Hi Everyone
I'm 34-years old and planning to do an MBA in Europe next year. I have a bachelors in engineering and then a masters from one of the IIMs. Over the past 11 years, I've been working in marketing roles in MNCs with a steady career progression. I've worked in India as well as in Africa, and I'm reasonably fluent in French as well (Speaking at a B level, while C in the other skills).
The reason I want to do an MBA now is primarily international mobility. I'd like to move to either UK/France while not making a dramatic shift in industry (definitely not interested in consulting or finance, while primarily interested in more traditional manufacturing industries as well as in bio-tech/healthcare to an extent. I'm currently in a manufacturing company that's in the home improvement space, I also have experience in consumer durables). I would target marketing/general management roles, so there won't be a function change either.
I have a GMAT score of 730.
With this in mind and considering my above avg experience, I've zeroed in on the following schools:
UK: Cambridge, Oxford, Cass, Warwick, Manchester, Cranfield - in that order of preference. I understand that I might be considered too experienced for Oxford, but I'd like to give it a shot. Cass gives location, Warwick seems like a great school and avg age is 32, Cranfield also has an avg age of 32.
Europe: IMD (Seems like a good fit for my profile, plenty of people with similar profiles in their current batch, seems like a good school for industry jobs), EDHEC and EmLyon (Both solid schools, and with a high avg age batch).
Now my question really is about HEC. I can see that it's aimed at a slightly younger participant, but they seemed receptive to my profile when I contacted them. However, they are also asking me to strongly consider the EMBA. I don't want to do an EMBA because I want to take a year out, build a strong network, and start in a new industry afresh in a new country. EMBA feels like a massive investment which won't necessarily give me the returns I want. I'm not looking for a step jump in my career, and I'd be happy re-starting from where I am after the MBA.
Any advice on my situation please? Are the schools I've picked sensible picks, and are there some I might have missed? Does it make sense to apply to HEC MBA?
I'm 34-years old and planning to do an MBA in Europe next year. I have a bachelors in engineering and then a masters from one of the IIMs. Over the past 11 years, I've been working in marketing roles in MNCs with a steady career progression. I've worked in India as well as in Africa, and I'm reasonably fluent in French as well (Speaking at a B level, while C in the other skills).
The reason I want to do an MBA now is primarily international mobility. I'd like to move to either UK/France while not making a dramatic shift in industry (definitely not interested in consulting or finance, while primarily interested in more traditional manufacturing industries as well as in bio-tech/healthcare to an extent. I'm currently in a manufacturing company that's in the home improvement space, I also have experience in consumer durables). I would target marketing/general management roles, so there won't be a function change either.
I have a GMAT score of 730.
With this in mind and considering my above avg experience, I've zeroed in on the following schools:
UK: Cambridge, Oxford, Cass, Warwick, Manchester, Cranfield - in that order of preference. I understand that I might be considered too experienced for Oxford, but I'd like to give it a shot. Cass gives location, Warwick seems like a great school and avg age is 32, Cranfield also has an avg age of 32.
Europe: IMD (Seems like a good fit for my profile, plenty of people with similar profiles in their current batch, seems like a good school for industry jobs), EDHEC and EmLyon (Both solid schools, and with a high avg age batch).
Now my question really is about HEC. I can see that it's aimed at a slightly younger participant, but they seemed receptive to my profile when I contacted them. However, they are also asking me to strongly consider the EMBA. I don't want to do an EMBA because I want to take a year out, build a strong network, and start in a new industry afresh in a new country. EMBA feels like a massive investment which won't necessarily give me the returns I want. I'm not looking for a step jump in my career, and I'd be happy re-starting from where I am after the MBA.
Any advice on my situation please? Are the schools I've picked sensible picks, and are there some I might have missed? Does it make sense to apply to HEC MBA?
