I recently had a conversation at an academic residency with David, a PhD student in the AMDS program. He described his success in breaking into higher education teaching and working his way up to landing a full-time position as the Chair of the Marketing Department at a brick and mortar university in South Carolina.

David landed his first teaching opportunity in higher education through being referred by a professor from his MBA program to a teaching position at Spartanburg Community College. He then moved from the community college to spend eight years as a full-time adjunct position at North Greenville University. When he wanted to apply for the position as Chair of the Marketing Department, the dean told him they wouldn’t consider him because he was earning his doctorate from Walden. David proceeded to educate the dean about Walden being accredited by the North Central Association and the rigors of a Walden education. He successfully convinced the dean to hire him and now the business school has five full-time professors who graduated from online universities, including another Walden student. Networking and changing perceptions about the value of an online education were keys to David’s success.

In addition to landing a full-time administrative post as the chair of a department, David has also paved the way for other candidates from online universities, including a current Walden DBA student. He was happy to have his story posted to our blog so that other students may benefit from his experiences. We wish David great success in his new post.

 Written by Lisa Cook, Career Services Director

If you have a success story to share, please email us at: careerservices@waldenu.edu.