During her undergraduate days at Fudan University in China, Xinyue Chen took on various marketing internships at companies like Nike and Unilever.

But with a passion for luxury brands, she felt she needed to do more to boost her chances of entering the competitive industry.

This led her to ESSEC Business School’s MSc in Marketing Management and Digital (MMD) program at ESSEC Asia-Pacific.

Today, she has found herself exactly where she wanted to be—as a Retail Operations and Projects intern at LVMH Perfumes and Cosmetics division.

Why did you choose ESSEC Business School, and how much did its reputation influence your decision?

The school is well-known in Europe, and famous in France! Also, since I wanted to work for a luxury brand, I thought the MMD program would equip me with the business skills I need to shift from an arts degree into the luxury sector.

Were you concerned about your ability to find an internship?

There were people around me who had started looking for their internships much earlier. In retrospect, I was overthinking the whole process—it wasn’t actually that hard. The biggest challenge I faced was preparing for the interviews. But once I went through the first one, I got the hang of what needed to be done.

Why were LinkedIn and ESSEC Jobteaser your primary tools for internship searching?

I kept a close eye on all the postings and immediately applied when my current role came up. I’ve found that ESSEC’s good reputation and close connections with companies help ensure students know what internship opportunities exist!

What insights did the MMD program provide you about the functioning of different businesses?

For example, during MMD Business Week, many successful ESSEC alumni returned to share their stories. There were also opportunities like the Digital Marketing Challenge (DMC) and projects during our luxury brand marketing module that allowed us to work closely with companies on real-world problems. We were able to build connections with these companies and learn more about their work.

Can you describe how your experience with projects at MMD evolved into learning leadership skills?

A particular highlight for me was the DMC, where I took on the team leader role. I was the point of contact between my team and the company and was responsible for setting schedules and ensuring deliverables were met so we would not disappoint the client. The challenge was not just to deliver the final product but also to manage the different interpersonal relationships.

How would you describe the role of individual effort in shaping the MMD experience?

The program is intense, and there are bound to be courses that don’t interest you—but I’ve found that you’ll always be able to take something away from the experience if you put in effort and have the right attitude.