Make the right choices in February!

Do you have to make some crucial choices shortly? Although they are obviously important, they are not irreversible for your career. The key is to be proactive, to make your choices rather than undergo them. 

Here is a brief rundown of the various opportunities open to you as EDHEC students!

Bachelor students: Take the plunge and apply for the internships that really interest and motivate you!

For many of you, the Bachelor-year internship is your first professional experience: it is especially important from a personal point of view! The internship will not commit you with regard to your future career path. The objective is to help you get to know yourself better and to observe your reactions in the workplace. Try to pinpoint the aspects of your internship that you like best, as this will help in making your subsequent choices. 

You also need to make another choice shortly, and this time one that will affect your future studies at EDHEC: between 22 February and 6 March 2012, you need to choose your Master’s track. Your choice will be based on your lessons, the subjects offered, your contacts with various professions, etc.  Use the internship as a discovery period!

Master 1 students: get ahead of the curve and build your gap year project with the Career Centre

The gap year internship has a bigger impact than the Bachelor’s internship. It allows you to gain expertise in a field and an industry that you have carefully selected. 

A meeting with a Career Advisor will enable you to firm up on your professional project and help you to identify the type of sandwich year internships you should be looking at: the Career Advisor can help you to draw up a strategy for your gap year.

The job market is increasingly competitive and selective, and recruiters will want you to have already gained professional experience in the area in which you are seeking your first job. In order to choose the right internship, it is important to already envision the start of your career!  

Bear in mind at this level, that recruitment is a talent hunt. Recruiters are looking for the best, as witnessed by Graduate Programmes. The key to securing gap year internships is to ask yourself: what is my project, what are my strengths and what differentiates me from others? What do I know of the company, the industry, the profession? Am I motivated by the internship being offered? 

Do not forget the opportunities open to you internationally, either. Possibilities exist for internships or university exchanges outside France. Keep your professional project in mind so as to make the right choice and get the most out of your sandwich year!

Students at the end of their gap year: honing in on your professional project

During the year, you are going to choose an MSc or to study at a university outside France. In order to make the right choice, you need to find the specialisation that suits you most. The key is to identify the track that fits best with your intended professional project! Over the long term, you will need to justify your choice of specialisation, explain its contribution in terms of value added – both for you and for employers – and to apply what you have learnt in this final-year specialisation!

Master 2 students: why not a pre-employment internship?

The end-of-study internship is not mandatory, as you have already acquired professional experience during your studies and can already apply for a permanent post, a VIE (International Corporate Volunteer, or Volontariat international en enterprise in French) or a Graduate Programme.

However, certain companies will talk to you about a pre-employment internship. There could be several reasons for this kind of internship, one of them being to maximize your chances of being hired in a competitive job market. This experience might also enable you to acquire expertise in a specific area that reinforces your background knowledge.

You therefore need to weigh up all the possibilities available and to relate them to your professional ambitions, employers’ needs, your desires and the road you have taken up until now!

Your first job is a key stage and the culmination of several years spent at EDHEC. The training you have received nevertheless leaves you equipped to adjust your career path again after leaving the School!