Justin Lincoln

University of Cincinnati, Carl H. Lindner Online MBA

“Driven, technology-forward professional who thrives when bridging data and operations to help teams work smarter.”

Age: 35

Hometown: Cincinnati, OH

Fun fact about yourself: I began my MBA journey nearly 10 years after earning undergraduate degree and just as long into my career, a fact that I think helped me connect coursework to my professional reality in a meaningful way.

Undergraduate School and Degree: University of Cincinnati – Bachelor of Business Administration in Operations Management

Where are you currently working? Ameritas Investment Partners – Senior Business Intelligence Analyst

What achievement are you most proud of in your professional career? I led the implementation and scaling of a new process to review, pledge, and then manage commercial mortgage loan assets in support of my employer’s funding agreement with its Federal Home Loan Bank. In that, I built the process from the ground up, establishing workflows, controls, and ongoing management of pledged assets to comply with the bank’s requirements. Over time, the process grew and scaled to include support from several other associates. Today, this process supports the management of more than $1.3 billion of pledged principal balance.

Why did you choose this school’s online MBA program? I chose University of Cincinnati’s online MBA program for several reasons. Its national rankings were higher than alternatives. It was flexible without sacrificing education quality and it offered an accompanying graduate certificate in data analytics. This allowed me to customize my educational experience in a way that maximally tied to my professional reality: one part operations and one part data.

What was your favorite part of being in an online MBA program? The flexibility of selecting when I wanted to progress through coursework was absolutely my favorite part of the experience. Given the reality of a career and a full personal life outside of work and school, being able to slot coursework in around other life commitments is what made my return to school possible in the first place.

How did your online MBA experience compare with your in-the-classroom experience as an undergraduate student? It was a positive experience, though I will admit that it required a shift in perspective for a couple of reasons. First, during undergrad, all experiences were slotted into a rigid schedule (e.g., all lectures and exams were held at a specific date and time). During my MBA, those were all fit into modules on self-guided weekly cycles, which required being self-motivated. Second, the nature of the format means that it was a little more challenging to make connections with my classmates. The professors aided in this by strategically leveraging group experiences, which naturally created many opportunities to connect with my peers.

What is your best piece of advice to an applicant for thriving in an online MBA program? Be honest with yourself about your tendencies and habits. That way, you can lean into traits that benefit a self-guided experience or, conversely, limit those that can hinder your progress. If you are a self-starter who likes to jump into projects early to ensure that you understand the bigger picture, then you will thrive in an online MBA program. If you tend to get pulled aside by work or other life obligations, then try to block off several timeslots each week where you will be able to focus solely on coursework. And most importantly, keep this in mind: MBA programs will give you as much as you put into them. Degrees represent the accumulation of skills and success is about what we do with those skills.

How has your online MBA education helped you in your current job? Despite what my title suggests, my actual day-to-day is a mix of different operational and data responsibilities. Sometimes I’m designing a PowerBI model or writing SQL to extract data for a warehousing project. Other times, I’m managing operational projects, training coworkers, and overseeing workflows. This range of experiences has allowed me to identify with and pull from nearly all of my MBA coursework as I learned it. After learning some python basics from a data analytics course, I expanded on that foundation by learning how to automate some data cleaning work in my day-to-day. After learning of my own interpersonal, managerial styles and tendencies, I immediately rolled those experiences into how I work with others at work.

Did you earn a promotion while in the program or immediately after graduation? I did not receive a promotion during or immediately after graduation. However, that was not my main measure of success for pursuing my MBA. This was a promise I made to myself when I completed my undergrad, representing my commitment to self-improvement and lifelong learning. While I hope the skills I’ve learned will create future opportunities, this was less about a title change and more about strengthening my management, leadership, and analytical capabilities to support long-term growth.

Why did you pursue an online MBA program instead of a full-time residential or executive MBA program? At risk of sounding like a broken record: flexibility. Being where I am in my life meant that a full-time MBA experience was not feasible. In other words, an online program represented my best chance at success. I feel that University of Cincinnati’s online MBA program is high quality and designed to aid working professionals.

What is one way that your business school has integrated AI into your programming? What insights did you gain from using AI? AI usage depended heavily on the course and material. Some courses were designed to encourage us to explore our interpersonal experiences and forge mental connections to improve our managerial capabilities. Given that goal, AI doesn’t serve a purpose. In other courses, for example, it could be used to troubleshoot errors in programming syntax and output or to aid in initial exploration of a topic. There is a time and place for everything and the same is true for AI.

Number of Hours Per Week Spent on an Online MBA: 12-16 hours

What is your ultimate long-term professional goal? My ultimate professional goal is to continue growth in my industry into a leadership role where I can leverage my split background in commercial real estate finance and analytics to help modernize and improve how the industry operates. As with my current role and position, my goal is less tied to a title than to the level of impact I desire to have: leading teams, improving and strengthening operations, and helping organizations use data and emerging technologies more efficiently. My background has granted me a strong foundation in the industry. My education and experience allow me to bridge traditional operations with forward-facing solutions. I want to go where I can use this combination to create the greatest value.

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