Hired without knowing it, fact or fiction?

Hired without knowing it, fact or fiction?

In addition to the conventional channels, there are several alternative routes to finding employment. Here are a few examples and how to go about exploiting them.

More and more companies organise events that enable them to meet students or to test their abilities in a professional environment, though without subjecting them to a formal recruitment process. These events can take the form of business games, or venues for discussion between students and managers or top managers. They obviously present fine opportunities for students to make their mark with a view to eventually being hired. Nonetheless, not many students are minded to ask the name of the person they are speaking to during a forum or cocktail reception...  

Taking a pro-active role in company-organised business games is another great way of showing up on the radar of potential recruiters: you don’t need to win the game to pick up the ultimate trophy of being hired!  

Likewise, the seminars held jointly with businesses during your course also provide an opportunity for making informal contacts and for networking. By interacting with professionals holding interesting positions in their company, you can end up with an interview, an internship, a job or even an encounter with someone prepared to act as a reference for you and help you develop your knowledge of his or her particular sector of activity.   

In the Bachelor year, the Negotiation seminar allows you to enhance your network of specialists in the industrial, services, insurance and retailing fields, while also helping you to master negotiation techniques.   

In the M1 year, there are other events and opportunities such as the Open Innovation seminar and the Marketing of Financial Services course in which a number of large, EDHEC-friendly groups take part (Viadeo, Passionata, BETC Euro RSCG, Crédit Agricole, Société Générale, etc.). You can also use these situations to fine-tune your choice of gap-year internship.

In the M2 year, the mock interviews that have just taken place at the Career Centre and the advice the Centre can provide on the network at your disposal are important tools. These contacts can tell you how busy the various companies are likely to be on the recruitment front and thus enable you to focus your applications accordingly.  

Bear in mind that apart from securing internships, these events and contacts enable you to test your affinity with certain corporate cultures and thereby to focus your choice of gap-year internship on the ones that most appeal to you. The professionals that participate in the various events are there to provide you with the benefit of the experience acquired throughout their careers, so do all you can to take advantage of it!

In short, the current state of the job market makes it even more important to multiply your contacts with professionals and to work your networks via cocktail receptions, sporting events, forums, chats, business games and even social networks. EDHEC Business School has a wealth of networks – our corporate partners, our professors, our alumni, our student associations – that can help you to showcase your abilities and put them into practice.