LIVING

Deirdre Field (30) grew up in Vancouver, Canada. She completed an MBA at the prestigious business school ESADE, in April 2007.

I worked in Asset Management before I arrived in Barcelona in 2001. For the first six months I taught English, [then] I worked in financial relations at a multinational company. I did some research on websites and in publications such as The Financial Times and The Economist, and ESADE and IESE came out very well. In business, everyone knows ESADE: it offers one of the top European MBAs, and also had a 12-month full time programme, while many only offer 18-month programmes. Everyone I spoke to told me to do it full time.

The mandatory courses were all in English, as were most of the optional ones. It was difficult—the programme is very intense, you have to work very hard. Financially, you have to think longer term, because you're going to be without a salary while you're studying, plus you have to pay for the MBA, which cost me around €39,000. Most people take out a loan. It's important to manage your expectations too, know what you want to get out of the experience and find out if it's going to be possible.

I loved it. Going back to university as an adult, with several years' work experience, gives you a whole new perspective on things, and it added a local touch to my formal qualifications. I changed companies following the MBA and entered a new industry. My employer looks to these schools to hire, so it definitely helped. My former classmates are working all over the world in different functions and industries.

It's well-known that during a recession applications to an MBA are up—people consider bad times a good time to upgrade themselves.

www.esade.es

Rune Skretting (38) was born in Stavanger, Norway. He did a four-year psychology degree with the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya.

In Norway, I worked for the broadcasting corporation. I came to Barcelona in 2000. I'm a teacher and translator [here], and also occasionally work at the Norwegian consulate, all of which I did while studying.

Psychology was always a huge interest. My choice was between the Spanish Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia (UNED) and the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC). The Catalan version is only 10 years old, and is based on the British Open University. It's cheaper than the UNED, and I found the website easier to use. To get in the course I had to get my Norwegian qualifications validated by the Spanish Ministry of Education, but I found the procedure so infuriating that I did a generic access course instead. It's a virtual course, lasting half a year.