By Katie Bahr
Phillip Henson
Phillip Henson was an engineer for almost a decade before he ever considered getting an MBA. During that time, he spent two years directly serving a government agency in a development role and another four as an electrical engineer. The difference between the two jobs helped Henson realize he wanted to take on more customer-facing roles, a career trajectory that would require more knowledge of business skills.
Henson made the decision to get his MBA shortly after taking a new product engineer job at Abaco Systems. With support from a new manager, Henson chose Vanderbilt’s Executive MBA program to gain the strategic and financial knowledge he needed.
“Before my Executive MBA, I was doing a lot of technical work with no real business focus,” he says. “Getting a role that involved market strategy and required understanding larger pieces of the organization, while still focusing on technology, motivated me to get the education I needed.” In just three years, Henson was able to completely change his career path with help from the Executive MBA program.
Since starting school in August 2017, Henson achieved two promotions, then made the leap into a senior market-facing role at a new company. His expanding responsibilities at work followed in lock-step with his expanding skills and education.
Click through Henson’s timeline below to see how he transitioned from an engineer to an executive.