Insead vs. Columbia

Generally speaking, if your goal is to work in the US, go to school in the US. If you want to work in Europe, go to school in Europe. Networking matters a lot though regardless of your choice.

Are you European, American or an international? Might be a minor factor if visas are an issue.

European

thanks, I was thinking along the same lines.

Plus, living in NY is just amazing...

Think about visa issues though. I am from Germany and did an internship with a European BB in NYC last year. I badly wanted to start working fulltime there, and they were ready to hire me, but due to visa issues they couldn't.

Most BB's don't hire fresh from university when they have to sponsor your visa. In fact, you will face real difficulties getting hired at all if you do not already have a work permit. That's a factor that might speak for INSEAD.

Given your desire to work in the U.S. and your career goals, you should go with columbia. INSEAD is a top international school, and its placement in europe and certain parts of asia is amazing, but it does not have as much power in the U.S. especially when compared to the M7 schools. Also columbia has awesome recruiting for deep value and long-short equity hedge funds. All the major players recruit there.

That seems like the only way. I heard that if one's wife gives birth to her child in the US, the child is automatically a US citizen and that in that case, you can request to receive a visa too - as a direct relative to a US citizen

thanks for the feedback guys. Do you think the visa issue is a real threat for post MBA recruitment? I never thought about that. I understand its an issue on the junior level but I thought especially an MBA would be an easy way to "move" to the US.

thanks

I have no experience in this post-MBA, but as I said I faced the issue in undergrad. Given your background you may be able to find some people who were in the same situation you are in and who can elaborate on this.

Look at it this way: why would an employer choose you over an identical candidate which doesn't have visa problems, even when deciding who to interview?

PS: I know of one guy (European) who worked in the London office of a top tier american BB and who internally transferred to their NYC office. You could probably circumvent the visa issue by transferring internally pre-MBA, getting an appropriate visa, and then do your MBA. That's just a guess though. Also, you said you work at a top continental Euro PE shop, so they probably don't have a US office...

PPS: at the firm I interned at, HR was very strict. Their policy was 'don't even look at the CV of somebody who doesn't have a visa'. No kidding or exaggerating. Also, not sure how relevant this is for MBA recruiting.

thanks guys...

This is slightly tangental, but I just wanted to point out that if you do become an American, the IRS will tax you on your global income, not just income made in the US. It's one of the reasons Americans tend not to work abroad; no tax advantage of doing so.

Even if you decide to get rid of your American nationality in the future, the IRS will audit you for 10 years and will go after your money / assets if they think that you gave up the nationality for tax reasons...

Just something to consider as someone brought up the nationality issue.

The only time i've come across insead in the us is in the adverts in my economist...i've yet to meet someone from there...im assuming most are based at the european banks in ny

If you're looking to work in Europe post-MBA (in any job function or industry), INSEAD/LBS are as good as H/S/W (maybe even better) and certainly better than other top US schools simply because of the network and access to Euro offices (i.e. flying cross continent can be a real pain in the ass just for a job interview).

Similarly, jobs in the US are significantly easier coming out of Columbia or any US school - even if you need a work visa. It's just a matter of geography; folks like to meet you face to face a few times before hiring you. And this is even more the case with smaller firms/funds. I mean, if you were a partner at a small shop of say 20 people (partners and associates, and some admin staff), one person can really make a HUGE difference in terms of the group culture, and I'm sure if you were recruiting, you'd like to meet the candidate a few times face-to-face and have others meet you as well (which won't always happen on the same day or week given scheduling). It's simply harder to do that when you're halfway across the world and they have a boatload of MBA grads locally (CBS, NYU, Wharton, HBS, Booth, Sloan, etc.).

As for visas, it's a little easier coming out of b-school compared to straight out of college - from an immigration standpoint, getting an H1 with a masters+work experience is easier than a bachelors+zero experience. Also, with work visas it does help having a US masters degree simply because you are allowed to work up to 12 months full-time on your student F1 visa (which gives your employer time to get your H1 after having hired you).

The bigger hurdle you'll face isn't on the immigration side, but with the employers themselves. The bigger banks/firms have HR depts that can make life a lot easier for you by helping with the paperwork. A fund with a small headcount won't have that to the point where some may not even want to hire you because they don't want the hassle of dealing with the paperwork (the paperwork is cumbersome but isn't that bad; it's just perceived to be much worse than it really is).

In any case, if you're looking to work in the US, you really should stick to Columbia.

INSEAD is the better business school on the whole, but this is one of those cases where the less good school (though just a small step down) is better for your goals (which are going to be hard to pull off, you should know).