Meet The HEC Paris MBA Class Of 2023 by: Jeff Schmitt on May 06, 2022 | 10,088 Views May 6, 2022 Copy Link Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Email Share on LinkedIn Share on WhatsApp Share on Reddit The HEC Paris MBA runs 16 months, but the relationships our students build last a lifetime. Starting from the first dayson campus, numerous formal and informal events introduce our students to the 68,000 alumni in our worldwide community. 5 REASONS TO CHOOSE HEC PARIS 1) Program Length: “The flexible course curriculum attracted me as I could customise it to my specific goals. While the first eight months of the HEC program are standard, the last 8 months are customisable and the school has so many offerings for each student to mix and match in the way that works with their career aspirations and interests. You can go on exchange, work on an MBA project, and take part in a summer internship. Of course, there are many, many electives to choose from. In addition, the curriculum is current. Everything we learn is directly applicable to the business world today which is critical for success after the MBA.” Lily Kisenga (’23) 2) Paris: “Paris is one of the world’s biggest financial centers, hosting one of the largest concentrations of Fortune 500 companies. Paris is also Europe’s largest incubator and promoter of scientific studies for the world’s benefit.” Federico Andres Obelar Camperchioli (’22) “I think the proximity to an iconic city that has access to leading luxury brands is an incredible advantage. I also think having the campus right outside of Paris, but close enough to travel to, is a huge incentive because you can focus on your studies on the serene HEC Paris campus but also have access to the benefits a big city has to offer.” Jessy Shajan (’23) 3) Entrepreneurship: “The entrepreneurial specialization at HEC Paris exceeded my expectations. The hands-on experience of working with real innovators to deliver on bringing a product to market is essential practical knowledge for me, a striving entrepreneur. I was also fortunate to meet a few alumni who shared their experiences. They found the applied approach incomparable because the innovators they worked with were so passionate about their products, and that gave the alumni the drive to work hard and do justice to their vision.” Jessi Shajan (’23) 4) Saint Cyr’s Outdoor Leadership Event: “Each year HEC Paris gives the MBA students the opportunity to participate in the Outdoor Leadership Seminar. This 2 day, full-training course aims at developing leadership skills of students during short exercises in high-pressured environment. The seminar starts with basic problem-solving exercises and ends up with a full commando mission of 4 hours, during which each team member gets to experience the role of the leader. I did this whole training 5 months pregnant and can only recommend it, as I learned so much on myself and on my team members. I was assigned a leader in the final, 3 hours long exercises and was coordinating a rescue-mission after a massive earthquake in France. From complex problem-solving, using calmness as a super-power, analytical skills and team management this seminar is the perfect assessment of the values of HEC Paris: mutual aid, strategic & cold thinking, and leadership.” Anna Pozniakoff (’22) 5) Luxury: “On professional background, I had the chance to work under the leadership of two inspiring CEOs of L’Oréal who are both were HEC Paris Alumni. I learned a lot from intellectual vitality coming from the best minds, which are all rooted from this French business powerhouse. For a girl who is deeply curious to reveal the key difference of brand management philosophy in the French luxury way, between winning mindshare versus value-share, HEC Paris is one of the world’s best MBAs for my target industry.” Lan Phuong Nguyen (’23) Throughout the MBA journey, career advisors guide participants to help them achieve their career goals, whether they’re seeking a transformation to a new sector, function and/or industry, or want to step out as a budding entrepreneur. 5 WAYS TO GET ACCEPTED INTO HEC PARIS “I actually have two pieces of advice. As a woman, I think I deal with a lot of “impostor syndrome”. So I would like to say to anyone who believes they are not the best fit for an MBA: trust your luck and ambition. As an old neighbor of mine once said to me: “pire que non ils peuvent pas dire”, which translates to, “Worse than no, they cannot say”. The second would be this: don’t be a robot, get personal. Yes, an MBA prepares you for a serious professional career and you feel that you have to behave a certain formal way (square, even!), but talking about more intimate and personal experiences can help building stronger relationships and make your profile stand out.” Léa Bory (’23) “HEC has become a very international MBA program, and global experience is both important and a real differentiator for candidates entering the program. If you have lived or worked outside your own home country, think about what you learned inter-culturally and how it has influenced you both as a person and a professional. If you haven’t left your own country but have interacted with global teams, clients, service providers or vendors, consider one-to-two prominent examples of how you learned to work with people across different cultures, backgrounds, and languages. How did you adapt your own style of working and outlook in order to achieve mutual success? This can be very powerful as part of your application.” Brendan Kramp, Fortuna Admissions “HEC requires a number of short essays, more than any other school I applied to. One of them concentrated on creativity, asking “What would do you if you lived a different life than your own?” I dedicated quite a bit of time to crafting an answer which was extremely radical, almost comically so. Think thousands of years in the future, gender bending, parent of dozens of “children”, a newly-invented neurosport, etc. Perhaps this imaginative response set me apart.” Samuel Deason (’23) “It may seem obvious, but I think the most important decision I made was to be myself. I had a unique background and I thought it might not necessarily fit with the type of person HEC was seeking. Some people had told me to tailor my resume and emphasize key words during my interviews. Instead, I just decided to present my experiences and abilities, and it was absolutely the right choice. I realized this only after we started classes at HEC, when it became apparent that there is no ‘perfect’ background for the program. Everyone around me had their own unique accomplishments, and the vision of success changes depending on the person. If I had to pretend to be someone for admissions, I could have been a drain on the rest of the cohort – HEC would have selected me to add value in a certain way but it wouldn’t have been me. It’s not a perfect process, but HEC did a good job at selecting students.” Emric Navarre (’21) “Think about how your life and career will look if everything goes the way you plan, and how that will also be of value to the school. Do you plan on starting your own company one day? Do you want to lead change in the way we source energy? Do you have a passion for using technology to solve a previously intractable problem? All of these are great stories about your future, and they become even better when you tie them to the specific characteristics of the school and how the program will help you get to that goal. This is also something that the school will enjoy highlighting when you get there, demonstrating the life-long value and impact that an MBA from HEC can make.” Brendan Kramp, Fortuna Admissions MBA Student Hometown Undergrad Alma Mater Last Employer Saud Arshi Manama, Bahrain Sorbonne University Abu Dhabi Mumtalakat Léa Bory Paris, France Louis-le-Grand 65dB (TBWA Group) Yann Collins New York City, NY McGill University UK Government’s Department for International Trade (DIT) Lily Kisenga Nairobi, Kenya University of Nairobi TaroWorks LLC Bahar Elçin Kavak Ankara, Turkey Galatasaray University Law School Herguner Bilgen Özeke Attorney Partnership Luca Marini Salerno, Italy University of Naples Federico II Applied Technology & Management – Dubai Branch Thandiwe Mkhetshane Johannesburg, South Africa University of Cape Town Government Employees Pension Fund Federico Andres Obelar Camperchioli Asunción, Paraguay Universidad Católica de Asunción CIE Lan Phuong Nguyen Hai Phong, Vietnam Foreign Trade University L’Oréal Jessy Shajan Brooklyn, NY CUNY Baruch College New York Times Zhanara Yessenberlina Almaty, Kazakhstan University of Southern California Halyk Bank of Kazakhstan Previous PagePage 3 of 3 1 2 3