Elevate your career with an MBA at Copenhagen Business School

After spending five years in Los Angeles’s fast-paced, but sometimes chaotic advertising sector, Caroline McCune decided she wanted to be a leader. She’d already amassed experience working with Apple products, Apple TV+, and Behr Paint – but it was time for more.

“I wanted to progress my career into management, but as I looked at my leadership, I realised I couldn’t see myself in their roles,” she says.

To achieve this, McCune set her sights on an MBA. At the start, she had some preconceptions on what pursuing this degree would look like: male-centric, cutthroat, with “antiquated ideals of profit-at-any cost.” The Copenhagen MBA, offered by the Copenhagen Business School, would turn out to be the opposite.

Career support before, during and after the Copenhagen MBA

Before even arriving in Denmark, McCune had spoken to an admissions officer about wanting to become a “product or brand manager,” and got connected with a graduate working in the field in Copenhagen. He shared his experiences working in this role, as well as advice on how to prepare.

That conversation gave McCune a crucial insight before it was too late: that she wasn’t the right fit for that role. “I appreciated having that insight early on because it allowed me to determine that I wasn’t completely aligned with product management, and [I could] spend my year in the programme exploring other possibilities,” she says.

With that, McCune was off to an informed start. Her assigned career manager, Malene Sejer Larsen, worked with her throughout the entire programme. From improving CVs to preparing for interviews, Larsen connected her to people and companies that aligned with McCune’s interests. Opportunities are many for Copenhagen MBA students, which is why McCune appreciates Larsen for “cutting through all the information” and acting as a “sounding board” whenever she was dealt with many options.

“I recall once sitting in her office, agonising over two internship opportunities that both sounded amazing,” she says. “She methodically went through both with me and helped me choose the one that would be best for my future – and it turned out to be a great choice because that internship became my job!”

Although she’s graduated, McCune still attends alumni and executive education events to keep in touch with everyone and continue learning. Shortly after she started her full-time job, CBS hosted a lecture called “Navigating geopolitical uncertainty: New challenges and opportunities in the shipping industry.” McCune found this “very fortuitous.” “I was able to learn more about the industry I had just joined and share key insights with my colleagues, which earned me some internal credibility,” she says.

Image of Caroline McCune. Source: Copenhagen Business School

Internships, workshops, and modules that work for your career

70% of Copenhagen MBA graduates in 2023-25 are employed within three months, with a reported median salary of 644,000 Danish Krone (US$101,528.22 at the time of writing).

McCune herself got to work in what’s been called “one of the world’s best places to do business” even before she graduated. Her internship was with A.P. Moller – Maersk, a Danish shipping and logistics company – made possible by a CBS graduate Alex Audi who would open doors for the current cohort and “the goodwill generated by so many exceptional alumni at Maersk.” “Although the academic rigour and triple accreditation are important, much of the CBS MBA value is drawn from the reputation of the alumni who came before me and their altruism towards each other,” she says.

There are other elements of the programme that made an impact on McCune as a professional. The “Managing Your Career” module showed her that Danes are more open with colleagues and managers, and that they have greater trust and independence. Help is available but you need to ask for it was another revelation. Knowing these cultural nuances made for a smooth transition into the Danish workplace.

Then there were the career workshops. They were very hands-on and interactive, according to McCune, with mock interviews, CV improvement workshops, and guest speakers who had made the transition into the Danish workforce as expats.

And during summer, McCune worked with her career mentor. “She is ambitious, unshakable, and without a doubt one of the coolest people I have ever met,” she says. “Over the course of our four CBS career-manual-guided sessions, she pushed me to be more confident and keep momentum in working to make my internship a full-time job.”

McCune ultimately made this happen. Today, she is a Junior Customer Insights Manager at the same company she’d interned with. She knows the role CBS played in this. “The defining advantage of the programme is CBS’s continuous support in making the right connections and the engaged alumni network,” she says.

But perhaps the greater impact is how she is now not just a leader but a CBS kind of leader. “A business wanting to leave the world a better place is not a weakness, it’s a strength,” McCune says. “And seeing that so many of my classmates shared that drive made me hopeful for the future and excited to see what we would accomplish.”

Feeling empowered to take the next step? Pursue the Copenhagen MBA and receive support to elevate your career starting today.

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