Meet The CEIBS MBA Class of 2017

Arie Fasman

CEIBS

Hometown: Tel Aviv, Israel

Undergraduate School and Major: Bachelor of Arts – Ben Gurion University of the Negev – Management & Finance

Employers and Job Titles Since Graduation: Partner Telecommunications – Team Leader, Reevan Traders – Derivatives Trader

Recalling your own experience, what advice do you have for applicants who are preparing for either the GMAT or the GRE? Plan your time very carefully and be aware of the learning method that best suits you. It can be a face-to-face course, online course, private tutoring, or self-learning plan that is tailored for you by an expert. For me, the best approach was to take an online course in the areas that I needed to strengthen and a tailored self-learning plan.

Based on your own selection process, what advice do you have for applicants who are trying to draw up a list of target schools to which to apply? It might sound a bit like a cliché, but every business school differs and you need to really understand what are your needs are from the school and the MBA overall. My suggestion would be this to outline your short- and long-term goals and only then search for business schools that can best provide you the means to the end goal. You should take into consideration factors such as industry, function, geographical location, alumni network, and (last-but-not-least) the opportunity cost of the MBA choice in general and MBA school in particular.

What advice do you have for applicants in actually applying to a school, writing essays, doing admission interviews, and getting recommenders to write letters on your behalf? Once you managed to answer the previous question for yourself, the entire process gets much easier. Business schools, in general, are looking for candidates that they can contribute, since a good MBA graduate will improve the school’s brand name, network, and future resources that the graduate will contribute back to the school. To emphasize my point, try to look at yourself from the school’s point of view. Can you see the benefit that you can bring to this specific school? Can you see the benefit that the school can bring to you? If you answered yes to both of those questions than your entire admission process will run smoothly.

What led you to choose this program for your full-time MBA? My personal short- and long-term goals were very much aligned with what the school could offer me. I wanted to change my function within my industry and I couldn’t do it without the MBA program. CEIBS’s MBA program can give me the opportunity to do so and to so in an entirely new country, which I am also very interested in.

When I calculated the factors, which I mentioned earlier, the choice of going to this specific MBA program just made the best sense. Actually the decision was very easy. On the other hand, the process that brought me to this decision was the difficult one.

What would you ultimately like to achieve before you graduate? In a broader way of speaking, I would like to bring some of my own unique background to the school. On a more specific manner, I would like to push further the school’s approach to innovation, entrepreneurship, and a hands-on approach. It is very important for me to contribute as much as I can to the school, since I feel that the school is substantially outperforming my own expectations of it.