• ESSEC MSc in Marketing Management and Digital graduates find opportunities with luxury brand management skills.
• Industry-relevant curriculum offered in fashion and beauty.
• ESSEC Asia-Pacific community helped them develop confidence.

As many ESSEC MSc in Marketing Management and Digital (MMD) students angled for internships in fashion and beauty, Tsu An Chen and Yuqiao Gu from the class of 2021 gravitated towards a different trajectory.

Tsu An joined Beam Suntory, a world leader in premium spirits, and Yuqiao landed at Shopee, a leading e-commerce platform in Southeast Asia.

Perspectives Guiding Their Choice to Explore

Tsu An chose the role at Beam Suntory because of the opportunity to join the organization’s travel-retail department. She felt that working in a role that covered high-end products, travel, and retail—especially when countries are opening up and travel demand is spiking- would be a huge opportunity to develop future-proof skills.

Yuqiao, on the other hand, was drawn by a fast-paced tech environment.

“Just one month into my internship, I’ve already contributed to conceptualizing a strategy that will be executed within the next few weeks,” she shares. This, she notes, is a benefit of being at a relatively younger company—there is more freedom and autonomy to create.

Matter-of-factly, she points out that luxury brands, like other brands, are heavily impacted by digitization.

“If I develop my tech skills, I can always return to the luxury industry and help with their e-commerce or digital marketing programs in the future,” she says.

Classroom Skills Translate in the Real World

The two testify how lessons learned during the MMD program have served them well in their new roles.

“The luxury brand management course and retail management course gave me the knowledge and information needed for my job today,” Tsu An, whose undergraduate degree was in the humanities, shares. She adds that it was particularly beneficial that students worked on many projects, some with industry partners.

Yuqiao, who already had a business background before joining the MMD program, agrees. She credits a luxury brand management project with Tiffany & Co. as pivotal in helping her develop solid marketing frameworks, and the Digital Marketing Challenge (DMC), where she worked with Cartier, for helping her improve her communication and presentation skills.

The ESSEC Asia-Pacific Difference

Industry-relevant skills aside, perhaps more important is how the ESSEC Asia-Pacific community encouraged and motivated the pair to chase their dreams.

“Professors don’t just have experience in teaching and research; they have practical experience from their careers that they bring to class to share with us,” Tsu An says, adding that she found Marketing Professor Sonja Prokopec was particularly inspirational.

Career services support also played a big part in supporting Yuqiao, who fondly recalls how her career services advisor worked with her to develop her interview skills and prepare her talking points before her job search.

“After my undergraduate degree, I didn’t feel I had much confidence, and I was afraid that would show up in my interviews,” Yuqiao shares.

“But the way ESSEC nurtured us and provided us with opportunities to learn really built my confidence. I have the project experiences to back me up, my career coach and professors behind me—it all helps.”

She also observes that the ESSEC’s reputation was also a boon. Other multinational companies she interviewed at asked about ESSEC or knew someone from ESSEC, and even at Shopee, the presence of multiple alumni, including some from the MMD program, arguably boosted her profile in the minds of the recruiters.

“I’d tell future students not to worry about finding a good internship after their MMD program,” Yuqiao says. “There are many opportunities, so enjoy the MMD life, make friends with different people, learn about Asian and European culture, and take your time to decide where you want to go in the future.”