• MSc in Marketing Management & Digital graduates have career options that span different industries and roles.
• A robust curriculum ensures a balance between ideas and execution.
• Singapore campus offers the opportunity to build a global perspective.

In the marketing world, glamorous advertisements and engaging social media campaigns are a tiny part of a vast puzzle. After all, in the digital-first future, brands seek not just people with ideas but also those savvy enough to leverage a spectrum of digital tools to navigate the ever-changing marketplace.

These conditions are precisely why the ESSEC MSc in Marketing Management & Digital (MMD) program stands out—it offers a robust curriculum with the breadth and depth for graduates to explore careers in marketing and the larger business world.

This versatility is perhaps why, pandemic notwithstanding, Theo Valence, from the class of 2020, and Victoire Caussieu-Pratdessus, from the class of 2021, easily secured work upon graduation.

Today, Theo is a junior brand manager at Ferrero—one of the world’s largest chocolate producers and confectionery companies—and Victoire is a consultant for Deloitte.

An Emphasis on Substance, Not Just Style

For Theo, whose work revolves around campaigns and market analysis, he benefited the most from the MMD program’s rigorous data-driven approach.

“One thing I don’t agree with is when marketing plans are made without substance or evidence backing it up,” he shares, explaining that the MMD program helped him understand how to use facts, figures, and mathematical equations to break down and solve marketing challenges.

Today, whether it is recommending which products the brand should promote or the advertising medium to use, his decisions are evidence-driven and backed up by facts and numbers found—thanks to his training at the MMD program.

On the other hand, Victoire gained tremendously from the MMD program’s abundance of opportunities for students to practice their execution. For example, during the annual Digital Marketing Challenge, she worked with Decathlon to helm a strategy that could serve the company’s fundamental business needs.

Through the ESSEC Marketing Club, she also got first-hand experience working with an NGO to develop its presence in Europe.

The lessons learned spanned marketing, management, business development, and strategy—and when she eventually chose to transition from a marketing role to a consultant, these experiences also gave her the skills to make the leap.

Equipping Students to be Job Search Ready

Reflecting on her job-search journey, Victoire muses that the process was smoothened by the MMD program’s efforts to prepare students for the hunt.

Social media strategy classes, for example, helped her improve her LinkedIn profile, which, coupled with the ESSEC brand name, enabled her to generate significant interest from recruiters despite the pandemic.

Business Week, a five-day conference for students to network and gain insights from industry professionals, was also pivotal in helping her understand the professional environment in Singapore, she shares, adding that it was through this that she managed to secure an internship offer from Montblanc.

Finally, there was the one-to-one career services coaching. “I also received great advice from the career services manager, and he patiently answered all my questions, which was crucial in helping me understand the job application process in a Singaporean company,” Victoire recalls.

Theo concurs, adding that in addition to career coaching, he found the regular guest talks helpful in helping him and his classmates determine the next steps in their careers.

The Gains from an International Experience

But how do these experiences in Singapore translate now that Theo and Victoire have returned to Europe for work?

Simply put, it taught them to navigate the world. The focus on Asian economies opened their eyes to how business is done in different countries. At the same time, the diverse nationalities of their classmates exposed them to other perspectives—all of which form the foundation for future global careers.

Being in a foreign country also compelled them to maximize opportunities to network, which honed their interpersonal communication skills and built a sense of confidence that they now carry into the workplace, Theo says.

Was it comfortable? Not always. But was it worthwhile? Most definitely, Theo declares. “This resilience that you learn can be applied to many things, professionally and personally,” he concludes.