I’ve been working in retail level jobs for a long time. I hadn’t planned on making retail my career when I first got my job at a local grocery store, but 15 years later I was still stocking shelves and running a register, although at a different store now.

The logical next step for me would be to seek a management position, either where I work now or at another business. And I’ve tried! I’m a good worker, but I don’t have anything I can put onto a resume that would get me a management job.

A mini-MBA was suggested to me as an interesting option by a co-worker who was currently in a program to earn hers. She told me that a mini-MBA is significantly less expensive and less time-consuming, which is important to me considering my work schedule. I can’t afford to go back to school for years and years to earn a traditional Master’s, and I’m a little burnt on college anyway. It’s not like the undergrad degree I got has helped me anywhere!

The mini-MBA is nowhere as powerful as a traditional MBA in terms of getting a job, but I’m not competing with Fortune 500 execs here in retail. I think a mini-MBA would be just the thing to tip the scales in my favor on an application, especially considering my years of hands-on experience in retail. It would show that I’m not complacent in my skills and that I want to be more.

Plus, I really am interested in the topics covered in a mini-MBA program. I wouldn’t be considering making my stay in retail permanent if I wasn’t interested in how businesses are run, or how I might run one better. I’m sure there are plenty of high-level tasks I would be taking on as a manager that I’ve never faced before, like managing a hiring budget.

So now it’s time to take the next step and find a program I like, so I can hurry up with the process of improving my career prospects.