Jason von Stieglitz
AUTHOR: Chris Sheedy DATE: 06.09.07 ISSUE 1, 2007
Jumping ship
The son of a professional fisherman, Jason von Stieglitz spent an enormous amount of time on, in and by the ocean. Not surprisingly, the boy who grew up in Tasmania chose a career in the Royal Australian Navy.
| Jason von Stieglitz, inaugural recipient of the Academy Graduates Association Scholarship, says he would like to move into environmental management after completing his AGSM MBA. |
After three years at the Australian Defence Force Academy (ADFA) studying Physics, then several years as an officer at sea around Australia, in the Middle East, the Solomon Islands, South East Asia, New Zealand and Hawaii, on the HMAS Manoora and the HMAS Ballarat, he’s back on land.
"I was in the Middle East before the most recent Gulf War, patrolling for oil smugglers. It was a very exciting job but after you've done it for a while you become used to it," says the 27-year-old full-time AGSM MBA student.
"I loved being at sea but didn't want to do that for my entire life.”
Jason opted to broaden the leadership and management skills he’d learned in the Navy by undertaking an MBA, and became the inaugural recipient of the $25,000 Academy Graduates Association Scholarship, awarded to academically and professionally outstanding graduates of ADFA.
Defence force training provided many lessons, he says, including the importance of punctuality, reliability and self-discipline.
"My short term plan after completing the MBA is to move into management consulting, an area where ex-military people are held in very high regard. Longer term I'd like to move into the field of environmental management and sustainability, where a lot of exciting things are happening," says Jason.
"Success, for me, is not about extreme wealth or working long hours, it's about working hard for the moment so that I can enjoy life later on."