Here are some of the common questions I have received from Indian applicants over the past couple of months, and my honest, straight answers.
1. How have Indians fared in terms of landing a job in Europe in the consulting or technology or banking space.
It will depend on the quality of your previous experience, background, skills, knowledge and willingness to learn newer skills in addition to whether you are going back to the industry where you were working earlier or an entirely new industry. There is no way to generalize this for "all Indians" - although the visa restrictions and difficulty in getting work permits apply to everyone. Indians come to IE from all walks of life and industry, so you really should be looking at specific profiles. Remember - it isn't like another Indian school where you have mass "placements". During the MBA your perspectives will change and you will learn to see things in a newer light.
2. If we were to target a job in the technology domain then which countries should we target? And what is the kind of role we should expect? Is it as a process expert/ presales/ delivery-client engagement etc.
Totally upto you - the MBA gives you a set of skills and tools, that can be applied to any function across the board. You might want to get into tech strategy, or BPR, or even ERP planning. Your function can lie anywhere from presales to post-delivery support - Choose what you want to do, not because you have an MBA.
3. Which European language do you feel would be most beneficial to learn to increases our chances of getting a job in Europe.
France if you are going to be working in France, German in Germany and Spanish in the Latam and Spain. Of course, you speak English anyways which is useful in Scandinavia and UK. Everything depends on that very moment when you have decided which offer to accept. There is no point in generalizing.
A note about the quality of the program - Probably amongst the best in the world, with a diversity of about 75 nationalities and 23 industries represented in the MBA class. IE is different from the IESEs of the world in the sense that it will help those people who have significant experience and global exposure more than the lower experienced typical IT engineers who apply from India. If you do not fit that profile, you'll only be wasting your money here, and will be much better off in one of the top 2-yr programs (like the american ones or the IESE one).
Recognition of the program is high within Europe, but low in India. India still suffers from the IIM syndrome, and only haloed degrees are from the american ivy league ones. That being said, IE has been working super-hard in the past couple of years to expand its reach in India. The only problem is, if you look at any of the top rankings, you will find that IE is the youngest school in the list - most of the other schools have a history of atleast 50 years if not more than a century. This means, that although the school came into being in the 1970s, it truly changed its mandate to being international only about 5 years back, since when it has been consistently on the rankings. Unfortunately, the reputation of a school is also derived by its alumni and since IE hasn't had any significantly well known Indian alums who graduated over five years back and are in the senior leadership in a corporate entity, you don't hear about the school yet.
But then, the intake before me and my batch (and the next couple of batches) are probably going to change that impression over the next few years, as we take on leadership positions in business globally. So, that is my blunt opinion.
Above all, do make an informed judgement - never simply go by the school that everyone is talking about -whether Harvard/IE/Insead/LBS/Wharton - look at yourself and introspect as to what school will suit your current situation.
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