After taking several interesting courses focused on Asia, while also welcoming a number of guest speakers after class, we devoted our last week in Singapore fully to career events. This was particularly useful for those of us who want to make a career in Asia. For the rest, it is always good to meet new people, learn new things, and network. You never know how the dots will connect.
We opened grandly with a visit to Louis Vuitton Island, the largest Louis Vuitton store in South East Asia. We marveled by this very high-end venue and top quality products. This French Maison, whose DNA lies in the travel experience, has a wide range of offers, from watches to books, from purses to suitcases, all crafted for the most discerning clients.
In the afternoon, we went back to our National Library Building classroom to listen to a lecture on "Sustainable Development in the Construction Industry" by a representative of French conglomerate Bouygues. Unlike our French classmates, who are very familiar with this company, I thought their biggest business was in telecommunications. During the talk I found out that it is actually construction and that they have carried out huge projects in many countries, such as the new stadium in Singapore.
On Tuesday, we spent the whole day in a workshop lead by Alex Lanjri from Timeo Performance. Mr. Lanjri is a certified experienced recruiter, a personal coach and a professional trainer who gave us some valuable tips on how to manage the recruitment process and prepare for interviews.
The next day was a long one. It started out with a visit to KPMG Singapore, led by Leonardo Banegas, a Global MBA alumnus from last year and consultant at KPMG Singapore. As you may know, this is one of the big four auditing firms, along with Deloitte, Ernst and Young and PricewaterhouseCoopers.
Leo gave us a tour around the KPMG offices, meeting rooms and work stations. He divided his presentation in two parts. He first discussed about the ever-changing nature of his job, which allows him the chance to apply his skills, while also learning new things. In the second half of his talk, he shared his first-hand experience looking for a job. Job seeking is actually a job in itself, involving a lot of research and even daily job applications, in his case.
We then continued to the iconic Marina Bay Sands Hotel, which is a landmark of the Singapore skyline. We got a tour around this breathtaking property, entered its very exclusive suites and casinos and even got the chance to speak to the Marketing Manager. We clarified a lot of doubts about the business and were very pleased to learn about the operations of such a renowned hospitality leader. Time was running out, so some of us rushed back to the National Library Building to listen to Vallourec’s Asia Pacific Corp representative, Mr. Eric Atton.
That day ended up with a birthday party for Arnault, Sangwon, Rene and Ingy – all those people having birthdays in March! – which doubled as goodbye party for our pal Dingqian, double degree student from prestigious Peking University.
Finally, on Thursday some of us had the chance to attend the “All Industries Get Together” for careers in Asia, organized by the Career Services on the Singapore campus.
Asia is going to be big soon. Or it's already big and continue to be bigger and bigger in terms of careers available and prospects of growth there.
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