The ESADE MBA Blog · ESADE Business School · Barcelona

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After having spent the summer in beautiful barcelona, working for my internship and enjoying the sun and beach, it is time to get back to class!

I’m having 2 weeks of intensive classes, beginning last week with “STRATEGIC BUSINESS SIMULATOR” class which I found awesome! Yes it was quite hectic as we have been working with my group non stop from morning till late in the evening every day of the past week. However, the class was astonishingly interesting cause it was the first time we managed to put into practice almost all the learnings of our MBA so far. It consisted in running a “virtual” company, which would compete in a virtual market which included the companies of all the other groups in the class. The results were fun and taught us a lot regarding setting clear roles/goals/responsibilities and working as a team not only when things go well, but mainly when things go bad ( and believe me, at the beginning things were going reaaaally bad for our company but in the end we ended up among the best in the class ).
This week I have the “GLOBAL SALES” course with professor Kenneth Morse from MIT’s Entrepreneurship Institute. So far it seems very exciting however it’s too early to give a verdict.
As I will keep working as an intern throughout the year until graduation, it will be quite challenging to manage my time and split it between classes and office though I shouldn’t complain because this is what I signed up for and I consider it part of the MBA learning process.

Before closing, I would like to mention that it is impossible not to notice all the new faces around the school. Exactly… I mean the new class of 2012! I’ve had the chance to meet a few and I’m impressed by the various profiles and success stories they shared with me. They look very vibrant and eager to join student clubs and take charge of further improving ESADE from what we achieved. I’m looking forward to meeting more of them!

Infinite group projects, lots of individual studying, countless student club organized events, non-stop partying, a lot of success stories witnessed, one of the most beautiful cities….and year one is over….Wow…time has flown by so fast. I arrived in Barcelona a little less than a year ago, and it still feels like yesterday. Today I look back to where I was last September and feel very satisfied and excited. I begun the MBA, not being sure about what kind of career I wanted to pursue afterwards. However I was positive for several reasons, that I wanted this career to bloom in the Health Care sector. Everything looked like a huge and menacing mountain to me. As I was coming from an entrepreneurial background, I had no experience or whatsoever in job hunting, job applications, recruitment processes and the very dreaded recruitment interviews. I didn’t know where to begin from. After a lot of hard work, I managed to secure my internship in one of the world’s most important global players in the pharmaceuticals sector, and will have the great opportunity to learn and to develop myself professionally.

The process to get there has been a quite painful one and I wouldn’t have achieved it weren’t it for ESADE. I look back and feel grateful to all the people that helped me and kept pushing and encouraging me. From professors to career advisors to (of course) my classmates! Many times I get the question “Are you happy with your choice of ESADE?”, the answer is “ABSOLUTELY”. ESADE may not the world’s best or #1 ranked Business School , but that’s not what one should be asking. ESADE has definitely been THE BEST choice for me. The people I had the chance to meet and work with are amazing. I’ve never seen so much solidarity and willingness to help. I would walk around the school after class and would see my fellow classmates helping each other with anything from exams preparation to mock interviews. I did not just have a group of very competent career advisors to follow me and teach me how to improve and “calibrate” myself, but also a group of 180 amazing professionals always available to help with anything I might need.

After having spent a year at ESADE, I can tell with absolute certainty that it is the world’s most collaborative MBA. Great friendships have been crafted that I am sure will last a lifetime. ESADE is not just a professional investment. It has enriched me not just professionally but also personally. There is so much intrinsic value that it’s well worth the commitment. In September, year two begins. I’m looking forward to the new elective courses, and to meet and get to know the incoming class.

Would I do this all over again? I don’t think I need to answer…

The ESADE Entrepreneurship Club is launching the coming Friday 21st of May, the first annual Quest for Talent event. The event consists of three parts, a business idea elevator pitch competition, a series of panelists and the core part which is a career fair of growth companies!! Among the invitees, MBAs from Europe’s top business schools and european growth companies.

In the elevator pitch competition, competitors will have 2 minutes to communicate their business idea. The three best ideas will share prizes which total in 4000 euros!

The panelists will discuss issues that concern growth firms, especially in the high tech sectors.

Last but not least, the career fair is meant to create new job opportunities for MBAs and bring growth companies in contact with top talent!

The entrepreneurship club board has worked very hard with a lot of passion for this event, aiming to help fellow classmates and boost ESADE’s reputation. There has been a lot of interest in this initiative, which allowed us to attract sponsors such as La Caixa and one of Barcelona’s most important business incubators, “Barcelona Activa”. For more information feel free to check entrepreneurship.esadembasa.com.

After a hectic Term 1, one might have expected Term 2 to be slightly more relaxed. However there is still so much going on and so little time. From the very first days we had to prepare for the “Winter Career Week” when some very important multinationals would come meet us on campus. Big names such as Clinton Foundation, Johnson & Johnson, Luxottica, Nestlè, L’Oreal, LVMH and others were there. Doors of great opportunities opened to many students. Many of us had follow-up recruiting interviews and the preparation for those was – and still is – very intense.

Schoolwise, the two new subjects I prefer are Finance II and Strategy. I believe that understanding the principles of finance and risk valuation is key to becoming successful managers regardless the sector. I am very impressed with professor Luisa Alemani. Today we had our Finance II mid-term exam and most of the class showed a good understanding of the principles taught so far. Strategy professor Luis Vives is equally engaging. In his class we analyze business cases, comment on business decisions while taking into consideration all the various forces surrounding corporations. I am working with an Irish, Canadian, German, Mexican / American and another student whose number of nationalities, I don’t remember exactly…three of them were American / Polish / Dutch. In this term, we are obviously more organized and structured in the way we approach our workload. We all have to fit in our schedule the individual job search, so our time management is much more efficient compared to the previous term and duties are better distributed.

Next week some of us ESADE students will be part of the GSMA Mobile World Congress, the biggest mobile expo in the world, which takes place in Barcelona on an annual basis. This has been achieved thanks to the effort of the ESADE Technology Club and its president, student Daniel Helmhold. I am very excited about this event. More GSMA and club related news on my next post.

Hasta pronto!