30/09/2021
This spring, IE Talent & Careers organized a series of Zoom events in which alumni and industry experts broke down the details of finding a job in a specific industry.
by Matias Dumas — Brought up in Nice, France, Matias Dumas is a storyteller with a passion for infotaining media and communication. Having spent the last 4 years in higher education as well as gaining experience in journalism, the Master in Creative Direction, Content and Branding is currently his new educational home. You can find him here on LinkedIn.
When you start a master’s program, the topic of finding a job is constantly brought up. It’s a process that can potentially lead you to finding the perfect role or project, but isn’t always easy. Sometimes, you feel like you’re on top of it. Other times, it can feel like it’s on top of you.
Percentages will be thrown at you: 80% of finding a good job is based on your networking skills.
Later that day, someone will kindly let you know that your CV template is far from optimal. Every day, hundreds of thousands of jobs are being posted on LinkedIn or Glassdoor, people are being hired through word-of-mouth, and you, in this digital sea, have to find your path.
In short, it’s confusing. And that confusion can lead to some unnecessary stress.
A statement that can’t be refuted is that you can’t find a job alone. At one point in your job search, whether it’s at the very beginning or at the very end, you’ll have to interact with someone. In a world where interacting with people has become more complicated in itself, IE University strives to make that process a lot easier for its students.
“Our commitment to students and alumni is to provide impactful career advising, learning resources and development tools that allow them to plan, manage and achieve their professional goals while we position them as the best talent among the corporate community.” –IE Talent & Careers website
To that end, the Talent & Careers department has recently been organizing events for students to “materialize their career options across industries, apply to jobs and engage virtually with recruiters who are actively seeking out candidates”.
Since the beginning of April, these have taken the form of Zoom events in which alumni or outsider professionals break down the nitty-gritty details of finding a job in a specific sector or industry.
The strength of these events, which parallels IE University’s student body, has been the sheer diversity of their content. On a given day, you can find a preparation session specifically for junior profiles who may not have any professional experience. Students also could zoom in to a Consumer & Luxury Goods and Retail session. On that day, for instance, industry experts broke down how to prepare for Procter & Gamble’s application process. The often-ignored advantage of these digital events is that these sessions are all recorded and available on IE’s Career Portal.
For students interested in the MarCom world, Talent & Careers organized weekly events for a month long to get insights from professionals and explore current trends within the sector.
The first event, held on April 14th, tried to identify the difference between a path in Corporate Marketing & Communications as opposed to working for an agency. With a star-studded panel, the event covered topics from current trends that have shifted the MarCom landscape to the difference of working in B2C or B2B. Jorge Martinez, CMO of Kimitech, a biotechnology company targeting the agricultural industry, had some fascinating insights on the topic:
With these events, IE University brings its students potential leads on job offers as well as giving them an idea of the current state of a certain industry. Our very own Sofía Quetglas, Marketing Specialist at IE University, touched on the transitional period we are in, moving from a physical to a “phygital” world. She also spoke about the importance of paying attention to new Gen Z consumers. Check it out:
The scope of IE University’s network enables these panels to have input from a wide range of different perspectives. The world of MarComs is such a fast-moving machine that people who have held the same exact jobs at different moments could face entirely different issues and challenges. During the last event, on May 5th, one of the questions posed to the panelists was, “What are the biggest challenges/barriers a digital marketing professional faces today?”
Jesús Moradillo, CEO of Apache Digital, a digital innovation consulting firm, had this to say on the advent of a Cookie-less digital landscape:
Finding a job can be difficult. It’s a long journey that can encapsulate a large amount of touchpoints, digitally and physically. Many jobs that are up for grabs don’t even get posted publicly. Instead, managers of these positions prefer to fill the position through recruiters or employee recommendations. It can very well be that you find your job on a stroke of luck. However, IE Talent & Careers aims to even out the playing field for someone that might not be the greatest networker—and gives you the opportunity to become one.
