HEC and Exchange programs

Here's a question I received in response to my last post:

"In every interview or article regarding HEC i see that it partners with 50 schools around the world for Exchange programmes. I get that you did not do the exchange program. Any reasons? How is the procedure of selection? or does every one get to do the exchange prgm."

I am glad that someone asked this question because this is a topic which I had missed covering in my posts and this is quite an important question.

So this is how exchange program works:

Procedure of selection

HEC has exchange program partnerships with close to 50 schools across the world. The way it works is pretty simple. HEC announces the opening of applications for exchange programs with its partner schools - the announcement basically informs students about three things -

1. Names of the partner schools

2. No. of seats with each school

3. Deadline of application

Once the announcement is made, every MBA participant is free to submit his/her application for target schools. The application contains some short questions asking applicants about their motivation for that school etc.

After the deadline, all applications are collected and reviewed by a committee at HEC. In case of multiple applications for a school, the participants are invited for interview and then a final decision is made. The decision is made solely by the committee at HEC and the partner school is not involved in this decision.

Why did I not go for an exchange program

As with your b-school application, there are several factors that you should consider while applying for an exchange program. Why do you want to go for an exchange program? The main reasons are:

1. A different experience - HEC gives you a European experience. You could go to a US b-school to get a different experience and enhance your professional network

2. Brand Name - Getting a better recognized b-school name on your resume

3. Career - You have specific career objectives that you could achieve by going to a particular b-school

For me, there were two main reasons why I did not go for an exchange program:

1. Career - I figured that going for an exchange program will not improve my career prospects. Most of the schools I was interested in were based in US. Going to a US school as an exchange student did not appeal to me because of the economic uncertainties and work-visa related problems faced by international students. Also, by staying at HEC, I had better chances of leveraging its brand in France and continental Europe to get a job

2. Funds - Going to any school for an exchange program will have required me to spend around 5K $ which I was not keen on spending

Does every student get to go for an exchage program?

The answer is No (generally). I think there are around 50 seats for exchange and there are 130 odd students in Sep intake. So it's not possible for everyone to go on exchange. However, there are only 50-60 students in Jan intake. So most of the students in Jan intake can go for exchange program.

HEC MBA - differences between Sep and Jan intakes

In some of previous posts, I have addressed the common queries about HEC that people have asked me over the past couple of years. In this post, I am addressing another such important query - the difference between Sep and Jan intakes

The biggest difference is the program structure. Click here to look at the program structure for the two intakes

The 16 month HEC MBA program is divided into two halves - Core Phase and Personalized Phase; Core Phase is the backbone of the MBA and has common, mandatory courses for everyone. Personalized Phase allows one to customize the program and provides options for electives, internship and exchange program.

As can be seen from the table, the program structure for Sep and Jan intakes is very different. Personalized phase for Sep intake allows for a lot of options - one can attend classes at HEC for the entire 16 months, for 8 months (do the core phase at HEC, take up a long term internship and then go on exchange program) or 12 months (core phase, internship and electives/exchange).

For Jan Intake, things are completely different. They must take classes at HEC for 1 year (Core Phase and PP1) and in the last 4 months, they must either do an internship or go for exchange. Thus, even if they want, they cannot attend classes at HEC during the last 4 months.

Apart from the program structure, the main differences are:
1. Class Size - Sep intake has around 130 people and Jan intake has 60-70 people. So Sep intake allows you to interact with more people
2. Choice of electives - This comes directly from the difference in program structures. During summers, HEC attracts some great visiting professors from other universities; Sep intake is at an advantage here and I've had some of my best courses with visiting proffs.

3. Internships - In Jan intake, you can finish classes in 12 months and then start working (even full time without technically finishing your MBA). It also becomes easier to find a long internship if you are in Jan intake. So if you want to spend less time studying, Jan intake is better.

HEC - top b-school outside US for marketing

In a survey of over 19,000 students conducted by The Princeton Review, HEC has been voted as the top b-school outside USA for teaching of marketing. You can read a press article here

HEC v/s other European schools

Here's a post to address another frequently raised question - How does HEC compare with other European b-schools.
Disclaimer: The views given below (in Italics) are NOT mine, but of an INSEAD 2003 alum who shared his views on this forum in response to a question on HEC v/s IE

Now here's the scene. I am going to give u a non-biased opinion on both the schools. Having said this, please understand both are superior business schools and I have not done my MBA at either school, so I can only tell you from what I have heard and understood.

Let me dissect your question.

1. Lets keep RSM aside when you have already made it to IE.

2. IESE - It's a two year program and very expensive. So when you have IE, lets even keep IESE aside.

3. ESADE - What is your career goal? is it in marketing? Then Esade is a very good school. But for other specializations like finance and strategy, ESADE is just about mediocre. But, I would definitely put ESADE on the league of IE Spain though there is a huge difference in their rankings.

Now we come to HEC v/s IE Spain. I need to know your career interests to give u a more detailed answer on this. If i were you, I would have taken HEC - Paris and I'll let you know the reasons.

(i) Curriculum - The way HEC has planned its 16 months curriculum is fantastic with projects, internships and its a shortened 2 year program. So you enjoy the process of management.

(ii) Diversity - After INSEAD, HEC is second when it comes to class diversity. With IE you will have 75% Spanish speaking people. If you know Spanish well, its great (you will anyway have to learn either French or Spanish) but you might just feel left out because the Asian influence on this school is very low.

Whereas HEC is 30%+ Asian, along with applicants from other parts of the world. The school is completely in English. I have also visited HEC long time back and the campus is beautiful. You will definitely need to learn French but during the 16 months, French is not a mandate, you pick it up along the way. and that's beautiful because by the time u r out, you know an extra language which takes u so many notches higher.

(iii) INSEAD does not give HEC a competition, for one that HEC has a class size of 150 and its easier to place these students. INSEAD is in a different league altogether. INSEADians wont find it tough to get a job.

(iv) Placements wise IE and HEC will have the same placements, though HEC being in France, closer to LUX, BEL, SWI and UK will give u better opportunities.

(v) It scores over IE in marketing, strategy and finance. IE scores over in entrepreneurship.

Lipdub video by HEC Students

Check this out





P.S. - This video is by Grand Ecole students from HEC and not MBA students ;)

Career Prospects at HEC

Over the past year, I have received several queries about the career prospects at HEC. I have mostly responded to those queries over emails and now I think it will be better to dedicate a post to this important topic.

I would start with the way recruitment works here.
At HEC, recruitment is always an ongoing process and the school does not have a specific recruitment season. Throughout the year, companies visit HEC, meet students and deliver presentations. During presentations, they advertise the positions they are recruiting for and then invite students to apply. Applications are made mostly through website/email and consist of CV and cover letter. The applications are screened and then shortlisted candidates are invited for interviews. Thus, there is no recruitment season where companies would come to campus to shortlist people and interview them.

Let's talk about Career Change now. Most of the people I know mentioned Career Change as one of the key reasons behind MBA. Career change usually involves changing one of the following variables:
1. Function (e.g. Marketing, Finance, HR)
2. Industry/Sector
3. Geography

In my experience, changing Sector or Geography is relatively easier than changing Function. Also, the task becomes much difficult if your desired career move involves more than one variable. It is extremely difficult to change all three variables at the same time.

Role of Language:- This, according to me, is one of the most important yet underrated factors while choosing a European b-school. Business in continental Europe is still conducted mostly in local language(s) and one must speak the local language (fluently) to work in client-facing positions (e.g. Consulting, Sales).

Coming to the theme of this post - Career prospects at HEC, I would say it is very subjective; depends on a lot of variables. HEC is probably the best known b-school within France and has a pretty good reputation in western Europe. So if you are looking to work in this region, HEC is a good choice provided you take into account the above mentioned points about Language and Career Change. If you are looking to work outside western Europe, then HEC might not be a good choice unless you are confident that you can achieve your post-MBA career goals without seeking school's help.

If I were to summarize my post, I would say that at HEC, you are in charge of your career. The career services will help you in updating your CV and getting in touch with companies; you will have to then network with recruiters and get yourself an interview call. Despite its enviable reputation, HEC MBA tag will not, by default, guarantee a great post-MBA career unless you are practical and put in the required efforts.

You could also read this related post about MBA from Europe

Life after MBA

It has been almost 2 months since I finished my classes at HEC. After finishing my course,I went to India and spent a month there. It was a good break - helped me relax at home, spend time with friends/family and most importantly gave me time to think.

It was a much needed break for the last few months at HEC were pretty tiring - because of work pressure and job-hunt. Right now, things are pretty bad for MBAs - most of the companies have frozen fresh hiring completely. This has created a bigger problem for people who were pursuing MBA to change careers; in these times, it is extremely difficult to get a break into a new career-path.

I had received an offer for a position based in New York but then visa turned out to be an issue. I could not find anything else that interested me. So I decided to pursue another option which is a long term internship. Long-term internships (3-4 months to 1 year) is something unique that I found in France. Most companies here offer internships throughout the year and the interns do the same work as full-time recruits. It works well for the companies because they don't have to commit for a long term and they can employ people on project basis. In this downturn, the opportunities for internships have increased as companies don't want to commit to recruiting full-time employees.

Things are similar at other b-schools. I spoke with friends at other top schools and most people of the class of 2009 are in a difficult spot; It will be extremely difficult for people graduating this year to get their first choice; we might have to settle with our second/third choices right now.

In my future posts, I am going to write more about MBA, my takeaways from this experience and pros-and-cons of international MBA. Drop me an email if you have any specific questions that you want to be addressed; I will try to answer them too

HEC Paris - ranked top European b-school, again

HEC Paris has retained its position as Europe's premier business school. Read further details here

Something to cheer about :)

Ramblings

Haven't written for quite a while because:
1. I have been very busy with classes and assignments
2. There hasn't been much to write about (except for financial mess which I am sure everyone is aware about).

So, what's new!
Well, a good news for all who are planning to join HEC Paris in future (maybe in 2010). HEC is launching an expensive drive to raise its profile. Read here

Apart from this, the new batch is here. They are a bigger intake, around 150 in number; I haven't got a chance to interact with many of them, might get to know them better in future. Like last year, they have already started campaigning for MBAT elections. Watch some creative videos

From MBAT-Men
Video 1
Video 2
Video 3


From Squad
Video

Last term at HEC

I began my last term here this month; Started the term with a 3 day seminar-cum-course on "Ethiques and Performances" which was held in Domaine de Chednac (near Puy en Velay in South France). It was an interesting course where we discussed and debated on how to deal with ethical issues that we could face in our professional life.

This was followed by the fifth edition of Annual Sustainability Conference, a 2 day event organized by HEC MBA students each year. It was a good event where we had round table conferences with industry leaders in the field and some presentations by firms working in development consulting. I was impressed with the presentations by MBA Without Borders and Dalberg about their development consulting activities.

Our regular classes resumed last week with my first class at Monday 8 AM! It wasn't easy going back to school after the summer break and I did have some long days in the first week itself. We already had plenty of work in the first week and I had to work on two assignments. My courses in this term are not evenly spread out - I have a lot of courses till Oct end and then just the core course in Nov and Dec. That means I'll have plenty of time to dedicate on job-search.

Gotta work now - have to finish some readings for today's class...

Elective Courses

Yesterday, I had exams for two of my electives- "Financial Dimensions of Strategic Decisions" and "Economics and Finance of International Business".
Don't get intimidated by the names - the first course was mainly about Corporate Finance and understanding the non-financial dynamics behind financial decisions. This course, taught by Proff Pascal Quiry, has been among the best courses I have had. In each session, we discussed cases which were mostly based on the proff's experience in advising companies in his illustrious career. What made the class more fun was proff's sense of humor and the concept of "Mr/Ms Summary"; the last person in class had to write the summary of the discussions in class and email it to all participants. This meant there was a sudden last minute rush and people trying to outrun each other to enter the class ;)

The second course, by proff Laurent Jacque was about International Finance and taught us about the dillema faced by MNCs while making international financing decisions. It was a very interesting course, by a very senior and knowledgable proff (he has also written a book on foreign exchange risk management). This course was very demanding - I must have spent atleast 50 hours for this course which is quite high considering that an avg elective course is about 18 hours. But, at the end of it, I would say it was completely worth it.

This is the advantage of being in Sep intake. We have much more choice of electives and some great proffs to learn from. Jan intake, does not get this luxury but they have some other advantages.

Things have been steady on the strategy consulting elective. We have been practising case-cracking regularly and will have mock-interviews with real consultants soon. Am really looking forward to it because that would give me an indication about my current level.

Another development here is that some of my classmates will leave HEC for good this week. They will finish their classes for this term here and will go on exchange programs with other schools in next term. I am really sad at the prospect of not seeing them in future classes. Having spent so much time together, it will be really difficult to watch them leave... But I guess C'est la vie....

Snapshots from Hell

It just keeps getting tougher. At the end of 2nd term I had thought that life at HEC would become easier because I will choose the subjects I'd be interested in and have less work. But that was not the case to be - in my quest for business-knowledge I ended up taking too many work-intensive courses. As a result the workload at the moment is very high and I can safely say that the past couple of weeks have been my most hectic ones here.

This week has been specially tough - I have been sleeping past midnight and getting up at 6. What makes it more difficult for me is the 2 hours of daily commute. I would have saved some precious time (and energy) if I had stayed on expansiel. But living in Paris is a different experience altogether!!!!

So, what is the reason behind this workload? I'd say it is mainly because of the Strategy Consulting elective. In 2 weeks, each of us was supposed to solve 25 cases. Now case-solving is done in pairs. So each person solves total 50 cases with his/her partner. On an average, a case takes 30-40 minutes. So the total workload is appx 25 hours spread over 2 weeks. This does not include the time you have to spend preparing for case, your pitch and so on. Tomorrow, we will finish the first milestone and then we will have more cases to solve till 14th Jun when final session of this elective will be held.

Even though the workload is high, I must admit that I am enjoying it, esp. the case-cracking exercise. I love brain simulating activity and case-cracking helps me work on different types of problems and look at them from different points of view. I am glad that I took this elective.

I guess the next week is going to be even tougher. A brief overview of my schedule for the first two days next week:
Monday - Make a presentation at 8 AM in finance course. After class, I will go to Roland Garros to watch French Open. Will come back to school for a class from 6 PM to 9PM
Tuesday - Make a presentation in Microfinance course at 1PM. Work on the case for International Finance which is due on Wednesday. In evening, I will go to Stade de France to watch the football match between France and Columbia.

So on and so forth. There are so many things to do and you have to work according to your priorities otherwise it is very easy to get lost in a b-school life.

In case the subject of this post sounds unfamiliar, you must read
Snapshots from Hell

Consulting at HEC

This week, we started classes again after MBAT. One of the key events this week was our trip to BCG. BCG had organized an informational tour for HEC students at their office. With this event, they began the recruiting exercise for full time positions from HEC. We now have to submit our applications online by May 26 and the first round of interviews will be held on Jun 24.

As in other b-schools, consulting is one of the most sought after career here. It is generating more interest from people this year because of the slowdown in financial sector. For students interested in Strategy Consulting, we have a special elective - Strategy Consulting - tools and frameworks to prepare students for consulting interviews. This elective is conducted by a HEC alumni who has worked in BCG. The number of seats in this elective are very less (16 only); workload is high as every one is expected to solve a lot of cases as part of the course.

Apart from this, the consulting club at HEC is become pretty active and conducts regular sessions to provide insights about consulting industry and help students prepare for consulting interviews.

Last week, I restarted my case-cracking preparations after a break of 2 months. After doing a couple of cases I realized that I still need a lot of practice to structure my thoughts. Hopefully, things will fall in place with more practice.

MBAT ends

Last week, we held MBAT at HEC Paris. As I have mentioned before, MBAT is the biggest MBA sports tournament in Europe. This 18th edition had over 1300 students
from 14 European b-schools participating in over 20 different events.

During this 3 day event, MBA participants competed fiercely with each other during days and then winded down by partying till wee hours every night. I guess there was hardly anyone who slept for over 4-5 hours a day. It was great to see the future business leaders fighting and enjoying on (and off) the sports field. But it was not all fun - people broke ribs, wrists, even collar bones and not to mention the numerous minor injuries.

Like last year, LBS won it this year too by a big margin. Well, they had to - they brought the biggest contingent (about 230 people), played all the sports and had more than one team competing in some sports. To be honest, they also deserved it considering the spirit they demonstrated. They were very competitive and had many people who came with them just to cheer their team. IESE came second and HEC third. I am glad with our performance because it was extremely difficult for us to be both organizers and participants at the same time.

Some of my favorite memories of this event are people dressed up as Super Girl, Bat Girl, Roman Soldier etc; LBS double-decker buses with one dedicated to beer and Cafe Rotterdam by RSM.

It is sad that this event had to end so soon. It will be difficult to get back to classroom tomorrow after having gone through the amazing week and meeting so many new people. Alas! life must go on - C'est la vie

Visions of Leadership

Last week, we had Visions of Leadership week at HEC. It was a week full of conferences and workshop dedicated to Leadership. Speakers were prominent leaders from industry and government. Some of the people were:

Gerogia Garinois ( President Beauty Care Strategy and New Growth, J&J)
Avivah Wittenberg-Cox ( CEO, 20-first)
Jean Rene Fourtou ( Chairman of the Supervisiory Board, Vivendi)
Henri de Castries (Chairman of AXA group)
Jean Paul Agon (CEO, L'oreal)
Theodore Zeldin (Philosopher)
General Jean-Louis Georgelin (Chief of the Defence Staff, French Army)
and
Valery Giscard d'Estaing (Former President of France)

Each day had a different theme - leadership perspectives, change/crisis management, decision making etc. The speakers talked about their experiences w.r.t to the particular theme.

The opening session was a talk by Mr. Theodore Zeldin. He exposed us to some very basic and probing questions about life and existence and about priorities in life. Time and again, I ask these questions to myself and I think I need to answer these questions again at this point in my life. The last session was by our Dean - Mr. Ramanantsoa. He talked about the power games in an organization and about the different perspectives of managers and leaders. My favorite session was the one by Mr. Jean Rene Fourtou, where he talked about how he turned Vivendi around from the brink of bankruptcy in 2002. The session was full of anecdotes and made us laugh by the way Mr. Fourtou described the series of events during his tenure.

One common thing that almost all leaders talked about was the importance and role of intuition in their decisions. This is an important takeaway for me who always tries to get a detailed analysis of every situation and wants to have an extensive look at data before taking a decision. But as they said, intuition comes with age and I guess as I grow older, I will trust my instincts more often.

Tomorrow, I am leaving for Switzerland on a 5 day trip. Can't wait to get to the Swiss Alps now :)

End of second term

My second term at HEC ended this week; We had 3 consecutive exams - Economics, Corporate Finance and Strategic Management and each exam tested us thoroughly.

In Economics exam, we had 2 cases apart from the usual MCQs. One of the cases was on LM/IS schedules in which we had to present a complete analysis of the economy which was depicted by those schedules. This made it quite challenging.

Corporate Finance was by far the most difficult exam at HEC. Each of the three sections of our class had a different proffesor and the paper was also different for each section. But after the exam everyone was unianimous in the view that the paper was long and difficult. There were angry protests from some people that the proff did not cover all the topics in depth and the questions required a much thorough understanding of the topic. I partially agree with this opinion but then you shouldn't expect spoon-feeding in a top school.

Strategic Management was a different story altogether. The exam duration was 5 hours!!! Before the exam, most of the people were of the view that 5 hours is too long and one should finish the exam in 3 hours. After the exam, people were complaining that even 5 hours are insufficient to solve a strategy case and submit a report in the form of paper based slides. I guess most of the people (including me) mismanaged their time and 5 hours were definitely enough for the case.

Now that the exams are over, I have some time to relax. Next week is going to be interesting; It is the Visions of Leadership (VoL) week at HEC. VoL is an integral part of the HEC MBA program in which leaders from leading companies are invited to talk about their leadership experiences and challenges. In the next week, we will have sessions by CEOs, a workshop by Mckinsey and a group case where we have to analyze a situation and submit our findings to a leader.

After the VoL week, we have a 10 day break; I am going to Switzerland for 5 days with some classmates. Looking forward to that trip.

The month gone by

The past month has bene very hectic. It has been full of fun activities, academic pressure and internship search.

We truly celebrated HEC Paris' diversity in March by celebrating India Week, Africa Week and China Week. For three consecutive weeks, we had some or other events to showcase the culture and diversity of our participants. These events were not just fun; Every week had a roundtable event in which there were discussions about doing business in that particular region. Finally, one common event that marked the culmination of every event was a fashion show where our classmates walked the ramp showcasing their colorful cultural diversity. These events were fun and informational.

On the academic front, we are close to the end of 2nd term here. We have already had final exams for two subjects and with three final exams next week, we will finish the 2nd term on 10th April. After that, we will have one week for Vision of Leadership events. More on that later.

The past month was also stressful because of summer internship/elective related work. I interivewed with DHL for a Corporate Strategy profile but did not get the position. So as of now, I don't have any internship offer and as things stand now, I will take electives till June end and will spend Jul-Aug in India. But it was good to see some of my classmates get internship offers although not everyone got what he/she wanted. Overall, this has been a tough time, especially in the financial sector. Not more than 5/6 people have landed with core finance profiles for internships.

I am leaving for London tomorrow for a career fair exclusively organized for HEC MBA students by JP Morgan. There will be close to 20 companies present and I am interesed in 3-4 of those. Lets see how this event goes.

Mid-terms finished; Vacation about to begin

I wanted to write earlier but could not because I was busy with certain things - preparations for India week and then exams. In last couple of weeks, we had final exam for Management Accounting and mid-terms for Economics and Corporate Finance. Management Accounting was simple but the other exams really tested our concepts. For Economics, we had 50 multiple-choice-questins on MicroEconomics; the catch was that there was negative marking which meant we had to be very careful while marking our answers. In today's Corporate Finance paper we had to answer approximately 15 short questions and only a couple of questions were straight-forward. After taking the exam, I realized that the more I learn, the more I realize there is left to learn.

Apart from this, we also submitted our exchange program applications and track-selection applications last week. HEC Paris has outgoing exchange program with most of the world's top MBA programs and I think close to 20 people from my class will go on exchange. I did not apply for exchange and applied for Strategy as my chosen track. This year, getting Strategy track will not be easy because there have been over 40 applicants for 40 seats. I think we will know the outcome of our applications next week.

We have winter-break vacation from March 1-9 and I am eagerly looking forward to this break. I will leave for Prague on 6th and spend 3 days there. It is going to be another exciting trip I am sure.

Business Quiz at HEC

We had a business cum general knowledge quiz for MBA participants at HEC. There were 5 teams of 5 members each. There were 5 rounds with 10 questions in each round. It was a tough quiz I must say. A couple of teams were virtually out after the second round itself because of their abysmal performance. At the end of second round, we were trailing by 1 point but the third round changed it all. We scored 10 whereas the previously leading team scored 5. After that it was just a matter of maintaining the lead and we did it albeit by a narrow margin of 2 points.
So it was a closely contested victory and each of us received a bottle of champagne for the win:). I would say we were extremely lucky because Marvin - the person who did bulk of the scoring was not in our team originally; he joined us at the last moment and helped us win the contest. ;)
Here's a picture of the winning team:


The people in the pic from right to left:
1. Goran - one of the organizers
2. Bipul
3. Deepak
4. Marvin - the star
5. Rahul - that's me
6. Ashish

Looking forward to many such bottles of champagne ;)

Latin week at HEC Paris

It is getting increasing difficult to find time to write these days. There are just too many things to do here(and I am not talking about studies...) and sometimes it becomes difficult to choose. I have to juggle my time between sports, preparing for India week and different club activities.

This week was particularly hectic as we celebrated Latin week here. We have people from Venezuela, Mexico, Columbia, Chile, Peru, Argentina and Brazil (I might be forgetting some other countries) in our batch and the Latin week was an event to showcase the Latin culture and celebrate the diversity. We saw some famous movies - City of God, Motorcycle Diaries which provided us insights into the life and culture of Brazil and other latin american countries.
Apart from this, we had presentations on various countries, a discussion on doing business in latin america, a music fest and finally a sumptous latin dinner. I tried to attend as many events as possible by balancing my time between other activities.

Things are moving well on the academic front also. We started our strategy classes this week and the first couple of classes were great. We discussed cases on the success of Southwest Airlines and the classic Cola-Pepsi wars. Our strategy proff makes the classes really interesting. He randomly calls upon a person and asks him/her to initiate the case discussion. This makes it imperative that each of us prepares the case thorougly before the class. I am looking forward to more strategy cases in coming months.

On the personal level, I am looking forward to the one week winter break in March first week. I have just booked my tickets for Prague where I am going with close to 50 Cite Universitaire folks. Hopefully, this trip will be as exciting as my previous trips to Rome, Barcelona and UK.