How Indian alumnus Sahil Chutani is conquering Europe

Indian alumnus Sahil Chutani graduated from the International MBA at emlyon business school in 2018 and now is based in Barcelona Spain. Find out more about his story!

What is your educational/professional background before joining the International MBA? I did mechanical engineering and then worked as a Business Development Manager in consumer goods for 4 years in an entrepreneurial role before joining International MBA. Why did you decide to join the program? My first preference was France as a country for an MBA due to recent promotion of Indo-French ties, which made France more visible in India. I was also in awe of the French culture since high school. The admission process for emlyon business school was clear and simple to understand. And it gave flexibility to my career goals. What were the strong points of the program in your opinion? The strength of the program is in its diversity of candidates in terms of nationality and industry. Apart from the academic focus, it had many activities which helped in learning more about the business ecosystem in Europe with educational tours to the World Economic Forum in Geneva and Finland for example. What company did you work with for the Entrepreneurial Leadership Consultancy Project (ELP) and how did you find this practical part of the program? I worked as a strategy consultant for international hotel group Golden Tulip during my ELP with a diverse team. We were a team of 4 people from Brazil, China, and India. So, we had a lot of different ideas and discussions on how to give the best outcome for the client. The goal of the project was to identify the gaps between the new corporate strategy for the hotel group and the existing operations in the hotels. We conducted secondary research and primary interviews and attended an international event in Turkey with the regional managers around the globe. How did you decide what you wanted to do after the program finished? What role did the career services play? The role of consultant in my ELP helped me decide my future course to be a consultant. Now, I am working as a strategy and M&A consultant for Alira Health. It is a global integrated advisory firm for healthcare firms. The job of the career services was to minimize the deviation along the path of finding the job. It helped to follow a structural approach to find jobs in terms of improvement in CV, building network, and optimizing the use of vast resources at our disposal. What was your first job after graduation and how long did it take you to get hired? I did an internship in my current company, which started within 2 months of finishing my course and I was hired during my internship. It took me less than 3 months to find an opportunity to get hired. Do you have any advice for candidates applying to the program? I have two things to say- First, candidates who don't speak a major European language, engage yourself to learn a European language from day one if you want to stay here. Second, don't give up even for a day. “If it is to be, it is up to me”. Just get up every day in the morning and take small steps to accomplish your goals. And I am sure you will succeed. Any other points you wish to make? If anyone wants to reach out to me, I would be happy to share my experience and help out if I can. www.linkedin.com/chutanisahil