If anyone knows how important time management is while working full time and getting an education, it’s Shannon Fitzgerald.
Fitzgerald is on the road 100 to 150 days per year for work, while raising two kids with his girlfriend. Both work full time. He’s also a student in the online UW-Parkside Bachelor of Science in Business Administration program offered through UW Flexible Option.
For Fitzgerald, flexibility is more than just a “nice to have”–it’s a “must-have.”
“Our house is full of pets and kids, and with [traveling so much], I didn’t want to have to worry about having to take night classes,” he said. “I’ve literally done assignments in Pennsylvania and overseas. I had to speak at a conference in Edinburgh, Scotland, and I was doing coursework over there to finish up.”
He is a technical accounts manager for UniFirst, a uniform and facility service company that makes launderable protective clothing for nuclear power plant workers. He found his way to the company after studying at the UW–Green Bay, Manitowoc Campus. He transferred there after one semester at a local college to save money, but wasn’t really sure what he wanted to do.
“So I joined the Marine Corps. And then before I could go to boot camp, I actually tore my ACL.”
He was disqualified from service. Then, while at a pub in Two Rivers, Wisconsin, where he currently lives, he met a man whose daughter was working at the local nuclear power plant.
“He said, hey, my daughter’s working at Point Beach Nuclear Power plant. Do you want to work there? I know they’re looking for some more people. So I started working with the company I’m still with back in 2011, and found out rather quickly that there were some really, really positive ways in which I could move up the ranks, all of which required further education.”
Fitzgerald did a Google search, and found the online University of Wisconsin Associate of Arts and Sciences degree offered through UW Flexible Option. He enrolled after speaking with an adviser, who was able to help him transfer some of his credits from Lakeland College and UW-Manitowoc, a two-year branch campus of UW-Green Bay. Once he completed the associate’s degree program, he continued with the online UW Flexible Option Bachelor of Science in Business Administration program with UW-Parkside.
“I feel like the associate degree program set the table and the bachelor’s degree program fed me dinner. As far as course content that directly applied to my job with the associate degree, there was some, but when I got into the bachelor’s degree program, which is what I’m doing right now, that’s where I find nearly every course that I’m taking in some way applies to what I’m doing.”
As a technical accounts manager, Fitzgerald is involved in high-level decision making within the company. The sales courses in Fitzgerald’s program also directly apply to his job, so he’s been able to implement course content immediately. “Even my classes that I take on the stock market help me to understand why our directors make decisions a certain way and how it affects how our company looks in the public eye.”
The competency-based model that UW Flexible Option programs are built on allows students to fit school into their lives–not the other way around. Students can control the pace of their courses and complete assignments when it works for them. There are no set schedules or login requirements.
In Fitzgerald’s case, he can work ahead in school before his busiest time of the year on the job. During the spring and fall, a lot of nuclear power plants shut down because it’s their off-peak season for selling electricity. However, spring and fall is when Fitzgerald is the busiest.
“Being able to start a subscription period in January and front-load myself with coursework (knowing that in March I’m going to start getting busy) really allows me, as the program states, to be flexible with my education. And it’s really, really worked in my favor, and it’s worked extremely well for my lifestyle.
“If I know I’ve got a large project or there’s a number of contract revisions that are going to become due and I know I’m going to be working 60, 70 hours a week, as much as I would love for school to be my focus, putting food on the table at that point is my focus.”
A day in life includes work, school, and time for his family. He spends the majority of his time visiting customers, and when he’s not, he’s working remotely or in the regional office. Typically, he’s in front of the computer by 7 a.m., finishing around 4 p.m. when his girlfriend gets home from work and the kids return from school. They eat dinner together, and then he reads and works on assignments. “It depends on what other things I have going on at home, but usually I try to put two to three hours aside for schoolwork.”
Fitzgerald is working not only toward his bachelor’s degree, but he’s also working toward becoming the director of sales and marketing at UniFirst. He loves what he does at the company because he loves working with people. But more than that, he’s been able to use the skills he’s learned on the job numerous times.
“We just had a project where we were looking to acquire some property to expand a location that we have down in Tennessee. And I was able to help draft the business plan that was eventually proposed.”
Thanks to his business and accounting classes, he’s also been able to apply SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) analysis to his work, and has mastered Microsoft Access.
“We use Access to manage our databases at work,” he said. “Even though I’m skilled with Excel, Access has always been difficult for me. Now I can fly through [it] and literally do projects like updating sales cost info for customers. [One form] might have 400 to 500 items on it.”
He’s also used Access for inventory turnover, like creating an obsolete list of items that they can discount to customers. “And we move about 50 percent of the items off that list after we discount them within the first three months. So that’s helped us out tremendously.”
While balancing full-time work, family, and a bachelor’s degree program might seem daunting to some, Fitzgerald says it can be done with discipline.
“The most challenging thing is that you are your own boss with this program. So you have to make sure that you are putting in the time within that subscription period to get something out of it for yourself.”
And while the coursework can be challenging, he advises students to use their resources. “Use your fellow students. Use your professors. Make sure that you have the learning resources and that you’re familiar with the learning resources that are spelled out in the syllabi.”
He also recommends engaging with people in the online Student Lounge. “It’s essentially a virtual message board. It’d be the same as if you were sitting in the cafeteria talking to some fellow students at the cafeteria. You can bounce ideas off each other.”
Anyone who is interested in this type of program should get in touch with UW Extended Campus, he says. “Ask as many questions as you can. I think that somebody who’s on the fence, once they try it, would really see the benefits of that program really fast.”
Is a business administration degree the right choice for you? Check out the AACSB accredited UW-Parkside Bachelor of Business Administration curriculum or contact a helpful enrollment adviser at 608-800-6762 or flex@uwex.wisconsin.edu.