To help Global Bachelor of Business Administration (GBBA) students lay the foundation for robust careers, ESSEC requires students to complete three internships before graduation.

Depending on time commitments, some students go above and beyond to complete more than three.

To help you navigate the ever-changing landscape of internship opportunities, we asked ESSEC students and alumni with stand-out internship experience for their best advice on how to land a dream internship.

Hear from Simran Hathiramani, who has completed nine competitive internships at organizations such as J.P. Morgan, Credit Suisse, and AllianceBernstein. We also spoke to Janice Liu, who graduated in 2021 and now works at Unilever. Janice completed competitive internships at Dior and L’Oréal.

Fourth-year GBBA students Siyi Chen and Radhika Tandon also share their advice.

Siyi has completed competitive internships at investment banking organizations, and Radhika has completed international internships in digital marketing roles; she currently interns at L’Oréal.

Use Your Connections

Siyi credits her connections with ESSEC alumni as being responsible for finding the perfect internship opportunity.

“I always reach out to our alumni for advice, and they’re nice to help me. I think that’s what helped me in finding these internships.”

This experience was actual for Janice, too. Janice first interned for the marketing team at Vaniday in Singapore before taking on an internship in HR at L’Oréal Taiwan.

A connection Janice met while at L’Oréal led to her next internship in the marketing team at Dior.

Use Your Resources

All the students we interviewed claimed ESSEC Career Services was imperative to helping them land a dream internship.

Simran credits ESSEC Career Services for preparing her for recruitment and teaching her how to find an internship.

Simran explains she was guided through writing a stand-out CV that included buzzwords recruiters use to filter through resumes.

She even went through a series of mock interviews with personalized questions that helped her identify her key strengths, motivations, and weaker areas.

“After the interview, we got feedback on how we could answer the questions better… this really gave me an initial insight into the recruitment process in firms and how one should prepare for [and] approaching them.”

Keep an Open Mind

As much as the career paths of people you admire may look linear and straightforward, most of the time, people land in opportunities they didn’t expect—but are happy they got there.

The students we spoke to suggested applying to various internships to see what offers you receive. Although you might not initially be interested, you might find the work interesting when you are in the role.

Simran advises students looking for a dream internship to keep an open mind. “Don’t limit yourself. Keep an open mind… I had not decided what to do, so I tried different things. That was the correct approach.”

She explains that she would only have landed where she is now by exposing herself to various industries and work areas.

Janice also claims she used her internship experiences to determine what she wanted. She suggests applying to internships based on your interests and then seeing where it leads.

Do Your Research and Be Prepared

If you know what kind of work you want to do and the internship you are striving for, being well-prepared and conducting thorough research will pay dividends. It will help you land an internship and give you the tools you need to thrive in the role.

Radhika believes her research and preparation skills were vital to landing a dream position at L’Oréal.  She suggests reading “everything about the company, especially the department and role you want to work for.”

Her hard work paid off: In 2021, Radhika won the L’Oreal Brandstorm competition. It was a national championship with 1500+ competitors. The experience taught her to be “agile during uncertain times and never give up on something you are truly passionate about.”