An MBA can be a ticket to a global business career.
For Brian Gale, an American graduate of the ESADE Business School in Spain, the cross-cultural communication skills he learned in his global business school have proved useful in the work world.
Gale, a program manager in France for video game company Blizzard Entertainment, regularly collaborates with multinational coworkers. He says bridging culture gaps is a skill best learned through experience rather than through a lecture or a textbook.
"You can read a lot in a book, but you're never going to understand it unless you live it," Gale says.
Here are five factors to consider as you search for a solid internationally focused MBA program that will prepare you to skillfully cross borders and cultures.
1. Quantity and variety of international business courses: It is difficult to focus on international business topics if the school you attend does not offer many courses in the subject, so prospective students need to look at program course listings to determine which offer the best options, says Dan Bauer, CEO and founder of The MBA Exchange, an admissions consulting firm.
Bauer says that ideally, a business school's core classes will include case studies with dilemmas that occurred in multiple countries. He says when students take multiple courses in international business, it helps them get jobs at international companies.
"That's going to make a statement about you," Bauer says.
2. Faculty experience: It is important to discern whether a business school's faculty includes professors who have worked in international firms or a variety of countries, because their professional backgrounds will influence what and how they teach, Bauer says.
He says prospective MBA students with an interest in international business should read the resumes of their potential professors. Students should determine whether the faculty includes people with a strong interest in the unique problems faced by international firms such as cross-cultural communication, he says.
3. An international student body and alumni network: Josep Franch, dean of ESADE, says that when an MBA class includes students who come from countries around the world, it enriches the learning environment for students with an interest in international business.
The experience of learning alongside classmates of varied nationalities helps prepare MBA students to collaborate in multicultural work environments, he says.
Franch says that an international alumni network helps MBA students with an interest in international business land their dream jobs by connecting them with key people at international firms.
4. High-quality international exchange programs, study abroad options and educational trips: Many MBA graduates say travel experiences enhanced the value of their degree by broadening their perspective on best practices in business. ESADE graduate Gale says that an MBA exchange program in Shanghai helped propel his international business career by immersing him in a non-Western culture and teaching him adaptation skills.
However, some business academics say it is important to investigate how the quality of a school's study abroad and exchange programs and the quality of the educational trips it offers compares with the quality of courses at the school's main campus.
Philip Berger, deputy dean of part-time MBA programs at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, says some schools' international academic programs pale in comparison with their core programs.
"It can be difficult to ensure the same quality in the immersion program as you would get in your home school," he says.
5. Academic focus on problems unique to international business: Berger says that in order to be well-prepared for an international business career, a newly minted MBA should have an understanding of geopolitical problems that affect business profits at international firms. These challenges include intrusive regulations in host countries, requests for bribes from public officials in countries where corruption is rampant and the potential for hostile governments to seize property.
Berger says the key is to find a school that focuses on enduring business problems rather than trends. He says many business students make the mistake of obsessing over taking courses to prepare them for specific hot jobs, but that if their skill set is overly tailored to a particular job, it will not serve them well in the long run.
"They're going to spend more time worrying about their first job than they spend in their first job," he says. "I think they sometimes overemphasize the hot country or the hot job or the hot industry of the moment, and they should not obsess over that, because it might not last." | 
