A 32-year-old CFO chose to stay at work instead of getting an MBA. Here's how she made the decision - and why she doesn't regret it.

Jamie Cohen

Jamie Cohen

• Jamie Cohen is the CFO of ANGI Homeservices, a company connecting home-care professionals with consumers.
• At 32 years old, she's reached the C-suite sooner than most.
• Her mentors and a specific decision-making strategy helped her make the choice to stay at ANGI Homeservices instead of going to business school.
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An MBA might offer a sizable return on investment, but for some executives, it may be more worthwhile to stay put at their company.

That's what Jamie Cohen, who at 32 is one of the youngest female CFOs in the country, eventually realized. Cohen is also the youngest C-suite member of ANGI Homeservices, a company connecting home-care professionals with consumers. Yet at multiple points throughout her career, she questioned whether she should go back to school for an MBA.

She says that her mentors (who also happened to be her bosses) advised her to stay. She kept that advice in the back of her head as she figured out her options.

Cohen took the GMAT in 2011. However, she then decided to take the senior analyst of corporate strategy role at the company what would become ANGI Homeservices over applying to business school. At the time, she didn't think she had enough years of experience to apply to business school successfully.

"At various points in time throughout my career, I would revisit and say I still have this GMAT score, should I go and should I get my MBA?" Cohen told Business Insider.

When she reached that point, Cohen would employ the data-driven decision-making skills she learned as an undergraduate at Wake Forest University's mathematical business department. She wanted to make an informed decision based on data.

"I think that's really what served me well as I learned on the job," Cohen said.

In this case, the data came from weighing where she would learn more: on the job or at business school? Cohen also had a network of mentors that included her boss at the time, ANGI Homeservices' then-CEO Chris Terrill. She had an ongoing conversation with Terrill and her other mentors, and ultimately concluded that there was more for her to learn at work - and a more desirable end if she stuck to the path she was on.

"I think that that has played out well for me," Cohen said.