Scott Kelly 26EMBA, a current student in Goizueta Business School’s Executive MBA Class of 2026, has found himself at the center of a viral whirlwind.
During a Jonas Brothers concert in Buffalo, an attendee noticed something unexpected: a man in front of her scrolling through a PDF labeled “Scott Kelly Resume Sept 2025.” Amused by the sight, she recorded a short clip and shared it on TikTok later that evening. She couldn’t have predicted what happened next.
Within hours, the video took off. Millions of viewers reshared and commented, celebrities jumped into the conversation, and brands added their own playful reactions. As the audience grew, curiosity about the mystery résumé owner—Kelly—spread across platforms. Soon, national outlets picked up the story, and Kelly appeared on both Fox & Friends and The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, where Fallon even highlighted a QR code to Kelly’s resume.
All of this unfolded while Kelly was juggling his Executive MBA coursework, career, and family responsibilities.
“It’s been incredible to watch this unfold,” said Jaclyn Conner, associate dean for the Executive MBA and Evening MBA programs. “Scott brings so much energy and professionalism to our program. Seeing the public respond to him with such enthusiasm has been wonderful.”
Below, Kelly shares a few reflections on the experience.
You’ve had a whirlwind week. Has anything about the public reaction surprised or amused you—either online or in person?
The relentless positivity has been wonderful and inexplicable. In 2025, it seems nothing is both that popular and that positive on the internet. I have been receiving well wishes and messages of support nonstop since I was first identified by the TikTok community as the “real” Scott Kelly on Tuesday, and I am thrilled that so many have taken this as an opportunity to tell jokes and get their daily dose of feel-good.
I’ve also been surprised by how sensitive people have been about respecting my privacy. Monday I started getting messages on LinkedIn from folks who had seen the video, and several of them said they were declining to post the video and tag me as it appeared I hadn’t made a public acknowledgement yet. I was grateful that when Jen posted the original video, she blurred out everything on the screen other than my name, which is admittedly pretty generic. Even when Jimmy Fallon’s team reached out, one of their first questions was if I would face any blowback by coming on and if I was going to be comfortable with the amount of attention it would garner. As chaotic as all this has been, I’ve largely received white glove treatment from both the media and internet community.
At what point did you realize the video had taken on a life of its own?
Tuesday, when my wife showed me an article in USA Today had written about it. That’s when I realized the story was crossing over from social media to traditional media, and it was only a matter of time before I was discovered, one way or another.
How have your classmates, professors, and the Goizueta community reacted to all of this?
My classmates have been absolutely stellar. I’ve used our group chat to both geek out about this whole process and vent at times. No one really understands what this has been like, including myself, as I’m just taking it moment by moment, but I can’t begin to describe how grateful I am for the support of my whole cohort. If you’re going to suddenly go viral and deal with new, novel, unknowable problems flying out of everywhere all at once, having direct access to a group of brilliant, successful problem solvers from across industries who really have your back is a godsend.
On Fallon, you spoke about the challenges many veterans face when transitioning into civilian life. Why is that message important to you, and what do you hope people took away from that part of the conversation?
The message is important to me because of my own struggles, which I experienced when it was my time to leave the Army.
I transitioned out of the Army in March 2022, having been medically retired after getting home from Afghanistan the previous year. I had several things working in my favor when I made my transition. My family was going to be financially stable even if I didn’t find a job right away due to my wife’s own successful career, I had a loving family to support me as I started what became 18 months of physical therapy to be able to walk normally again and dress myself in the morning (trying to get socks on was just brutal, God bless slip-ons), and access to a wonderful suite of services at Syracuse University’s Institute for Veterans and Military Families. Despite having the deck stacked in my favor, it was still a brutal process. I’d rather redo SERE school than go through transition again.
I discovered what many veterans do, that leaving the military and becoming a civilian entails a lot more than simply finding a new career or deciding where to live. It’s about discovering a new sense of self. A mentor told me that transition takes roughly two years. It’s a process, not an event. He was right.
When you are in the military you become a hybrid version of yourself. You keep parts of who you were before you joined and absorb a tremendous amount of whatever military community you are in into you. But one day you leave, and over the next two years you discover which parts of you are central to your sense of self, regardless of where you are—which parts might be useful in your new, civilian world, and which parts, regardless of what level of attachment you have to them, need to be set aside.
You end up simultaneously mourning the loss of parts of you that you once thought were essential to who you are and celebrating the discovery of new connections and skills you thought you never had or would never be able to develop. It’s a wild and chaotic ride. And as you go through it, your friends and family experience part of it too as they have to adjust with you every step of the way.
Transition is hard, and struggling with it is not only okay, but should be expected. I hope to find more opportunities to support veterans as they go through the process. As veterans, despite how we may sometimes feel, we are not alone, and it’s important to remind ourselves of that.
Scott Kelly is a member of Goizueta’s Executive MBA Class of 2026. He is also the host of the national security podcast At the Water’s Edge highlighted during his recent appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.
Discover how Goizueta’s Master in Business for Veterans program empowers veterans like Scott Kelly to write their next chapter.
