MBA Student Profile: Ollie Seldon, IE

Ollie Seldon picked out his MBA program at IE to help him enhance his career choices. Here, he shares his story with us. 

1. What were you doing before your MBA?

I was a Manager within Accenture's consulting division and had been with Accenture for 7 years.      

2. What were your main reasons for deciding to attend business school?

A large amount of the work at Accenture is IT related.  I was looking to enhance my existing business knowledge and develop some skills in more business facing areas away from IT. The type of problems I was increasingly facing with clients at Accenture were becoming more strategic in nature. The MBA would also serve me well if I decide to stay with Accenture after the MBA.

My long term plan is to start my own business and the MBA definitely helps with this as well by equipping you with a breath of business knowledge.      

3. What research did you undertake in selecting your school?

- I talked with Friends who had done an MBA at LBS, Insead and IE.
- I went to several MBA fairs
- I used the FT rankings to see which schools ranked where      

4. What were the main criteria in your selection?

- I wanted to go to a school that had a great reputation and was well ranked
-The school needed to be in Europe ideally a country with a main "language" i.e. Spanish, French
-1 year MBA programme
-Ideally I wanted to be outside the UK in order to develop language skills and have a "cultural experience"
-I wanted to do a "general MBA programme"
-Strong entrepreneurial faculty / reputation
-The choice had to work for my wife as well as me.  Spain was attractive to her as she had previously lived and worked here.      

5. Why did you decide to study either in your own country or overseas?

I decided to study overseas because:
- If you are going to take a year out you might as well get the most from it in terms of cultural exposure, interest etc as well as doing an MBA.
-Studying abroad makes the change seem even more dramatic and interesting
-I wanted to be exposed to diversity from not just the MBA programme
-I wanted to learn and speak another language
-I wanted to develop a network of friends within another country
-I have always loved visiting Spain       

6. How well do your think the MBA is regarded in your home country?

I think it is well regarded but still INSEAD and LBS dominate in terms of MBA reputation.  This will probably change though.      

7. Have you already been, or do you intend to become an entrepreneur?

I haven't been, but do intend to become an entrepreneur.      

8. What do you expect to do on graduation and where do you expect to be based?

I expect to be based in London and right now I am pursing options in
-starting my own business
-Venture Capital / Private Equity
-Return to Accenture
-General Management in industry e.g. Microsoft       

9 How easy or difficult do you expect it to be to achieve these objectives?

It will be challenging but I am confident that I will achieve these objectives.