The ESADE MBA Blog · ESADE Business School · Barcelona

Archive for October, 2009

About two weeks ago, I started to share how my experience at ESADE has compared to the expectations I had before coming. I’ll finish up this line of thought today, sharing the last two of my main reasons for coming here. Then it’s on to Career Week!

#3: I sought a 1st rate general MBA education as well as research centres relevant to my specific interests in social innovation.

Reality: Right now I’m excited about a meeting that a group of us students had yesterday with Professor Alfred Vernis of ESADE’s Institute for Social Innovation. Thanks to the initiative of classmate Marcin Bortnik, Professor Vernis has offered us the opportunity to create a business plan for a start-up designer retail outlet that provides employment to people with mental illness. We will visit the client this coming Friday, so fingers crossed! If everything works out, it will be a nice way to apply important classroom knowledge to something I care about in the real world.

#4: By completing my studies in Spanish and study with a truly international student body, I wanted to become truly fluent and adept at working with intercultural teams.

Reality: I’ve studied and used Spanish in professional settings before, but the immersion experience is allowing me—and forcing me!—to work on more elusive aspects of language and style. My big challenge right now is to master not only the differences between direct vs. indirect communication but also the different between being indirect and being diplomatic.

Although I knew this was going to happen, it came as quite a shock to find myself applying for jobs again when you come to business school. For me it was not before I started working on my cover letters, CV etc. that I realized I actually gave up a job (Corporate Finance consulting based in Vienna) that was safe and that I had actually enjoyed and that there was no way back…

So I spent most of my time during the last two weeks getting ready to apply for consulting internship positions. Application deadlines are only three weeks away and many top-tier consulting companies will be at ESADE career days next week.

Career services stressed the importance of starting to work on our CVs and Cover Letters from the first workshop held during immersion week. That was almost eight weeks ago. It took a looming application deadline for me to finally wrap up my cover letter.

However, that was just the beginning. Case interviews and how to prepare for it has become the main issue by now. And this is where ESADE Consulting Club comes in.

As with most business schools, the consulting club at ESADE is one of the biggest (120 members) and most active clubs on campus. One of its goals is to prepare us for the dreaded consulting interview. Last week I attended three meetings / workshops organized by the Consulting Club. Besides the regular Wednesday meeting we have a case study methodology session Thursdays plus a very valuable “crack the case” workshop held by an ESADE alumni on the next five Saturdays. Of course all of this doesn’t make up for actually practicing the cases on your own or in mock interviews. I guess I’ll find out how good my preparation really was soon enough…

Career Week is just around the corner! And getting prepared for it has been harder than I thought but I am sure it will all be worth it. Career Week is an important opportunity to get to know the companies we are interested in and also the ones we have never even considered before. Take me for example, I have always worked and planned to keep doing so in fast moving consumer good companies, but recently on the Career Week list I spotted an interesting company called Syngenta.

Syngenta specializes in crop protection, an industry I had never thought of before, but could be exciting, different and challenging for my professional life. I will not miss their presentation on campus next week – this will be a great way to open up my options. So like me, explore all possibilities, remember to register on-line for the company presentations and check their application deadlines as all of them have different dates. Good luck! I hope you find your perfect company…

With the end of Pre-Term and the first round of exams last week, many of us students were asking ourselves and each other, “Has ESADE fulfilled our expectations so far?”

As a way of introducing myself on this blog, I want to share why I chose ESADE as the right business school for me and how my actual experience this past month stacks up against those expectations. I’ll start off with two personal reasons that don’t show up in my official application essays!

#1: I sought the freedom to explore my goals and the inspiration to push my personal boundaries. I am not a typical MBA. After receiving a BA in social anthropology from Harvard, I worked in nonprofit arts management in Boston and community development in Guatemala and El Salvador. Any business school would bring new challenges, but would I be able to define success for myself and be motivated to assert my vision at all of them?

Reality: Off the charts! I’ve already learned more about myself, about communicating my ideas and about working with different types of people than I thought possible in such a short time. The leadership class gave me insight into recognizing and resolving disconnects between my possible working environments, goals, values and competencies. In my study group, I’m discovering what pushes my buttons and my team mates’ buttons and what I can do to help (not inhibit) the group’s results as well as my own. Of course, this past month is just the beginning.

#2: I wanted to enjoy a fabulous life experience in Barcelona as well as a top-rate academic program. My professional life has been my number one priority for a long time. An MBA is an investment in my future, but why not live in Barcelona now?

Reality: The first month is an intense period of adjustment. New work. New city. New friends. It takes time. And so, it’s incredible that in a simple 2-hour study break, I can soak up the Mediterranean sun on the beach or listen to music at one of Barcelona’s free outdoor festivals. I can blow off steam dancing until 5am or relax sipping a cerveza in one of Gracia’s plazas. (5am is not late here, by the way!) I checked out the film festival down the coast in Sitges yesterday, and I’ve got tickets to see a renowned flamenco dancer next week. There is a lot out there! The trick is balancing it with the workload. Oh, and don’t worry, your friends back home won’t need convincing to visit you in Barcelona!

I’ll save my official reasons for coming to ESADE—the 1st rate education and research centers, the bilingual program and the international focus—for my next post.