Hello!

I would like to get some advice about the following situation. Non-eu citizen (Russia) with previously held bachelor from home country (top uni), MSc from Sweden (Gothenburg Uni ranked 283 by QS Global), some work experience in Sweden (less than a year), extensive work experience in home country, including managerial experience, in the area of FP&A and management accounting. Currently also trying to get CIMA exams. Also good pack of foreign languages: french (studied 1 year exchange with french as tuition language), english (GMAT 690 but took the test in 2007 and now doing some revision in order to take the test again, MSc also taught in english), swedish (passed test that allows to study in university in swedish), currently studying dutch hoping to pass exam on B2 level in may 2018.

I would like to move to a specific country - Netherlands. (I have a bf there, but getting visa based on that is out of the table.) I need to be moving through finding a job after MBA graduation.

I considered RSM MBA and looked extensively at this school. Studied in details their placement reports, see some drop last years compared to previous year. A bit irritated that the report for 2017 is not published yet, but it makes sense since they need to see who found a job 3 months after graduation and the graduation is in december (program lasts jan-dec).

I would like to evaluate which strategy may work better for my case: going for top program in this country, i.e. RSM, or going may be for better school, why not INSEAD or IMD, trying to leverage its reputation specifically in NL.

Have to say that spending 50KEUR and being forced to come back home would be a total waste of money and a disaster on personal level, even though MBA salaries in Russia might be not bad at all.

Small addition: I saw this comment on this web-site:

https://find-mba.com/board/europe/language-skill-to-pick-up-for-rsm-netherlands-46162
"Something I was unaware of before I arrived at RSM is that it does have strong connections within the supply chain/operations industry. Amazon recruited many of the previous MBA batch for operation positions."

That actually sounds perfect for me, because my last company was french logistic operator, and my current one is technology company (software development), which makes great case for making Amazon my Nr.1 target company. If only this is still true, this comment is from 2016!

[Edited by Tatiana Kirillova on Feb 17, 2018]

If you like Swedish then you will love Dutch. Have you considered perfecting your Dutch and taking a masters taught in it? That way you would not be so limited to monolingual firms.

Hello Duncan,

thanks for reply! I did consider, but not dutch-taught MSc, but english ones. i decided against it for a few reasons:
1) even though tuition is lower, loan is not provided to cover it
2) I doubt the quality of the product for which local students pay 2kEUR, while international ones - 17kEUR. I might end up with unmotivated classmates vs MBA situation.
3) most important agrument - post education salaries - are significantly lower for MSc than for MBA - based on stats published by RSM. A serious consequesnce for me - since I count on highly skilled migrant visa after graduation - post MBA salary correspond to the level required for this visa type, while post MSc are not.
4) 2nd most important argument - I am 34 years old now. If I start MBA next year - I ll be 35 while doing it. Already EMBA would be a better fit for this age, but I was discuraged from doing it since it is not aimed at reframing candidates profile for local labor market, but rather targeting people who keep their jobs, which means EMBA students are excluded from school job hunting support and have lower chances of staying in the country. I count on school support. MSc is the other end - aimed at people either directly after bachelor or with few years of experience in between. I already experienced it in Sweden, have no illusions about that. Also the time required to perfect my dutch to that level would probably mean I ll end up being 36-37 years old in a room with 20-something students.... sounds boring a bit.