Meet the HEC Paris MBA Class Of 2019

Jérémie Zarka

HEC Paris

Describe yourself in 15 words or less: An engineer and traveler addict, who has transitioned from technical to sales and next… entrepreneurship.

Hometown: Paris, France

Fun Fact About Yourself: When choosing a sport to pass the French baccalauréat (high school diploma), I decided to go for tennis table, but ended up passing synchronized swimming. Now I am a better swimmer.

Undergraduate School and Major: École Supérieur d’Ingénieur en Électronique et Électrotechniques (ESIEE-Paris), Computer Science major

Employers and Job Titles Since Graduation:

Thales Air Systems, Paris, France – Bid Manager – 07/2013-08/2017
Thales Solutions Asia, Singapore – System Engineer & Team Leader – 02/2011-06/2013
Thales Air Systems, Paris, France – Software Engineer – 04/2008-01/2011
Thales ATM Pty., Melbourne, Australia – Software Engineer – 08/2007-03/2008

Describe your biggest accomplishment in your career so far: The commissioning of Singapore Air Traffic Control Center is my biggest accomplishment so far.

To my great satisfaction, the $300 million critical system routinely executes some Java code I wrote and allows millions of passenger to fly safely in the region. As we handled the complexity of 500,000 lines of coded technical debt, we ramped up the local team to climb the mountain of system commissioning, which was supposed to grant a multi-million dollar payment to the company. Despite the intense responsibility I felt, I handled my stress well, avoiding passing it to my team. The team kept focused in a ‘play hard, work hard spirit,’ troubleshooting the system and ironing out major technical issues never faced at Thales before. Successful commissioning endorsed my endurance to manage stress.

Managing a team of 12 greatly improved my comfort in exercising a leadership role in a multicultural environment. At first, my low-context, explicit and confrontational communication habits caused issues with some of my colleagues from other countries, but I learned not to overrule others and to give space for them to express themselves.

Feedback from my team allowed me to adapt to each individual’s background and let each of them blossom in this difficult environment. Immersion in the Eastern cultures augmented my Western style with a subtle touch of Confucianism. I am now able to better understand and deal with others, calling myself into question when appropriate.

I originally pursued travel out of pure wanderlust. Eventually what I learned from travel is to harness diversity in the most positive possible way and to stay anchored to the bigger picture.

Looking back on your experience, what one piece of advice would you give to future business school applicants? The GMAT is the first step in the MBA journey. Passing this exam is a tremendous experience that helps you know yourself better. I had a hard time with it, especially the verbal section. Eventually the efforts paid off with a score above 700 and I gained eligibility for the best school in France. The special advice I would give to future school applicants is to have a healthy study routine and not to think too much about the GMAT itself – this is only the first step. Take a deep breath while preparing in order to approach the exam day calmly yet confidently!

What was the key factor that led you to choose this program for your full-time MBA and why was it so important to you? Things are moving in France nowadays and the HEC Paris MBA is a leader in the transformation. The school is the most active in the Parisian startup scene, in which the brightest initiative is its partnership with Station F, the world’s largest startup campus that has just opened in Paris. I am anxiously awaiting my chance to take part in this initiative and the 16-month HEC Paris MBA is the best opportunity I have to do so.

What would success look like to you after your first year of business school? Reinventing myself, building from my strengths and working on my weaknesses, is what I look forward to accomplishing during my first year of my MBA. Success after my first year at business school will surely mean taking part to great initiatives in an international environment that will make positive changes in society.

Jérémie Zarka

HEC Paris

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