As an analyst intern, I followed the entire acquisition process from A to Z (finding information, financial modelling, meeting company managers, audit follow up, taking part in negotiations, writing memos, etc.), backing up the investment managers. Given the huge sums involved (300M€) and the excellent relations between the team members, it was an excellent learning experience with a lot of responsibility.

As EPF Partners' activity was growing rapidly, I was asked to join the team as soon as I graduated, an offer that I was delighted to accept. Nowadays, many investment funds recruit interns, and if all goes well most of these internships are followed by the offer of a full-time contract. I would encourage anyone who's interested in working in this field to apply.

A parallel entrance student at EDHEC after getting a Masters degree in Japanese at INALCO, my goal was to do a sandwich year in Japan. It took a long time and a lot of hard slog, but I finally managed to land a one-year internship in Tokyo and the work described by my employer during our long-distance phone calls and over the internet sounded really interesting.

Once I arrived, everything was completely different from the promises made about the quality of the internship. I was faced with major interpersonal problems and the job was neither interesting nor rewarding.

As I didn't want my trip to be a complete failure, I decided to do something about it. My advice to any future intern faced with this kind of situation (and it became obvious once I'd got over the initial period of confusion and depression) is don't lose your self-confidence, don't under-estimate your competencies, fight back by looking at the positive side, and don't stay negative.

I spent my free time looking for another internship (in Japan, you can get an appointment as late as 9 in the evening). Despite the distance from my family, friends and school, my fighting spirit, my perseverance, my persuasive skills and my motivation enabled me to find another company after looking for 3 weeks. It's much easier anyway when you're actually there because you can contact people quickly, you get the feeling of the situation and you have face to face contact.

I felt a new surge of energy in my second job and a real desire to give it all I'd got compared to the previous, discouraging situation. It gave me the chance to really show off my capacity for work, my motivation and my skills. In return, I was given responsibility, I learnt a lot and, above all, it was a great teamwork experience. At the end of the placement, I was offered a job in Tokyo on a short-term contract once I graduated from EDHEC.

In conclusion, we can say that all experience is good, even if it's difficult at the time, and rather than come away with a sense of failure or with regret, it became an interesting experience that I learnt from. We mustn't forget that we're really cocooned as students, and the real world outside is full of pitfalls, obstacles, struggles and uncertainty. We have to be able to count on ourselves, and to have confidence in ourselves and our abilities. The experience gave me the chance to begin my career in a company and an environment that I love and that I find highly rewarding both on a professional and a personal level.