2020 employment report just published at https://bit.ly/2Q52Zv7

Both employment and average compensation have fallen 13%. 

2020: "72% of job-seeking graduates
received an offer within
three months of
graduation*
5 Year Data (2016 - 2020): "82% of job-seeking graduates received an offer within three months of graduation". 
That means the 2016-2019 average was 85%, and thus there was a 13% fall. 

Even worse, a huge fall in average compensation.
2020: USD 118065
5 Year Data (2016 - 2020): USD 132,251That means the 2016-2019 average was USD 135797: also a 13% fall. 

sounds terrible. But looks like its just the effect of COVID. Hope things improve next year...

f it was only the impact of COVID, then other schools would have the same falls. Very few schools had a fall of more than 5% in employment. 

Yes that is true. I also heard some reports of discrimination and vulgar speech by some professors in HSG. It must have impacted it too. However, I am not totally sure of the depth of the case and its future consequences.

It seems unlikely that has notably changed from year to year, or has any effect on placement. More likely, many international students at HSG are still not getting the networking, language skills and transferrable skills to allow them to hit the ground running, in employers' eyes. 

They have a small class size and any small fluctuation can cause the % to change a lot. However, regarding the networking part, on paper it looks like a bunch of opportunities are available for networking throughout the year.



 I cannot quantify whether it is good to consider the HSG MBA for international students right now. Because I believe its very hard to learn the language at a very high level, along with the studies which decreases your job prospects by a lot.

The opportunity to network might be limited if you can't do networking in German. 

I have received an Interview invite for St. Gallen MBA. If I am successful in the interview, I plan defer my to next year, take a break from my job and try to learn German in this gap.  I will also keep on learning the language throughout the MBA though to reach business level. 

Does this approach make sense? Is 6 months less to learn German to a conversational level?

If you go to a German-speaking city and take an intensive course then six months will get you to a solid intermediate level, easily B1 and probably B2. German and Austrian town will be cheaper than Switzerland. Bonn, Leipzig, Munich and Vienna are among the well know state universities with good value language courses. I think I'd look for a city with the fewest foreigners to reduce the pressure to speak English: so, not Berlin, Frankfurt etc. 

Hi guys, I have received admission invite from IE and HSG. I am confused as I am from India but have been working in healthcare industry in Germany for few years now. Considering that, HSG looks like a better choice but IE looks to be a better school overall.

Any thoughts will be greatly appreciated. Also let me know if I should provide more information.

This depends on your goals and your language skills. Why did you pick these schools? Neither of these schools have very good careers services. 

I work as healthcare analytics and forecasting professional and I want to continue to work in strategy roles in Healthcare industry in the future, preferably in the German region as i have already spent some time here and would like to capitalize on that. HSG and WHU were my main target schools, especially HSG due to its reputation in the German speaking area. Also Switzerland has been the centre of healthcare and from what I have heard from multiple people, HSG is strong in placing students in this industry. I might be wrong but multiple sources were pointing out to the same thing.
Another reason is that I prefer to study in a smaller cohort to get the best out of my education and these two colleges do not have enormous batch size like many other colleges. Batch size according to me is a double edged sword so I just decided to go with my preference, which is having a lower size. This is why I shortlisted HSG and WHU.

Finally i plan to join any MBA only in September 2022 and I will take dedicated full time off (approx 10-12 months) to learn German upto B1 B2 level before I join any programme. I have some knowledge of German already but I have no accurate measure of it as of now.
I am yet to apply for WHU because its application process for September 2022 intake has not started yet. From what I know about WHU, its good for consulting but I don't have any information about the healthcare part.

Regarding reasons to apply for IE, honestly, it was majorly because of its brand name. But my perspective about it has changed through the application process itself. We can keep it out of the discussion for now. Hence for now, HSG is my only choice with WHU as another option.
I barfed up a lot of thoughts above but I hope some of it makes sense. Should I consider other colleges or do you think HSG makes sense according to my plan and goals? Any thoughts would be appreciated.

HSG places well into healthcare but what really matters is whether it places foreign MBAs. The placement reports don't paint a positive picture so I would compare the options. 

If you study full time you will possibly be at B1 in four months, B2 certainly in eight. Maybe learn German at a state uni in a German or Austrian city (cheaper) with a big healthcare sector. 

PS sorry, Stuart gave a very similar response. I should have read it before replying. 

[Edited by Duncan on Jun 15, 2021]

Baden Wuertenburg looks like a great region to learn German in and do networking: https://www.gtai.de/resource/blob/64096/02816c3841e36b52584e2dc499cef948/Biotechnology_Clusters_Germany_2021.pdf

Excuse me but HSG has a much better brand name than IE. If you check the rankings over the past two years it has heavily dropped. Some dubious and strange things were made (mainly with student satisfaction and statistics). Trust me, go to HSG and you will have more opportunities as the salaries in Switzerland are easily 2/3 X the one you will get in Spain/France or the UK. Good luck!

You're silly. Salaries are twice that of Spain because costs are twice that of Spain. https://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/compare_cities.jsp?country1=Spain&city1=Madrid&country2=Switzerland&city2=Zurich

I disagree with Andy too. Not only duncan's point of high cost of living in Switzerland is valid, getting a job there is itself difficult due to strict visa regulations from the Government and language barrier. The IE rankings has fallen only in FT and not anywhere else, so there is no question of Brand Value in my opinion.

I am bending towards HSG majorly because I have German work culture experience and I would like to continue working in German speaking area. And from what i have read, I should study where I want to work, along with learning the language.

[Edited by RDG on Jun 17, 2021]

IE can fall a long way and still rank higher than HSG. 

HSG has arguably a better rep across Europe and elsewhere.