Novartis Presentation
On Wednesday we had a presentation by senior executives including the head of Business Processes and Analysis division of Novartis.
They were here to sell their Finance development program (FDP) for executives and were keen for talent from St Gallen.
The FDP is basically a starting point for high profile financial executives into Novartis and intends to groom them to step into CFO roles within a period 5-6 years..
The presentation was interesting and the program seems to be well thought out.. basically the FDP participant starts in Basel (which is the group HQ) and works there for about 15 months in different divisions and then be posted to another country as head of FRA (Financial Reporting and Advisory)..
From there to another international division (like BPA) and finally as a CFO for a company, which is when he/she will have graduated out of the FDP program.
Interesting huh? Yeah.. esp if u are a typical bean counter and like book keeping .. the responsibility , career growth and responsibility. Some guys were interested in M&A and strat planning which had other entry points…
Takeaways: just three weeks and we have the first company trying to sell itself to us.. great way to start ur MBA! And it helps to have a small batch.. u get to interact with these people one on one… so if u r keen to get in at least u could face an interview.. where u can sell urself .. and possibly land a job.
I've been a religious follower of your blog since I came across it last month. I've never seen someone as passionate about their MBA as you are. You actually made me consider St Gallen as my MBA destination. My main question is about the probability of landing a job in Switzerland for non Europeans (I'm Canadian).
I'm a pharmacist and I'd love to join Novartis or Roche in their HQ in Switzerland, but I'm not sure about work permits. Could you enlighten me in that perspective. Thank you,
Sam
Given ur interest , Switzerland and St. Gallen is the place to be.
Regarding work permits.. don't worry:
a. The pharma companies in switzerland are very international and don't have biases against other nationalities.
b. in case u still land up with an issue regarding work permits, the MBA office will put its weight behind you.
Incidentally a guy from my immediate senior batch , also a canadian, landed this finance job with Novartis which i have described in the post.
hope this helps!
cheers!
Stuart
I've read your information with much interest. It's been useful for me.
If you don't mind can you give me further information about the FDP recruiting and about the program itself? Even some material they may have shown you would be very helpful for me
Thank you
Alessandro