Archive for the ‘IE Experience’ Category

William Ramon Pacheco

Since this is the first of possibly a few posts, I should take a moment to introduce myself. My name is William Pacheco and I am a part of the April 2011 intake for the IE’s IMBA program. I am originally from the United States, but more specifically, from the state of Florida. I graduated from the University of Florida and worked for 6 years with Accenture then for another 5 years with Pfizer before coming to IE to begin the MBA program and also my fellowship with the International Development team. I cannot say enough about my time here; much has been learned, many friendships have been made and much fun has been had.

The reason for this post however, is to highlight one of the key offerings that I feel has made my time here at IE especially enlightening. While most business schools these days offer case based learning techniques, several courses I have taken during the year have featured simulations that give a student such as me a better feel for what “a day in the life” of a specific career is really like.

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Recently we have detected an increase in the interest of non-Russian IE alumni in working in Moscow. Luckily, IMBA April 2010 graduate Sergey Gorbatov who specializes in HR and runs his own blog HR Boutique wrote about it and we’re happy to share his insights.

“Russia is “a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma” – Winston Churchill could not have explained it better. 

Up until the 80s Russia was behind the “steel curtain”, unavailable for foreign investment. The 90s have seen the frenzying madness of the Western invasion and the radical change of the business practices. Back then to grab a piece of the Russian market was easier than stealing a candy form a child – consider just one example: the Production Sharing Agreement of the Sakhalin II project. As the government was regaining its stake and say in the “free” market in the 2000s, foreign investors (including those who helped the country survive the cash-lean 90s) are being gradually ousted either by giving preferential contractual terms to the national companies, by imposing quotas and restrictions (e.g. visas) or by direct attack as in the case when importing of Georgian wines was completely banned. Yet, it’s a BRICS country and the market potential is enormous, and having a Russian location on your CV is well-regarded by the international headhunters. If you are young, ambitious, you are not afraid of challenges and multiple setbacks, you want to learn fast and make your career double-quick, Russia is definitely for you. The question is: are you definitely for Russia?

Anton Khabursky (Master in Management class of 2011 alumnus) met for coffee with the young and active participants of Changellenge business case competition in Russia. Anton sets a great example of how his participation in Changellenge gave him a great opportunity to get a scholarship for IE’s Master in Management program that later lead to the well deserved position in consulting in McKinsey. He shared his studying experience and together with Irina Polovneva (IE Country Representative for Russia and Ukraine) advised on how to advance careers in the modern world and when to attend a business school.

Jeremy Bedzow

The New York Times featured IE student Jeremy Bedzow as an example of an MBA who went off the beaten path and decide to pursue an experience working in a social enterprise.

Jeremy joined a team of IE students in Madrid that helped Microsoft develop a model program to provide training to prepare young people in Saudi Arabia for jobs in finance and IT.

Known as ITCAN Academy, a pun on the Arabic word for perfection, itqan, the course recruited 100 university students, all of whom had to be Saudi nationals. According to Sultan Al-Sahli, a spokesman for Microsoft in Riyadh, at the end of the two-month training period, 75 percent of the trainees had found jobs with monthly salaries ranging from 7,000 to 13,000 Saudi riyals, or $1,800 to $3,500 — well above the average wage.

The company also arranged for Jeremy to travel to Saudi Arabia to observe the program first hand, and to gather data that will be useful when the program expands.

Read the full story to learn more about Jeremy’s experience.