After embarking on a successful journey in corporate banking, Matea Majher moved to Switzerland to study an MBA and open new career opportunities within the financial sector
Carving out a finance career specialized in relationship management, she developed her skills while dealing with various stakeholders, working under pressure, and balancing an array of priorities.
After five years with UniCredit, Matea moved to HPB, Croatia’s largest domestic bank, where she spent another 18-months. But, after seven years in corporate banking, she felt the need for a shift.
She desired opportunities to have a new experience in a different environment and also sought to develop her leadership abilities. Matea decided an MBA would be a step forward in her journey.
Choosing an international MBA degree
While often students enroll in MBAs seeking to refine their business understanding and deepen their knowledge, Matea was different. Confident in her theoretical knowledge, her principal concern was the various benefits she would gain beyond the textbook.
“For me, it was really about getting the platform to get my leadership skills to the next level, having an international experience, and giving myself access to companies that I would like to work for,” she explains.
Searching for a study destination, she felt Switzerland—a country synonymous with banking—would be a good fit. When evaluating programs, the one-year MBA program at International Institute for Management Development (IMD), a top business school located near Lake Geneva in the city of Lausanne, stood out.
IMD boasts a small MBA cohort of around 100 students, with classes taught in intimate groups. Students hail from across the globe—the class of 2024 features 44 nationalities—with varied professional and cultural backgrounds. At around six years of work experience on average, students are also typically older than on other MBAs.
Matea felt this environment aligned well with what she aimed to get out of her studies: “For me, it was important that, during the exchanges we have in class, there were people who have more experience than me, not just people who were at my level.”
Studying an MBA in Switzerland
Taking the decision to leave Croatia and enroll in the program, Matea arrived on the IMD campus and initially found adjusting to her new surroundings challenging. The intimate and international MBA environment provided a unique experience which differed significantly from life at home.
“The MBA is really a bubble. You are taken out of your natural environment, you move somewhere for a year, you leave your job, your family, and you’re with these new people everyday. It was really a new experience for me,” she explains.
The IMD MBA curriculum quickly forces students to leave their comfort zone, tasking them to work together in groups as they tackle cases and solve a variety of projects.
Constantly tasked with developing strategies to solve new problems in class, Matea feels the curriculum helped enhance her creative problem solving and decision-making skills. The IMD MBA is designed to ensure that students’ groups rotate regularly, meaning they must learn to adapt as they work with new people who hail from a range of backgrounds.
As someone who had never lived or studied abroad before, the experience tested Matea’s ability to work with classmates who held different life experiences. However, she admits, once she’d adjusted this relationship building became fundamental to the MBA experience.
“In terms of highlights, it’s really the people that I met, who I can still speak with three-years after graduating. Those are really special bonds that you create,” she says.
Taking new steps in a banking career
With her sights set on advancing her career within the banking sector, during the program Matea set about making new connections and leveraging the IMD MBA’s various career opportunities.
She consulted with expert professors at the school who helped her gain a deeper understanding of the financial sector and identify where she could leverage opportunities. These conversations helped her take the decision to pivot her career from corporate banking into private banking—a highly competitive sub sector where Switzerland is a renowned leader.
Utilizing IMD’s connections within the industry, Matea identified Julius Baer—a multinational private banking firm headquartered in Zurich—as her target employer. She was then able to interact with employees and gain valuable insights into the company’s values and principles.
This preparation helped Matea successfully land a role as a director working within the Global Sales Management team, which she joined shortly after graduating from the IMD MBA.
“IMD supported me in exploring the Swiss private banking world and helped to open the door for my new career move to Julius Baer,” she says. Though, she maintains that while the MBA opened the door for her new career move, it was still up to her to land the job.
Today, Matea’s job requires her to focus on how the company can best serve its clients. She utilizes her leadership skills and ability to communicate and manage various stakeholders while leading client strategy projects. More than two-years into the role, and having risen to become executive director, Matea reflects that studying at IMD was pivotal in broadening her perspective on doing business.
“At IMD it’s a lot about building your leadership presence—to be accountable, to be responsible, but also to be able to develop and inspire the people around you,” she says.
“Leading is about building trust and maintaining it, so if you have integrity and are authentic, people will recognize it and allow you to take them on a journey with you. That is the key aspect that I strive to apply in my work now.”