HEC Paris campus recruitment

Hi there, 

Congrats to your HEC offer - great school!

I fully second what the other coaches mentioned.

1. HEC is a good gateway into consulting - whether select firms come to campus or not, your chances of getting interviews with an HEC MBA will be good, and once you do, it's just a matter of the right preparation. I know countless examples of folks who went from there to MBB. 

2. Language - you're spot on, many offices in Europe require or at least prefer native language proficiency. However, even within Europe, there are still plenty of English-only options left: the ones that you mentioned + also Nordic offices. 

Now while IESE as well as INSEAD, ESADE, IE & Oxbridge etc do have quite strong footprint as MBB feeders, I would not worry too much about how HEC stacks up against them. Reality is, that when you have an MBA from any of the mentioned schools and a strong profile, you will get a realistic shot at MBB. As simple as that. 

Hope this is helpful. Feel free to reach out, if further questions. 

Regards, Andi

Hello, 

I will address your question in two separate parts. 

MBA program: 

I would not worry about HEC Paris being a target school for consulting. HEC Paris is frequently within the top 10 for European business schools. 

According to the HEC MBA Employment Report, 26% of the class went into consulting post-MBA (with 12% of the class being in the consulting industry pre-MBA). Listed among the top recruiters are MBB and several of the big 4 consulting firms. 
https://www.hec.edu/sites/default/files/documents/20210504_MBA_EMPLOYMENT-REPORT_Brochure-A4_landscape.pdf 

Office: 

It is not only European offices that recruit from European MBA programs, consulting firms will be looking for talent for offices across their network. 

You are correct in that language requirements will vary by office, you will need German for Germany offices, French for Paris, etc. If you are targeting offices that require English only, consider locations like Canada, US, UK, Middle East, Australia. In my case, I went to a European school (INSEAD) and went to BCG Dubai where the only language required is English. 

Here is also a previous thread on this topic: https://www.preplounge.com/en/consulting-forum/european-b-school-to-mbb-prospect-12907 

Hi there,

HEC is a top business school - I see no issue here with strategy consulting recruiting and I have supported many HEC students with interviews!

Regardless of where you go, networking will be key to your success.

In terms of language, you'll simply need to recruit for offices where English is the primary language - this will be the same case no matter what bschool you go to!

In short: HEC is not a bad option for strategy consulting recruiting. If it's the only MBA offer you have, I would not discount it based on MBB recruiting only.

Hi there,

First of all, let's forget about language. This will be the same barrier no matter what school you go to (note: this barrier can be broken through - get in touch to know how).

As for HEC, it's a top school with a rich MBB alumni network, distributed all over the globe. A little linkedin search will tell you everything you need to know. This network will be your greatest asset in getting into MBB.

There may be other reasons to consider when choosing an MBA program. However, based on how you framed the situation, I don't see any issues with HEC.

Hope this helps a bit. Best of luck!