Accelerating my career
For me, an MBA is a springboard from what I've done in the past to what I want to do in the future. I'm not looking to switch industries, like many MBAs; rather, I want to accelerate my existing career trajectory and bring it to the next level. I also wanted to accelerate my career by developing a network in Europe and getting into this market with an informed view of my future goals. Compared to other schools I visited, I felt that the HEC community truly offered a microcosm of international life. That was really attractive to me because I'm used to living in cosmopolitan cities like New York or Hong Kong, where I could interact with people from all over the world. I worried that I would miss this when I moved back to France. 

 

Exploring the European Market
I have an international background: I managed a regional team for French-based company that oversaw ten countries in Southeast Asia including South Korea, Taiwan, China, and Singapore. This experience was very interesting in terms of personal management experience and global perspective, and I wanted to keep this international scope in my career. I'm French, and I wanted to move closer to my family, so it was a combination of things that made me think that it was the right time to come back to Europe. I'd also never worked in Europe before, so it was also a new challenge for me: I'm used to huge, highly reactive markets, and I knew that in Europe it would be much more difficult, as markets here are far more saturated. So I thought, let's go see what's happening in the market where I'm from!

 

Training for my future
Organizing the MBA Tournament was an amazing experience, definitely my greatest personal achievement on campus. It was the first time I had to work with a team of people, all at the same level but from very different backgrounds and nationalities, to achieve a tangible goal. It was almost like running a small company: the MBAT has a €500,000 budget, takes place over four days, and directly involves ten coordinators who work four months on the project. The MBAT draws 2,000 participants to campus and requires 150 staff members. The event is incredibly well known: I was recently in a sailing competition in Italy and people were taking about it, so it has high visibility among the entire worldwide MBA community.

 

Developing a global vision
When I try to sum up the HEC experience, the first word that comes to mind is global, because you have a global vision of the world, thanks to the community here. We also develop global perspectives on business because the core courses are designed so that you have an entire vision of the value chain of a company, including its stakes, its various components, etc. You're really developing a global vision of your career: what have I done in the past, where am I going now, and what am I going to do over the next 20 or 30 years? You also have a global life here – you participate 100% in life on campus through extracurricular activities, living on campus, working in groups. You really do become part of a global family here at HEC.