International MBA student Luca Divenosa shares his experience of spending his concentration term at IE Business School in Madrid, from diving deeper into finance to becoming part of a new international community.
Why did you decide to do an international exchange as part of your MBA?
When I started the International MBA at Porto Business School, it took me roughly two weeks to decide that I wanted to spend my concentration term abroad.
The combination of Porto Business School and IE Business School felt like a rare opportunity: two schools, two countries and two ways of teaching, all within the same MBA.
The length of the programme was part of the appeal too. Three months is enough to actually experience the school, the city and the rhythm of Madrid, rather than simply visit it.
How did the experience contribute to your academic and professional goals?
Academically, I used the exchange to go all in on finance, which is the direction I was pivoting my career towards.
Between March and June, I took six concentration courses fully dedicated to financial matters. This was exactly the push I was looking for.
Being challenged at a school like IE raises your own bar. An MBA is also one of the few environments where you can do that without being afraid to get things wrong: you can ask the naive question, take on the harder case and challenge yourself. The only real cost is that you learn something.
What surprised you most about the experience?
The biggest takeaway was not something that appears on the transcript.
Studying in a different academic and cultural environment teaches you plenty, but what truly makes these experiences are the human connections you create with your classmates and professors.
I arrived as the exchange student from Porto and left with a cohort that had adopted me: group work that turned into dinners, a “Forza Juve” shouted across a terrace, tapas and cañas after class, a 10K through the streets of Madrid on a Sunday morning, and a handwritten letter from the cohort on my last day that I still keep.
What did the exchange add to your MBA journey?
Perspective.
A second cohort, a second faculty, a second market, and the confirmation that I can land somewhere new, in another language, and be operational quickly.
That is not something you study. You can only practise it.
What would you say to a PBS student considering an international exchange?
Do it.
The MBA keeps telling you to step out of your comfort zone, and an exchange is one of the most concrete ways to actually do it, both personally and professionally.
And if you end up in Madrid, let me know: I still owe someone a round of tapas and cañas.
