MBA Student Profile: Richard Caelius, IE

Richard Caelius talks about his MBA program at IEand tells us why he decided to attend business school.

1. What were you doing before your MBA?

I founded an IT company in 1996 which specialised in Internet-based Java architectures for financial services clients. During its heydays the company employed over 200 people in 4 different countries. After a period of restructuring the company returned to profitability and continues to perform well to this date. In 2002 I decided to take a sabbatical year, during which I travelled extensively and decided to embark on the MBA.

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

I wanted to initiate a career change. I had progressed within the field of IT and was looking to build a solid understanding of accounting, finance, strategy and marketing. I knew that to gain more flexibility for my future career path I would need more formal education in the business administration field - an MBA hence was the logical choice. As I was also interested in pursuing an international career I decided to look at business schools which would allow me to learn a fourth language : Spain, France or Switzerland.      

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

I studied the rankings and the business school prospectuses, talked to people whom I knew had studied at some of the schools I was considering and went to MBA fairs to get a first hand impression of the staff and former students.     

4. What were the main criteria in your selection?

There were several factors influencing the decision:
1) Reputation - position of the school according to the main rankings, FT, Business Week and Economist.
2) Value for Money
3) Future job preference (less in terms of industry or sector and more with regard to culture, language and geographic region and alumni network)
4) Length of course and start date
5) Internationality and diversity of student body

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

As mentioned above I am looking for an international career and studying in Spain allowed me to learn and improve my Spanish.      

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

An MBA is becoming more and more well known in Germany, many multinational companies, banks and consultancies actively seek out MBA talent. In Germany one can now almost observe an "MBA inflation" with many local Polytechnics and Universities offering a degree with an MBA-style qualification. In my opinion the goal now is to build more brand awareness for the top schools in order to differentiate within the growing field of MBA qualifications that are appearing on the job market.      

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

I have already been an entrepreneur and would now prefer to work in a larger organisation for some years. At some point in the future I might consider starting a business again.      

8. Are there any well-known and/or successful entrepreneurs that are alumni of your school?

The school is well known for its entrepreneurial spirit and one famous example that is often quoted is Martin Varsavsky (founder of Jazztel and ya.com)      

9. How much do you expect to earn on graduation?

I am hoping to enter the job market with a salary of approximately US$80k      

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

I am hoping to work in consulting (strategy or process optimisation), I am looking globally for work.      

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

Depending on how and where I am going to end up entering into the job market and how fast I manage to learn new skills and solve professional challenges will influence my career progression. Overall, I believe the objective is achievable.      

12. Any other comments?

I found that I was mostly able to achieve the learning objectives that I had set out for the MBA, however some factors that I did not consider as part of my selection criteria in the end turned out to be equally important as the academic side of the program - the colleagues and the network gained. I was extremely pleased with the type of people I was sharing the classroom and the friendships I forged during this advanced degree.