Hello Friends,

I have got final admits from ESMT MBA and IE IMBA and I am in super dilemma which one to select.

I am from India and have 10 years of IT Business Process Consulting experience. I am PMP certified, Six Sigma Black Belt, ITIL certified. My target career goal post MBA is Leadership programs and general management positions preferably in the same sector.

I have gone through lot of threads and want to look "Beyond the FT Rankings". Following are the points which I am considering.

1) Rankings -> Of course IE is #12 in FT whereas ESMT is # 64. But I really doubt about its direct effect on me.

2) Language-> I can’t speak German or Spanish. This subjective issue will remain there with me throughout the Europe. Surely, I have good 6 months and will work intensively on my selected B school language.
Though I have been informed that with my "Transferable IT skills" language issue will NOT impact me that much as I am not targeting Marketing/Sales etc roles!

3) International Mobility-> IE is in top 10 for international mobility BUT this might be the result of lot of Latin American International students with Spanish language attending the class and continuing their career in Spain.
As per their latest Career report, 62% of Asian students returned to Asia only and 11% stayed in Europe. This is again a very subjective as well as discouraging figure as I am absolutely not interested in spending in Euros and earning in Indian Rupees. 1 Euro = 75 INR

4) Career Cell-> One of the current IE IMBA student described the Career Cell of IE to me as "Utter Crap". This can be an individualistic opinion but everywhere I am reading only such kind of comments only whereas with ESMT, since class size is small, Career cell is performing OK with less pressure.

5) Scholarships:- I have received Euros 7000 scholarship from ESMT which brought down my tuition cost to Euros 31000
E fee is Euros 65000 and till now I have not received any scholarship.

6) Berlin vs Madrid-> Berlin is more cosmopolitan with lot of IT start-ups and many established German organizations' headquarters.
I didn't get any such info about Madrid.

7) LinkedIn search:- I definitely get discouraged when I look for Indian candidates who studied from IE. Most of them are either back in India searching for jobs or working at a level which does not require investment of Euros 60000 in MBA. Most of Indian ESMT alumni are working in Europe at least.

Friends,
I know IE is a world class school with great faculty but I am more worried about my ROI (Return on Investment). With an "not-so-bad" option in hand, I am still trying to find a confidence to go for IE IMBA with double the cost!

Please help me in this situation

I think you have a very clear perspective. Are there other options available to you? Come to Europe ASAP and get started on language training.

Unfortunately I don't have any other option with me right now!

Because of my personal constraints I opted for Jan intake schools only. I will start learning my future "language" here in India on asap basis.

Duncan, Can I get some more inputs from your side comparing my two options?
Any food-for-thought will work for me as my clock for reserving the seat is ticking!

@Akash,

Here are my 2 cents.

SKILL
1) Think of your MBA as a skill development. I see MBA as a bridge for a skill gap. Skill gap is the missing skills for your post MBA job, that you'll learn at MBA

2) Above point, leads to the question about your target post MBA job. The more specific and clear you are about your career goal, the easier it gets to identify your skill gap and develop the skills during MBA (selection of MBA program would depend upon this)

So while leadership programs and general management positions sound like a nice plan. They are counter productive for International students

Because of the assumption
a) A company in xxx country is ready to hire you over it's own citizen because you have certain special skills
b) xxx country's law dictates that only specialty occupation be open to foreign nationals.

Leadership programs (at least in US) are rotational in nature. You would be hired for 2 years and then work in Finance, Marketing, Operations, HR etc. then they would assess your fit and based on feedback you'll be assigned a managerial role.

A better approach would be having specific goals such as Manager, ERP - Deloitte Consulting in Munich (just making it up). So now you can go to Deloitte's German website and see what positions are open, what skill sets are required. And if your target MBA program will help you prepare.

Then use LinkedIn to find people - But you know all that already.

MBA
1) if you don't have specific goals, then I guess you are using your MBA as a ticket into EU. While nothing wrong with it. MBA is not an immigration tool. Spain is very different than Germany.

2) All international students must understand the risk of undertaking education in another country. While going for Student visa interview students confirm that their purpose to go to xxx country is education and their intention is to come back to home country. You may not want to spend in Euro and earn in INR. But that's a theoretical possibility regardless of your destination country and MBA program. Be realistic and ready for it - ultimately it will come down to your risk taking appetite.

3) Career cells in EU / US schools work differently than in India. Here students network, make connections, contact alumni etc. The role of Career cell is limited to making introductions, helping you find alumni to connect, facilitate conversation.

Of course LBS, Wharton, Tuck and the likes will have more engaged alumni and more companies visiting their campuses.

YOU
1) ask yourself one question. Why should a company xyz hire your for a position abc in a country xxx over your equally qualified classmates?
The answer to this question will form a major role in your job search and convincing prospective recruiter

2) You have already made up your mind and are taking ESMT. I think you wanted to listen that from someone else because you are going against the conventional wisdom that on-paper/ranking IE >> ESMT

I am sure you know that no one can predict the future. No one can guarantee the outcome post IE or ESMT or xyz.
At best you can identify the risks and work towards mitigating them. 62% came back to Asia from IE, while 11% stayed. What did those 11% do differently?

Hope it helps.
Ayon

"Berlin is more cosmopolitan with lot of IT start-ups and many established German organizations' headquarters."
many IT-Start-ups? Yes
Many established German company's HQ? No (but several ministries and federal agencies)
e.g. take a look here: http://www.stepmap.de/karte/deutschland-dax30-mdax-1256075

Unfortunately, I have not much to contribute to the main question.

Generally speaking, ESADE is clearly a much better MBA programme. The FT ranking shows that it is superior on almost all criteria. As an older and more broadly based school, it doesn't have the same percentage of students in ICT firms as Vlerick or ESMT but in absolute numbers it has a much greater network. It has much better careers services and, for example, placed one of this year's students at Apple. The 18-month format and the greater emphasis on language learning is greatly superior. It would also allow you to complete more than one 'lab' (their specialisation certificates) meaning that you could focus on innovation and marketing, for example, which seem better than ESMT's specialisation options.
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