Preparing Myself For A Global Career: Reflections Of IESE Alums

Byrne: How helpful was career management here in shaping your choices and helping you as a candidate to present your best self?

Les Spalthoff: For me it was very helpful because obviously I had no background at all in business. You learned about your weaknesses and strengths. How can I apply what I learned to this? Then of course there’s a lot of self work because it’s you who has to do that. It opens a lot of doors to the companies.

Byrne: Victor, like Christina, you came in not knowing exactly what you wanted to do, so I imagine that company presentations, career fairs, and conversations with your fellow students and alumni in different industries were helpful to you.

Roma: Absolutely. In the career forums you get all these companies coming here presenting and they bring alumni who were at IESE just three or four years ago. Probably there’s no one better that can explain how an MBA would fit in that company than that person. These conversations are really enriching and to me they helped to shape where I wanted to go.

Buetefisch: Maybe I can answer it now from a different perspective because we are talking as recruiters.It’s the other side of the coin. We are getting a very professional service, both for interns and for full time recruitment. It’s outstanding.

Byrne: Now a lot of people who look at the price tag on an MBA, and often ask themselves, is it worth it? Is it?

Les Spalthoff: I know it’s worth it. I think. I would do it again. At first, I was slightly reluctant but I wanted to do the career change and this was the way to do it.

Buetefisch: I think it’s the best investment that you can make in your education. In general term, I think money is not the right value; it’s more the time. If you’re willing to invest two years of your life to do that, I think the answer is yes, it’s worth it because on average we will all work probably 35 to 40 years. So the learning will serve you over that time if you go to one of the top schools.

Roma: I bet that there are chances that you end up taking that cost you two years by staying on the same road that is not challenging you enough. I have no doubts that it was the right choice.

Byrne: Let’s talk about the value of the network. How were the graduates of the school helpful to you?

Buetefisch: I think that there are two levels of alums. First of all, the 250 or 300 people that have been in your class who know your face and your name. They are obviously extremely easy to contact. And then there’s the other group of people that have studied in the years ahead or after you. Now we have a great technology platform on the IESE alumni website so you can reach out to all of them. It’s absolutely incredible. Everybody answers within at least 24 hours to any requests. That’s the experience I have had and that’s also why I give back to any contact that comes to me. Sometimes it’s just an introduction. Sometimes it’s a short call. That’s what it’s all about. If I get a reference from somebody from IESE, I know there’s a high level of professionalism and reputation behind it. I value that a lot.

Byrne: What skills does the school not teach that you wish it had? Anyone want to tackle that?

Roma:: There’s one thing that I think is very difficult to teach it in an MBA program, and it was practical leadership. What do I mean? I got very, well founded leadership theory in the MBA program. Then when I joined Amazon, I was leading a group of 100 associates in my shift. All the theory I learned in school was very useful, but I had no clue how to do that right. It caused some pain during the first month, then I hit the wall, failed and learned. That is definitely something that I had to learn outside my MBA program.

Byrne: Christina was, is there any skill that you wish you would learn here that you did

Les Spalthoff: Well, I do agree with Victor. It’s true that sometimes you have got all the theory, but then putting it into practice requires time. It’s probably also why it’s not taught in that sense here. I’m working now with companies from different countries and there are differences on how to tackle this or that. It’s not something you’ll learn in class by itself because we are living with these issues. You get it without having it taught in class.

Byrne: There’s a famous saying in the U.S.: The question is asked, “How do you get to Carnegie Hall? You practice, practice and practice.” At IESE, I am sure there are many clubs and organizations where you can practice your leadership skills. Can you talk about those experiences and how they helped you?

Buetefisch: I was actually captain of the Sports Team when we organized a tournament among all the different MBA schools. So it was not only leading the entire MBA team of IESE, but also organizing the event where we invited four or five other business schools. That was definitely a lesson in organization and leadership. Barcelona has an advantage over the northern countries in Europe because we can do sports all year round. It’s a big advantage of this location to be in a vivid city with an international intake. It’s very attractive for investment and there’s a big technology startup scene. 

Byrne: Let’s take a question from our livestream audience. What three skills do employers find more important today than several years ago?

Buetefisch: I would just tell you what for us are the three most important things. First of all, it’s motivation and attitude. It’s the energy you bring to work. Second,  it would be your relevant experience. This doesn’t mean you have to have worked in an important company. It’s basically what relevant experience you bring to the position. If you’re a team leader, it could be that you have been organizing or leading people on a cruise ship. It doesn’t have to be in any specific work environment. Third, it’s finding out how people make decisions.  We have a certain methodology in our interviews to learn how people have been making decision because that’s what we ask them to do in our company. So motivation, relevant work experience and decision-making skills.

Byrne: Victor, you must be hiring people every day because Amazon is growing by leaps and bounds. What are you looking for?

Roma: We’re looking for people who are able to solve complex analytical problems. So we would need to see some evidence of strong analytical skills. That’s the first one. The second one is leadership skills and not necessarily skills linked to experience. There are some people that would have these leadership skills but at the age of 23 or 30, they just haven’t had the chance to put them in practice. We try to identify these rough diamonds.

And finally we look for people who are curious and able to learn new things fast because the pace at which things are changing now is definitely way higher than what it used to be five years ago. At Amazon, we need people who are able to adapt very fast.

Byrne: Christina, the last words are yours.

Les Spalthoff:: We’ve shifted from putting a lot of value on prior experience to capabilities and attitude. We’re also looking for emotional intelligence behind it.

Byrne: Thanks everyone for a valuable discussion. Much success to all your futures.

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