Over 90% of EDHEC MBA students are international, with more than 30 nationalities represented in the latest MBA class. 42% of EDHEC MBAs are women.
EDHEC’s 10-month MBA program includes two international experiences abroad. From EDHEC’s campus in Nice, on the French Riviera, students travel to South Africa to explore sustainable development and entrepreneurship, and either London, Paris, Singapore, or San Francisco’s Silicon Valley depending on their specialization track.
An international program translates into international careers—59% of the latest MBA class landed jobs outside their native countries. Top MBA employers include Amadeus, Amazon, Deloitte, Microsoft, and L’Oréal.
Why are international MBA experiences important? What does EDHEC offer that other schools don’t? BusinessBecause caught up with three recent EDHEC MBA grads to find out more.
Nadav Mordechai, MBA ‘17
After seven years in finance in his native Israel, Nadav decided to relocate to France for his MBA. At EDHEC, he thrived working in a diverse team on a consulting project for Airbus Helicopters in Marseille. After graduation, he landed a job at fintech firm Octopus Labs in London; a product manager with a team spread over five countries.
On choosing EDHEC… With the decision to focus on the European market, I spent several months on researching some of the leading European MBA programs—HEC Paris, SDA Bocconi, ESMT and EDHEC. I wanted an MBA program that would be intense and diverse, but also one that would not pull me out of work for a long period, and would offer a good return on investment. EDHEC was the obvious choice.
On international experiences at EDHEC… A pivotal experience for me was the consulting project. Our client, Airbus Helicopters, an international market leader, was dealing with the topic of digital transformation. Our task was to design a solution that would connect teams across countries.
Within two months, we had to become experts in the unique company processes, as well as offer a rationale to the change, a change management plan, and a working prototype to demonstrate our ideas fully. From what I see in the industry, this is the level of consulting that companies are expecting to receive today. Having a great group of talent from China, Japan and Peru, together with the support and professional coaching from EDHEC, made it all possible!
My experience working in a multicultural environment at EDHEC Business School helps me in my work today. In an environment that is becoming more and more global, one cannot exaggerate the importance of that.
Irina Arzumanyan, MBA ‘17
Prior to her MBA, Irina spent the entirety of her career working her way up the ranks at HSBC in her native Armenia. After completing the EDHEC MBA entrepreneurship track, she took the career triple jump—changing industry, role, and location—to land a job at a big data analytics and artificial intelligence startup, based in France and expanding internationally.
On choosing EDHEC… I was looking for a truly international program and the class diversity at EDHEC was really impressive. Along with academic content of the program, you constantly learn from your peers, expand your awareness of cultures, and become better positioned to take your career to an international level. This was definitely one of the key takeaways from the MBA.
On international experiences at EDHEC… In Silicon Valley, we visited Plug and Play Tech Center—one of the world’s biggest technology startup accelerators—French Tech Hub—the largest French tech startup accelerator in the US—and had lectures from entrepreneurs and experts like Nicolas El Baze, General Partner of Partech Ventures. All the company visits and meetings were a good way to understand the entrepreneurship ecosystem, boost our network, and get advice from key industry players.
Even so, the trip to South Africa was the main highlight of my MBA experience. The entrepreneurial nature of the South Africans—the creativity of the business people there, with such limited resources—was genuinely inspiring.
My international experience at EDHEC gave me tools to complete change direction in my career post-MBA.
Francoise Epanya, MBA ‘17
Francoise has just completed a full-time MBA at EDHEC, specializing in Economic Crime Management. Having worked for a medical devices firm in Germany prior to her MBA, she’s now looking to kick-start her career in the healthcare industry.
On choosing EDHEC… I wanted a change and there was no opportunity for me to grow within my previous company. So, I decided to go for an MBA to get an update on how to do business today and to learn about the new disruptive technologies and methods in business management.
I decided to go for EDHEC because of the international nature of the program and the network of the school in Africa, a continent that is dear to me.
On international experiences at EDHEC… My international experiences at EDHEC have given me a broader view on how to do business in different parts of the world.
I went to San Francisco and Silicon Valley to learn more about cybersecurity, a domain that is growing today with the boom in the use of data and the Internet of Things. We visited and had a case study presentation at global companies like Equinix, but also NXP and Facebook. Visiting the Stanford campus and talking about design thinking with one of Stanford alumnus was a tremendous experience.
Most recently, we had a class study trip to Cape Town, South Africa about sustainability. I can say today that was the best experience from my year at EDHEC Business School. We had the opportunity to attend some presentations on the African and local markets at the University of Stellenbosch, visited companies like Sanlam, Abbott, Track4Africa and some wineries, to learn how they apply sustainability to their businesses.
The highlight of the trip was the visit of the township Khayelitsha where we met young entrepreneurs defying all odds and building sustainable businesses for their communities. Sustainability is the one key feature I will try to implement in everything I am doing in the future.
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