Working as a sales operation intern at Uber was intense, and Harshit Agrawal, 25, swiftly managed mountains of data and multiple stakeholders to keep things running smoothly. His success was partly thanks to good managers like the Head of Sales, who encouraged and motivated him.

Harshit noticed his manager’s ability to connect from their first meeting. Despite being on a video call, the manager’s authenticity and presence resonated and made him feel at ease. Across his months at Uber, “what stood out to me was how he reached out to every person in the team and ensured we are all aligned,” Harshit says.

He calmly adds that work challenges are expected in the fast-paced business world. How one adapts to these changes separates the wheat from the chaff—yet another area where managerial skills make a difference.

“Good managers are flexible and can prioritize things to make decisions that matter.” As a Master in Management (MiM) alumnus, Harshit believes he will thrive in the working world, empowered with these skills.

The Power to Choose

His self-assuredness is credited to the ESSEC MiM program, which offers flexibility and autonomy that he could not find at home in India or globally.

He believes it is almost impossible for any two MiM journeys to be identical—with over 200 modules, intercampus mobility choices, 11 double-degree programs, and exchanges with 105 partner universities. There is an unparalleled breadth for students to customize learning that fits their unique needs.

For French national Melanie Ly, who dreams of leveraging digital tools to “personalize healthcare treatment to each patient,” the flexibility was perfect.

She enrolled in ESSEC Asia-Pacific in 2020 to equip herself with skills from two seemingly unrelated sectors—healthcare and fintech—and bring herself a step closer to her goals.

To dive deep, ESSEC also offers professional tracks sponsored and co-designed by industry leaders. These tracks, called chairs, include the Luxury Chair by LVMH, a Future of Finance Chair by AXA, a Strategic Business Analytics Chair by Accenture—and for those like Melanie with a passion for healthcare, a Health and Innovation Chair by Sanofi Genzyme.

The Power to Connect

As these chairs involve working with an industry partner, they are an avenue to gain relevant work experience. Opportunities like this abound across the MiM program through internships and modules like the Junior Consultant Experience, where students support businesses in short-term projects.

23-year-old Italian student Giorgio Crisi, who enrolled in ESSEC Asia-Pacific and did his Junior Consultant Experience (JCE) in 2019, shares that he found working with an NGO to help children in the remote areas of Cambodia both professionally and personally impactful.

“It’s not every day that you have the opportunity to see these NGOs and how they operate,” he explains. He adds that the program was a platform to “develop a lot of soft skills in teamwork and managing relationships with clients.”

Just as Harshit has seen the importance of these soft skills, Giorgio found them helpful in his internship as a Program Manager for Amazon. Also, the diversity at ESSEC made him comfortable working with people of different nationalities, and thanks to online learning, “I was already able to cooperate online with a lot of people and manage projects remotely,” he says.

The Power to Change

Yet, perhaps the most appealing factor of the MiM is its openness to change. Yiran Wei, who comes from China, hopes this will allow her to enjoy the MiM program’s international aspects. As the 23-year-old enrolled in 2020, she completed her first-year studies in Singapore before moving to France and other overseas exchange programs.

For Nelberto Nicholas Quinto, better known as Sam, the freedom to change was key to unlocking his dreams. When Sam enrolled in ESSEC in 2018, he was convinced he would enter the finance sector.

Two years in, the 24-year-old Filipino has gone on to work at leading private-equity fintech, Palico, at Amazon, and BNP Paribas. He now wants to “drive policies and strategies aimed at mitigating the consequences of innovation while allowing society to maximize the benefits from technological advances.”

His experience at ESSEC is best summed up as “the freedom to experiment and find what works best, and the flexibility to act on opportunities that come your way.” Ultimately, he says, the beauty of the MiM lies in its power to decide. And just as he did, so can you.