My Life at HEC France as an Exchange MBA Student

By Clarence Lim, AIM MBA 2009

Europe has always been a dream. Never did it occur to me that AIM would help me get there much sooner than I expected.

The first time I saw the Eiffel Tower, I was in awe – I just couldn’t take my eyes off it. Same with the second time. And the third. I remember the snowy night I bid goodbye to it, I was standing on the beautifully built Pont Alexandre III as the sun set, just coming from Musee Rodin and Invalides, with the Eiffel Tower and the Seine River in view, and just a few steps away from the Christmas market on Champs-Élysées and the Arc de Triomphe. I looked around me, taking everything all in. I was amazed how in three months, these sights have become regular to me. Experiencing MBA in AIM has been a great adventure already, and now this! I actually still find it hard to believe, and I’m really thankful for the opportunity.

A life change in three months? Possible. It happened to me.

Arriving Paris past midnight because of an almost 7-hour flight delay - without a ride, unsure of where to go and how to get there. A sprained ankle treated with my first ever week-long cast. A lost dorm key that cost me a very painful 125 Euros. A trip to my dream destination – Santorini, Greece – all on my own. Exploring Paris by myself, with my Frommer’s travel book on hand. These have taught me courage and independence.

Interacting, working and building friendships with people from all over the world. Experiencing Parisian life as a citizen, not a tourist. Learning about doing business in France; the French culture; different European countries and the European Union; winemaking and tasting, and so much more. Traveling to Budapest, Hungary; Barcelona and Madrid, Spain; Lisbon, Portugal; and Rome, Italy – all with AIM batchmate and friend Kerry Lau, who also went to HEC, some with AIM friends also on ISEP Abhishek Kumar and Juan Patag, as well as newly met friends Mel Wong (Kerry’s friend from Australia) and Emily Chen (an HEC friend on exchange from Taiwan). All these have widened my perspective. Before, many countries were just like names on the map to me. It was through ISEP that I actually got to put faces on these, and to my delight, friends too. Now, the other side of the world does not seem so far away, and I realize that people, no matter what their culture is, are not so different after all.

On the more trivial but quite practical aspects…I learned to figure out maps and the metro, walk the whole day for consecutive days, and regularly climb up and go down dozens of steps (entailed to reach HEC from the train station and vice versa). I’m happy to say that I think my stamina has improved!

As for academic matters, HEC’s teaching style is more lecture based. Though this has its merits and we still learned a lot, I missed the unpredictability, energy and insights brought about by our case method. Kerry and I realized that AIM has trained us to think and work a certain way, with our AIM professors’ prodding in the case room and our rigorous workload, which helped us in our HEC class discussions and projects. Working with our AIM can group mates and classmates have also prepared us for working with diverse people.

More than 3 months and 180 baguettes later, I left Paris with a better sense of and trust in myself, a broader outlook of the world, a fondness for Europe and France, a belief that nothing is really impossible, an assurance that God is faithful to take care of me anywhere life takes me, newfound friends, a greater appreciation of my roots (the Philippines, AIM, my friends and family back home) and so many wonderful, priceless memories.

True indeed is HEC’s tagline, which says, “The more you know, the more you dare.”