MBA Student Profile: Davide Maglio, MIP

Davide Maglio, an MBA student at MIP, speaks with TopMBA.com on the experiences of studying for the business qualification. Ann Graham wonders why he says coffee will help you get through an MBA, and listens to his story.

Famous for fashion and footballers, Italy is also home to Politecnico di Milano, Davide Maglio’s business school of choice. An Italian technical engineer, Maglio was working in Switzerland for CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, when he realised that there were only two options left to him if he were to reach his business goals.

“I realised that if I was to continue growing in my professional career I could either increase my technical skills and become an expert in a special niche of the engineering world, or I could develop new managerial skills in a business school. I decided for the second option because of the huge amount of possibilities that a business school can offer and because I was very attracted by the learning experience of an international MBA.”

There are many small and medium enterprises in Italy but Maglio observes that up to some years ago, only a few big companies were looking for MBA graduates and the great part of employers did not know about the added value given by a masters or MBA. “Nowadays things are different; small and medium companies have learnt that, if they want to improve, they have to leverage on a very good and innovative management, and a graduated MBA has started to be considered as a potential candidate for key roles in these companies.”

With the MBA in sight, Maglio began looking for a school in which his technical profile as an engineer would add value. “The criteria I used to choose were: European school; international class; school’s network of companies; the total amount of the tuition fees; and the possibilities of scholarships,” Maglio says. He started checking the websites of the most important business schools in Europe, made some phone calls and fixed appointments with marketing and admissions officers of the main schools he was interested in. “When I went to the QS World MBA Tour in Zurich in October 2007, I did my final check to identify the schools to which I would have applied. The outcome of my business school research consisted of only two schools. I prepared the applications for both and I sent the one with the closer deadline. I was admitted to MIP so I didn’t send the second one.”

Part of any business school application is the GMAT, which Maglio approached with the help of ‘The Official Guide for GMAT Review’.

“I started going through all the sample tests and after a couple of weeks of doing tests every day, I decided to book my exam in the first available date which was four weeks later. The same day I also downloaded software from mba.com, which explains the exam dynamics and in which there are two complete simulations of the real exam. I kept the simulations for the last week and I went through those five days and four days before the exam. In the end, I spent two months preparing for the GMAT, dedicating one hour per day during work days and a couple of hours during the weekends. After the exam I was completely satisfied by the mark I got in each single part of this test.”

Maglio is financing his MBA through personal savings but there are a number of other personal sacrifices he is making as he pursues his business education.

“I must say there isn’t much space for a personal life during a full-time MBA. This is the reason why it is crucial to build strong and honest relationships with your colleagues; you spend all day with them and often all evening. When there is some free time, you have the opportunity to go out together and have fun.” His family is a three-hour train ride away from MIP but Maglio has only been able to visit them twice during official school holidays while he studies for his MBA.
“The MBA can give you a lot, but your commitment has to immense and your private life is the first thing to be sacrificed during this year.” 

Davide’s best and worst of business school

Best things:
1. The life experience you live through and the people you meet
2. The learning experience, thanks to very good professors and guest speakers
3. The opportunity to challenge yourself and your colleagues every day, discovering what you really want to do in your professional life

Worst things:
1. It is not possible to disconnect yourself from the MBA: you constantly have something to do or to think about
2. A professor unable to involve the class in a discussion and that, at the end of a lesson, does not leave any added value to students
3. The coffee in our school coffee machine