Greg earned a BS in History in 1994 from Hamilton College in New York, and was commissioned upon graduating from Officer Candidate School in 1996.
During the next decade, he served as both an ordinance and a training officer, as flag aide on the Chief of Naval Operations staff, and as a weapons then combat systems officer aboard the USS Cole. He transferred to the Naval Reserves in 2006, and is now Deputy Operations Officer Third Fleet Joint Forces Air Component Commander (JFACC), Tucson Detachment.

Greg, who received his MBA in 2008, says he liked attending what he describes as a smaller program. “The beauty is…there was a lot of opportunity for students to get involved in the program itself.” And he offers this tip: Attend a preview weekend if you get the opportunity. It will give you a chance to get to know the students.

Why did you choose to get an MBA?

My degree is in history, so people would always ask me if I wanted to be a lawyer or teacher, and I knew I didn’t want to be either of those. Then, I got interested in business while in the service. We apply a lot of business principles to what we do in the military. And I thought that the MBA was the best way to employ the skills I picked up as a naval officer–and to learn how those skills work in the civilian world.

Why does the type of school you attend matter?

Fit is important. A lot of schools use a theory-based approach. I was more interested in the practical application you get with a case-based approach. You study how a particular company faced a particular challenge and solved it—or didn’t—and you get to be a Monday morning quarterback…what would you have done differently?

Also, I wanted a smaller program. I didn’t want to be a number, just one of some 300 or 400 students in an MBA program. I enjoyed getting to know my classmates, and the smaller program gave me the opportunity to get to know the faculty and staff as well.

How did you approach your application essay?

Not the same as when I was 18 and writing what I thought the admissions officers wanted to hear! I went into it with a pretty open mind. I wasn’t sure exactly what I wanted to do in the business world. But, my general goal as a first-year student was to take core courses to figure out where my interests were. My goal in the second year was to concentrate my coursework on the areas I was most interested in.

So my strategy was, “This is who I am.” I didn’t know exactly what I wanted to do yet, and I told them that…and it turned out great. I liked the open approach. It worked for me.

How did the GMAT exam compare with tests you took as part of your military training, and how did you prepare?

The GMAT is much more focused on academic learning. In the military, everything was so focused on the job, and any written tests were very specific to my job functions—probably something related to tactics and combat systems. I was eating and sleeping those every day, so it was easier to come up with the answers.

But I’m not doing vocabulary and geometry and algebra every day in the Navy. In fact, when I took the GMAT I’d been out of school for more than 12 years. That’s one of the reasons I took a prep class.

Why did you choose to attend a school that requires the GMAT exam?

I think it’s the one thing all schools can use to evaluate applicants equally. Is this student just a 100-pound head—academically smart but without practical experience and problem-solving ability? I think the GMAT can serve to level students’ backgrounds and help identify their true ability.

How did your military background help you with the rigors of school?

I had time management skills from the military on my side. The first year in school is the hardest. You’re really crunched for time. But it was a different experience for me and the other ex-military members in my MBA program. We’re used to long hours, grabbing an hour of sleep here and there aboard ship. We’ve come off deployment in Afghanistan and Iraq.

So I felt I had a better idea of how to prioritize. I could evaluate what I needed to focus on to complete an assignment without over-studying. I don’t think I would have had that perspective if I’d entered an MBA program right out of college.

The military also teaches you to make do, to find creative ways to use what you have on hand to meet your needs. Those problem-solving skills really came in handy in school.

For instance, in Business Strategy class we had to analyze real issues that a company faced. Then we had to come up with strategies they could—or should—have used to solve them. That’s why I think the unique problem-solving abilities you innately develop in the military apply to the corporate world as well.

What advice can you give about translating military experience so that it makes sense to school or job recruiters?

It’s hard to describe how to demilitarize the way you talk about what you did and what skills you gained in the military. It might not mean much from a civilian perspective if I said I led a watch team on a ship. But if I said I had a team of 25 people working for me who were responsible for defending our ship and the ships around us—that would make more sense.

From your perspective, what’s the value-added of your military background combined with the MBA?

It really brings a unique perspective to the corporate world. That’s not to say that the military has all the answers. But the crisis management, leadership skills, and creative problem-solving abilities I developed as a member of the military, plus the business acumen gained with an MBA bring a lot to the table for any company.