OMBA Alum shared the experience with his Father

By Matthew Zackschewski, Online MBA Class of 2019

Matthew joined the Penn State Online MBA program in Fall 2017 as part of the first residency class since the program’s redesign. He earned a concentration in Project Management. While Matthew went back to school to earn his MBA, so did his father, George Zackschewski, with the American Military University and earned his concentration in Information Technology. Below, they have reflected on their father-son experience! 

Describe what the shared experience was like for you.

All throughout the program, we were both able to share our experiences with one another and discuss how the information we’re learning relates to one another. We were able to have discussions about business topics, especially during our finance courses, and how they relate to what we’re doing in our jobs out in the industry. It was really great to have perspectives from both a senior manager and a relatively new engineer out in industry. In addition to sharing our perspectives, we were able to help one another when we weren’t completely understanding a specific topic.

How did this come about?

My father is a retired Air Force Veteran and has continually garnered various types of education throughout his career. Once he retired, the same mindset continued. Both the military and industry offer amazing and awesome financial opportunities to earn higher levels of education. My father instilled this same hard-working mindset in me. I knew as soon as I graduated high school that I wanted to further my education; I just wasn’t sure how far and what. My father would often speak with me about how the industry is very competitive and how important it is to hone my skill-sets to include specialized education so as to remain relative. With him as my role model, it was a no-brainer to continue with Penn State and earn my Master’s Degree. After I told my parents of my decision, my dad was thrilled and also threw in a gift of his prized BMW upon graduation! We were both excited to begin this journey together. We have both shared an interest in obtaining a business degree but for slightly different reasons. As a senior manager in industry, obtaining a Master’s degree in Business provides a breadth of knowledge that can supplement the many years of experience. From a more junior perspective, and as a computer engineer, obtaining a business degree early on in my career allows me to understand both the technical and business side of how programs are run.

What elements could you share and relate upon throughout your academic experience, which differed?

Many topics that were covered in the curriculum were similar which allowed us to converse from a similar baseline. In addition to discussion posts and textbook readings, being able to share between one another added another level of depth to the learning experience. At my father’s university, they run courses over an accelerated 8-week period, breaking away from the more traditional semester-based scheduling. Therefore, there were times where I was provided additional time to truly understand a topic and practice applying the concepts to real-world examples. Additionally, at Penn State, courses have a much more managed pace than at his university. At Penn State, motivated students can get ahead on their own; however, most courses were designed so that students learn the material at the same time, thus allowing for better collaboration in the discussion boards and for better support from university staff. With my father’s university, the students were allowed to schedule courses at their own pace, providing them the flexibility to do as much or as little as they were able. This is very important for students with families and demanding responsibilities. Both have their pros and cons depending on the student asked.

What will you both do now?

Both of us are still continuing to progress in our respective jobs in the industry. Moreover, we are continuously applying knowledge and methods garnered from our degree programs and applying them daily within our positions at our companies in order to further bolster the work we are doing. From a senior manager’s viewpoint, the lessons provide a base knowledge that is very useful in proposal work and project management. Contrarily, from a computer engineering perspective, being able to translate technical progress into business terms for project management is a skill that is extremely useful. Even before graduation, I was able to assist the program with the knowledge I gained from the university. During my Master’s program, I also earned industry certifications and licensure. Being well rounded with a mix of academia, certifications and real-world experience seems to be the ticket for success in any career as it was for mine.