Interview With Steve

My name is Steve, and I have dual citizenship, Canadian and Cameroonian. I studied in my home country, Cameroon, until high school and completed my master's degree in computer science and management systems from the Lyon II University - Catholic University of Central Africa. My career has been chiefly in the IT sector, and I have worked as an IT consultant in various companies in France and Canada. My job was mainly to enhance organizational change within companies.

First of all, having dual citizenship and having worked mainly in IT and organizational change, I wanted to have a job in life that would be more international, have key strategic and management roles, and more responsibilities. I knew that I would not gain all of these with the current path I was on. A career change seemed necessary to aim toward my goals, so I decided to do an MBA in strategy to help me move my career in the right direction while also having a much broader scope.

HEC is among the top ten MBA programs globally, being ranked 9th in the last Financial Times ranking. Apart from that, perhaps the real reason I chose HEC is the program's structure. I was pretty sure that I did not want to go for a one-year program as I feel that one year is too short to expect a real career improvement. I prefer the 16-month format of HEC, which offers the possibility of having a summer internship in between.

Secondly, the 16- month program also leaves enough time to engage in multiple personal projects. Considering that HEC has a vast network of decision-makers in the French-speaking world, France, Switzerland, Africa, West Africa, and Canada, it would be an excellent opportunity for me to work with them.

Thirdly, HEC has a very international community. I am already in contact with some future teammates from Spain, Italy, India, Lebanon, the US, the UK, etc. Finally, HEC has one of the finest campuses among all the schools, boasting tennis courts, football fields, etc., and I hope to make full use of all the amenities offered.

The most challenging part of the admission process was the test, especially the GMAT and the TOEFL. I was surprised that the test was so demanding as I am pretty good at math, and my level of English is relatively high, having had quite a bit of exposure to the language all my life. The format was not something I was at ease with, and the MCQ format can be tricky at times. I also believe that it was difficult for me to do well in the GMAT as I was working at that time and could not devote enough time to the preparation. Still, I got a good score and was accepted by HEC, but the test was a nasty surprise.

I have over six years of experience providing consulting services to CIOs, CTOs, and IT managers. Through this experience, I extensively worked with teams from culturally diverse countries and varied industry backgrounds, developing excellent technical proficiency and interpersonal skills.

I want to work in the sector of IT strategy management, fast-track my way up the corporate ladder, and become a MA IT sourcing strategy director in one of the top strategic consulting firms in Europe and America (like BCG, Bain, McKinsey, or Strategy).

While I can pursue my goals without an MBA, there will be an uncomfortably low ceiling because I will lack strategic thinking and decision-making skills that can only be acquired through a well-designed curriculum in business education. Pursuing an MBA at this stage of my career would help increase my self-confidence and allow me to build credibility in the industry.

I want to be on the leadership team of an Africa-based strategy consulting firm in the long term. Armed with the multiple group projects and high-stress situations that I will face at HEC and the numerous opportunities I will get post graduating, I am confident that I will be able to achieve my objective.

The first piece of advice, which I believe you can easily guess from my previous answers, is not to follow my example and wait for the last second to start your application process. Do not do that! Start the application process in June and send the application in by September. Take enough time to prepare and plan. The GMAT isn't as easy as you might believe. Take time to prepare and prepare well.

Secondly, go beyond rankings and look for a place that suits you. If you look at the ranking, INSEAD is better ranked than HEC. But understand that ranking is just a very standard approach and does not consider individual and personal needs. So INSEAD may be suitable for someone looking for a short, fast-track program but if the person is looking for personal development and the possibility to explore opportunities to determine and build a solid personal project, then go for a program that allows the time and the opportunities for such.

Fortunately, I found Reussir le GMAT and Dr Hubert Silly from the MBA Center to help me. Their help was essential both for the application, mini-essays, CV preparation, interviews, and helping me with the decision making. They guided me throughout, and I was delighted with their help.

Thanks for your time Steve, it was nice to have this session with you!