offices and I speak with nurses and medical assistants to explain to them how we can help their patients, make it easier for their patients to get their health supplies. Right now, I've been in this health job about a year. I plan on staying here maybe another year and then seeing if I can go up the ranks or if I have to jump ship again.

Lixandra: And thanks to your technology know-how and your business degree, you also have a podcast and your own business.

Weavy: Right now, I'm co-host of the Uncanny Coconuts podcast, and I have a drone business, which I manage and I do drone jobs on the weekends.

Lixandra: So what advice do you have for our listeners who are working on their career switch?

Weavy: Well, first of all, network. Absolutely. Networking isn't calling everyone you know and saying, hey, I want to I want to work. Networking is going to social events. It's catching up with people that you know. And again, this could be for coffee. This could be for lunch. This could be for dinner. It doesn't have to be, hey, I'm feeling really down about my job and about my career and I want to do something. I think the true fact about networking is really about sharing your story, where you want to go, what you want to do. And then those people in turn will keep an eye out for things that may benefit you. And, you know, and it's not just about, again, checking off. Oh, yeah, I spoke to Bob. I haven't spoken to him in five years and I'm good. No, it's just, hey, keep in touch with Bob. You never know. You never know when Bob will jump ship and he'll be at a new company that You know, you were just talking about, oh, yeah, that company. And he may be like, hey, I'll keep an ear out for you and I'll let you know if I hear of any positions. So it's keeping those doors open.

Lixandra: Thanks to Weavy Garcia for being our guest today. If you want information about companies that offer tuition assistance for their employees, check out the show notes. You'll also find articles on the 10 best master's degrees for career changers and advice on how to ask your employer for tuition reimbursement benefits. 

You can find links to the resources mentioned in this episode and more helpful information in the show notes and on our website, careerswitchpod.com. While you're there, join our mailing list and follow us on Instagram and Twitter at careerswitchpod. So what's your career switch? Are you excited to take action after listening to this episode? Tell us at careerswitchpod.com. We'd love to know, along with any feedback you have about the show. We're a new podcast, so please rate, review, and share with your friends and colleagues. It'll help get the show out there. Thanks for listening today. Till next time.