Joshua Neeriemer

University of Maryland, Robert H. Smith School of Business

“A highly accomplished financial analyst, who loves dogs, good jokes, and pop culture references.”

Age: 40

Hometown: Fuquay-Varina, NC (By way of Frederick, MD)

Fun fact about yourself: I am a collector of hobbies. I have a semi-pro beer brewing kit in my garage. For this year, my new hobby is going to be planning and executing an annual pig roast. Most of my hobbies come and go, but each time I say to myself, “This one will be the one.” I am extra-hopeful this year.

Undergraduate School and Degree: University of Maryland, College Park; BA in Philosophy

Where are you currently working? Navient; Director of Financial Analysis

What achievement are you most proud of in your professional career? Frankly, with 18 years in the saddle, there are many. One of the latest achievements came recently, when a banking partner of ours staunchly resisted providing more credit for an outperforming asset. On a whim, I asked them if we engaged a Rating Agency and got feedback on this (relatively) new asset, would they give us credit for that? The bankers said yes, so we went out and got feedback. It took about 6 months (and up-front fees paid) to get through the process, but the upshot was eight figures in extra fundraising against the portfolio. Personally, I am a huge fan of accomplishing new and difficult things. This was not the first challenging thing I have accomplished at work, but certainly one where I felt the most in the driver’s seat for the outcome.

Why did you choose this school’s online MBA program? Loyalty. I went to the University of Maryland as an undergraduate and while I no longer live in the Maryland area, the online program was a great fit for me. Additionally, the international program Maryland offers all MBA students is an intensive set of business meetings in multiple locations over a week-and-a-half, which stood out when I compared potential other programs I was considering.

What was your favorite part of being in an online MBA program? Late night study sessions. It ruins the sleep cycle, but there is a certain magic to the conversations one has with one’s peers when working through difficult school topics together. In an always-online, always-connected world, it is also hard to understate the value of electronic communication. Thriving in an online program is thriving via electronic connectivity, which translates to better performance in a digital place.

How did your online experience compare with your in-the-classroom experience as an undergraduate student? It has been 18 years since I went to school full time, so in many ways the experience was night-and-day. The biggest change for me was my own self. When I went to school for the first time, I struggled and did not have a clear vision of what I wanted or where I was going. This time my motivations were much clearer to myself, so I found doing the work and preparing for class and assignments came much more naturally.

What is your best piece of advice to an applicant for thriving in an online MBA program? Make friends, figure out the group chat app everyone is using, and find ways to show up to in-person events where you can. Just like remote work, an online program can be very isolating if you do not work at it. With peers and a strong in-school network, one can truly thrive.

How has your online education helped you in your current job? I work remote currently, so online education was an easy addition to my at-home schedule. In terms of the curriculum, I found many of the ‘meta’ classes, like leadership and organizational change, were instrumental in helping me refine my personal thought process when tackling work challenges. I learned to lean into effective communication and take the time to think through processes, collect other’s inputs, and transform all that intelligence into meaningfully better opportunities for my company to pursue.

Did you earn a promotion while in the program or immediately after graduation? I did not, although personally, pursuing my MBA had a lot to do with what I would pursue after graduation. Said differently, I intended going through the MBA program to be foundational for my career’s next steps.

Why did you pursue an online MBA program instead of a full-time residential or executive MBA program? I have two children at home who were both in elementary school at the time. When I evaluated executive programs, I could not wrap my brain around the prospect of losing out on 26 weeks of soccer games and family activities for two years. A full-time program was never on the table at my personal and family stage of our lives.

What is one way that your business school has integrated AI into your programming? What insights did you gain from using AI? AI has exploded from being barely present to being ever-present since I have been in the program. That’s over less than 24 months, which is frighteningly fast! From an educational perspective, AI is at its best when it works like doing google research for over a few hours except the tool is automated and takes less than twenty minutes. Fortunately for me, my desired place is in the business world, AI and Academia have a long hard road to walk to be good friends in the classroom!

Number of Hours Per Week Spent on an Online MBA: My guess is that I averaged about 15 hours. I planned for the program to assume up to 20 hours of my time each week, from the onset. That was a helpful expectation to set up front. That way, when that was the reality, I was prepared. When the workload was closer to 10 hours, I felt like I had a nice break for a week!

What is your ultimate long-term professional goal? I have begun to consider my career as a ‘three paths in the woods’ version of Robert Frost’s poem. In one path, I continue climbing the corporate ladder within the CFO organization with my eyes set on a CFO position. In another path, I would love to be a managing director at an investment bank, deploying my ability to think creatively and build sustainable social networks over time. In a third path, I open a restaurant, capture market share, and franchise my way to personal wealth. There is even a hybrid path where I pursue either of the corporate pathways for some time, build up capital, and pivot to a semi-retired state of life as an entrepreneur. The last time I publicly answered the question “What’s Next,” my response was that I’m taking bets. This is still true, but at least I have narrowed the options down from the infinite to the finite!

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