Meet an Alumna: from EDHEC to Société Générale

What is your current role?

I have been working full-time at Société Générale's Paris headquarters for a year and a half. After obtaining a long-term contract (CDI, Contrat à Durée Indéterminée), I am mainly responsible for the liquidity of the bank's primary and secondary market transactions. My main job contents include: analysing changes in the liquidity gap: analysing the driving factors and key points of changes in trading strategies; running dynamic analysis of liquidity indicators (LCR, CML, NSFR); suggesting corrections to the liquidity models in use; running User Acceptance Testing (UAT) involving liquidity model adjustments and issuing a liquidity side opinion before the new transaction target is put into production.

How did you find your current job?

When I was looking for a job, the Covid 19 epidemic was severe. I participated in the online job fair organised by EDHEC in January 2021 and got a brief understanding of several interested positions by posting resumes at the booth of the recruiting companies and talking with recruiters. A few months later, I received an email from the department manager of Société Générale asking if I was interested in working for the group. After replying to the email confirmation, I received a technical interview invitation (on-site interview). After the interview was successful, I entered the HR written interview and finally got the job. Also, I switched to a long-term contract (CDI, Contrat à durée indéterminée) after a fixed-term contract (CDD, Contrat à durée déterminée) ended. I think the performance during the fixed-term contract and the timely expression of the willingness to stay are very important.

Did the EDHEC programme help you land the job?

Yes.

First of all, financial institutions will conduct a preliminary screening in the face of a large number of resumes of job applicants. An educational background that meets the job requirements is the basic condition for passing it. Secondly, in order to find a job in risk management smoothly, I passed the Financial Risk Manager (FRM) Level 1 exam during my school days. During the interview, I was preparing for the second-level exam. The interviewer also asked targeted questions about this point, hoping to find employees with enough background to meet the requirements.

Finally, I have benefited from EDHEC's strong academic environment and perfect career guidance.

What advice do you have for students or recent graduates looking for internships or jobs?

I would advise them to get a clear positioning and shorten the gap between their skills and the target positions. This will make it easier to get an interview after submitting their resumé. They must be prepared to deal with "surprise" interviews for urgently recruited positions. The process from submitting your resumé to getting an offer may be relatively long, so keep a calm mind. Don't waste too much time guessing the interview result or the reason for the failure. If they want to follow up, just write an email to the interviewer. For students who want to stay in the company after their internship, perform well during the job, and make steady progress.