When the alarm goes off at 6:30 am, Greg Muscaro’s marathon of a day is off to a running start. About an hour later, he’s already made his way into the office. A procurement analyst for Wakefern in Jamesburg, New Jersey, Greg says his day is consumed by managing the company’s stock of pharmaceuticals, a job that requires a lot of logistics.
By 6 pm he’s headed home, but his day is far from over. Along with working 50 to 60 hours a week, Greg is also a full-time student at the Johnson & Wales College of Online Education, pursuing his MBA – Finance.
“You just have to make sure that you’re on top of everything,” he said. A self-proclaimed procrastinator, Greg has learned that the key to his success has been breaking his old habits. “Working and then going to school, it sounds a lot more difficult than it is, but as long as you stay on top of everything it’s possible.”
But with such a grueling work schedule and a career he’s happy, why take on more?
“I felt like I had a little bit of unfinished business” Greg explained, adding he had wished he had gone through with his master’s as soon as he completed his bachelor’s degree five years ago.
When Greg began looking into his options, he quickly found that he could achieve his master’s for less money and with the convenience of doing it online, thanks to a partnership between Wakefern and Johnson & Wales.
“The partnership with Wakefern and Johnson & Wales came up and it just kind of started the process. It just felt like a right fit,” Greg said. “Yes, there was the financial incentive, but when I really started talking to the staff and the admissions advisors, it hit like home.”
In hindsight Greg says he’s glad he waited to go back to school, saying that having the opportunity of getting work experience under his belt before furthering his education has helped him progress more than he ever imagined. “It definitely helped me pull and retain more information and relate it a lot more to real-life business problems and solutions.”
Now closing in on receiving his degree this spring, Greg has already begun planning what’s next for him, including applying for Johnson & Wales’s online DBA program. Meanwhile he has already started moving up the corporate ladder at Wakefern, momentum he anticipates continuing.
But after seeing first-hand the opportunity that the partnership between Wakefern and JWU has for employees, he said he hopes to see others take advantage of it.
“I think as a company if we have more people willing to take advantage of the partnership, it would be beneficial because it’s forward momentum for the company,” Greg said. “The benefit alone was worth it. It’s great to have the MBA title, but the true experience of it is where the benefits came from.”
For more information on pursuing your degree at Johnson & Wales University, complete the “Request Info” form on this page or call 855-JWU-1881 or email [email protected]. If you are interested in learning more about our corporate partnerships visit here.