[For advice] IMD or HEC Paris or IESE

Amazon Europe hires from all three schools, no big difference, perhaps HEC/IESE have a bit more alumni in Amazon due to class size advantages.
Consulting: IMD is weaker than the other two.
Industry LDP: If you have a chemical engineering degree and commercial functional experience, perhaps some pharma companies would consider you.
Careers in Asia: Sorry I have no idea.

In my view those three school's have very different value prepositions, so based on the information you provided.

Consulting: IESE
Tech: IESE
LDP opportunity: Probably all three

I'm attending IESE right now and yes, I might be a bit biased, but especially for consulting IESE is very strong (consulting is my prio 1 and I even didnt consider HEC and IMD). Hit me up if you have more questions.

Cheers

Any of the schools can help you get in to the top consulting companies, it will just not necessarily be in Europe, which is due to the consulting companies rather than the schools.

my major recommendation would be to visit the campusses.
I realise that this is pretty hard to do given the current covid situation.
The goal is to get a general feel of where you feel you would fit best.
Each of these schools is a very good school but each one has a different student profile.

Maybe the biggest differentiator will be the following
IMD: 1year
HEC: 16 months
IESE 19 months

how big of a career change are you looking to make, how much of a personal journey do you need to make?
in my case i wanted to change industry, role and geography, while undergoing a personal journey, so i knew from the start that i wanted to do a 2 year program.

Do you look to get a bit of a break from the industry before going back in?
can you afford a 2 year time-out? or only a 1 year?

if you can't visit the campus and get a feel, contact the different MBA offices and have them set you up on zoom calls with current students and ask them about how they feel and what they like about the school/campus.

in the end, all things equal, what matters is FIT, you'll be working with people for 1-2 years, and if you don't fit in you won't feel integrated.

for me that feeling i had when i walked on campus at IESE and interacted with the students, was "this is the school i want to study at"

but ofcourse that varies from person to person based on your character.

Hi there,

bb pinged me to see if I could help you out. I looked at master's programs myself, but I could give you my two cents regarding these universities (mostly HEC and IESE, in my view IMD is more known for executive programs, but that could just be my bias). Overall, it seems that all schools place well into consulting. There are more differences when it comes to tech though.

Consulting:
When it comes to reputation, I would say HEC > IESE > IMD (fairly close between the last two, though).

Tech:
IESE > IMD > HEC. Barcelona is the startup-hub in Southern Europe, and Switzerland isn't bad either. I'm sure HEC places well into tech too, but I have always seen it more as a consulting and/or finance school.

Location:
Very important when it comes to consulting, local language skills etc. You said you have none. Even if you would give it your 100% this year, I would doubt you would get by with a B1/B2 level in Barcelona or Paris. Definitely a bias towards (fluency in) Spanish/French there. I don't know about Switzerland, but I would assume you need to at least speak German or French.

Not knowing a local language would limit you to either the UK or the Netherlands for consulting/LDP. Here it becomes a factor of prestige more so than hard numbers. HEC definitely comes out on top in that case. Also, I think they place quite well into Asia.

Hope this helps!

to me HEC Paris is the way to go 16 mo is the perfect time. IESE isnt as well regarded. HEC has a good tech platform. To me its between IMD and HEC. GL. I assume you already put in your deposit to all three?

Thanks a lot for sharing. I haven't paid my deposits but close to the deadline, so I have to make my decision soon.

Very comprehensive and considerate analysis, Really helpful! Thank you so much

Yeah, the fit feeling through campus visiting is very important, however, still can't travel to Barcelona during the covid19. Maybe connecting to more alumni or current students is an alternative way to virtually experience and get the feel. Thanks a lot for sharing!

Buy a Linkedin Premium.
Connect with Asian students from a similar background as you have (industry, education, language skills, years of experience).
For jobs, don't listen to European students as they'd always get a job in Europe, not comparable at all.

Probably a bit late, but wanted to comment on that one:



I'm really wondering how you derived at this? There are no facts supporting it, IESE's MBA program places more folks in consulting (in % and absolute), has the bigger consulting Alumni network and has a strong consulting club. In my opinion, the only points in favor of HEC is the very strong MIM program and tapping into the Alumni network from that as well as the recent jump into FT's top 10. Either way, IMD is far behind in both in terms of consulting recruiting. Also IMD is a total different program, small class size and ppl are usually more experience (somewhere between MBA and EMBA).

However, if you consider moving back to Asia, might be a totally different story

Same here. I feel IMD is a different program altogether. 10 years ago it was unique and special. These days I barely see people applying to IMD

cnzlim, just wondering which school did you end up choosing? I’m in the research phase and would like to know.

Thanks!

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Hi cmldps,

None of them. I decide to go to Darden.

cnzlim, mind explaining why you decided not to go to any of them and go to Darden instead?
I’m mainly interested in EU schools and a bit confused about which ones to apply to. My main confusion is between HEC and IESE. Any ideas and experiences are more than welcome.

Thanks.

Posted from my mobile device

I think you could start with your post-MBA career goal and location preference.

From the career goal perspective, I think HEC probably has a stronger finance career opportunity whereas IESE feeds more candidates for consulting firms due to its case-method learning approach, and maybe quite similar in industry or tech streams. From location wise, If you would like to work in France or the french-speaking region, then definitely go for HEC which is the top business school - together with INSEAD -around there, and IESE might be a good fit if you want to work in Spain or UK.

But generally speaking, I don't see much difference between these two schools, and all of them are well-regarded and have diversified career resources.

Hope this helps.

It definitely does. Thanks a ton cnzlim.

Posted from my mobile device

My pleasure. Good luck!