Meet an alumnus: landing a job in the luxury sector

You have completed your master’s in management at EDHEC Business School in 2022. Looking back on the three years you spent on the programme, which highlights would you like to share?

First and foremost, all the great connections that I made throughout the duration of this programme be it with people in my cohort, associations, my fellow roommates from the campus residence, and all the amazing colleagues that I met during my three internships. That is the biggest highlight of this educational experience as it comes down to building relationships with people whom you can hit up if needed at any point of your career journey be it for idea sharing, professional guidance, or maybe even starting a business.

Apart from this, the courses were pretty relevant and the business cases were quite practical making us feel as though we were a part of project teams at companies ready to come up with the marketing strategy for our next project. One such example would be the Les 2 Vaches business case that I worked on during the EDHEC Open Innovation Challenge. Thanks to the combined effort of my teammates including Ranan Parashar, we grabbed the first place in the Danone group.

Lastly, unforgettable experiences I had in the beautiful city of Lille. Yes, it might get cold at times but the warm and friendly people of the north of France make you stay. I truly hope to get another opportunity to move back to Lille, a place that I called home for two amazing years of my life.

You chose the MSc in Marketing Management as your master 2. You specialised in luxury and fashion. If you had to pitch the programme, what would you say?

Honestly, if it’s an elevator pitch type of situation, it’s going to be difficult to do justice to the programme in a few sentences but for those of you looking for a quick overview, but for those of you passionate about marketing or just working in France, have you heard about the LVMH group? If the CEO of LVMH, Mr. Bernard Arnault, has invested in and inaugurated the new EDHEC campus along with Brigitte Macron, there might be a possible cause to believe that the MSc in Marketing Management (Luxury Specialisation) is one of the best marketing programmes in France if not in the world. But apart from this, even statistically speaking, this course is ranked in the top 10 marketing business programmes across the globe by multiple business journals. A quick visit to the EDHEC website will give you a brief idea about all the courses offered, the amazing faculty and visiting professors as well as future opportunities at several MNCs thanks to our vast alumni network.

How important was your professional immersion year in your career choice and your MSc specialisation?

Before starting the Master in Management programme, I was inclined on taking up the marketing programme during my Master 2, but the professional immersion year really concretised that plan. My first internship was at Orange Business Services in the role of Operational Marketing Assistant in the Cloud division. This gave me my first in-depth experience of corporate life in France. My work mostly involved creating decks for different services in our portfolio, videos for our B2B partners, and content for LinkedIn. This experience helped land my 2^nd internship which was at Royal Canin France (MARS Group). I was the Junior E-Commerce Project Manager and was handling our flagship online boutique. This included making sure the store was bug-free and functioning smoothly, managing stock, benchmarking, monthly reporting and also working with the social media manager from time to time for coming up with online competition ideas to increase awareness of our products. Overall this experience reinforced my desire to pursue MSc in Marketing Management. I decided to opt for the luxury specialisation mainly because I planned on working in France and being a country that gave birth to many of the top luxury brands, this made perfect sense. Also thanks to this I found my end-of-studies internship at Krug Champagne (LVMH Group) in the role of Junior Social Media Project Manager which in turn helped me land my permanent job.

You have joined Bell & Ross Paris as a Global Social Media Manager. What can you tell us about your role?

Bell & Ross is a French-born Swiss luxury watch manufacturer that initially specialised in watches made for professionals working under extreme conditions such as athletes and military personnel but our new urban collection is aimed more towards people like you and me, working in the corporate world. As a global social media manager, my day begins with community management i.e. scrolling across the messages and comments received on all our social media accounts, the main one being Instagram. Then I make sure that the scheduling of all our posts is done, and that the creative team has all the content validated for the following month. Also, I make weekly reports based on the performance of our posts to suggest changes to the type of content we plan to develop in the future making sure it is in tune with the current trends. I also occupy myself with analysis of our website performance mainly via Google Analytics. But the most interesting part is the new product launches and events that I get to be a part of, recent most being the biggest luxury watch event in Geneva called Watches and Wonders. It is really a fulfilling job especially when you have such amazing colleagues and also the rare opportunity to work directly with the cofounders Carlos Rosillo and Bruno Belamich. One perk not mentioned in my contract is the after-work events that we have at our HQ, the closest one is actually for EDHEC alumni in May 2023. If you’re reading this before, go register, but if it’s past that then check out the highlights on our LinkedIn and stay tuned for the next one!

While studying at EDHEC, you learnt French, how important was mastering the language in the different recruitment processes you underwent?

Truthfully speaking, it is super important to have a good level of French if you plan on staying in France for the long term. Yes, you can get by with knowing just a few words when it comes to living here but if you want to work in France and don’t want several amazing job opportunities to pass you by, then there is no other way. If you keep aside an hour or even 30 minutes to practice French every day, then by the end of your master, you will have a pretty decent level that will give you a huge competitive advantage. Trust me when I say this, as this is one of the main reasons how I landed my dream job at Bell & Ross.

Do you have career advice for recent graduates?

Stay open to every opportunity you are presented with even if it doesn’t fit with your current idea of where you see yourself down the line. Flexibility is key when it comes to looking for a job. The three main criteria you should think about when you are a recent graduate is the type of role you want, the kind of company you want to work at, and the place where you want to be based. Everything else should be given second priority in your 20s. Make sure you have a Linkedin account, that is where I found my first internship and also my first job. The EDHEC Jobteaser and Seekube EDHEC Forum should be given equal importance as some if not all the jobs available are exclusively for EDHEC students. Lastly, networking should be an essential part of your career journey as I have mentioned earlier. The relationships you make either at school, work, or at some unexpected event might turn out to be the reason you land the job of your dreams in the future.

EDHEC’s motto is "make an impact". How do you intend to make your impact?

Actually, this struck my mind a few weeks back when I was at the Watches and Wonders event I mentioned earlier. It was during the Keynote of our CEO/ Co-Founder Carlos Rosillo when he mentioned me as being a great addition to our Maison. That made me realise the impact I had on him through my work after having joined the company for only three months. While at EDHEC, this motto was simply a tagline to me, something that we use to differentiate ourselves from other universities, but now I see the deeper meaning behind it. 

Making an impact is not about doing something big such as closing a business deal or winning an award and then reciting that story over and over to every other person you meet, it is about how you affect the lives of people around you in a positive manner that can help you both grow and change for the better. That is the kind of impact I wish to have both in my personal and professional life. Talking about the business side of things, this comes through smart work, focus, and being a team player. Because no matter how hard you are working, there is always a better way, people get distracted easily, and staying focused is a skill in itself, and teamwork is the way that enables you to have the biggest impact on your colleagues further strengthening your professional relationships and taking you one step closer towards your career goals.

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