Your intuition is correct. If you don’t speak French, you are limited only to English-speaking countries for recruiting such as UK, Ireland, Netherlands, and of course the US and Canada and Australia which those are very far away from HEC.
Add the same time, the most power and influence the school has its close to its base and alumni concentration.
Granted, I am not sure there is such a huge difference you will experience going to Cambridge or Oxford versus HEC in terms of recruiting opportunities. I think most of the European schools are still building up there on campus recruiting to the extent that the US schools have managed to. Part of it is the culture and on-campus recruiting culture that works different in the US versus Europe. As a result, you can’t really count on a whole lot of on-campus recruiting and you’ll be chasing the opportunities on your own. Most likely you’ll be recruiting back in London , which degree do you feel give you more credibility on the résumé? Which alumni network do you think would be easier to tap into? Which do you think would be more effective?
I feel that going to a UK business school would give you more proximity and will allow you to keep your network primed. At the same time, going to Paris could be a fun experience. however, recruiting in France without French or even in Germany without German, is going to be tricky. You have to know the local language enough to be able to get around or talk to the receptionist or order yourself a sandwich or a rental apartment. A lot of the job applications are also in French or German depending on the country.
I think you can make a dent in your French if you were starting in September. You’ll get some language skills besides an MBA. It could be trying to bite too much at the same time including moving to a different country while Covid is probably still going to be around. It really depends on how adventures you want to be. I don’t think you would be making a serious mistake in any of these choices but if you have no intention of learning French, I would not bother
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