How An MBA Gave Me The Confidence To Elevate My Consulting Career

Helen Mayer grew up in Stuttgart, the beating heart of Germany’s famed automobile industry and home to the headquarters of renowned manufacturers such as Porsche. 

Keenly interested in life outside of southern Germany, by the time she’d graduated with her bachelor’s degree in international business administration, Helen had spent time living in both Mexico and the USA. 

After earning her degree, she landed an internship with Porsche Consulting, the management consulting subsidiary of the car manufacturer, before later securing a full-time role. 

At just 21, Helen joined the firm as its youngest-ever hire. However, after three years with Porsche Consulting she felt the need for a change, both in her career and her surroundings. As a business grad with consulting experience, she felt an MBA would be a positive next step. 

“I love being in an international context and love being abroad,” she explains. “One of the core reasons why I decided to do an MBA was to step out of my comfort zone again and do something completely different.” 

Enrolling in a highly-ranked global MBA  

In deciding to study an MBA, Helen was driven by a desire to refine her career path and unlock new opportunities. With her professional experience largely confined to one company and industry, she was intrigued by what career paths were available. 

“I felt that I needed an MBA, an additional degree and additional experience, to better understand where I wanted to position myself,” she explains. 

Gaining international experience was a top priority. Helen searched for MBA opportunities in various countries, finally settling on Portugal and The Lisbon MBA, which offered a rigorous learning program taught across two top triple accredited European business schools based in Lisbon, Católica Lisbon and Nova SBE. 

The program also offered an extended immersive experience delivered over a one-month period at MIT Sloan School of Management in Boston, USA, focusing on courses related to entrepreneurship and technological innovation and designed to enhance students' ability to think creatively about complex situations and effectively respond to business challenges.

Helen had heard positive feedback from others who had experienced studying at the Católica Lisbon, Nova SBE, and MIT Sloan campuses. With the program comprising more than 60% international students, from several countries, she was also attracted to the diversity of the classroom. 

“The Lisbon MBA International would be the perfect chance for me to take a step back and look at my career from the outside, and also to get input from other like-minded professionals to get a sense of what their career paths were,” she says. 

Studying a high-impact MBA 

The Lisbon MBA International takes just 12 months to complete. With an MBA curriculum spread across three different top-ranked business schools and featuring a strong international component and a two-month internship period, this makes for a highly rigorous study experience. 

Helen was immediately impressed with the pace of learning, as each campus switch brought with it new professors, topics, and environments. 

“It really just enhances the way that you can focus on certain topics. It was just so fun to see how locations can impact your learning experience,” she says. 

As a study destination, Lisbon offers students the chance to immerse themselves in a vibrant atmosphere, with opportunities to visit beaches and undertake activities such as surfing or hiking among the city's many viewpoints. A hub of business opportunities, the city also hosts technological events such as the Web Summit each year, while boasting a diverse entrepreneurial and innovative environment. 

The MBA curriculum spans an array of fundamental business topics, ranging from marketing management to finance. Helen particularly enjoyed the focus on leadership. All students take part in the LEAD component, the Leadership Development process involving several sessions and practical experiences that take place each week outside of the classroom and emphasize interdisciplinary skills. A highlight was a session led by members of the Portuguese Navy. 

“These experiences are really enriching and it was exactly what I was looking for. Getting some guidance and input on how to better position myself in a very male-dominated industry really helped me and was probably one of the biggest benefits that I took from the program,” explains Helen.  

Students on The Lisbon MBA gain further opportunities to gain practical experiences through a variety of team-based consulting projects that take place throughout the year, requiring them to test their skills in solving problems for real companies. 

These projects enhanced Helen’s ability to work within groups comprising diverse individuals: her peers hailed from regions ranging from the Middle East to Spain and Colombia, and included lawyers, mining professionals, and investment managers. 

“These were professionals that I would never have had the chance to get in contact with and work together with if I had not done the MBA,” she explains. 

Taking new steps in her consulting career 

Entering The Lisbon MBA International with the aim of exploring her career opportunities, Helen relished the chance to undertake a two month internship. 

Towards the end of the program, she spent two months working with Feedzai, a fintech startup. Having spent the bulk of her career in consulting, it was her first time experiencing an entrepreneurial environment. 

“It was a scale-up, so a very fast, very dynamic environment. It was a very good experience for me to get an idea as to what it would be like to work in that context,” she says. 

Having gained a variety of practical experiences in different industries during her MBA, Helen decided to return to her career in consulting as she approached the end of her studies. 

Porsche Consulting offered her the opportunity to return to the firm. Since returning, she has been able to take on new management responsibilities and now has a carefully mapped-out career path. 

Today, more than a year since returning to the firm, she is enjoying her new responsibilities and feels the MBA helped provide her with skills and knowledge that are valuable in the consulting sector. 

“The MBA really gave me the chance to develop my confidence, and so coming back, I just have a completely different standing in the company as well as with clients. 

“The program enabled me to have the confidence to take that leadership path in consulting, which I didn't have before, and it also gave me the confidence to push for that path.”