Thanks for sharing your profile @ikazantzidis . You have a workable profile for European MBA programs: 4 years is within the common experience window, engineering + automation is attractive for tech recruiting, and your success will hinge on (A) clearly articulating the why MBA → why tech pivot, (B) quantifying impact at work, and (C) demonstrating school fit through targeted essays and alumni engagement.

How the schools will likely view you:
IE values career changers and entrepreneurship; its MBA attracts people aiming to pivot across functions and geographies. IE’s programs are built for career transformation.

IESE prefers candidates with a little more experience (average ~5 years) and values leadership & teamwork; your 4 years is within range, but you must show clear leadership potential.

ESADE admits strong early-to-mid career profiles and has an international, diverse cohort; it’s receptive to career changers with clear plans.

Imperial places a heavy weight on tech and entrepreneurship and attracts high-quality STEM profiles; it’s a good fit for an engineering-to-tech pivot.
Imperial College London

LBS admits slightly more experienced cohorts on average (~5-6 years), but they do accept 3-5 year candidates with high potential; LBS is highly competitive and excellent for a global tech pivot.

SDA expects ~3-10 years’ experience with an average of around 5; it values growth potential and international outlook, a reasonable fit for your profile.

Recently, most of the London Business School MBA applicants who worked with Shantanu(INSEAD Alumnus, Founder and Admissions Consultant, MBA and Beyond) received interview invites. We also got the opportunity to work with a Consultant who had 3.5 years of work experience and a 695 GMAT FE, earned interviews from IESE, LBS, and INSEAD. A Financial Training Coordinator got an IE admission offer with 625 GMAT FE and 9 years of work experience, and we have many more. Check out this success story as well.

What can stand out for you: Engineering + automation domain experience, directly relevant to product ops, industrial tech, IoT, and platform roles. 4 years’ work experience, enough to show ownership and promotion potential, but still early enough to pivot. European location (Greece) may give regional diversity + language/cross-cultural skills.

What you can amplify: Impact metrics. Admissions love numbers: uptime improvements, yield increases, cost savings, cycle-time reduction, throughput improvement, automation ROI. Convert qualitative achievements into measurable results. Tech transfer signal. Show where you already acted like a product person: roadmaps you influenced, stakeholders you led, automation features delivered, KPIs improved. Leadership & teamwork stories. Even small teams describe initiatives you led, decisions you owned, and cross-functional coordination. Career plan clarity. Be explicit: which tech role (PM, Product Ops, Tech Strategy, Platform Engineer > PM), geography, and timeline.

Gaps to focus on:
1) Narrative gap: “Why MBA → why tech?”
Create a one-pager: Past (engineering outcomes) > Present (skills you lack: product strategy, GTM, stakeholder management, VC/network) > MBA (what precisely you’ll learn at each school) > Post-MBA role (title + 2 target companies). Use that in essays and interviews.

2) Weak or missing quantification of impact
Prepare 3 STAR bullets with hard metrics: before/after KPIs, team size, budget, timeframe, and business outcome (value, time saved, revenue uplift). If proprietary, use % improvements or anonymized numbers.

If you have time, consider applying to earlier rounds at schools that accept R2 or R1; otherwise, make Round 3 applications too GOOD, strong LORs, polished essays, and demonstrable alumni conversations. For some programs like IE, later rounds might be fine, but for LBS/Imperial/IESE, you must be ready to compete with many experienced applicants.

If you haven’t taken GMAT/GRE, schedule one and target the school-friendly range: many European MBAs report class averages mid-600s, a 655-675 GMAT FE (or equivalent GRE) is a good target that reduces friction. Use school pages to check specifics.

Questions for you:
1) Do you have a GMAT/GRE mock score yet?
2) Are you willing to relocate post-MBA, and in which geography would you prefer to work (UK, EU, US)?
3) Which tech role do you want immediately after the MBA (Product Manager / Tech Strategy / Platform Ops / other)? Name 1-3 target employers if possible.
4) Any leadership or extracurricular projects (outside work) that demonstrate initiative?

We would be happy to learn more about your academic background, extracurricular activities, professional experiences, and personal journey so we can offer a more tailored assessment of your profile and evaluate your chances at your target schools more accurately. Feel free to book an evaluation session.

These YouTube videos might be insightful: INSEAD & LBS | A great session with Ms. Ridhi Ghelani, MBA Associate Director at IESE MBA Admissions.