Dear all,
I am trying to figure out my best way forward. I am 35 yrs old Italian, graduated as an Aerospace Engineer with 9 yrs work experience (started working at 26) in a major EU Defence Company. After attending 1-yr business corporate education program in the same company, I worked first as a Financial Planning & Analysis Manager (Finance) and then as a Corporate Development Manager (Strategy).
My main goal for attending the MBA is to land a job in the US through OPT pivoting to Entertainment / Tech industry within Finance or Strategy.
Obviously everything depends on my GMAT score, which is a couple of months away, but I have a few concerns:
1) Viability of the plan to land a job in the US as an international student. There are some posts expressing disbelief in the actual chances to achieve it.
2) B-school choice. At the moment my first preference would be USC Marshall IBEAR 1-year MBA, with main alternatives Stanford MSx and MIT Sloan Fellows. However, given my need to maximize my chances to land a job more than attending the dream school, I’m wondering (considering the relatively low GMAT average for IBEAR class, 630), if mid-career 1-yr MBA are regarded by employers as worth as traditional early-career ones or whether it would be better to look to 1-year early career MBA (Johnson 1-yr) or even 2-yr MBA. I also read some posts expressing concerns about pivoting into another industry without the internship as in 2-yrs MBA. From the other side I fear that upon graduation of an early career MBA, recruiters at the school would not be interested to someone my age.
Consider getting a scholarship is a top priority for me, especially if I should attend a 2-yr MBA, so I’d be more than willing to consider also others than TOP 20 programs.
Any advice?