Ranked by the Financial Times’ sixth-best Master in Management (MiM) program globally and top in Asia, the ESSEC MiM stands out for its flexibility.

Students can choose from 200 electives and 50 tracks to specialize in, allowing them to go broad and dive deep.

To meet the graduation requirement of 12 months of professional experience, they can choose from apprenticeships, internships, work contracts, or even starting their own company.

For those keen to learn about new cultures, there are options to study at any of ESSEC’s three campuses in France, Singapore, and Morocco, participate in exchange programs with over 105 schools in 36 countries, and even pick one 11 double degree programs.

With such a wide array of options and possible paths to take, MiM students are given up to four years to complete their degree, with the freedom to customize a learning journey unique to their interests.

But how have our students used this to their advantage?

They Explore the World

Harrish Murugesan, who joined ESSEC in 2012, took the time to travel the world. He started his journey at the ESSEC Cergy campus, continued to Singapore, and even had a stint in the USA for a summer program at the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business.

He gained professional experience by working at BNP Paribas in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and later in Shanghai, China—graduating in 2015 with experience in five countries under his belt.

Currently working at the World Economic Forum, Harrish credits his journey doing the ESSEC MiM for empowering him with the curiosity to explore, the courage to push the boundaries, and the agility to handle challenges—all of which he uses in his professional life.

“This intercultural competence, I think, is my strongest takeaway from ESSEC into the long global career ahead,” he says.

They Gain Experience in Different Industries

Having come from a background in engineering, Harshit Agrawal, from the class of 2021, set out on a path to explore his options in the business world.

He started as a business operations intern at Airbus Singapore, joined UberEats in Paris as a Sales Analyst Intern, and then made the unexpected move to try an internship at BNP Paribas.

“The motivation was to experiment, see how the banking industry works and if I fit in,” Harshit explains, adding that this experience cemented his decision to focus his career search on the tech industry, which is how he ended up at MongoDB.

Looking back at his time doing the MiM program, he muses: “I come from India, but I’ve lived in Singapore, worked in Paris, and now I’m in Dublin, all of which I couldn’t imagine doing before.

These experiences—and ESSEC—have taught me how to be confident about myself.”

They Bridge the Gap between Technical and Business Fields

Melanie Ly chose the MiM program because of the “a la carte system that allows students to build their courses around a personal goal or project.”

With a background in pharmacy, she joined ESSEC Asia-Pacific in 2020, looking forward to honing the business and digital skills she needs to transform the healthcare landscape.

True to this goal, her MiM journey thus far has seen her build tech knowledge with the Fintech Track, use these new skills while apprenticing at Accenture in the area of health and public services, and deepen her understanding of healthcare management while on an exchange at University of North Carolina’s Kenan-Flagler Business School.

They Chase Diverse Passions and Interests

Candid, driven, and passionate are all words one might use to describe MiM student Michelle Diaz. Years of living across the Philippines, Dublin, India, Spain, and Tokyo have driven her to seek out diverse experiences and ignited her multiple passions, including but not limited to educational inequality and inclusivity.

For her, the ESSEC MiM program was a time to develop these interests. Thanks to the program’s flexibility, she interned in marketing and business development just months into her time at the ESSEC Asia-Pacific campus.

She went on to work with a Venture Capitalist (VC) firm in Germany to tackle education inequality, which paved the way for her to develop an ed-tech start-up—all while still continuing her MiM education and taking on the Leadership and Diversity Chair at the Cergy campus.

“You can study and then do an internship or two internships back to back, and even do a double degree and graduate with an MBA—it’s almost crazy to realize how much freedom we have,” she enthuses. To her, that’s what flexibility offers: The power to choose and change.