An article by the ESCP Women in Finance society

15 carefully selected female students had the chance to get to know the daily tasks and job careers of managers, analysts and successful female representatives who shared their advice and insight of the culture, job and people of their place of work.

The financial institutions who chose to create a tailored event for us were:

  • UBS
  • Deutsche Bank
  • Citi
  • Bloomberg
  • Jefferies
  • HSBC

The aim of the ESCP Women in Finance society is to create a network of women that is willing to help each other to be successful future leaders. We selected participants mainly based on their motivation, but we also took into account academic and experience background. We decided to give the opportunity to non-members to participate; not only because we aim to collaborate and encourage personal and professional relationships between female students, but also to raise awareness outside the society as well on topics such as female presence in banking, gender inequality, and work-life balance.

We trained the 15 women on their CV, questions to ask, professional behaviour, and networking. They were very active, passionate and willing to learn and understand how to be successful in this environment. Personally speaking, being one of the co-founders, I could not be prouder of this outcome. Seeing how the team spent a week together, connecting, sharing experience and advice as well as their fears was amazing. The diversity of the group was also impressive, not only in terms of background but also experience: both Bachelor and Master students, coming from China, France, Italy, Netherland and India.

The feedback we received from the institutions above mentioned was very positive: they were impressed by the interest shown by the participants, the questions asked and the overall involvement.

Feedback from attendees:

Annabelle (Master in Management student) "I loved the support received on the CV because we saved a lot of time compared to other students who are currently working on theirs. The sessions were very well organised, and it was very useful to have networking sessions in small groups because it was easier to ask questions. Also, thanks for sending us advice on what to wear and how to prepare, and for encouraging us between meetings! Personally, I most enjoyed the visits to UBS and Citi because to me they were the most precise about the recruiting process and we got the chance to visit the trading room as well."

Rossella (Master in Management student) "It was perfect being a small group - it allowed us to interact all with our hosts. The thing that I found most useful was the Q&A sessions, during which we could ask tips on recruiting processes and explanations on the various careers."

Li (Bachelor in Management (BSc) student) "I found it very useful because this event gave me an insight into of investment banks and the culture. Through the presentations and conversations with staff, I understood what kind of person they like. They were all really nice and smart, which gave me strong motivation to try to work with people like them in the future."

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