Dallas CEO Says Education Can Help Make A Successful Career Change
Shawn Sabanayagam is the chairman and chief executive officer of Tributary Systems, Inc., a global leader in providing data protection solutions for high availability, enterprise computing platforms. High availability, enterprise-computing platforms are utilized by financial institutions (ATMs), hospitals and high-volume retailers that are always open for business.
Sabanayagam took Tributary Systems, Inc. from a hardware storage product company to a software-defined storage solution company. "Hardware is a commodity; software with patents is what runs the world today," said Sabanayagam about moving the company into state-of-the art technology, which provides technology solutions for Fortune 500 companies.
With a bachelor's and master's degrees in civil engineering, Sabanayagam wanted to change careers to management consulting with a goal of becoming an entrepreneur. He decided to return to school and earned a master's degree in business administration from the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.
"Landing a job with Bain & Company directly out of business school was challenging but rewarding. The education and my job at Bain helped me to become a successful entrepreneur," said Sabanayagam.
When it comes to returning to school to earn a master's degree, Sabanayagam, has this advice: "Think about what it is that you want to achieve after your master's degree and work backwards to screen schools and programs to get you there. Look at the average salary of the job you want to get. Make sure the job you get after earning your master's degree provides you with the return on your investment in getting the master's degree."
The biggest reward for Sabanayagam in earning the second master's degree was, "getting 100 percent of my goals in a successful career change accomplished – nearly tripling my income. This was not a goal but a side benefit of going back to school."
Robin D. Everson is a native Chicagoan who resides in Dallas, Texas. Her appreciation for art, food, wine, people and places has helped her become a well-respected journalist. A life-long lover of education, Robin seeks to learn and enlighten others about culture. You can find her work at Examiner.com
