Can you tell us more about yourself?
I am Nicolas. I am French with West Indie roots. I hold an MS in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the Ecole Superieure electricity with an exchange program with Georgia Institute of Technology.
I started my career in 2007 at a management consulting company and have worked in companies such as BearingPoint, Withings, Adventure Business Partners.
What prompted you to apply for an MBA?
As a graduate of one of the best engineering schools in France and working in a career mainly as a quant, working for management consulting firm and research centers, I was always valued for my strong analytical skills. After working for seven years as a quant I decided that I wanted to make a qualitative leap in order to have access to higher management positions and be involved in the decision-making process.
During my years at Ecole Superieure electricity, I got the chance to spend around 18 months as an Exchange student at Georgia Tech. Upon coming back I realized that my life was mainly focused in and around France and the French market and I realized that career would always lack the mobility both professionally and geographically. The whole idea of the MBA was born to allow my ambition and career to attain mobility on the international scene.
What did you find the most difficult in the application process?
After two months of class with Dr. Hubert Silly, I managed to bump up my score from 720 to 760 in my GMAT thanks to his help. It is always very interesting to work with Dr. Hubert Silly who is himself very brilliant and has managed to get 800 in his own GMAT. The application process was quite difficult for two reasons. First of all, the career that I had had was very illustrious from the outside. But looking at it from an MBA perspective, it lacked leadership achievements. Secondly, I felt that the evolution of my career had been quite rapid as I expected, first in consulting and then in a research center and it was quite difficult to justify two changes in my career with a relatively flat career evolution. Dr. Hubert Silly’s contribution here was very important as he helped me give value to the career that I had and also helped me identify the key leadership achievements. He also insisted a lot on my international profile, and by retelling my professional story he could explain the whys and how’s of my career describing it as a fast-evolving career even though it was not the case.
Finally, it was quite difficult to manage the time required for the application as I decided at the last minute to start preparing. So work, family life and the preparations all at the same time took proved quite difficult to handle at the last minute.
What is life like at Wharton?
Getting to be a part of the Wharton body was one of the best experiences of my life. With the reputation that it enjoys, I was assured of great experience in study and co-curricular. The student body at Wharton is very diverse and I was pleased to realize that we could find multiple perspectives to understand in our classes.
Apart from this, I was also President of the Wharton French Association.
What would be your advice to someone applying for an MBA program?
I would advise people not to wait for the last moment to start the admission process. I decided to go for an MBA after my vacations and by the time I got in contact with Dr. Hubert Silly and started the collaboration I had only three months left to complete the entire process. I do not believe this was a wise move on my part and especially not if you have a liberal art or social science background. It will prove to be very difficult to get a good score in such a short amount of time. So be more organized and plan for over six to nine months.
Understand what MBA Programs are looking for. They are not looking for engineers or veterans or any particular profile of students. What they aim for is diversity in their programs and they look to have a balanced profile distribution in class. So be motivated and work on your skills, be global oriented and you have as good a chance as any other to get into a top MBA program.
I had a friend from Ecole Superieure d’Electricite who had been accepted into Harvard and he recommended that I work with Dr. Hubert Silly. In the beginning, I thought that he was just an English teacher who would help me write my essays in good English. Over time I came to understand that he was an expert in the MBA market and his experience gained over 20 years was of great added value to my profile. I got accepted to Columbia (with full scholarship), Wharton, Kellogg, INSEAD, LBS, MIT and I do not think that I would have such success had I prepared all on my own.