Erica Washington ’22 MiM
It's rare to know exactly what you want to do coming out of undergrad. But for Erica Washington, it was that passion and drive that led her to the Kellogg Master in Management Program — and into her ideal job.
On track to graduate a couple of quarters early with her degree in communications from Northwestern University, Erica’s dream of pursuing her love of creative and marketing were all coming together as planned.
But something kept drawing her focus. She couldn't get the two business classes she took months earlier out of her head. “I started to think maybe I want more,” she said.
“I took two business classes while at Northwestern… where we looked at globalization and case studies on multinational companies. They made me start to question that maybe I wanted a more general business education.”
Workplace readiness in just 10 months
With the professional world whispering in her ear, Erica wasn’t keen on embarking on a multi-year MBA journey but knew the kind of brand management role she wanted might be out of reach without a master’s degree or further business education. That's when she discovered MiM's 10-month program.
“I was looking for length of program... I didn’t want anything longer than a year. The Master in Management Program was perfect for me.”
And the effort was well worth the time and investment. “Something great about Kellogg is there’s such an emphasis on collaboration,” she said. “Not only is it good from an academic perspective, but it's good from a workplace development perspective because a lot of the stuff you do in the workplace is not done in a silo—you're always going to be working with people who have different working styles and different personalities.”
I could have very easily just graduated from undergrad and said, ‘okay, bye.’ But I feel more capable now than if I didn't do this program.
A welcoming environment and a focus on learning
“I remember my first time at the Kellogg Table dinner, people would just sit down and start talking like they knew you,” Erica said. “I'm a little bit of an introvert, so I was like, 'oh... okay.' But that's what Kellogg is like. Everyone's so open, everyone wants to learn about you and learn about your goals and just genuinely talk.”Erica took to the friendly Kellogg environment as well as the demands of the rigorous MiM curriculum and the way the professors encouraged not just her learning but how she applied it. “There was a focus of, ‘Hey, I want to make sure you understand this and you're able to apply it in a workplace setting.’ That was a very surprising difference for me.”
By the end of the program, she understood how it changed her and forced her outside of her comfort zone and into a place that fed her curious nature. “I had to take classes like finance and operations where I didn't know what was going on,” she said. “I was really proud of myself for finishing and passing them. I could have very easily just graduated from undergrad and said, ‘Okay, bye!’ But I feel more capable now than if I didn't do this program.”
If you had asked me five years ago if this is what I thought my job would look like, I would tell you no. But Kellogg really opened opportunities for me.
Creativity and business on any given day
Now a senior marketing analyst at The J.M. Smucker’s Co. — or “the Twinkie people” as she affectionately calls them — Erica has a strong hand in the creative side of things but also enjoys a broader role. “On any given day, I'm talking to people from finance and people from operations, which to be honest, wasn't really what I was expecting of myself when I was going through undergrad,” she said.In the end, taking time to boost her career opportunities by investing in those 10 months at Kellogg is something that will yield a lifetime of benefits.
“Graduating with a Master in Management degree gave me a lot more opportunity to pursue what I want to do,” she said. “If you had asked me five years ago if this is what I thought my job would look like, I would tell you no. But Kellogg really opened up opportunities for me.”
Marketing was her passion. Now it's her career.
