Nick Hwang began his career as a mechanical engineer. But since studying an MBA at HEC Paris, he got the chance to work with the Gates Foundation and Wharton b-school. Consulting is now his passion!
Nick Hwang may be used to designing equipment to withstand pressure, but the former mechanical engineer wasn’t as adept at withstanding the pressure of juggling an MBA with his Wharton consulting project. “For a long time, I was sleeping maybe three or four hours a day, Max,” says Nick. “I was surrounded by top-performing people that were pushing you to be your absolute best.”
The HEC Paris MBA was lucky enough to enroll onto Wharton’s Global Consulting Practicum, an initiative of the prestigious, Ivy League b-school that has around 15 business projects across multiple different countries. The program pairs teams of Wharton MBA students and faculty with teams from partner universities (in Africa, Australia, Chile, China, Colombia, India, Israel, Peru, Spain, Taiwan and the United Arab Emirates) to consult with a client company interested in entering or expanding its position in the world market.
Nick, who graduated from California State Polytechnic University with a BS in mechanical engineering in 2006, worked in the energy sector for five years before starting his MBA in Paris. He was an Equipment Specialist at Sofregaz, after working in the oil and gas industry for five years across America. “I wanted to take advantage of the fact that I was already in Paris,” he said of his MBA at HEC. “I still wanted to work at the same time, so that meant I would be doing a part time MBA. There’s not that many global level part-time programs in Europe, and HEC is one of them.”
The decision to study on the MBA program was one born out of Nick’s desire to pursue a career change from the energy sector to consulting. “For me, the project with Wharton was to get a taste of the consulting world,” he explained.
“I’ve always been in a technical field within energy, so I had the desire to open up a bit and be able to look into different industries. Consulting gives me a very good anchor to be able to do that in a short space of time.”
Aside from a distinct lack of sleep, Nick, an American national, learnt how to solve the problem of increasing financial access to poor people in Kenya, Africa, with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The foundation - established by Bill, the Microsoft supremo and his wife, Melinda, is the largest transparently run, private philanthropic foundation in the world. The foundation's Financial Services for the Poor division aims to harness advances in science and technology to help those in developing countries.“I was particularly interested because it’s a nonprofit sector. It’s completely different to what I’ve done in the past: oil and gas has virtually nothing to do with what the Gates Foundation does,” Nick said.
“Kenya is kind of particular because, when it comes to using your mobile phone for financial transactions, it is the most advanced country in the world. So the Gates Foundation was interested in developing that market, to see if we can figure out if maybe it’s something that can be scaled into other parts of Africa and the rest of the world.
“Our project was to look into that and see what the most promising solutions that we can extract are and the Gates Foundation should look into.
“We got to talk to the people out in the countryside who usually don’t have any access to banks. The system has been in place for the last 5-6 years but the impact in the country has been tremendous.”
Aside from working in consultancy with Wharton, Nick says his MBA at HEC has given him a greater understanding in everything from marketing to finance. He says that, in the long run, an MBA will make him a lot better prepared to be in a position where he will be calling the shots within a company: “It’s a 360 degree view of how a business is run”.
Coming from a background in engineering, Nick was President of the Energy Club at HEC for a six-month term and helped MBAs create links with the industry, as well as organizing career visits to various companies. “There was huge competition,” Nick, whom is also an officer of the Consulting Club, says. “My time as President of the Energy Club is was what I’m most proud of: being able to link the club with the EMBA of HEC because before the MBA and EMBA programs were not that much connected.
“While I was in the club we would engage the EMBA students as well because they work in the energy industry, too. There is no Energy Club on EMBA so it matched what we were offering them access to.”
Nick finishes his MBA as early as December and has his sights set on a consultancy career. He says his goal on the MBA program at HEC is to prepare himself to be able to get into a consulting company. And has HEC Paris helped him towards achieving that? “Definitely,” he adds. “HEC wasn’t known as a consulting school in the past. But over the last few years it is changing, I think.
“The Consulting Club is one of the strongest ones in the school. There are a lot of people interested in it and the school backs it up well.”
Consulting is one of the most popular MBA career paths, and thanks to MBA program at HEC Paris, Nick has already kickstarted his career.
Student Reviews
Cultural experience
I have met the most competent and diverse batch in this school. These people not only thrive on their own but also makes sure that you are doing it with them. The professors will take your had and walk you through all milestones and make sure you are not left behind. I have found their extracurriculars extremely engaging. There was always a room to have social life after academic life. The only hindrance is the location of the school, it is slightly outside city and living in city is expensive.
Internationality and diversity of opportunities
About my programme I would say it is very international and flexible: we have the opportunity to choose exactly the courses we want. But at the same time, the frame of the campus is crucial in students' life and enable us to create friendships.
Great selection of people
While HEC's MBA is highly selective, I really enjoy the type of people HEC's selects to make sure everybody gets the best out of their MBA experience and networking opportunities. Not only it's an incredibly diverse pool of people (~60 nationalities) but most importantly they make sure to let in friendly empathic and curious people.
Best in France for Grande ecole
A prestigious business school. Languages are important. It is better to have a scientific baccalaureate with excellent grades in high school and good assessments.
The courses are well designed as per the latest trends and practicality of learning in stressed upon. Overall, a very good experience.
Diversity and quality of fellow students
Very international and interesting place to be and opens a lot of opportunities, however the administration is very french and facilities are subpar (gym, classrooms) meaning the academic affairs is pretty much useless and lastly we are graded on a curve which can create a toxic environment because of the competition. With that being said the pros outweighs the cons by far.
The quality of the teachers, the campus, the clubs
The school is very international indeed, we have courses with international students and share things with them within the extra academic life (in the social clubs especially). We have great career prospects if we prepare ourselves well - however, the global curriculum is still very finance-oriented, which is a pity for other interesting domains of the company world, which does not rely on finance only. The social clubs are good practice for the management and for now, are quite independent.
HEC Paris awaits you
HEC Paris is really a nice place to do a master's in business. Many classes are useful and interesting (corporate finance, financial accounting, contract law…), some are less - but the curriculum is to be reviewed in the year to come. Regarding the student life, it is incredible, with about 130 clubs, lots of great parties with even greater people. The Jouy campus offers a lot of opportunities to do sports, and you can breathe fresh air every day. HEC also helps a great deal to find an internship or a job.
A dream institute
Enrolling in the HEC MBA was by far the best decision I made for myself. The people and faculty are great, with lots of opportunities to meet people and expand your horizons. Very nice campus where I have had some good running sessions.
The alumni network is superb and very helpful. It also has a good support system for entrepreneurs. Would definitely recommend it!
Good choice for a career boost
The classes were extremely practical and relevant to the current challenges that businesses are facing. You have access to a wide range of professionals and good career prospects once you leave the university.
Cultural experience
I have met the most competent and diverse batch in this school. These people not only thrive on their own but also makes sure that you are doing it with them. The professors will take your had and walk you through all milestones and make sure you are not left behind. I have found their extracurriculars extremely engaging. There was always a room to have social life after academic life. The only hindrance is the location of the school, it is slightly outside city and living in city is expensive.
Internationality and diversity of opportunities
About my programme I would say it is very international and flexible: we have the opportunity to choose exactly the courses we want. But at the same time, the frame of the campus is crucial in students' life and enable us to create friendships.
Great selection of people
While HEC's MBA is highly selective, I really enjoy the type of people HEC's selects to make sure everybody gets the best out of their MBA experience and networking opportunities. Not only it's an incredibly diverse pool of people (~60 nationalities) but most importantly they make sure to let in friendly empathic and curious people.
Best in France for Grande ecole
A prestigious business school. Languages are important. It is better to have a scientific baccalaureate with excellent grades in high school and good assessments.
The courses are well designed as per the latest trends and practicality of learning in stressed upon. Overall, a very good experience.
Diversity and quality of fellow students
Very international and interesting place to be and opens a lot of opportunities, however the administration is very french and facilities are subpar (gym, classrooms) meaning the academic affairs is pretty much useless and lastly we are graded on a curve which can create a toxic environment because of the competition. With that being said the pros outweighs the cons by far.
The quality of the teachers, the campus, the clubs
The school is very international indeed, we have courses with international students and share things with them within the extra academic life (in the social clubs especially). We have great career prospects if we prepare ourselves well - however, the global curriculum is still very finance-oriented, which is a pity for other interesting domains of the company world, which does not rely on finance only. The social clubs are good practice for the management and for now, are quite independent.
HEC Paris awaits you
HEC Paris is really a nice place to do a master's in business. Many classes are useful and interesting (corporate finance, financial accounting, contract law…), some are less - but the curriculum is to be reviewed in the year to come. Regarding the student life, it is incredible, with about 130 clubs, lots of great parties with even greater people. The Jouy campus offers a lot of opportunities to do sports, and you can breathe fresh air every day. HEC also helps a great deal to find an internship or a job.
A dream institute
Enrolling in the HEC MBA was by far the best decision I made for myself. The people and faculty are great, with lots of opportunities to meet people and expand your horizons. Very nice campus where I have had some good running sessions.
The alumni network is superb and very helpful. It also has a good support system for entrepreneurs. Would definitely recommend it!
Good choice for a career boost
The classes were extremely practical and relevant to the current challenges that businesses are facing. You have access to a wide range of professionals and good career prospects once you leave the university.
