• Tap on extensive career services workshops and offerings.
• Leverage exclusive and free access to alumni.
• Connect classroom lessons to the real world through study trips.

The ESSEC Master in Finance (MiF) program at the ESSEC Asia-Pacific campus isn’t just an education. It’s also crucial to a fulfilling career in the financial sector.

The program is designed to meet industry demands and expose students to experiences with seasoned professionals, so they graduate well-prepared for the hiring processes.

They can quickly maximize their return on investment (ROI). Testament to its success, the MiF program emerged at the top in Asia for employability, ROI, and alumni outcomes—on top of program excellence—on the QS Finance Masters 2024 ranking.

Here are three ways the MiF program achieves this.

1 | Career Services: Uplevelling Employability

The first is through ESSEC Career Services workshops. These cover various topics, including curriculum vitae (CV) best practices and mock interviews to hone one’s ability to think under pressure and respond confidently — ensuring students are job-ready and updated with the latest developments in the fast-changing finance landscape.

For French national Elsa Saada, these workshops led to a six-month internship in Singapore, an experience she believes has helped boost her candidacy for the future. She explains that this is because, besides obtaining valuable financial knowledge, “coming to Singapore was stepping out of my comfort zone, and this demonstrates curiosity—companies want people who are curious and willing to learn.”

She adds that another benefit of the MiF program is the regular talks from industry professionals. Besides allowing students to better understand the roles they may take in the future, these are opportunities for students to practice their networking skills in preparation for the real world.

2 | AlumnEye: Learn the Art of Interviewing and Networking

With his finger on the market’s pulse, Michael Ohana’s experience and knowledge of the latest trends of the finance marketplace and what, or rather who, companies are looking for makes his team at AlumnEye a valuable resource for MiF students looking to maximize their ROI.

Students can leverage AlumnEye workshops to build robust interview skills poised to highlight their capabilities, knowledge, and personalities to match the demands required by specific financial subsectors. They can also find out how to identify network opportunities with critical people and decide on which events to attend.

Ultimately, this prepares students to take the driver’s seat in their job search; as Ohana advises, “You cannot wait and expect someone to call you back; you need to actively network to convert those applications into interviews.”

Students can contact AlumnEye throughout the year for support and have access to an AlumnEye database with interview feedback from over 5,000 candidates worldwide—information that can no doubt maximize their chances in the working world when used correctly.

3 | Study Trips: Understand Operations of Real-World Finance

Finally, the MiF program offers students two-year-long study trips to learn about the industry. These provide front-row seats to the operations of international financial hubs and leading institutions so students can better understand the industry and build valuable connections for their future.

Testament to the benefits of this, MiF student Chloe Wang related how the visit to the museum of the Hong Kong Exchange (HKEX) allowed her to have a fuller understanding of how geopolitical events impacted the region’s economic profile.

Daqian Wu, who was on the same trip, felt similarly. “I enjoyed speaking to the senior and junior traders and learning about the equities trading landscape from HSBC. I learned a lot and connected with amazing alumni and professionals,” he says.

To maximize the ROI from this trip, students can join the journey organizing committee, where they create the trip itinerary and engage directly with companies and speakers—gaining experience in planning and logistics in addition to finance.