“We are not mathematicians or economists, and at work I often felt I missed something, especially when it came to discussing accountability, finance or economic issues”, says Stacchetti, who last December completed a Full-Time MBA at SDA Bocconi.
So, after a degree in Industrial Engineering at Universidad de Chile in Santiago, and five years of experience in the Chilean transport and logistics industry, Stacchetti, 31, decided it was time to broaden his knowledge in business and finance.
He knew he wanted to move to Europe, and his family origins – his mother is Italian – encouraged him to look for an MBA program in Italy. “You always have to think about the type of life you want while you’re studying. For example if your priority is to learn English or another language. It’s the ‘romantic’ part of the MBA… I knew wanted to live in Italy”, he explains.
He applied to SDA Bocconi and Politecnico di Milano. Both schools made him an offer but, despite winning a scholarship from Politecnico, he chose Bocconi because it’s “One of Europe’s top business schools” and many people “recommended it for its excellent professors”.
For Stacchetti, Bocconi’s Full-Time MBA had many attractions. Firstly, the way the program is organized: during the first part of the year, students improve their managerial skills through six core courses, which include Corporate Governance, Project Management, and Leadership.
Then, during the summer, they work on a project. They can choose between an internship, a group consulting project for an external company, a research paper, or an entrepreneurial project. Stacchetti chose the internship and spent the summer in Denmark working at Siemens.
Finally, students choose two concentrations between marketing, finance and strategy, and innovation and investments.
For Stacchetti, SDA Bocconi’s location is a major advantage: “Settling in Italy wasn’t very difficult, it’s a friendly place, and Milan in particular is full of young people”.
Stacchetti thinks the Bocconi MBA program is pretty tough: “The first months have been hard: after having worked for some years, it was difficult to go back to school and get used to the class-reading-and-studying routine again. But then it becomes interesting and it can also be a lot of fun”.
Having work experience certainly helped Stacchetti: “Two or three years of work experience are essential to make the most out of an MBA”, he explains, “otherwise it is just another year of school”.
Last February, two months after the end of the MBA, Stacchetti went back to Chile. Back at his previous employer Sitrans, he feels that having an MBA has given him a better understanding of the business and made it easier to work on those tasks in his job that are connected with finance.
In ten years, he would like to be the CEO of a logistics company, “An industry in expansion in Chile and that is also extremely interesting for an engineer”.
To MBA applicants he recommends not just to look at international rankings: “A school’s reputation is extremely important: it’s the first thing companies will look at when reading your resume. But rankings change every year and aren’t the only thing to take into consideration while applying to an MBA. You also need to think about the country you’ll live for one or two years, and whether its culture fits or not with your background, personality and interests”.
Finally, for Stacchetti, SDA Bocconi’s MBA future students should “be open to whatever opportunity the school gives them. I went to Denmark and found myself enjoying studying finance, something that I had never had a chance to explore at university. Accepting professional and personal challenges will be the best part of your MBA”.
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