James Barnes
Program: Evening
Graduation: 2018
Current title/organization: Vice President of Enterprise Architecture, Primerica
Q: Why did you choose the NC State Jenkins MBA program for your graduate education?
A: I chose because of the quality of the program, the focus on technology, and the flexibility the program offered.
Q: How did your experience in the program contribute to your professional achievements and successes?
A: It gave me a great standing for my move into an executive position, for better knowledge of creating vendor management policies, to learning how to be a better presenter.
Q: What advice would you give for prospective and current students who are interested in your industry/profession?
A: Have a solid understanding of the decisions under uncertainty. This was a great class, and helps you realize, you are always making an educated guess, and that waiting for perfect information can have you responding too slow.
Q: What did you enjoy most about your time in the Jenkins MBA program?
A: The McLauchlan Fellowship Program, and the BB&T Leadership Saturday class
Q: What advice do you have for prospective Jenkins MBA students?
A: Make sure to set time aside for the studies, and try to do them as soon as you can. it takes dedication to make sure you can do it. Also take some of the Saturday electives they are a great resource.
Q: Could you give a brief explanation of your current line of work, and what has led you to it?
A: I am a vice president of enterprise architecture, which means I oversee and guide the it decisions and implementations. It lead here by having both a good basis in the business and understanding how to guide others, and being able to net out the technology concerns and drive to the solution. Being able to break a problem down to a component parts was something we focused on in the classroom.
Q: What do you believe is your most interesting accomplishment since graduation?
Being promoted to Vice President after being with a company for 1 year.
Q: Any additional advice?
A: The community for non-full time MBA students is great, and people at RTP should make an effort to come to some of the events, like the B-Corp mixers and the like, there are some great things going on, to learn more and network more.