Years ago, I was contemplating going back to school to get an MBA; I wanted to further my career and education. However, since I had attended Utah State University and graduated with a business finance degree, many of the classes my senior year were joint classes with the MBA students. Consequently, I felt like I had already received the education of an MBA to some extent. It was at this time I noticed several emails from NACM promoting their own graduate school. GSCFM-The Graduate School of Credit and Financial Management.
The more I looked into it, the more it resonated with me. At the time, it consisted of a two-week session over the course of one summer and again the next summer with a project in-between. Nowadays, it’s a hybrid program with live online and in-person components. The curriculum involves topics that were aligned with my career as a credit manager, and I felt attending would help me level up my career in my current field and education; plus, it was significantly more cost effective than an MBA program and less burdensome on my schedule and family life at the time. So, I signed up, sorted out my funding plan and did it! I loved the topics, classes, professors, special topic experts, and working with many of the NACM execs. To this day, I still keep in touch with many of my fellow cohorts. While there, I was also able to take the CCE exam and fortunately passed!
It was primarily due to the encouragement of my local NACM employees who offered me significant support in going and attending. In fact, when I came back, I was able to get approved by NACM National to teach NACM designation classes, and the knowledge I gained has been instrumental in teaching many similar classes to others.
5 out of 5 stars looking back as being useful in advancing my career and worth every penny!
by Shane Norman, CCE, Handle