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23 Jul 2018, 04:00
| FROM IMD Admissions Blog: Exploring Prague |
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Enjoying beautiful sunsets and the city of Prague! Suyun   
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24 Jul 2018, 05:00
| FROM IMD Admissions Blog: Making the most of the last week of vacation! |
 Cabo de São Vicente – Sagres, Portugal. “Connecting to my cultural origins amid the intense self-discovery process enabled by the IMD MBA program — Andre  Greetings from Helsinki! — Sakshi  #rendezvous in Paris#eurotripcontinues# — Ashish |
25 Jul 2018, 03:00
| FROM IMD Admissions Blog: Majorca beach time |
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”Beach-hopping in a convertible, we found freedom in sunny Majorca.” Veronika and Neharika  
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27 Jul 2018, 02:00
| FROM IMD Admissions Blog: Sara – Reaching for the stars while remaining firmly anchored |
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With the start of the second half of the program just around the corner, our participants begin again to share their profiles and offer a glimpse into why they joined IMD and what they’re getting out of the program. Here Sara shares a bit about herself and her learnings so far… Today is a windy day on Hyères Peninsula (South East of France). I came here to enjoy a week kitersufing and take a real break from one of the most intense and exciting years of my life. The Mediterranean oak and pine forests, the relaxing sound of waves, the singing cicadas and the orange blossom give me the illusion of being in my two countries at the same time. I couldn’t find a better place to recharge my batteries after the first half of IMD.  My name is Sara, I am French and Moroccan, I am an aerospace engineer by training, and a sports lover. I grew up in Meknès, close to the Middle Atlas Mountains of Morocco.  I had the chance to grow up in a family of explorers who put me on a pair of skis at 5, and encouraged me to travel around the world and try exciting activities like paragliding quite early. As I grew up, I focused on tennis, which I played at national level. Tennis is a great sport that teaches you how to combine resilience and self-discipline with strategic thinking to harvest your potential, manage your energy levels and optimize your progress at every scale (a point, a set, a match, a competition, a season…). My open mind and passion for exploration also shaped my education: I wanted to know all about mathematics, physics and flight mechanics. After receiving my degree in aerospace engineering in France, I joined Airbus where I explored various functions and roles that involved both technical and leadership responsibilities. My greatest challenge was to deal with the inertia and resistance to change of a Blue Chip company and maintain my drive to move traditional lines and accelerate innovation. As I grew in the company, I realized that I was not a typical engineer. I wanted to become familiar with everything that drives a business, be it technical, political, financial, personal…I felt I was missing a part of the puzzle that would enable me to fully explore my potential and become a better self and a better leader. This brought me to IMD. IMD is a perfect combination for me. In addition to being a well-rounded curriculum that covers business fundamentals as well as recent trends in digitalization and social responsibility, IMD offers a unique leadership stream and a safe environment where we can try, test, fail and improve in an accelerated manner. As for the people, I am delighted by the faculty and class diversity, my classmates’ benevolence and their level of intellectual and human stimulation. As many alumni say, I believe that the great friendships I am making here will last forever. Most importantly, I feel much more grounded than I was before entering IMD. The leadership sessions, the group dynamics, the feedback and, in general, the intensity of the program teach me how to better connect to my inner self while remaining open to the outside world. A pragmatic dreamer, driven by ideals of progress, respect and wellbeing, I am building on my intuition, my cartesian character and my courage to make things happen. I believe that my experience at IMD is providing me with the toolkit I need to keep building my way towards making a meaningful impact in society that resonates with who I am and where I come from. Sara |
29 Jul 2018, 08:00
| FROM IMD Admissions Blog: Nowhere like home to relax and recharge… |
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….especially when home looks like this! Enjoying the sunset at the beach in Mauritius   Its not the beaches that are awesome in Mauritius…. the landscape and greenery are pretty breathtaking too   Raj Ramful |
30 Jul 2018, 01:00
| FROM IMD Admissions Blog: Who were we, what have we become? |
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The second half of the program starts today, and Shubham shares some of his insights and expectations. A lot of my classmates have looked back on our journey of the last 6 months and described what being at IMD has been like. What I find amazing, is that while the individual nitty-gritty of our journeys might have been different, all of us have been through the same roller coaster of emotions, failures, awe-inspiring moments, heartaches and joys. In the process, I believe, I have become a different person, we have become different people! Back in December, I thought conquering the world was merely 12 months away. I knew my life would change but only on the outside, on paper, with a fancy MBA degree – enough to earn me a lot of respect for my freshly acquired applicable skills. In the bigger scheme of things, before the start I expected this year to provide a sort of instant gratification and perhaps ammunition to carry on with life afterwards. At the start, I was convinced that I had it pretty much figured out! Among the innumerable things I have learnt thus far, the IMD MBA has grounded me. I no longer view this year as an end, rather the means to an end. I have grown more and more attached to the journey of perpetual learning and realized that the MBA is not the silver bullet. It has made me aware of not only the hard-outside realities but more importantly, the complexities within. The meticulously designed coursework has opened my mind towards the joy of learning which encourages me to attempt to untangle and continue making sense of the world around me. It has helped evolve my imagination and while I did manage to learn a fair bit, the experience has made me a lot more curious than before. The summer break has given us the opportunity to step out and back into our own worlds, which has helped me personally to gain additional perspective. The conversations I have these days have moved from whats and hows to a whole bunch of whys! While I have started viewing my surroundings with a different lens, I, having cleared what earlier blocked my vision, have managed to get a clearer view of my own self.  3 weeks of vacation are gone, less than 1 remains. The next few months will be intense. I have already assured myself of what is to come – which is more of what we have already been thorough – the roller coaster of emotions, failures, awe-inspiring moments, heartaches and joys. The part that excites me most though, is that all of that will unfold in completely different contexts and unique circumstances which I am intently looking forward to. Irrespective of what transpires next, I will emerge wiser from the IMD MBA experience. Shubham Jain |
07 Aug 2018, 01:00
| FROM IMD Admissions Blog: Veronika lives life on the edge |
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“I want to stay as close to the edge as I can without going over. Out on the edge you see all kinds of things you can’t see from the center.” (Kurt Vonnegut) Typecasting millennials as fidgety adventure-seekers has become burrowed into our collective consciousness to such an extent that we barely pause to think about it anymore. But we should, to leave space for personal journeys, cultural influencers, family histories that make the generational generalities so individually unique still. I am Veronika, the 32-year-old daughter of an artist mother and an engineer father, who themselves grew up in a different world, the Hungary of the Eastern Bloc – a country nicknamed ‘the happiest barrack’ where nonetheless travel was curtailed, and pursuing a life abroad was a thing of dreams (or a thing of carefully executed all-or-nothing, one-shot criminal offences). I, on the other hand, grew up in a Hungary where the Berlin Wall was but a memory, sweets from the West were available even in my tiny local village corner store (so much so that ‘Fanta cheesecake’ become a well-loved family recipe), and the sorcery of Schengen not only entitled me to leave the country, but allowed me to study and work in London, build a career in Belgium, and start exploring the world in a way my parents never could.  With the desire to explore, comes a hunger to understand, to dissect, to synthesize and to story-tell. These are strokes that followed me through my studies in Science & Technology, my work as Policy Officer of a space science research infrastructure, managerial functions held in Sales, IT and Business Processes at an Industrial Manufacturing company, and eventually my MBA at IMD. Throughout my career, I’d seen a lot of what a company does on a day-to-day basis across all functional areas; I wanted to learn more about why a company does what it does, filling in the missing strategic pieces of the puzzle. Halfway into the course I can already say I definitely found what I was looking for. I have been introduced to new perspectives, practices, and possibilities. I have travelled around the world on a Discovery Expedition, and have had the world brought to me daily by amazingly international classmates. Through lectures, team projects, and learnings from my IMD family, every day I feel more and more equipped to keep pushing boundaries – to keep as close to the edge as I can. Veronika |
21 Aug 2018, 13:00
| FROM IMD Admissions Blog: Veni, Vidi, Vici!!! |
The 2018 IMD MBA batch is a truly athletic one, with more than a third of the class participating and bringing home impressive results at this year’s Lausanne triathlon!                                      Post Triathlon BBQ Party!            Raj Ramful |
23 Aug 2018, 08:00
| FROM IMD Admissions Blog: The Pursuit of Happiness… |
… is an uphill battle. Lac Lioson, one of my favorite hikes in the area. When I moved to Switzerland for my MBA almost a year ago I had one thing in mind: this year was going to be some hike, tough, exhausting, but ultimately would lead me somewhere with an amazing view. On the more practical side I had one objective: to change my career and have a fun job in the corporate world by 2019. But, as with every hike, the path is not always what you thought it would be. During the last months through the many traditional business streams and the not so traditional, my year delineated itself in a broader search for meaning. What is it that drives me? What is it that I want? Why am I even doing this to myself? So my hike turned into a climb, and the challenges became much bigger than I thought they would be. Every person that hikes regularly is faced with that time when you start your walk and you have the eyes on the peak. As you’re almost at your goal you realize that there’s still a whole lot of mountain to climb, and what you thought was the peak is just a stop on the way. At this time of the year that’s pretty much where a lot of us in the class are. We have started receiving our first job interview invitations – and denials; we have started case prepping and had our first mock interviews. And got grilled on them. We’re sanity checking our expectations and reflecting on how realistic they are on the short and long term. And let me tell you one secret, reality is one tough lady. And she’s knocking at the door. We have also started to face the fact that (surprise! surprise!) employers have needs, and that if we want to be successful at this game, we need to reconcile a lot of variables. What is it that this company needs? What can I offer? How does that fit in my broader search for meaning and happiness? So emotions are running high, everybody is at the edge of their seats, waiting for something to happen. And how do you navigate that? How do you deal with the realization that you still might have to put in a lot of hard work, a lot of time, that there’s still so much to climb? Personally, I rely on friends and the solace that they bring when they say: “this is happening to me as well”. And then I take a step back, one deep breath and I look back and see how far I’ve come and that gives me the energy to focus on the next 10 meters of the climb… |
23 Aug 2018, 09:00
| FROM IMD Admissions Blog: The Pursuit of Happiness…- |
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… is an uphill battle. Lac Lioson, one of my favorite hikes in the area. When I moved to Switzerland for my MBA almost a year ago I had one thing in mind: this year was going to be some hike, tough, exhausting, but ultimately would lead me somewhere amazing. On the more practical side I had one objective: to change my career and have a fun job in the corporate world by 2019. But, as with every hike, the path is not always what you thought it would be. During the last months through the many traditional business streams and the not so traditional, my year delineated itself in a broader search for meaning. What is it that drives me? What is it that I want? Why am I even doing this to myself? So my hike turned into a climb, and the challenges became much bigger than I thought they would be. Every person that hikes regularly is faced with that time when you start your walk and you have the eyes on the peak. As you’re almost at your goal you realize that there’s still a whole lot of mountain to climb, and what you thought was the peak is just a stop on the way. At this time of the year that’s pretty much where a lot of us in the class are. We have started receiving our first job interview invitations – and rejections; we have started case prepping, had our first mock interviews, and got grilled on them. We’re sanity checking our expectations and reflecting on how realistic they are on the short and long term. So let me tell you one secret, reality is one tough lady. And she’s knocking at the door. We have also started to face the fact that (surprise! surprise!) employers have needs, and that if we want to be successful at this game, we need to reconcile a lot of variables. What is it that this company needs? What can I offer? How does that fit in my broader search for meaning and happiness? So emotions are running high, everybody is at the edge of their seats, waiting for something to happen. And how do you navigate that? How do you deal with the realization that you still might have to put in a lot of hard work, a lot of time, that there’s still so much to climb? Personally, I rely on friends and the solace that they bring when they say: “this is happening to me as well”. And then I take a step back, one deep breath and I look back and see how far I’ve come and that gives me the energy to focus on the next 10 meters of the climb… |
28 Aug 2018, 08:00
| FROM IMD Admissions Blog: Every person lives their own MBA |
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Today’s profile comes from Brazilian Pedro Kniphoff… Who am I? I hate normalcy. Whenever you look at me, you will find me unsettled, curious, wanting to do something new and usually multi-tasking. I love getting to know countries, cultures, and food I have not eaten before. In summary, I live for new experiences. What did I do before IMD? I have worked my whole life in my passion: finance. Most of it was in multiple sub-departments of treasury, but most recently in my career I moved to FP&A and became a more generalist finance professional, partnering with the commercial department and looking at business in a holistic way. One unique thing about myself I am a firm believer of discipline. I heard a retired navy seal, Jocko Willink, who said that discipline equals freedom. If we want to be free from financial problems, we must be disciplined at study and work. If we want to be free from health issues, we must be disciplined at sports and diet. I completely agree with this and have been living a disciplined life for a long time. My vision of success Success is being satisfied with what you have achieved, either personally or professionally, no matter how much you have. It is OK to be ambitious and keep on seeking challenges; however, you must be grateful for your achievements. True gratitude and satisfaction is where real success lies. At IMD, I have seen these traces of my personality very strongly: appetite for finance, discipline in the readings and sports as well as jumping on a plane on any rare weekend to get to know a new European country, all happening when people tend to be snowed under. Once again, discipline has given me the freedom I sought during my MBA life.  Me (2nd from left) with some of my MBA classmates Pedro |
04 Sep 2018, 01:00
| FROM IMD Admissions Blog: 2018 MBA recruiting season speeds up |
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A note of encouragement from the Career Services team as our MBAs dive into peak interview time! Dear 2018 MBAs, Finally, the time has come for you to go out and impress companies around the world. Over the next two weeks you will be dedicating your time to meet, interview and network with your target companies, whether on-campus or across the globe, depending on your individual post-MBA goals. Some of you are travelling to remote locations to continue your research and connect with key contacts, while others will remain with us in Lausanne, participating in the on-campus interviews and our Global Talent Forum. There will be a variety of companies coming on campus, representing some of the most attractive industries for MBA recruitment, such as consulting, technology, pharma, industrial products, FMCG. They range from large corporations to start-ups. Since the beginning of the year, and even before you arrived to IMD, you have been preparing for this moment. You have followed the career services stream, with seminars and workshops tailored to polish and sharpen your skills in order to impress recruiters and showcase your value. Guided by your coaches, alumni mentors, faculty, and our team, you have gone through in depth self-assessment, with the purpose of understanding your deepest motivations and deciding where you want this MBA to take you. Now you are ready for the next stage. We know that your career journey is long and at times challenging, we feel proud to accompany you in this laborious yet exciting path. Good luck! Your Career Services Team |
05 Sep 2018, 04:00
| FROM IMD Admissions Blog: Discovery Expedition video |
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Just before the crunch time for Career interviewing began, our Muaritian MBA and blog photographer, Raj Ramful, managed to find the time to put together a great video on the June Discovery Expedition. Enjoy! |
07 Sep 2018, 05:00
| FROM IMD Admissions Blog: In search of “regions hitherto unexplored” |
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I’m Arshish from India, and this is my story of 8 months inside a ping pong ball. I’m a passionate, liberal and curious individual. My range of interests include music, movies (+Oscars), books, cricket, badminton, psychology, economics, business and architecture.  Before joining IMD I worked at JLL (a real estate consulting firm) in India. As Business Analyst to the CEO I helped the leadership team plan and execute India’s strategic priorities. I also helped commercial occupiers with analytics, planning and execution for their long-term portfolio strategy. The key drivers for me are excellence, curiosity and generosity, and all of them together. It’s extremely important that everyone feels engaged and committed to everything we undertake together, the result will not be perfect the first time, but if you feel connected to one another – the final outcome will be more original and interesting because you helped everyone feed their curiosity. My biggest learning in life (and especially here at IMD) is that all stress/anxiety and adversity are only temporary. By learning to accept this fact – whenever something comes along which threatens to ruin your day, you remember that everything stemming from it is only temporary – which means there’s no need to worry. Learning to cope with adversity is the single biggest learning you can have because it’s connected to the fundamental thread of our existence. My role model is Abraham Lincoln (who provided the quote used in my title). He stood for the very best in all of us, because he knew how to sacrifice personal ambition for societal gains. Lincoln was never afraid to do things the hard way – because he understood that doing the right thing meant setting a precedent for all time and because we are all working towards something that’s bigger than ourselves. I think Goldwater was channeling him a 100 years later when he said “Extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice, and moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue”. When you’re fighting for the survival of an idea, you have to be 100% committed to the cause. Success isn’t a role, position, or place. It’s a state of mind that’s balanced, content and peaceful in a never-ending present moment. I’d rather have balanced good than unbalanced extremes. Success stems from going to bed everyday knowing that you’ve given it your best shot and waking up the next morning ready to do the same. The ideal work environment is therefore one where the only directive is to build something amazing. And then have the resources to take this amazing product and make it impactful. Where people collaborate freely, and share the responsibility and joy of truly changing the world – yes, some companies do this very effectively today too. Arshish |
11 Sep 2018, 15:00
| FROM IMD Admissions Blog: IMD hosts the Global Talent Forum for MBAs |
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It is said that “A wise man will make more opportunities than he finds”. And yesterday’s IMD MBA Global Talent Forum provided the same chance. We welcomed a variety of potential recruiters to campus and it was a platform for us to shine, network and demonstrate what we MBAs can bring to a company. The day started with the keynote speaker, Keith McGlone, Director DBSO Growth from Danaher Corporation. He shared Danaher’s Philosophy on continuous improvement and leadership behavior and how it drives every aspect of their culture and performance. It was heartening to hear about the success stories of previous IMD MBAs at Danaher and it certainly reinforced our belief that the IMD MBA program is a perfect breeding ground for aspiring leaders. He concluded his speech with great tips and advice on the need for humility combined with confidence, the importance of building teams and helping others advance, capability to communicate effectively, power of persuasion and authority, ability and agility to go both deep and wide and honesty and candour as key strengths that a leader should seek. The networking part of the day offered a plethora of companies across verticals from large organizations to start-ups. Danaher was joined by other organizations such as Hilti, AlixPartners, Logitech, JTI, Cisco, Co-Ro, Nexthink, Imperial Brands, Camper, See Your Box and Sunstar. Many of us used this opportunity to make deeper connections, learn about different corporate cultures, explore potential openings and in certain cases impress the recruiters enough to get an interview. What impressed me personally during my conversations was that it was an equal opportunity for not only the companies to evaluate us as a potential fit but also us to understand if the organization’s direction fits with our own value system and long-term goals. Here are instances of how we leveraged the interactions through the Forum in furthering our journey towards our dream jobs and a few snippets of what my classmates had to say about the day: Paula went with one goal in mind, wanted more specific info about target company – got the answers which helped prepare her for next steps with confidence. Matteo found it to be great opportunity to get to know companies he hadn’t spoken to before, explore companies outside plan A. While his focus is technology, he could talk to companies from pharma, construction, tobacco etc – all in one place. Fabiana felt that it was both a chance to connect with companies and meet the people who work there to get a feel for shared values, which surprisingly wasn’t a priority when she started the program but now is an important factor for her post MBA career decision. Jag was excited to see the number of people representing the different companies and thought it was impressive considering the small size of our MBA cohort. Sakshi quoted “all companies had their own space and there was room for everyone to interact. I even got a chance to reconnect with companies which had closed their deadlines for applications”. Till next time  -Neharika |
18 Sep 2018, 04:00
| FROM IMD Admissions Blog: IMD MBA class goes Digital: Day 1 of the Digital Lab |
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The digital revolution which started somewhere 70 years ago has brought greater interconnectedness, easier communication and the exposure to information which wouldn’t have been earlier conceivable. It has not only penetrated every aspect of our lives but also revolutionized how business is done. It is almost an expectation from managers of tomorrow to be equipped with adequate capabilities to be able to lead and manage the digital transformation journey. IMD MBA is known for grooming business leaders of the future who can navigate organizations through complex changes. To complement the general management training that we have received through the year, our class of 90 is now immersed in a week-long digital lab, starting today. The week will expose us to technologies such as Agile management methodologies, algorithms, Scrum Master techniques, Python programming language, machine learning, data visualization to name a few. Day 1 of the Digital Lab was inaugurated by Professor Amit Joshi and Prof Howard Yu who introduced us to the agenda of the week. One of the objectives of the lab is to develop a mindset which can enable us to move away from a traditional stack to a full stack agile/entrepreneurial way of working which is designed to let one fail cheap and fast and reiterate. The day was divided into two types of learning outcomes: Agile methodologies and Python training. A group of external coaches trained us for the first half on values and principles which govern agile software development and basics of Scrum, helping us get a Scrum Master Certificate by the end of the training. Throughout the day, the coaches used a very experiential method of teaching through role plays, speed dating technique to discuss concepts and understanding & interactive visual aids to acquaint us with scenarios where agile works and does not work. At the end of the session, we walked out with a good understanding of roles of different participants in Scrum, the concept of Sprint, different Scrum activities, with “Inspect and Adapt” as the main philosophy of Scrum. The second part of the day started with an introduction to Data Analysis and Machine Learning using Python. The course is structured to prepare us for roles to manage Digital projects in the future. It is designed with a hands-on approach and aims to help us learn the application of programming skills in different business contexts. Today, we focused on the basics of Python and developed familiarity with syntax using an interactive online course supported by a team of experts throughout to answer any questions and challenge our knowledge. Till next time! – Neharika |
19 Sep 2018, 05:00
| FROM IMD Admissions Blog: Rugby and Snakes: Digital Lab day2 |
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After the 2 week interview marathon, we have finally come in to the much awaited digital lab. For most of us the introduction has been somewhat opposite to what we have been expecting. After learning about high level digital strategies that companies have been pioneering worldwide, we expected a similar introduction to the newest tools and techniques in play. What we ended up learning was how teamwork can be reimagined to boost creativity and innovation. Scrum (yes, it come from rugby), the framework that software teams around the world use nowadays to focus on increasing customer value and momentum within teams. Once you get to know the concept it seems basic yet its unbelievable how companies like Spotify and Amazon have developed products based on this methodology. And… we have been coding..in python. We’ve shut case studies and are now glued to code academy in the evenings as we are required to complete several lessons on python that would serve us building blocks for our experimentation with Scrum and app building later this week. So the days have been fun with lots of post-it-notes and the evenings have been weary with code academy for company. Meanwhile, we managed to have some fun during the lectures. Parth 
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23 Sep 2018, 17:00
| FROM IMD Admissions Blog: Bridging gaps: the Digital Armor |
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According to Financial Times, Big Data Analysis truly matters: beside the strategic thinking, the ability to solve complex problems, influence others along with drive and resilience, Big Data Analysis is one the top 5 most difficult skills to recruit, a testimony of the seventy-two employers surveyed by the daily. While developing and honing the first four mentioned dimensions in the curriculum and the array of group assignments and team projects, picking up the technical skills of Big Data does not necessarily come as easy, especially in the loaded schedule of an IMD MBA Candidate. With a goal to equip us with relevant knowledge of future leaders based on practical experience, IMD took a bold action and designed Digital Week consisting of Agile / SCRUM certification and Python programming for Big Data Analysis and AI. For many of us, this was a horizon opening and confidence building experience. We were amazed by the intuitive tools and business applications, Python can be used for. Something that looked like a hard-to-crack pile at the beginning of the week, was a rewarding insightful experience by the end of the week. For Maks, who started his own e-commerce in Hong Kong prior to coming to IMD, shares his three unique learnings, many based on retrospective aha moments: “Keep yourself updated about new opportunities: technologies evolve pretty fast. You don’t need to be an advanced coder to do Machine Learning thanks to PANDAS (note: open-sourced data analysis library for Python) was released. Little weekly learning = ton of saved time. I was surprised how easy it was!” “Scrum / Agile: if you can’t come to agreement about a technical feature, do an A/B test. It may sound too basic, but it was a striking discovery for me. I never used A/B test before to find who’s right about the feature. I wish I could applied this knowledge during my Hong-Kong adventure.” “Also, surprisingly there more powerful tools in Python for data analysis than in Excel. And they are not much more complex!” I personally enjoyed the acceleration of performance we were able to achieve under scrum. I can see value of this approach to team problem solving beyond the area of software development. Going into our international consulting projects, we can now apply the acquired knowledge to ramp up quickly to high-performing teams.  The Digital Week marked another important milestone in our MBA journey: last full-class learning experience. After the consulting projects, only electives remain. The count down seems to gain on intensity, amplified by the finishing works on the year book and emails related to our graduation in December. As natural visionaries and goal-oriented individuals we direct our minds towards the next streak on the horizon. Still, we try to hold our horses, focus on now and enjoy the moments when we are together. Friday’s dungeon party was a great example of he power of our community.    Best of luck and a great learning experience in the international consulting projects, dear cohorts! Martina |
25 Sep 2018, 03:00
| FROM IMD Admissions Blog: 100 Stories |
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While the Digital Lab was a new event for our MBAs, recruiting and ICPs remain key highlights at this time of the year. Mathieu Pointeau (MBA blogger 2008) shared his reflections from 10 years ago: 19th September 2008 100 stories This is my 100th diary entry. 100 stories. 100 experiences. 100 opportunities to share with you what is going on inside the IMD MBA bubble. Times have changed again. We have left the International Consulting Projects behind for a couple of weeks in order to focus on the search of our ideal job. Ideal job… Interesting concept. There are probably 90 versions of it in the Class. Once you have managed to define it, assuming you have got enough self-awareness to do so, I guess you just have to go and fetch it. You enquire, you write, you call, you apply, you interview… This is usually when it starts to hurt. The rejection. The famous Ding. The one that wipes out for a few hours of genuinely wild disbelief, the pride, the enthusiasm and the self-confidence so patiently gathered during the initial approach from and to the targeted company. The on-campus presentation, the covering letter, the interview prepared to the best of your ability… and the Ding. Or even worse, the vicious feeling that you have not performed as well as you know you should have or that you have naively said things that you should have probably kept to yourself for fear of amalgamation or misinterpretation. In some much needed occasions, there is a feeling of connectivity. Some complicity which increases your feel good capital. You are at ease, everything is going well. And you leave happy. Happy with the outcome and happy with yourself. But the uncertainty soon takes over with rumours that it went even better for some of your peers. They experienced more complicity or even better, were implicitly told that they would go through to the second round of interviewing. This is when it happens again: whatever your initial positive feeling might have been, you start doubting again. And you meet throughout the campus, 90 high achievers impeccably dressed with startlingly high levels of insecurity and low levels of self-confidence. A bunch of human beings slowly going back to the humbling real world. As one of my most admired friends wrote to me a couple of nights ago as I was myself feeling the first whispering winds of anxiety:- “My #1 learning this year is that, when things seem to go against you, don’t react, don’t get down. Because, almost always, in the short term things are much better than they seem [a cliché, but true], and in the long term your fundamental talent will see you through. Basically, I’ve learned to have faith in myself, whatever the situation. You should do the same.” We, you should all do the same. 100 stories. 100 reasons to believe in yourself. And write the following back to any rejecting ex-potential employer:- Dear Employer, I regret to inform you that I am unable to accept your rejection letter for the job as <job title>. I have reviewed your letter of rejection and noted the basis on which you have come to your decision. I congratulate you on the thoroughness of your evaluation. I expect to receive no less than seven letters of rejection this year. Most of these letters are from companies with a successful track record of rejecting candidates, however, with seven letters applying to reject me, I have only the capacity to accept six. With virtually every company offering significant rejection experience and submitting persuasive letters of rejection, my task in selecting acceptable rejection letters has been extremely difficult. As a result, I cannot accept your excellent rejection letter based on the competitive context of the pool of rejection letters. The fact that I have not offered to accept your rejection should not be taken as a reflection of your potential to reject future candidates, the thoroughness of your evaluation process, or your potential for maintaining low employment ratios. I am sorry that this letter does not carry better news. I wish you success in your rejection of future candidates, and, regrettably, will be showing up for work at your company’s premises in the beginning of 2009. Sincerely, A Candidate Time to wish you a good evening, I guess. We are all off partying tonight. A Champagne Party expertly organised by Zina Sanyoura [Lebanese] and Enrique Hernandez-Pons [Mexican]. All these mobile phones that have been shortly ringing in the Auditorium… Time to celebrate them! Carpe Diem – Seize the moment, Mathieu |
02 Oct 2018, 01:00
| FROM IMD Admissions Blog: ICP Week Two |
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The International Consulting Projects are up and running ! After just one week, teams have started their global travel to destinations such as Saudi Arabia, China, Finland, The Netherlands, Germany, Italy and Belgium. They are working with multinational companies in industries that range from FMCG to Banking, Manufacturing to Consulting, Pharma to Energy, with each team of 5-6 MBAs working on a different issue. Over the next few weeks they will be conducting industry, company and issue analyses, and presenting their findings to the top management of their respective companies. Travel will soon include further destinations of Africa, Hong Kong, the US, Spain and more. We wish them well and look forward to reading about their adventures and experiences shortly. Suzy |
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Hi Generic [Bot],
Here are updates for you:
ANNOUNCEMENTS
Tuck at Dartmouth
AGSM at UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA RIVERSIDE
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