Doing an MBA in Europe as a Veteran

Plus Warrior Money Appearance, Sitreps Jobs and Merch

What’s up Weekly Sitreps Readers

I meant to publish this on the weekend but there was the whole Iran bombing event which sucked up a lot of my attention and also I was really hungover on Sunday. I went out to Joe Rogan’s Comedy Mothership to see Andrew Dice Clay. It’s hard to get tickets and you have to buy a while out, so it was fun to do. Small venue but a good spot for comedy. Good drinks also. Went out to some piano bars afterwards on sixth street (not normally my jam), but the music was good and our wives with us wanted to dance, so everyone had a good time. But I was super hungover on Sunday and that sucked.

Anyway, for this weekly sitrep I wanted to talk about doing an MBA in Europe as a veteran. I get a lot of questions about it, and I know a few people who have done it. So the write up below is from an veteran who did IESE. So please take a read and get educated!

Warrior Money Appearance is Live!

Check out me and Wyatt’s interview on Warrior Money with former Congressmen and Under Sec of the Army Patrick Murphy. We got to head to the yahoo office in NYC to do the interview. Was pretty cool and we dished out some great transition tips.

Sitreps Jobs

We have a ton of new roles on our sitreps job boards! Most of these companies have veteran leadership in them or are actively looking for veterans to join. These are all high paying opportunities so make sure to give them a look if you are out on the job market! Please apply through the links below and we will reach out if we think there is a fit!

Main Jobs Board Here

Sitreps Merch

We have a merch store! Come check out this collection of fun themed sitreps gear and apparel. I think we will be doing a lot of limited runs of items that are related to current events. So check out our latest offering commemorating us bombing the shit out of Irans nuclear facilities.

Get the Iran Golf Club Shirt here.

Doing an MBA in Europe

Why you should get an MBA on the Mediterranean (or elsewhere in Europe)

*Disclaimer. These insights are opinions from the author's personal experience and research. YMMV.

Congrats. You have persevered through your time in service and made it past all the fun that is the military. With that DD214 in sight, you have made the astute observation to get a top-notch MBA and utilize that cushy GI Bill.

Why not take this experience one notch further? Complete this MBA where you can enjoy great Sangria on the unique pristine beaches, eat amazing tapas & paella, party around Europe on long weekends, set sail around the Mediterranean as part of the IESE Sailing Club (even Army Vets), and still manage to land that sweet consulting or F500 job abroad.

If this sounds like some fictional pipe dream, I assure you it is for real. At IESE in Barcelona, we are fortunate to have a large recent group of American and foreign MBA Veterans who have taken this journey. This tight knit group of Veterans managed to establish one of the only Veterans Business Clubs at European MBA programs. They have regular networking events, barbeques, and of course some Barcelona partying and Euro trips thrown in. Recent IESE Veterans have had offers from McKinsey, Bain, Amazon, AT Kearney, Allianz, AB InBev, GSK, and ELI Lilly, to name a few firms.

Now that I have gotten the shameless plug out of the way, let’s talk about considerations for Veterans evaluating pursuing a European MBA. This is the path less chosen and may not be suitable for everyone. After being stationed in Spain previously, my main motivation was that I wanted a truly international experience and network, and strongly desired returning to Europe once again. I also was not 100% sure on a career path so wanted to make sure the target program had recruiting in all major MBA sectors. I realized IESE met my requirements and the Vets I reached out to while in research mode were super helpful and really solidified my choice. I can’t stress enough to reach out and have meaningful conversations with students/alumni because all of these schools will be in different countries and overall be different experiences with varying strengths, weaknesses, durations, and outcomes.

Some considerations:

1. If you want to work abroad after an MBA and want to gain international experience and exposure while building a global network, these schools are top choices for you. You will be in a classroom that is maybe 10% American. Most of your classmates come from diverse walks of life and cultures; not as many legacy Brad and Chads who spent their entire academic and professional lives on the East Coast. Roughly 4% or so of your class will end up in the USA after graduation.