What Does a Fulbright Scholar with an MBA Do Next?

Cesar Manzano
Jan 15
3 min read

Updated: Feb 7

Smiling scholar stands by FULBRIGHT España banner, wearing vest and sunglasses.

I'm not your typical candidate—and that's exactly the point. After teaching English in Spain as a Fulbright Scholar, spending 8 years leading strategic initiatives, and earning my MBA (4.0 GPA), I'm making a deliberate career transition into customer education, learning & development, and content marketing roles.

If you're wondering what someone with my background brings to these fields—let me explain.

What 8 Years in Education Actually Taught Me

Here's what people don't realize: I've been doing data analysis all along.

Report cards, state assessments, attendance records, benchmarks. I've analyzed performance data for more than 1,000+ stakeholders, including students and parents. I led cross-functional teams, managed compliance reporting for district-wide initiatives, and developed strategic frameworks that translated complex data into actionable plans.

The skills? Strategic planning. Data analysis. Process improvement. Training Design. Content Creation. Change Leadership. The only difference? I've been applying them in K-12 education instead of corporate environments. But the core work—helping people learn new tools, creating content that drives adoption, using data to improve outcomes—is exactly what customer education specialists, L&D professionals, and content marketers do every day.

What My MBA Taught Me

Business strategy isn't theoretical for me—it's applied.

Market Entry Strategy for EdTech Startup

For my capstone project, I conducted 37+ customer interviews and surveys for a bilingual EdTech concept targeting 250,000+ English Language Learners in the Rio Grande Valley. I developed customer segmentation, competitive positioning, and go-to-market strategy identifying significant market opportunity.

That project taught me how to listen to customers, identify their pain points, and create solutions that actually address their needs—which is exactly what great customer education and content marketing require.

View my complete portfolio here

What My International Experience Gave Me

Teaching in Spain—and later being selected to pilot a new International English Camp in Italy taught me to navigate ambiguity in unfamiliar environments, build relationships across languages and cultures, and adapt quickly to changing circumstances.

These are the same skills that make customer education specialists and L&D professionals effective: the ability to understand diverse audiences, communicate across differences, and help people succeed with new tools and concepts.

Plus, I'm bilingual (English/Spanish), which opens doors to creating content and training for diverse customer bases.

What I Actually Want to Do

Think:

Creating content that empowers people to learn and succeed
Designing training programs that drive real adoption and outcomes
Using data to continuously improve how people engage with content
Writing clear, compelling educational materials
Understanding customers deeply so I can create solutions that actually work

What I'm Looking For

I'm pursuing opportunities in:

Customer Education (creating training content, driving product adoption, measuring customer success)
Learning & Development (designing corporate training, facilitating professional development, building learning programs)
Content Marketing (writing educational content, creating customer-facing resources, developing thought leadership)

What excites me? Turning data into strategy. Building frameworks that drive decisions. Solving problems that require both analytical rigor and creative thinking.

What Makes Me Unique

I don't come from consulting, finance, or corporate backgrounds, and I didn't learn customer education from a training manual. I learned it by managing projects and helping people adopt new tools with limited budgets, competing stakeholders, and real constraints.

That's made me resourceful and practical. I know which frameworks work in theory versus which ones work when things get messy. And I'm not afraid to be the unconventional candidate.

Let's Connect

My background isn't traditional. But neither are the problems most organizations face today when it comes to customer education, employee training, and creating content that actually drives results..

If you're looking for someone who can design and implement training programs, interpret and communicate complex data, and bring fresh perspective—let's talk.