Look Who’s Getting The Equivalent Of An Elite MBA For Free

Nick Switzer

Lives in: Campbell, Silicon Valley, CA, USA

Undergraduate School and Major:  

Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology

BA Electrical Engineering / German minor

Employers and Job Titles Since Graduation: 

Stryker Corporation (3 Different Divisions)

• Manufacturing Engineer – Kalamazoo, MI
• Process Validation Engineer – Kalamazoo, MI
• Supplier Quality Engineer – Mahwah, NJ
• Advanced Sourcing Engineer, (Sr. Staff) (current) – San Jose, CA

What led you to choose No-Pay MBA’s network?

1. I value my time with my family.

2. I needed to learn quickly and apply my skills immediately.

3. I wanted to choose my courses based on what would be most helpful at work.

4. I saved my company a lot of money.

5. I want MOOCs to succeed!

What do you hope to get out of the program before you finish?

From the actual courses, I want to learn the best material out there. I want access to ideas that can help my company and my own career moving forward. So far, I have had a phenomenal learning experience that has changed the way I operate on the job.

I am getting access to network of motivated people all over the world. During a recent weekend, I gave a presentation to the network with people from four continents on the call. That was a really exciting experience.

What do you plan to do with your business education after you complete it?

At my current employer, I have already pitched several ideas and best practices learned in my No-Pay MBA to some success. I want to help my employer (large medical device company) grow and select projects that are based on making huge improvement to healthcare. If we are not improving healthcare for patients and doctors with a particular project, we should not be pursuing a project.

Outside my role as employee, I am going to help MOOCs and No-Pay MBA grow. Along with companies like Coursera and Udacity, No-Pay is bringing amazing educational content to people who would never have had access to it in the past. I have benefited from it and want to see it grow.

What advice do you have for people considering No-Pay MBA or other non-traditional means of getting a business education? 

Take the first small step today. Find a course that looks interesting or applicable to your world and enroll. If you don’t like the results, you can always enroll in a traditional MBA later.

Make your own stakes. Traditional MBA tuition can have a very powerful sunk cost effect on you mentally, so by taking these courses online you need to set up your own consequences for not following through. In my case, I told my manager that I was taking courses pertinent to my job. After that, I had to deliver insights.

Once you have some momentum, start reading some books (or listen to them on Audible). This is a habit I wish I started ten years ago. A book now feels like a conversation with a great achiever, not a burden.