Profile: 27 years old, 2.5 years working experience in european multinational industries and management consulting firms. I speak fluently 4 languages. Started to learn Mandarin at basic level.

Short-term goal: salary increase and (I hope) promotion from junior to an associate level position, coming back to the industry of my interest (actually booming in Iberia region).

Long-term goal: Business Development manager in multinational companies based in Europe. I have a strong interest to maturate a short working experience as expat in LATAM or South-East Asia at more senior level.

Due to COVID, i decided to come back to study full-time, frequenting a top-20 MiM in Portugal (FT 2020 Ranking) outside my home country, with the main goal to start an initial international career in Iberia within my sector, with a possible salary increase. After how many years do you think should I apply for an international MBA after my graduation from MiM? Do you think I would be too old for an MBA (my targets are IESE, LBS, Said, Bocconi, CEIBS). I don't have a GMAT score actually.

Thank you.

Other readers might like to know that the Nova MiM, which you enrolled in, tends to feed into very large firms and have excellent access to internships. It's an excellently-designed program, very similar to an MBA with a number of specialized tracks. Many schools would think that, given the choice between you and a similar candidate without a high-quality MiM, the other student would obtain more marginal benefit, and much more likely to convert from an applicant into an attending student. If you have a less good MiM or had take a specialized track then that would make you more interesting. But schools might think you don't really need an MBA and might not actually enroll. 

Some options:
- Study in south-east Asia or Latin America, ideally at a European school. France is the major trading partner of Spain, and Spain is the major trading partner of Portugal. So, that makes me think of Insead, EDHEC and ESSEC in SIngapore. the FGV-Manchester Global MBA in São Paulo, and any double degree programmes offered at FGV, NUS, NTU and SMU. The IESE franchise in São Paulo has a PDP and EMBA that might suit some people in your position but with a more experience.
- Study in Spain at schools focussed on large firms, since large firms are more international. ESADE > IESE > IE is your order logically, since IESE places twice as high a percentage of its MBAs into SMEs and start-ups as ESADE. 

Thank you Stuart for your kind feedback. 

Yes, I'm actually enrolled into NOVA's MiM, with a semester exchange abroad and specialisation track in Operation Management. To be honest, I would look to an MBA more for career progression and salary increase than improve my network into specific regions/countries of interest. I already found my target companies which are expanding in LATAM and China regions, so a MBA with deeper knowledge of local culture might be helpful to achieve future (I hope) managerial roles in those countries with (I hope even more) expat contracts from Europe.

Just a pair of advices:
- I could see that in many other European MiMs which provided a specific career report of their students, an average base salary of 40-50K€ is consolidated. Based on my profile and my working experience, do you think would be possible for me to jump from an actual salary of 23K€ in management consulting firm to >40K€ salary in industries, into BD/Operation roles (Europe based)?
- Should I concentrate my semester exchange in the target countries where I would like to work in the future as expat, considering that as semester exchange student I'll access directly to some local events like workshops and career fairs?

Thank you and regards!

Yes, and Yes. An increase in salary like that is totally doable, especially if you shift to countries with higher salaries. Nova has great exchange partners and the local experience and network will help you. 

That sounds great, thank you!!