Lee was a Navy officer and fighter pilot for 12 years. He was deployed three times to the Persian Gulf in support of Operation Southern Watch. Lee left the Navy in 2002 as a Lieutenant Commander. After receiving his MBA, he moved to Dallas to take on business and technology roles in small, tech-oriented companies.

Lee’s completion of the MBA/MIS dual degree program at the Joseph M. Katz School of Business allows him to effectively blend the worlds of business and technology.

For me, the MBA was part of a long-term strategy. I didn’t feel that I needed an MBA to get a job right after leaving the military; my concern was 10 years down the road, when I would be competing for executive positions with folks who do have MBAs. That made the decision obvious.

Ultimately, what matters are the quality of the people around you and the relationships you develop with them. Those relationships last a lifetime and can give you the most benefit. It’s a cliché, but a school has to be the “right fit”; you have to consider both the immediate and distant future.

I felt confident because I had a plan in place, but there were some things I simply could not have known in advance.

To make a long story short, the events of September 11th interrupted my admissions preparation. I was in the military at that time and we went on high alert. I had little spare time to research schools and prepare paperwork.

I found out everything I needed to know about my application and decision process by scheduling interviews with admissions directors and visiting the schools on my list.

I was able to make a great decision based on what I learned during visits and interviews, despite not being able to do as much preparation as I planned. My advice: Definitely schedule a school visit.

The transition was not difficult at all. In fact, I was looking forward to it. After a few months in school, I realized that the same sort of built-in social network and camaraderie that I was used to in the Navy existed within my MBA class. It was refreshing that so many of my classmates actually took an interest in what I had done in the military. Many wanted to know a lot of details and get more educated on the military in general.

My military experience prepared me in ways that I could not have imagined. We always hear about discipline and attention to detail being advantages for military veterans – and this is true. But I also found that my direct leadership and management experience in the Navy aided me with the soft skills required for interacting with lots of diverse, intelligent people.

I was impressed. Honestly, I wasn’t sure if MBA students would hold up to the level of character, dedication, and hard work that I was used to, but I was pleasantly surprised. The overwhelming majority of my classmates were top notch, and I’d gladly work with any of them in the business world. 

My school took a very hands-on approach to understanding each student’s personality and background. Rather than using an impersonal and highly systematic approach, my school facilitated introductions, interviews, and directed resources for me based on its knowledge of what I was trying to accomplish.

The hiring managers who intuitively understood the advantages that military folks bring to the table were more than happy to make time for me.

However, I found that most recruiters (HR people and hiring managers) really didn’t understand what military personnel do. My experience showed that most interviewers looked at my military time as a “hole” in my resume. My job search was hindered until I realized that it was up to me to educate potential employers right from the start.

Any branch of the military can really be thought of as a Fortune 500 company – actually, in terms of employees, each branch compares to any of the top 10 largest companies. With that fact in mind, I set out to articulate that I did the same things in the military that people do in corporate settings: managed projects and budgets, held strategy meetings, developed presentations, worked with clients, etc.

It was always interesting to see the few seconds of stunned silence in interviews after I described my military experience in this way. Most of the time, any doubts they may have had about my military background disappeared.