How career switchers succeed with an MBA

People pursue an MBA for various reasons, but one of the most common is to switch careers. While many aim to change their location, industry, or job function, others take on the ambitious MBA “triple jump,” changing all three at once.

Zhanara Yessenberlina is one of those students. Originally from Kazakhstan, she graduated from the HEC Paris MBA in June 2023. The program enabled her to achieve a triple jump: relocating from Kazakhstan to France, transitioning from banking to fintech, and changing from enterprise architect to project manager.

Here, she reveals to BusinessBecause how an MBA gave her the skills, knowledge, and confidence necessary to make the coveted switch.

1) An MBA gives you time to think

Working a full-time job can make it challenging to properly assess your career goals, especially when you’re caught up in day-to-day responsibilities. While an MBA can be an intense period of study, it gives you the time and space you need for a career reset.

That was certainly the case for Zhanara. While most MBA programs in Europe are nine to 12 months long, HEC Paris also offers a 16-month option. That extra time at business school gave Zhanara the chance to carefully reflect on the next steps in her career.

“The HEC program was ideal for me,” she says. “It was 16 months, including a summer break, during which you can do an internship, a language course, or take on plenty of other opportunities.”

In Zhanara’s case, she used the summer break to take intensive French classes. They would set her up for a future career in the French capital, but it was another component of the MBA that had a bigger impact on her career change.

2) Access dedicated and personalized career coaching

One common challenge when switching careers is uncertainty about your next move. Without the proper support, it can be difficult to find out which industry is right for you—which is why personalized career support is so valuable. 

At HEC Paris, students have access to a dedicated career coach who helps them to clearly define their career goals.

“My career coach at HEC helped me to understand my position in that market,” explains Zhanara. “She helped me identify some initial targets, find my industry and segment, and pinpoint the right roles. I had a few sessions with her that were extremely useful.”

These coaching sessions allowed Zhanara to crystallize her career goals and zero in on her preferred industry. She emphasizes that career coaching is particularly useful for international students, who may face additional challenges in adapting to an unfamiliar job market.

3) MBAs develop invaluable soft skills

An often overlooked benefit of an MBA is the soft skills you’ll learn during the program, such as communication, leadership, problem-solving, decision-making, innovation, and interpersonal skills. When you’re trying to switch careers, these skills really come to the fore.

“If you’re doing a triple jump, you may be competing with people with stronger technical skills or experience in that area. For me, soft skills were my competitive advantage,” Zhanara says. 

Developing her soft skills gave her an edge when navigating a competitive market.

“Two of the soft skills that I learned at HEC were resilience and adaptability. There are different cycles during an MBA program: when you move from work to study and then from study to work. You regularly have to adapt to new circumstances. 

“I would say adaptability has helped me change my job function, and it continues to benefit my career today.”

4) Build your network and put leadership into practice

Sometimes, landing your dream job comes down to who you know rather than just what you know. This is why an MBA is such an asset for career switchers. 

At HEC Paris, regular recruiting fairs bring major employers directly onto campus, allowing students to connect with potential future employers. It’s an opportunity that Zhanara says would be difficult to replicate without an MBA.

Clubs, events, and hands-on experiences such as the Outdoor Leadership Seminar and the French Connection student club—a group that brings together MBAs with an interest in French language and culture—encouraged her to build connections and develop practical leadership skills.

“At HEC we had a lot of job fairs and specific networking activities with different clubs. As president of the French Connection student club, I also organized those types of events for myself and my classmates. We all benefited from them.”

5) Gain the confidence to switch careers

Perhaps most importantly, an MBA gives you one of the most valuable career assets you can have: confidence. Time and time again, graduates reflect on how an MBA gave them the confidence they needed to achieve their dreams. 

In Zhanara’s case, the HEC Paris MBA gave her the confidence she needed to apply for roles that may have seemed out of reach before. She proactively reached out to potential employers, rather than waiting for job vacancies to appear.

This newfound confidence yielded results almost immediately. Within two months of completing her MBA, Zhanara had successfully made her triple jump. 

Today, she works as a project manager at fintech firm Murex in Paris. For Zhanara, an MBA turned out to be her golden ticket to a new career path.