MBA Insider: Careers Q&A Sample December 12, 2006, 9:36PM EST

Marketing Global Graduates

The career development service director of Hautes Études Commerciales describes how the school is fine-tuning its MBA career-building program Full version

Story Tools

Clare Gaffney has been the director of the HEC School of Management (École des Hautes Études Commerciales) MBA Career Development Service for the past four years (see BusinessWeek.com, 10/23/06, "The Best Global MBA Programs").

With a staff of just five, Gaffney and her team help HEC's 180 full-time MBA students with job search workshops, seminars, and counseling. They also manage an extensive documentation center and maintain contacts with the HEC's 32,000-strong alumni network. For the class of 2006, the average base salary for HEC full-time MBAs was almost $94,000. Seventy-five percent receive job offers by three months after graduation. With many specialized Master's programs, HEC is home to nearly 3,000 graduate business students who speak, on average, three languages.

What's distinctive about HEC MBAs, says Gaffney, is that they leave the 16-month program with a wide view of complex issues facing the global business environment. They get this global perspective from a series of multidisciplinary seminars that are unique to the HEC curriculum. Only 17% of HEC's MBA class is French. Less than half the student body is from Europe, with 27% coming from the Asia-Pacific region.

Before coming to HEC MBA, Gaffney worked in adult education, first in curriculum planning and later in corporate relations. She recently spoke with BusinessWeek.com reporter Janie Ho.

Here are edited excerpts of their conversation:

What enrollment trends do you see at HEC and how do they affect your career placement needs?

With enrollment there's a trend toward the shorter program. Many U.S. students are considering coming for the year-and-a-half program, which costs much less [than U.S. schools]. In fact about 12% of our full-time MBA students this year were from North America, compared to about 7% or 8% when I started in 2002.

Students also ask, "Can it be a 14- or 18-month program?" They want more flexibility, so yes, we make our MBA programs customizable. We're seeing a lot more interest from women in all of our programs. It's due to a lot of scholarships and just a need for their talent in the marketplace. We do everything we can to bring more women to the business school—even provide child-care services.

Many of our students already have four to six years of experience, so the interest after graduation is more in areas like sustainable development. It could be in consulting, or interest in joining industrial firms.

What percentage of HEC students stay in Europe to work? Do you see a broader global interest?

Only 37% will stay in France while 34% stay in [the rest of] Europe. About 11% go to Asia and 11% North and South America combined. A small percentage will go back to the Middle East. So we have a very global network and scope in terms of recruitment.

What unique career service programs does HEC have for MBAs?

We've been developing a very unique program for the past three and a half years. It's marked by five milestones: self-assessment, work on career plans, training on search techniques, sector training with collective events, and the fifth element is perhaps the most unique—we ask them to write their career plans.

They submit these well-thought-out, detailed career plans to career services and alumni so they are forced to think about how to go about their plan after graduation. We really know every student, so we can ask them about aspects of their plans that aren't clear, that don't follow in transition...

See Full Version