Can your really be hired without knowing it?

There are several alternatives to conventional recruitment methods in the job market. Here are some examples and related tips!

More and more businesses are arranging events that allow them to meet or test students in professional situations, though without subjecting them to a formal recruitment process. These events can be business games or forums that allow for discussions between students and managers or top managers. They are obviously fine opportunities to get spotted by future recruiters; and yet, few students think to ask the name of the person they are talking to during a forum or a cocktail event.    

Business games also provide a means of getting onto an employer’s radar, provided you participate actively in these events. In other words, you don’t need to win the business game in order to scoop the real prize of recruitment!

Likewise, the seminars co-hosted with businesses during your course provide another chance for informal discussion and for building your network. They allow you to interact directly with professionals holding interesting positions within their respective companies. They can lead to interviews, internships, jobs or simply an encounter with a person prepared to act as a mentor and help you build up your knowledge of his or her sector of activity.   

During M1, there are other events for meeting people and exploiting opportunities, such as the Open Innovation seminar at the end of March or the Marketing of Financial Services course in which large companies on the lookout for EDHEC talent play an active role (Viadeo, Passionata, BETC Euro RSCG, Crédit Agricole, Société Générale, etc.). These situations can also help you to firm up on the kind of internship you wish to undertake in your off-site year.

During M2, important tools include the simulated interviews that have just taken place at the Career Centre and the advice available from your network. These tools give you an idea of the size of companies’ recruitment programmes and hence make it easier to focus your efforts on areas of high demand.

Bear in mind that these events are more a means of testing your affinity with particular corporate cultures than of unearthing internship opportunities. The participating professionals are putting their wealth of experience at your disposal, so make sure you take advantage of it!

It is vital to multiply your contacts with professionals and to nurture your network through cocktail receptions, sporting events, forums, chats, business games and even social networks. EDHEC Business School has a welter of networks - our business partners, our professors, our alumni, our student associations – and all of them give you the chance to make the most of your expertise.