• Experienced professionals from India see the MSC in Marketing Management and Digital program as a catalyst for career growth.
• Learning by doing pedagogy and career services boosts one’s employability.
• ESSEC Asia-Pacific offers an international experience close to home.

Nandini Jain’s interest in marketing was piqued when she was doing her undergraduate degree in economics. Unsatisfied with the advice to “do an MBA,” she spent hours researching and practicing independently, interning and creating content for non-profits and other volunteers across social media platforms, blogs, and newsletters.

After over a year of working as a marketing associate at a tech start-up in India, she moved to further her career by joining the ESSEC MSC in Marketing Management and Digital program in 2022.

“I want to work as a marketing manager who can create a tangible impact in people’s lives, offering them products and services that matter. I believe ESSEC’s curriculum and alumni network will help me achieve that,” she declares.

Learning-by-doing Boosts Employability

Her classmate, Nikita Raman Gundala, who is angling for a marketing role in FMCG or luxury, echoes these sentiments, citing the MMD’s focus on digital and luxury marketing as one of her most significant pull factors.

“I wasn’t able to find any other marketing program in the world that would teach me specifically about both those areas,” she shares.

She adds, “I also liked that the program is very project-intensive because it would teach me fundamental frameworks and how to apply them in a real-world environment.”These projects, like in the annual Digital Marketing Challenge (DMC) and luxury brand management classes, often involve partnering with existing companies to strategize and develop marketing solutions.

Besides giving students real-world experience to add to their portfolios, the fact that these projects are done in teams is a chance for them to also develop critical soft skills for collaboration and communication, Nandini testifies.

Career Services Support to Gain an Edge

The curriculum also emphasizes ensuring students are prepared for the rigorous job search. Various networking events and career fairs are held throughout the year for students to meet with potential employers.

Near the end of the MMD journey is also a study trip to another country—an opportunity for students to learn more about local customs and network with professionals from various industries to gain insights into the roles and sectors they may eventually join.

These events are supported by the ESSEC Career Services workshops. Held regularly over the year, these workshops progressively build MMD students’ job search skills, from setting up their LinkedIn profiles, writing their resumes, and conducting elevator pitches to giving them an understanding of the job market they are about to enter.

“The career services team has built my confidence and better equipped me to understand what I should or should not do in writing my resume or at an interview,” Nikita affirms.

An International Experience Close to Home

Opportunities aside, has adapting to a new life overseas been challenging? Both Nikita and Nandini say no. “People are open and kind, and there are various campus activities for us to meet new people,” Nandini shares.

Nikita adds that having chosen the MMD program partly because of Singapore’s proximity to India, she was pleased to find that the cultural similarities have made it easy to assimilate, so much so that the country sometimes “feels like home.”

Despite this familiarity, she’s still been able to expand her global perspective.

ESSEC’s integration of Singaporean culture and examples in class have deepened her understanding of the country and the wider Asian region.

At the same time, being able to study and work alongside a diverse cohort of classmates from all over the globe has opened her eyes to different perspectives and honed her ability to view business issues in Asia through a global lens—no doubt something that will be useful for marketers in an international workplace.

Early in her journey, although she may be, factors like these, coupled with ESSEC’s strong reputation and the MMD alumni’s stellar employment records, give her—and other MMD students— hope and confidence for the future.