I'm considering applying to IMD but also considering schools like Manchester, Warwick, HEC, INSEAD. I've an engineering background and 5-6 years of experience. I'm from outside Europe.

I think I will get more of a university like experience in the UK schools and I know that IMD is relatively a new school.

1) With regards to Manchester and Warwick, are they at a lower tier than IMD?

2) And are HEC and INSEAD above IMD?

3) Does it make more sense to go for a school like IMD given that the UK economy will also have an issue with Brexit?

4) I also know that the course is very intensive at IMD and probably gives me better experience overall. Just a bit unsure about employability in Europe if I go to IMD. Could anyone please help with their thoughts?

IMD's roots go to 1946. This notion of 'above' and below' is not very useful outside of context: what are your goals? Do you speak French? 

Thanks Duncan for writing back. My goals are to be in a senior management/leadership role and to stay and work in maybe a tech firm in Europe in such a role. No, I don't speak French but I'm happy to put in the effort. I know it will be very difficult to be fluent and speak it professionally in an year though.

It won't be possible to learn it in a demanding year-long course taught in English. 

I do agree but I do believe the course and the college has its strengths and I do know that a few tech firms do hire without the need for candidates to speak another language. I would be very grateful if you can help with my initial questions and how you think the course is as compared to some of the other choices I mention.

1/2. I can't answer this outside of the context of more specific goals than you have provided. 
3/4. Language and culture are bigger factors than Brexit. IMD is a great school, but what sort of tech firms have it as a major recruiting source?

So, one of my main goals is to ensure that I get a great education. I know that this is probably not one of the main reasons many people do an MBA but I also want to ensure that I study in a program that is intense and also teaches me as much as possible in as little time as possible. The experience that IMD along with some of the other schools can give me is something that definitely interests me. And IMD is pretty highly ranked too in the FT rankings and also the Forbes ranking.

As per the 2019 career stats report, https://www.imd.org/globalassets/_program-pages/mba/docs/mba-career-stats.pdf,
Amazon, Google, Accenture, Lenovo, Facebook, Cisco, Oracle, etc. made at least one offer to IMD MBA participants. So, even though it might not be a major recruiting source, it does look like tech firms hire MBA candidates from IMD.

Also, if you were to rank them just based on reputation, how would you go about ranking them?

This is absolutely an excellent school, arguably above Insead and LBS. It is also very intensive and doesn't have a very traditional hiring pipeline into tech the way it does with FMCG. And I think it makes no sense to pick an MBA without starting from career goals. 

[Edited by Duncan on Aug 04, 2020]

Thanks a lot, Duncan. My goal would be to be at a CXO level position maybe 10-15 years down the line. In this regard, IMD's focus on leadership development is something that is very appealing. 

Immediately after my MBA, I would probably want to go into product management in one of the tech firms that I mentioned above. And I want to also stay and work in western Europe. Hope this clarifies my career goals.

See the post linked on my profile page about using LinkedIn. You can focus on schools that place into tech PM roles.