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I quit my job 4 months before the MBA to unwind, travel, and spend time with my close ones. After 4 years of working, I felt I deserved a proper break. While people advised me to upskill xyz, I chose to surf, trek, and travel with my friends. This part, I will not regret.

Once you’re there, you can’t be as involved in the lives of your loved ones back home. You get busy in your own world, the time difference and distance take their toll, and life just moves. So refreshing and reinforcing your relationships at home is crucial, because at the end of the day, they’re the people you fall back on.

It was only after I entered MBA circles that I truly understood what consulting actually is. Until then, I had a very narrow view of it. So even prior to my applications, I did a small 6-week consulting project with an Italian printing press. My biggest takeaway was simple: consulting is not my thing. That clarity mattered. It helped me reinforce that no matter how much the people around me “sold” consulting, I wouldn’t get swayed.

I also spent that time working on various side projects, from crypto to hiring to helping people build custom Twitter feeds. I was exercising my product brain. I attended different events, the first Solana Hacker House, a dosa meetup by a startup called Stoa. I jumped into online communities and tried to contribute as much as I could. I kept my professional brain busy so it didn’t get rusty.

I spent very little time preparing for Madrid and interacting with people from my intake and the alumni. If I could redo this phase, I would’ve intentionally carved out time for that, even a couple of calls a week would’ve made a difference.

I had a house already booked and my flatmates sorted before landing in Madrid. And trust me, this was a bigger blessing than I realized at the time. While I landed in Madrid and was geared up for new experiences and new people, others had to figure out flatmates and housing, and that quietly consumed a lot of their mental space and time that could’ve gone into socialising and settling in.

I landed a month ahead of the beginning of the program, another good decision. It helped me mingle and get to know people as and when they landed. And these initial connections are much easier to go deep with than the later ones. I’ll explain why later.

People from different countries and different cultures, all dealing with the same bureaucracy and the same discomfort, that’s a different kind of fun bonding.

This is also the best time to travel because everyone comes in with the energy to explore and socialise. Take advantage of it before the grind of the MBA begins. Because later on the events on campus, assignments, and life just takes over. Before you know it you will be in the business end of the MBA with a lot of places yet to be checked off from your bucket list.

Honestly, not much here. I would’ve probably researched more about touristy Madrid and more socialising places, but that’s just me nitpicking.

Once classes begin, it’s mayhem. There are a thousand things going on and you will want to be involved in a thousand things. I got involved in nine hundred, to be honest. It’s super important to have a north star and only sign up for things that move you toward that north star.

There are coffee chats, meetups, official and unofficial. Lots of people, lots of experiences, and a ton to learn, not just in the classroom but from your peers.

For someone who had spent his entire life in tech (digital transformation, to be precise), just talking to operators from the oil and gas industry, or a finance professional from real estate, or a doctor who wants to pivot into tech, it opens a Pandora’s box. The same problem statement gets dissected in so many ways, through so many eyes, that you just want to be a sponge.

There’s a classic saying that in an MBA you can only do 2 of the 3 Ss: study, sleep, or socialize. I chose to do one: socialize. And that I will not regret.

And this is where landing in Madrid a month early helped, I’d already built a base with the folks who landed earlier, so once the chaos started, I could spend time meeting people I hadn’t met initially instead of clinging only to what felt familiar.

Unknowingly, I focused on making broad connections rather than deep ones. It took me a few months to realize this. If I could redo it, I’d spend more time early on creating deep connections, and then go broad.

I would also go on more trips than I actually did. Travelling creates bonds that coffee chats seldom do.

We are starting a new series covering how to break into various industries post the MBA. We start off with the most popular one: consulting.

We’re Oxford & IE grads who’ve sat on both sides of the table, helping you apply to Europe: calmly, clearly, confidently. If you are looking for the kind of guidance you get from an elder sibling, just reply to this email or book some time with us. We read every reply.

We’ve got you. ✨