60-hour weeks spent living out of international hotels can be impossible to square with educational commitments. And sixteen month career breaks aren’t always looked on favourably by employers.
Michael Linss, 40, found a way out of this dilemma through distance learning with the Open University. Speaking from his South Carolina home on a rainy morning, he explains how starting the online MBA in 2007 made it possible for him to earn the qualification despite constant business trips and even a change in continent.
It has also made him shine in the eyes of his employers, even though he’s still yet to finish his course.
“This was the best choice I'd ever made,” says Michael. “As soon as I embarked on learning about Financial Strategy and Knowledge Management, I used it every day in my business projects.
“I was a unique animal in our organisation. Even in a company like mine, I was bringing fresh ideas from the classes.”
He adds: “The MBA is hugely international. My tutor is in London, one classmate is a female British Army officer in Afghanistan. We have others in Russia, India, even someone from the British Consulate in Jamaica.”
Himself born and raised behind the iron curtain in East Germany, Michael has spent the last 10 years working for Atlas Copco, a mechanical engineering multinational which employs 30,000 people and has operations in over 70 countries.
“In Belgium I worked as a product manager, so I had a growing portfolio and had to travel a lot.
“30% of my work involved travelling across the world,” He says. “I visited over 50 countries while I was based there.
“This meant plenty of time spent travelling on planes and living in hotels – which became the places of study for me.”
He's now close to finishing his MBA, despite being forced to spread his course over nearly five years.
“I didn't think it would take this long. At first I wanted to do it fast! I started with the OU in Belgium, thinking it'd take around 3 years. But then I was moved to the US headquarters alongside a change in family circumstances and so I had to ask for a half-year sabbatical.”
The Open University allowed him to combine his hectic lifestyle with an MBA course by letting him take as long as he liked. The teaching was carried out with online lessons and discussion groups, as well as occasional ‘residential classes’, where students from a global region converge to work intensively on business projects.
When asked whether he’s been handicapped by choosing to forgo an intensively-taught full-time MBA, Michael is adamant about his advantages.
“I speak to their bosses and what I hear… is that people who came straight from a full-time program lack the insight and tacit knowledge they need for doing daily business.
“They arrive and struggle to keep up,” he says, “because they have these huge theoretical-practical knowledge gaps.
“Most of the time you learn by doing. When you combine this with higher education you learn faster.”
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