• Students share how knowledge gained is transferable from the classroom to the workplace.
• Career Services support prepared them well for the internship search.
• Lessons learned help them grow not just as professionals but also as people.

To be able to hold one’s ground and be heard amidst the cacophony of different opinions and to do so with clarity and poise is no mean feat. Especially if you are a student in an environment of seasoned professionals with little work experience.

Yet, Global Bachelor of Business Administration (GBBA) students Sagarika Majumdar and Rachel Celine Joseph managed this well: Sagarika while working at marketing agency TEAM LEWIS and Rachel while managing the multifaceted tasks involved in serving guests as a front-of-house staff at a luxury hotel Fairmont Singapore.

Their ability to do this, they say, is thanks to the lessons learned at ESSEC Business School.

Equipping Students With Skills For The Workplace

This is partly thanks to the broad spectrum of courses students take, all geared toward giving students the knowledge they need to handle various tasks they may undertake.

“Courses such as Marketing, where I’ve had to give several presentations, or Entrepreneurship, where we’ve had to deliver a process pitch for the service we had come up with, have held me in good stead when I need to convey information in the same way in my internship to my team or during a client meeting,” Sagarika shares, adding that she has felt her “comfort and confidence in public speaking skyrocket” during her time in the program.

Rachel concurs, noting that as she “grasps topics better when theory is put into practice,” she appreciated most how the GBBA program offered her many opportunities to apply her knowledge through presentations and group projects.

Co-Curricular Activities Build Confidence

She adds that as a self-proclaimed introvert, the classes at ESSEC, when coupled with her participation in co-curricular activities like the ESSEC Entrepreneurship Club and Volunteering Club, helped her build the confidence to succeed professionally.

“As part of the Entrepreneurship club, we organized a lot of sessions with industry professionals and other notable personalities,” she recalls, explaining that this helped her gain confidence to hold her ground in the working world.

Sagarika, who served as Director of Events for the same Entrepreneurship Club, had a similar experience. “I’ve improved my skills in coming up with event concepts, planning, organizing, and working with a team to bring our ideas to fruition,” she says.

Easily-Accessible Resources and Support

Although neither Sagarika nor Rachel had prior work experience to support their applications, they also found that Career Services support played a big part in their internship journey.

As ESSEC understands that internships are one of the building blocks for students to find professional success in the future, the Career Services office supports students in their search and preparations for internships that match their skill sets and meet their professional goals.

This is done through professional development workshops, mock interviews, conferences with alumni, and recruitment fairs.

“The Career Services office helped me review my resume, gave feedback on my cover letter, and they also let me know about any job positions that fit my profile,” Rachel shares, noting it is thanks to their support that she secured her internship.

Reflections From Their Internships

Reflecting on her internship journey thus far, Sagarika muses that her foray into the working world has been “eye-opening.”

“The internship has done wonders in helping me transform. I’ve become much better at managing time, organizing, and following deadlines.

I’ve also learned many technical skills—from monitoring and reporting to analysis and interpretation,” she shares.

For Rachel, the experience has gone beyond professional development to teach her meaningful life lessons.

“One important thing I learned from my internship is that apart from being good at the work that you do, it is also important to be kind and to act with integrity,” she says.

Lessons like these make the GBBA program’s mandatory internship requirement so valuable to the students, and that, as Sagarika and Rachel will find, builds them up in their journey to adult working life.