Prior to attending Vanderbilt, Jacob Schrimpf (Owen, ‘22) was a professional actor and arts educator, before deciding to career pivot through an MBA degree. During his time at Owen, Jacob has enjoyed immersing himself in the Human & Organizational Performance (HOP) program and coursework as well utilizing the school’s great resources and building great relationships with classmates and administrators. During this interview, Jacob spoke about his desire to pursue an MBA to grow his career, why he selected Vanderbilt, and his advice to prospective MBA students.
MBASchooled: What did you do before business school, and why did you choose to come to business school?
I was a professional actor and arts educator before business school. I primarily worked in regional musical theatre and while I enjoyed the creativity and adventure, I sought a more stable career that married my creativity with a more intellectual rigor. If you had told me a few years ago that I’d go to business school, I never would have believed it! However, in reflecting and speaking with a good friend who works in executive coaching, I realized that an MBA was the proper mix of big picture thinking, quantitative decision making, interpersonal skills, and creative problem solving for me. I’m so grateful that my path led me here!
MBASchooled: Why did you choose to attend Vanderbilt Owen?
I had a few priorities when looking for business schools. I wanted a smaller cohort size, an urban location, and a strong human capital program. From my first interactions with members of the Owen community, I was blown away by their genuine kindness and desire to get to know me. Every step of the process was extremely personal and warm, and that same energy has shaped my experience at Owen over the last year and a half. I was also extremely excited to live in Nashville, a city that has surpassed even my highest expectations. Finally, our Human & Organizational Performance program allowed me to delve deep into my interest in human capital while simultaneously building a broader MBA skillset.
MBASchooled: What resources were most helpful to making your decision? Did you talk to any people that were especially helpful?
I focused my efforts on meeting as many people as possible at each of the schools I was considering. As a very extroverted person, I wanted to find a program where I could see myself as a member of the community. At Owen, I vividly remember my admission interview in Philadelphia with Rob Schickler, Associate Director of Recruiting & Admissions. As both a member of the admissions team and an Owen MBA alum himself, he offered a unique perspective on the program and cemented my feeling that Owen was a community of people who go above and beyond to build lasting personal relationships.
MBASchooled: Now that you’ve been at Owen , is there a specific moment or highlight where you felt confident that you made the right decision?
As with many business schools, Owen has a weekly happy hour tradition called Closing Bell. On Thursday evenings, students and their families, faculty, and staff gather at school to share a beverage and a snack and unwind at the end of the week. Each week a different student group hosts Closing Bell and plans programming that align with their mission. I am the Vice President of Out & Allied, Owen’s LGBTQ+ student organization and we hosted Closing Bell in September, aligning with Nashville’s rescheduled Pride.
We decorated the Owen courtyard in rainbow and brought in a local drag queen to perform throughout the evening. To see so many of my classmates and professors embrace and celebrate Pride wholeheartedly was incredible and spoke to the support of the community. It was a beautiful evening and is still often discussed as one of the most memorable closing bells of the year. It also highlights the deep relationships and support that reinforce that Owen was the right choice for me.
MBASchooled: What’s been your most impactful & meaningful experience at Owen so far?
This is a tough one for me because the last year and a half has been incredibly impactful and meaningful in myriad moments. However, I think that my greatest joy came in Mod 1 of this year, when I was able to support the Owen community as a Communications Fellow, Peer Career Coach, and VP of Education for the Human & Organizational Performance Association. In each of these roles, I had the opportunity to coach and mentor peers at Owen, whether it was leading office hours and supporting the students in the section of Management Communication for which I was the Communications Fellow (essentially a TA), guiding incoming students towards reflection and professional success as their Peer Coach, or leading recruiting workshops as the VP of Education for HOPA.
In each of these moments, I was both surprised to find that I had learned enough in the first year to give back to others, and grateful for the opportunity to empower members of the Owen community. Owen promotes a culture of intense support, and serving in these roles was a personally meaningful way for me to embrace our culture.
MBASchooled: What’s an important career lesson you’ve learned, either before business school, or during your time in school?
I’ve learned the importance of appreciating and celebrating the uniqueness of both my background and the background of my peers and colleagues. Coming to Owen, I initially grappled with severe imposter syndrome. As a professional musical theatre performer, I used to joke that the only numbers I’d seen since 2012 were “5, 6, 7, 8…” When I first started business school, I felt that my lack of traditional business experience somehow made me less credible than my peers. However, I quickly realized a couple of things. First, I was surprised to see how many of my peers also grappled with similar imposter syndrome, regardless of their pre-MBA experience.
I found comfort knowing that we were all making sense of a new experience and felt similar emotions. Furthermore, I quickly came to realize that my unique background as a performer allowed me to approach classwork and problem solving through a different lens, ultimately providing me a great asset. I learned to celebrate my unique background as a strength, rather than compensate for it as an imposter. Moving forward, I now deeply appreciate my unconventional pre-MBA experience and find great joy in learning from my peers of equally diverse backgrounds.
MBASchooled: Oftentimes, the word “culture” gets thrown around when talking about MBA programs. Can you characterize the culture at Owen? Can you share an example of an experience that you think personifies what this means?
There are a couple of buzzwords commonly thrown around when people describe the Owen culture. “Competitive, not cutthroat,” and “personal scale” are chief among them. While initially, these may seem glib, there is a lot of truth to them that speak to the intimate, personable culture at Owen. The small class size cultivates close-knit relationships among classmates and between students and faculty and staff. I feel an effort from myriad members of the Owen community to get to know me on a personal level and maximize my time at Owen. For example, when I was navigating the recruiting process, I developed close relationships with two coaches in our career center, Sandy and Courtney.
As I was making decisions, they were incredibly available to me via text messages, emails, and phone calls, supporting me every step of the way. I have even had drinks with Sandy and built a relationship with her outside of the CMC. This level of personal attention and focus on relationships personifies the incredibly intimate, kind, outgoing culture that I have come to love at Owen.
MBASchooled: What advice do you have, for someone who is trying to think about an MBA as a means to accelerate their career?
I recommend taking the time to reflect throughout the process in order to “stay in your lane” and deliberately make decisions that are appropriate for you. Applications, recruiting, course selection, internships, extracurriculars are all full of myriad opportunities and it is easy to either get wrapped up in the most common or prestigious options or to become overwhelmed by the possibilities.
For example, when applying to and selecting an MBA program, what matters most to you? For some people, it may be a top 10 ranking and a historically prestigious name. For others, it may be a specific type of program or experience or a geographical decision. Both are equally valid but very different and personal preferences. Throughout the MBA experience, the opportunities abound but I have found that continually reflecting, evaluating where I am in the process and what I want to make out of the experience has allowed me to maximize the value of my time at Owen and hopefully, set me up for success upon graduation.