Elite master's degrees cost €50,000 to make contacts

Elite master's degrees cost €50,000 to make contacts

Investing €50,000 in a master's from a top business school sounds like a first-class ticket to career success. However, the testimonies of those who have taken one paint a very different picture: academic learning takes a back seat and the real value is the contacts. But what happens when you don't come from a privileged background?

The mirage of the job bank

Schools promise job banks with 90% placement rates, but the reality is less rosy. A graduate of IESE explained that "it's not what it used to be; there aren't CEO positions for everyone." Another case: an acquaintance paid €55,000, landed a Sales Manager position, and two years later was fired; today he survives in a precarious startup. The overcrowding of these programs has diluted the brand's value.

The middle-class civil servant, the worst profile

The typical "poor" student profile (child of mid-level civil servants) clashes with the logic of networking. Students with surnames and family businesses aren't there to make friends who might hold them back; they seek to expand their circle with others from the same stratum. As a veteran summarized: "Guys with contacts become friends with other guys with contacts." For the son of "paper-pushing" civil servants, the master's becomes a club where you pay the fee but get no benefits.

The alternative: public exams or a technical master's

Faced with the bet on empty prestige, several analysts argue that a specific master's in taxation, structural calculation, or cost control, or directly high-level public exams for the State, offer better returns. "The best master's for a middle-class person is a public exam," they conclude. The source of wealth for the civil servant family is the State, not private management; perpetuating it makes more sense than playing at being what one is not.

The anecdote of the Swiss bank with a month's name illustrates the glass ceiling: a candidate with an MBA, impeccable interview, but when asked if he was family of a senior Ibex executive and answered no, the process vanished. There he learned the lesson.

So, is it worth digging into your pocket to rub shoulders with the elite? The data says that, for those without the right surname, the answer is no. But as long as schools keep selling smoke, there will be those who prefer to spend €50,000 rather than accept that their place isn't at the top.