Calling all HEC Paris Applicants Sept 2024 Intake

of course! happy to be of help

Hello everyone! we’ll kick off with everyone we have here

I’m shashwat and I’m a Sep 23 admit, and a fellow gmatclub user

I have a background in finance of over 6 years, worked at GS for 4 years in structured sales then MS in fx sales for 2 years after that

Please feel free to shoot across any questions you have and I’ll do my best to answer them !

Hi Everyone, we will be doing another chat with applicants and admits here in the HEC Chat in 2 hours, at 1:15 PM Pacific / 4:15 PM Eastern time / 9:15 PM London Time. Come with your questions or just introduce yourself.

Hi. The HEC Chat is officially on 😇

Hi Everyone, welcome to the HEC Chat with Applicants and Admits session!

Hi Ivy17! Welcome and thank you so much for doing this and staying up!

Haha happy to be of help!

Any prospective HEC Applicants also dedicated and awake? I guess my ice-breaker question for you would be, obviously applied to quite a few schools, why HEC at the end? and perhaps how has your perception of HEC Paris changed after your admit vs. before your admit?

I’m Shreya and I’m an incoming candidate to HEC’s September 2023 intake. Feel free to ask questions and I’ll do my best to respond to as many of them as possible

Thanks bb for the question! I’ve had an inclination to apply to schools in the Europe vs US with respect to a few factors, hence HEC was my top choice of the other schools given the duration of the program which was very well suited to my needs

A bit of background about myself, I’ve completed my engineering and worked for 4 years across 2 big fours in the consulting division. I’m very excited about exploring prospects in the product space alongside consulting of course post my stint at HEC

Sorry last question from me - why Europe and not US? or Canada?

Firstly with respect to the tuition fee structure vs the ROI and also looking into the course duration

Hi, I’ve close to 5 years of experience in consulting with decent career progression, a GMAT of 730 but somehow screwed up my graduation academics, How are my chances look like & should I apply?

I wasn’t looking for a traditional 2 year program

Hey rbnT! Firstly, congratulations on the splendid GMAT score! Now coming to your question, academics don’t play a huge factor per se if you have a decent work profile and a good GMAT score along with sufficient work experience. Sure, this does require you to make use of the additional essay option that HEC has in their application to explain why despite poor academics, you’ll be a great fit for the program

Essentially, it boils down to how compelling a story you can sell

Hope that answers your question

Keep the questions coming, folks!

Hi Shreya, I have a similar background (big4 consulting) and looking to pivot to product. Could you throw some light on your statement "..exploring prospects in the product space alongside consulting of course post my stint at HEC". Are you keeping consulting as a plan B?

Also, since the tech layoffs going on, pivoting to product in tech will be difficult, so how flexible do you find HEC to recruit for a plan B if the first one doesnt work out?

That’s right ALEX4157. Opportunities in Consulting are way more than you’d find in the product domain. Especially given folks like you and me do not have sufficient experience in product, employers tend to incline towards hiring candidates who have practical experience to show in that field. So it’s always a bit of a challenge to want to pivot into something you’re not already working in. Additionally, the preparation that you undertake while applying for interviews and also the support provided by the Careers Service centre will always be more vast and exhaustive for Consulting than it would be for Product.

Normally when you’re prepping for case interviews, you do practice a lot of mocks about product cases. So essentially the preparation that you take up to pivot to the product domain will not be exclusive

Got it! Thank you for your inputs. It would be great to connect on linkedin if you are open to that. I have similar post-MBA plans and would like to know how you put forth these goals in the application.

With regards to your second question, I’m not limiting my options to just work for Product in Tech. I’m open to working in product roles in the retail sector as well and so are many of my peers. Also with the layoffs, we’re definitely hopeful haha and we expect the situation to be much much better by the time we’re applying for our internships and full time positions. But having said that, like I mentioned before, the preparation that most of the candidates undertake will never just be for any particular domain say Consulting/Product in silo. I would recommend that since you do wish to move to product and have no experience in the same, it is always a great idea to take up an internship in PM before you head to school

A full time position would be a much better option, but I’ve seen internships to also come in quite handy wrt you gaining practical experience in that field


Sure, feel free to connect with me at https://www.linkedin.com/in/shreya-nandy-836739169