Job Responsibilities
UW System is comprised of 13 four-year campuses and 13 two-year
campuses. My office is on the flagship Madison campus, but at UW
System Administration, we work for all the campuses around the
state. My work responsibilities are on the business side of the
university, primarily in procurement, including --
-- Business strategy. Mission and vision, budget and staffing,
change management regarding major purchases (e.g., IT systems),
state government relations, and public relations.
-- Research & analysis. Create and manintain database to analyze
spend data for strategic sourcing, research and write reports on
top spend items and vendors, conduct bid and procurement analyses,
analyze cost impact of legislative mandates, and so on.
-- Project management. (e.g., office moves and leases)
-- Other. Prepare legislative testimony and statuatorily
mandated reports, assist management with presentations and
communications.
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Job Requirements
Executive MBA, University of Wisconsin-Madison; MS Economics,
University of Utah; BS Economics, Nebraska Wesleyan.
The Executive MBA from UW was absolutely the best educational
experience I've ever had. The professors were the best of the
best. We were treated as clients, more so than students. All my
classmates worked full-time and had considerable work experience -
- which made for interesting class discussions that went way
beyond theory into concrete applied lessons.
Economics degrees were fun but much more theoretical in nature at
the MS and BS levels. Anyone studying economics should make sure
to study the theory well, but also add applied financial and
economic analysis skills.
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Uppers
-- Helping the procurement team score big contract wins.
-- Analyzing contracts and spend to make sure UW students get the best value
for their tuition and fee dollars.
-- Laying out business cases for management and receiving authority to
implement business plans.
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Downers
Although the university has a business side and is allowed to
operate as a business in some sense, we're still a a state-run
university and a state government agency. As such, the
bureaucracy can stifle many plans because many decisions at high
levels are made on a political basis rather than best business
practices.
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Lifestyle
Works hours vary by project, but overall, I work 40 hours a week. (My private
sector counterparts in the EMBA program worked much longer hours and traveled
away from home more.) I have about five weeks of vacation annually, and was able
to take three weeks off when my daughter was born.
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Compensation
$64,000 -- due to tight budgets and the Wisconsin's legislature's
unwillingness to increase state employees' salaries, my salary has
been at this level for the last three years.
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Advice to Jobseekers
If you are truly interested in business, the business side of the
university won't be for you. (After receiving a MBA, I'm not sure
it's for me either.) Although business analytical skills are
completely necessary, you also have to deal with large, slow-
moving bureaucracy and state-goverment politics.
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