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15 May 2022, 08:19
Kudos
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Hello, everyone. Can I ask for your advice? 
I have a pleasant champagne problem to choose between Rotman School of Management and IESE Business School for the admission this year.
I have an HR management background in my career and pursue to become a general consultant aiming to McKinsey, Bain, or Boston hopefully.
My nationality belongs to one of the East Asian countries, but I plan to settle down in the country where I complete my MBA program or in the adjacent countries. I have not lived in either region, Canada or Europe.
Neither business schools have provided me a scholarship, but IESE informed me that the decision for scholarship is pending yet.
Here are my criteria to consider:
- Visa: As an international student, I need to make sure that I can secure a work permit after graduation from business school. In addition, I want to stay in the country where I study or work for residential purposes eventually for more international experiences. I heard that Canada has a more friendly immigration policy for foreigners.
- Employment: As long as I can pivot into the consulting industry, I would be happy with any consulting firm in any tier in any country. (my preference is MBB, though.) The higher salaries, the healthier finance.
- Ranking: According to Financial Times MBA Ranking, IESE ranks at 10 and Rotman ranks at 79.
- Network: I heard that the size of the alumni network is highly appreciated for the post-MBA employment market. In this aspect, I believe University of Toronto(Rotman) surely has a bigger advantage? and a higher reputation as the rank 1 university in Canada?
- English improvement: As a non-English native speaker, I believe I must keep studying harder to improve my English skills in order to build an international consulting career. In this aspect, I thought Canada would have superiority, but some MBA experts I met in-person told me that I still can practice English with professors and fellow students from English speaking countries such as Australia or the United Kingdom in IESE Business School. However, I am still worried if I will fail to do so in Barcelona, Spain.
- Environment: I personally prefer a temperate climate to a cold one.
I would be greatly thankful for anyone to give me any advice regarding my decision making for business school and country.
Thank you so much!
I have a pleasant champagne problem to choose between Rotman School of Management and IESE Business School for the admission this year.
I have an HR management background in my career and pursue to become a general consultant aiming to McKinsey, Bain, or Boston hopefully.
My nationality belongs to one of the East Asian countries, but I plan to settle down in the country where I complete my MBA program or in the adjacent countries. I have not lived in either region, Canada or Europe.
Neither business schools have provided me a scholarship, but IESE informed me that the decision for scholarship is pending yet.
Here are my criteria to consider:
- Visa: As an international student, I need to make sure that I can secure a work permit after graduation from business school. In addition, I want to stay in the country where I study or work for residential purposes eventually for more international experiences. I heard that Canada has a more friendly immigration policy for foreigners.
- Employment: As long as I can pivot into the consulting industry, I would be happy with any consulting firm in any tier in any country. (my preference is MBB, though.) The higher salaries, the healthier finance.
- Ranking: According to Financial Times MBA Ranking, IESE ranks at 10 and Rotman ranks at 79.
- Network: I heard that the size of the alumni network is highly appreciated for the post-MBA employment market. In this aspect, I believe University of Toronto(Rotman) surely has a bigger advantage? and a higher reputation as the rank 1 university in Canada?
- English improvement: As a non-English native speaker, I believe I must keep studying harder to improve my English skills in order to build an international consulting career. In this aspect, I thought Canada would have superiority, but some MBA experts I met in-person told me that I still can practice English with professors and fellow students from English speaking countries such as Australia or the United Kingdom in IESE Business School. However, I am still worried if I will fail to do so in Barcelona, Spain.
- Environment: I personally prefer a temperate climate to a cold one.
I would be greatly thankful for anyone to give me any advice regarding my decision making for business school and country.
Thank you so much!
15 May 2022, 08:35
Kudos
Bookmarks
Hi and congratulations on your admits!
Often the first question this comes up in this situation, do you speak Spanish? If not, it will be challenging in many cases to get a job in Spain. Not that consultants do not speak English, and likely everyone in the office would speak English but it’s a different situation with your clients. Local language knowledge will almost always be required for most jobs. There are some situations for ex-pats or opportunities to use your native language but I found this to be pretty rare. If not, you will likely be recruiting in English speaking western countries such as UK, Ireland, Netherlands or potentially Germany.
In terms of immigration, Canada is definitely one of the easiest countries to get residence permit. They’ve been actively recruiting many types of workers and especially the more educated ones. Often Canada is very attractive because of this and people sometimes sacrifice other priorities such as salary or size of the market. With only 30 million people, Canada is one of the smaller economies.
I want consideration and concern for Canada, a lot of the emphasis is placed on your résumé and your work experience. As a result, your MBA is not really a big differentiator or deciding factor. The Premier look at your work experience and that’s what he decides your salary and hiring decision. United States employers are much more generous in that sense. Which makes it much easier to change your industries in the US as opposed to Canada, Australia, and tune extent some European markets.
In terms of rankings differential, it’s very challenging to compare programs in different countries. I would suggest looking at student profiles and think such as experience and GMAT scores. If there’s similar or the same, then I tend to consider programs comparable. This is my dirty quick oil evaluating.
Does any of the two programs stand out in terms of consulting recruiting? It would be helpful if one of them has a feeder program and two consulting companies. They would likely have a strong consulting club on campus that would help prepare you for interviews and even better if they have consulting offices on campus. Many of the top 10 an even top 20 programs in the United States will have some space for each of the consulting companies that are present full-time in campus basically. They conduct coffee chats, provide information about consulting opportunities, attend classes to observe student performance, and in general create a fairly straightforward opportunity to connect and recruit. I do not know if either of these programs offer that. That would be a good question to ask some of the current students.
The easiest pass to getting a residency would be Canada. If you have a strong résumé, it’s a good choice.
PS. In terms of practicing English, all the classes in business school will be in English and all your classmates will speak English unless you speak Spanish that is. Most of the students at IESE probably don’t even speak Spanish so you will continue to engage your English skills and it should not be a concern. However, most local people in Barcelona will not be English speakers. At least that was my experience.
And thank you so much for applying very nice formatting and posting this nicely.
Posted from my mobile device
Often the first question this comes up in this situation, do you speak Spanish? If not, it will be challenging in many cases to get a job in Spain. Not that consultants do not speak English, and likely everyone in the office would speak English but it’s a different situation with your clients. Local language knowledge will almost always be required for most jobs. There are some situations for ex-pats or opportunities to use your native language but I found this to be pretty rare. If not, you will likely be recruiting in English speaking western countries such as UK, Ireland, Netherlands or potentially Germany.
In terms of immigration, Canada is definitely one of the easiest countries to get residence permit. They’ve been actively recruiting many types of workers and especially the more educated ones. Often Canada is very attractive because of this and people sometimes sacrifice other priorities such as salary or size of the market. With only 30 million people, Canada is one of the smaller economies.
I want consideration and concern for Canada, a lot of the emphasis is placed on your résumé and your work experience. As a result, your MBA is not really a big differentiator or deciding factor. The Premier look at your work experience and that’s what he decides your salary and hiring decision. United States employers are much more generous in that sense. Which makes it much easier to change your industries in the US as opposed to Canada, Australia, and tune extent some European markets.
In terms of rankings differential, it’s very challenging to compare programs in different countries. I would suggest looking at student profiles and think such as experience and GMAT scores. If there’s similar or the same, then I tend to consider programs comparable. This is my dirty quick oil evaluating.
Does any of the two programs stand out in terms of consulting recruiting? It would be helpful if one of them has a feeder program and two consulting companies. They would likely have a strong consulting club on campus that would help prepare you for interviews and even better if they have consulting offices on campus. Many of the top 10 an even top 20 programs in the United States will have some space for each of the consulting companies that are present full-time in campus basically. They conduct coffee chats, provide information about consulting opportunities, attend classes to observe student performance, and in general create a fairly straightforward opportunity to connect and recruit. I do not know if either of these programs offer that. That would be a good question to ask some of the current students.
The easiest pass to getting a residency would be Canada. If you have a strong résumé, it’s a good choice.
PS. In terms of practicing English, all the classes in business school will be in English and all your classmates will speak English unless you speak Spanish that is. Most of the students at IESE probably don’t even speak Spanish so you will continue to engage your English skills and it should not be a concern. However, most local people in Barcelona will not be English speakers. At least that was my experience.
And thank you so much for applying very nice formatting and posting this nicely.
Posted from my mobile device
testtaker2019
Joined: 24 Feb 2019
Last visit: 13 Jul 2025
Posts: 36
Given Kudos: 5
Location: India
Schools: IESE '22 (M)
Products:
16 May 2022, 15:55
Kudos
Bookmarks
Firstly, congrats on getting through two great programs!
Coming from India, looking to make a switch to another geography and getting into consulting, I had been through a similar decision process before. At that time, I decided to join IESE because:
1. the vibe that I got from students from the two institutions: I felt I connected better with students at IESE. The reason this was important (as proven many times over during the IESE with students and alumni) was that the people I met at IESE were easier to connect with and, thus, they were always ready to help out.
2. IESE gives you access to a wider job market in Europe (and the middle east for consulting)
3. Great presence of all companies on campus
The only two things that I was considering at that time were: work visas/permits sponsorships (as I was not from the region) and the fact that IESE was not very well known in the region I came from. But these concerns were also addressable with points 2 and 3 from above. Having an access to more markets lets you tap into opportunities across geographies and ride over problems in other geographies. In terms of being a brand, while it may not be a household name, the presence of top recruiters (and their recruitment numbers) to an extent prove that IESE is well known where it matters.
From a consulting employment perspective, the consulting club at IESE is very active in terms of helping people prepare for the recruitment process. Some of our workshops started a couple of months before even the beginning of the course. We had several opportunities to talk to students and alumni who had been recently recruited by these companies and industry veterans. This was in addition to the coffee chats, company presentations, consulting skill workshop trainers, etc all of which helped us develop our skills and gave us different avenues of networking.
This is where the access to different geographies helped as well. You can leverage different region trends to find your fit in different territories when opportunities open up. Beyond the usual top destinations for consulting, people have capitalised on hiring sprees and recruitments owing to new offices in the Middle East and other locations.
Even beyond consulting, Personally, while I started on the consulting track, through the interactions I had, I realised that consulting was not for me. Some of these realisations came across through interactions that I had with people in other organisations/roles. So a wide network across companies helped here as well.
Beyond the professional aspects, Barcelona is a beautiful city, the ability to explore Europe is an amazing opportunity, the diverse cohort makes for a rich experience (and now I have friends all over the world), and I have generally heard really positive remarks about the academics (and this is from the exchange program who come to IESE and also those who go to other schools).
In the end, both are great programs in their ways. In my risk-reward matrix, while I appreciated the comfort of a Canadian PR, I consider IESE the more high-risk and high-reward option - and choosing IESE worked out well for me.
Coming from India, looking to make a switch to another geography and getting into consulting, I had been through a similar decision process before. At that time, I decided to join IESE because:
1. the vibe that I got from students from the two institutions: I felt I connected better with students at IESE. The reason this was important (as proven many times over during the IESE with students and alumni) was that the people I met at IESE were easier to connect with and, thus, they were always ready to help out.
2. IESE gives you access to a wider job market in Europe (and the middle east for consulting)
3. Great presence of all companies on campus
The only two things that I was considering at that time were: work visas/permits sponsorships (as I was not from the region) and the fact that IESE was not very well known in the region I came from. But these concerns were also addressable with points 2 and 3 from above. Having an access to more markets lets you tap into opportunities across geographies and ride over problems in other geographies. In terms of being a brand, while it may not be a household name, the presence of top recruiters (and their recruitment numbers) to an extent prove that IESE is well known where it matters.
From a consulting employment perspective, the consulting club at IESE is very active in terms of helping people prepare for the recruitment process. Some of our workshops started a couple of months before even the beginning of the course. We had several opportunities to talk to students and alumni who had been recently recruited by these companies and industry veterans. This was in addition to the coffee chats, company presentations, consulting skill workshop trainers, etc all of which helped us develop our skills and gave us different avenues of networking.
This is where the access to different geographies helped as well. You can leverage different region trends to find your fit in different territories when opportunities open up. Beyond the usual top destinations for consulting, people have capitalised on hiring sprees and recruitments owing to new offices in the Middle East and other locations.
Even beyond consulting, Personally, while I started on the consulting track, through the interactions I had, I realised that consulting was not for me. Some of these realisations came across through interactions that I had with people in other organisations/roles. So a wide network across companies helped here as well.
Beyond the professional aspects, Barcelona is a beautiful city, the ability to explore Europe is an amazing opportunity, the diverse cohort makes for a rich experience (and now I have friends all over the world), and I have generally heard really positive remarks about the academics (and this is from the exchange program who come to IESE and also those who go to other schools).
In the end, both are great programs in their ways. In my risk-reward matrix, while I appreciated the comfort of a Canadian PR, I consider IESE the more high-risk and high-reward option - and choosing IESE worked out well for me.
