Today, we have the honor to meet Madame DA COSTA, Career Center Manager at theEDHEC (School of Commercial High Studies). Since many years, Madame DA COSTA has dedicated her career to helping students and graduates find their professional path and achieve their career goals.. Thanks to its rich experience and its passion for supporting young talents, she has contributed to making the EDHEC Career Center a reference in terms of professional guidance and career development. She therefore devoted this interview to us, which highlights the role of a Career Center in schools.
Could you briefly introduce yourself (school, professional, etc.)?
After a Master in Cognitive Psychology (behavioral study) and a stint at General Electric (which I particularly appreciated), I joined an international headhunting firm, which accelerated my knowledge of the market in various sectors and around the world. After 4 years, I wanted to orient myself towards talent management, more than towards the sales function, and it was by chance that I applied for the “career service” at EDHEC. Meeting personalities such as Olivier Oger at the time convinced me. I was thinking of doing it for 2 or 3 years and switching back to the company: 21 years later I’m still there!
You are currently working at the EDHEC BS Career Center, can you explain to us what a Career Center really is?
As Career Center Manager, my role is to support students in the programs of the “Masters in Business Management” course. EDHEC also has a dedicated Career Center team for the “Masters in Finance” course and another for the “Bachelor BBA” program.
Our Career Center thus dedicated by program is an EDHEC Business School career accelerator. The preparation programs make it possible to integrate high-level jobs, fulfilling and with great potential. You will ask me, what is the right choice? It is the one that makes you happy, while allowing you to achieve your career ambitions. Everyone has their own desires!
On a personal level, you did not go through the “Grande Ecole de Commerce” box, why did you choose to orient your professional career in one of them?
It was impact and innovation that made me want to join a business school. Our students in the academic context, their internships or their careers, reveal incredible talents and this allows me to challenge the advice.
The job market is competitive, evolving and international, I update my knowledge constantly while continuing to learn on a daily basis. Beyond, theCommitment and people are fundamental values for me. The commitment of the graduates without whom I could not offer so many services to the students and also that of the students. When I see what the student associations accomplish, the events and the projects they carry out, voluntarily, it is admirable and it motivates me.. And of course, the commitment of our business partners, our colleagues and the consultants who accompany us….
Read more: Bain & Company invited to campus by ECC.
In 2021, The Financial Times and The Economist MiM rank the Career Center as Best Career Center in France, can you explain to us what makes the EDHEC Career Center so successful?
Without hesitation I would say that it is thanks to the individual and tailor-made program! Each student, whether on one of the EDHEC campuses or that of our international partners, benefits from personal support. Added to this is our tailor-made support programs. Each sector of activity having its own requirements (business knowledge, recruitment process, networks of influence, etc.), we have created more than 22 sector “boost” programs which we have designed as placement accelerators. For each of our modules, we rely on EDHEC graduates who have had a high-level career in the sector concerned. They help us to decipher the challenges of business, explain them to students, build a tailor-made preparation course and identify the best opportunities. For example, that of Strategy Consulting which has had good press coverage lately. Our success is certainly also due to the program-oriented Career Center teams and our pool of expert consultants who bring an outside perspective and a very valuable contribution.. Once again, it’s people who make the difference: it’s the power of the collective!
Let’s talk a bit about figures, can you give us some figures about the Career Center (BM/FI/BBA)?
80% of our services are tailored to individual needs and career goals. We organize more than 10,000 individual career advice per year.
Career Center services: Business Management, Finance and BBA support more than 8,000 students with many initiatives: individual meetings, online tutorials, workshops, presentation of sectors of activity and professions, recruitment sessions, forums or exchange formats with our graduates around the world. Every year we have more than 400 companies that come regularly on our campuses met our students.
Read more: The EDHEC incubator welcomes its new start-ups.
How is EDHEC adapting to current labor market trends to help students make a successful transition to the professional world?
It is a permanent challengeexchanges with graduates from different sectors, readings and a permanent link with recruiters (partner companies). I also sometimes exchange with other Career Centers like that of Berkeley, to “test” the service levels that we plan to put in place.
Who are EDHEC’s main professional partners? How do you collaborate with them to help your students find career opportunities?
The main partners are offered a partnership, sustainable and tailor-made. The goal being to facilitate their recruitment (identify and select your future talents), give visibility to their employer brand or allow them to intervene in the pedagogical framework. AUCHAN, SOCIETE GENERALE, BOLLORE, CAPGEMINI, CARREFOUR, HSBC, LVMH, UBISOFT, PwC, for example, benefit from it.
How does EDHEC follow the career paths of its former students? Is there a network between alumni and current students?
In the same logic, diversity of services, tailor-made coaching and network of influence, you are Edhec for life, the Career Center too ! At EDHEC we talk about the ” Career Center for life “.
Upon their integration our students are already members of the EDHEC Alumni network And they will remain so all their life.
Our graduates are monitored individually and are offered a professional support system adapted to their needs: annual career advice interviews, personality and aptitude tests, skills assessment, subscription to international job boards and databases, simulation of recruitment, webinars and workshops…
In this interview, we explain to you that thehe Career Centers are career accelerators, with a team dedicated to each program. We also point out the importance of commitment and the people behind the EDHEC Career Center teams. The success of the EDHEC Career Center is attributed to its tailor-made and individual programs, as well as its sectoral support programs, with the help of former graduates. Among other things, entering a business school also means offering yourself tailor-made help to enter the world of work..