The Business School Decision. A tough one

What people don't want to admit when they go to Business School

My decision to go to Business School was basically the result of a self assessment I did when starting my professional career in the corporate world. In the year 2010, I was a recently graduated industrial engineer in Venezuela, with very little work experience. Then, I applied for an internship at Procter & Gamble in Caracas. The P&G building around my neighborhood was HUGE, it really made you feel insignificant and gave you the feeling that the company was actually a giant in the country, check this picture:

P&G Venezuela is one of the biggest markets for this consumer goods giant. It had huge offices really close to my place and offered a nice opportunity to start my corporate career. After three years working there, I decided to quit. When I told my family and friends about my decision, almost everyone thought I was crazy. Living 5 minutes from work, working in the biggest company in the country, earning good money in comparison with the average salary, certainly sounded like a nice deal.The company had really clear rules to get promoted, but I wanted faster growth. Usually people don't like to admit that they were very ambitious or selfish at some point in their career, but actually this hunger for success is the main driver to take risks and key decisions in life. At least from my perspective.

I decided to quit my job and apply for a business master's degree to learn the know how and theory behind business management. Of course I saved enough money to pay for my graduate studies, neither my dad nor my mom had the economic means to sponsor me a master's degree abroad. All this with the objective to launch my career to new heights.

Which program? Business education is just too broad

I wanted to study business, so what? which program? there are hundreds of options worldwide, so I really had to narrow it down. After a long research, I decided to enroll in a Master's in International Business program. This degree is not very common worldwide, teaches the key things needed in the business environment in any company worldwide, and represents a great cost/benefit for young professionals or students without a long professional experience. Also, a few other reasons were:

1. MIB costs between 50%-60% of an MBA (with subtle differences in the courses offered)

2. I felt MBA programs were somehow cliche, I wanted something different, something that when seen in my resume people will ask: "wow, I haven't heard of that program before, please tell me more".

3. It's easier to study in a highly ranked MIB program than an MBA program because of the demand MBA's have nowadays.

So it was settled, I wanted a MIB program. Now the next question to answer was...where?

The Hult Decision

After doing an extensive research on highly ranked MIB programs, I found three potential schools that really caught my attention: Hult, FIU, and Manchester University. I applied and was accepted in all of them. However, Hult offered the best cost/benefit, I think the things that really distinguished this school from the rest were:

1. The Financial Times and The Economist Rankings for the School:

2. The Global Rotation Program. Hult has campuses in Boston, San Francisco, Dubai Shanghai and London. Certainly is the only Business School that offered the opportunity to study your program in so many campuses around the world. Check out this video to see what I'm talking about:

3. Again, the price. I was paying for my studies, I had to choose the best cost/benefit option according to my budget. The price was fairly good in comparison to other options and usually those other options were lower in the rankings.

So I was set, I wanted to do an MIB at Hult International Business School, next I would have to decide in which campus, understand pros and cons, think on a rotation campus, and prepare everything for the exciting journey that was coming up! I will talk about these topics in my next post so stay tuned for more!