“CEMS is far more than a university diploma – it is a network of smart, high-performing individuals with a strong sense of belonging to a community you can always rely on.”

Marija Vulovic Auburger, Management Consultant, Oliver Wyman, Australia previously zeb, Austria

I grew up in Belgrade, the capital of Serbia and have always enjoyed travelling to experience new adventures but never dreamt of a life away from home. One of the scholarships I received during my Bachelors took me to Vienna for a semester. This is where I discovered the CEMS master program, which I joined a year after.

During my CEMS tenure I studied at WU Vienna and HEC Paris. Throughout these two years I was exposed to multiple professions and companies which made it easy for me to make a career choice after graduation. I started my consulting career at Kearney in Ljubljana, after which I moved back to Vienna to join another CEMS corporate partner – zeb.Consulting. Fast forward three years – I am married to a fellow CEMSie and live in Sydney, Australia! We jumped at the opportunity to experience something new and different and I had no doubt that my education combined with the skillset gained over the last years will make the job search quick. Today I work as a consultant at Oliver Wyman – one of the leading global consulting firms. After landing in Australia, it took only a couple of texts to the local CEMS network to get us all settled in and make us feel at home.

How do I look back at my CEMS experience?

I would not change a thing. When you pick a program to study you don’t only pick the curriculum but also the friends you will make your memories with, the network you belong to, the firms you get to know, the cultures you get to meet, and if you’re lucky like I was – you can even find your other half. For me CEMS is far more than a university diploma – it is a network of smart, high-performing individuals with a strong sense of belonging to a community you can always rely on.