Alumni Perspective Diego Mendes – Hult Reviews

Brazilian-American One-Year MBA, 2009

Boston User Experience Designer, Chegg (Consumer Goods)

I was attracted by Hult's focus on innovation. While other schools talk about innovation, Hult does it.

Hult Reviews

I was attracted by Hult's focus on innovation. While other schools talk about innovation, Hult does it. It has turned the MBA education market upside down by designing one of the most fresh and innovative MBA programs around. It took the Social Entrepreneurship world by storm by creating the Hult Prize, partnering with the Clinton Foundation and awarding USD1 million to make the world a better place. Hult students benefit from some of the most innovative and effective business education available in the world today.

Hult's MBA was also affordable; a one-year intensive MBA cut my expenses by half. Being taught by real business practitioners instead of tenured track professors was also really appealing. I wanted to learn about real world situations and having professors who were active in the business world and not just academia was very important for me.

MY LIFE AT HULT

The atmosphere at Hult is competitive, yet collaborative. The campus features very bright students and very challenging professors that are all willing to help you grow.

Professor Julie Yao Cooper was one of the first professors I met at Hult. Knowing about her background working for prestigious consulting groups and Harvard Business School, I was very excited to take her class, if somewhat intimidated. However, she made a real effort to connect with her students, and she became a lifelong mentor to me. My Innovation Management course with Prof. Patel was the most rewarding. The course really helped me establish a framework, which I currently use when designing new products in Silicon Valley. I always brush up on my notes, slides, and case studies from that class. I feel that everyone who wants to work in an innovative company should take the Innovation Management class.

I was one of the leaders of the Hult Innovation Consulting Club and the Latin American Club.

Creating a business plan for Dubai World which focused on innovation and growth opportunities, and which my teammates and I presented to the executive team was the experience of a lifetime. The business context in the Middle East was completely different from my Latin American roots and my home campus in Boston, and yet Dubai World is a global company, hence my team's international experience was extremely important in crafting our plan.

A GLOBAL HULT EXPERIENCE

Hult has not only one of the most international student bodies, but also one of the most diverse faculty teams of any business school in the world.

I started studying in Boston, rotated to Shanghai, and then finished up in Dubai. The amount I grew both personally and professionally was incredible. Being able to complete research projects and internships on other continents, understand different business settings, and learn how to respond to new business challenges I had never seen before was only possible as part of Global Campus Rotation. I would never have been able to learn as much as I did if I had only studied in one country. Today I can fly to any continent and meet up with contacts. All it takes is to grab my phone, look up the city I am traveling to on the Hult app, and invite people to grab a coffee or dinner.

MY CAREER

I am in a much better place in my career than I was before the MBA. I use the case study mentality in tackling real-world business problems every day when I design products in the midst of uncertain markets. I constantly seek knowledge from Hult friends in different industries and regions of the world. Whether it is a question about different tax laws in specific countries, potential connections for business development, or opinions about a new product I am working on, the Hult Alumni Network is always responsive and proactive. I love being a Hultian!

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